Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/476

 The Islands of the -^gean. 449 to potsherds found among the ruins of a building, and of the conclusions deducible from them. By subjecting the necropolis of Sipylus to the test which has been applied to the similar monuments of the Troad and European Greece, we might perhaps be able to determine whether the Smyrnian necropoles are older or younger than their fellows of Argolis, with which they have often been compared. It is regrettable that no attempt has yet been made to explore a tumulus situate in the island of Cymae, some ten minutes east of the acropolis of the old town, and seen by Ross in 1845. ^^ ^^ locally called to TpoVaiov, **the trophy," from the supposition that it owes its erection to Astyochos, the Lacedemonian admiral, who wished to commemorate his victory over the Athenians.^ As already stated, however, this is no mere pedestal hastily run up, but good solid work of stone and mortar, implying months of hard labour. ** It is," says Ross, '* or rather was, I believe, an imposing tumulus, resting on a plinth base {TiiScov xpriTrlg)^ of two courses of enormous blocks, and of three courses on the south face. The substructure, whose height varies according to the inequalities of the ground, is still from three to seven feet in height. Of the tumulus itself, the core, formed of rubble and clay mortar, alone remains. As to the earth with which the top (to X"^/ta) was covered, the hand of man, wind, and rain have played havoc with it. Yet it does not look as if it had been opened. The diameter of this remarkable tomb is nearly sixty feet, and its circuit may be estimated at 200 feet."^ Our illustration (Fig. 173), from a drawing by Salzmann, gives a good notion of the situation of the monument, and of its style of masonry.^ The enclosure circling the base recalls the Mycenian walls, whilst the central mass is practically identical with that of the tumuli of Sipylus. Do these stones cover a subterranean chamber ? If so, why should it not be whole ? It is tantalizing to be reduced to mere suppositions.^ ^ Thucydides. •^ Ross, Reisen auf den gritchischen Inseln^ and, with view and plan, in Archieo- iogiscfu Aufsdize. ^ M. Frohner, in whose possession are Salzmann's drawings, has kindly allowed us to borrow our Fig. 173. tumulus in June 1892, and found it precisely as described by Ross. They estimate its diameter at nineteen metres forty centimetres, and its circumference at sixty metres. They noticed that a trial trench has been sunk, but without any result. VOL. I. G G
 * MM. Couve and Ardaillon, of the French School at Athens, re-visited the