Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/455

 428 Primitive Greece : Mycenian Art. walls were faced by marble slabs, fragments of which are in position. Their decoration, like that of the ceiling, is in genuine Mycenian style, and will be reproduced further on. The chisel of the sculptor has not furnished all the elements of the decoration. The holes preserved in the stones tell us plainly that, as at Mycenae, the gleam of metal played here an all-important part. Thus, on the internal face of the lintel is a row of eight holes, and bits of bronze nails in them (Fig. 160). Around the hole appears a groove, into which was fixed the end of the metal plate. From the fifth hole upwards, of second chiimbcr nad of corridor preceding it. almost every stone in the domed-chamber has a hole. These holes run round the building in horizontal lines, and are equi- distant from each other. The first and third lines are so placed that their holes fall vertically over each other, whilst the holes of the intervening line always fall in the centre of the space formed by every four on the other lines, and the result is a series of lozenge-shaped patterns. The surface of both wall and lintel has been carefully polished to receive the bronze lining. The marks left on the walls by these holes are suggestive of rosettes. Around the doorway of the second chamber ran three rows of holes, but without circular grooves (Fig. 161). The rosettes in