Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/441

 414 Primitive Greece : Mycenian Art. whose breadth and gentle fall make them the natural roads by which the plain is reached. These hills are turned to the south ; sheltered therefore from northern blasts, but open to the refresh- ing wind from the sea, which in summer blows cool breezes. Here and there, on these heights, are traces of the ancient buildings of the Pelasgi-Cranae of Herodotus (Fig. 152).^ But the majority of the houses have but one room apiece ; the floor, the end wall, and part of those at the sides are cut in the tufa. There are no stones lying about ; hence the built parts, notably Fig. 152. — Traces left on the rock by primitive houses in the Melite quarter, Athens. the front, must have been made of crude bricks, for which ex- cellent clay was to be found in the adjacent plain. Manifold cuttings are visible on the rock — here a flight of three or four steps led to the habitation, there seemingly to a first storey, with which some of these houses were provided. Rock-cut, too, were inner recesses serving as cupboards and silos, as well as benches in front of the abode, where the gossips gathered at eventide ; open gutters for draining used water or rain, and presumably graves dug amidst habitations. Sometimes also, an e.splanade of some extent was levelled out in front. The ease ^ Herodotus.