Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/443

 4i6 Primitivk Greece : Mycenian Art. question served as a stand whence the officiating priest proclaimed the successful issue of the sacrifice, and the acceptance by the deity of offerings which the faithful had made/ We may safely assume that the Cecropida;, Erechthidae, and Egidae, like other Attic chiefs, had family vaults of their own, wherein, along with them, were buried part of their riches. What was their situation ? Was it within or without the Pelasgic LThnullier.del^ Fig. 154. — Plan of double esplanade. enclosure ? Were they pits excavated in the rock, as at Mycenof, or chambers hewn in the tufa, as at Spata, or bee-hive graves like those at Menidi and Eleusis ? We know not; and their having survived to the present time is more than problematical. On the upper level of the Acropolis the rock has everywhere been struck, and Mycenian pottery has been found in the deep layers of ruin ; graves, however, are conspicuous by their absence. ^ E. CuRTius, Die Stadtgesc/tichte, 6^r.