Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/484

 Building Materials. 457 building; but they were not content with this alone, notably in Argolis, where the art of this period produced its masterpieces. Hence, to obtain here greater resistance against the elements and other causes, there harmonies or contrasts of tones which should please the eye, the architect fetched from the outside harder or more deeply-coloured materials than his own limestone. Breccia and sandstone furnished bases of antse, sills, and steps, whilst alabaster gave dados and friezes, shafts and columns, for the great halls. The fa9ades of the bee-hive tombs were decorated by a kind of mosaic, formed of white, red, green, and grey marbles, which served to bring out the saliences of the mouldings. Trachytes and porphyries further accentuated the effect of these enrichments.^ These ornamental materials are only found in the better class of buildings, princely habitations and royal tombs. Speaking generally, the constructive principle of this period appears to have been the superimposition of sun-dried brick ^ on stone ; the latter alone came in contact with the damp ground and formed everywhere a base of varying height ; whilst the upper part of the wall consisted of clay squares, with a large admixture of chopped straw. The clay is frequently of bad quality and imperfectly sifted ; thus at Troy and Tiryns it is found with broken pottery, coarse gravel, and shells. The Mycenian age knew of neither burnt brick nor tile. Appearances as of kiln- burnt bricks and of lime mortar,^ whether at Troy or Tiryns, were due to a conflagration which destroyed their palaces. Of the large place held by timber at Mycenae, and in these ^ The sandstone quarry referred to above was discovered by Tsoundas a few miles out of Mycenae, on the road to Nemaea. Although alabaster and other ornamental stones are adverted to by ancient writers, it is in such a vague sort of fashion as to leave us completely in the dark. Should we view them in the light of volcanic stones imported from the peninsula of Methana ? We cannot say ; nor do we answer for the correctness of the terms we have employed. It would be well to have the question sifted by a si^ecialist. G. R. Lepsius defines the various kinds of limestone used at Tiryns and Mycenae {Griechische Marmorstudien but is reticent on the nature of the ornamental stones which make up the facings. M. Ardaillon, a member of the French School at Athens, informs me that the slabs from the external casing of the Treasury of Atreus appear to be red or green basalt, probably quarried from Methana or Melos. 2 On the composition of these unbaked bricks, their size, the position they occupy, and the changes they have undergone, see Dorpfeld, Tiryns, ^ ScHLiEMANN, Ttryns,