Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/139

 io8 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. Messenian crenelations ; remains of the latter have been found at the foot of that fortified and splendid enclosure, the masterpiece of Greek engineering in the fourth century b.c.^ Without this precious relic the presence of a covering slab for each merlon would have been hard to explain. The merlon, being a stone block, had no need of a covering slab, the effect of which was to narrow the width of the embrasure, the sides of which caught the shoulders of the combatants and hindered their movements. The difficulty, however, disappears as soon as we look upon it as a survival, or traditional preservation, of an arrangement which had once been found useful, and was apparently retained, not for reasons of necessity, but because the workman's hand and the eye of the spectator alike were accustomed to it by long usage. Whether battlements were rough and irregular or not was of little consequence. Their great advantage was this : their construction involved very little expenditure of time and labour, and wherever the nature of the ground formed no barrier to the enemy's approach, they could be run up and placed on the curtain within a few hours. It may well be that on naturally well-guarded spots, the southern front of the Mycenian enclosure for instance, where the escarp of the rock sufficed to keep off the enemy from the wall, embattlements were dispensed with as superfluous. Per contra^ on the most exposed points, in the proximity of the gates, a simple parapet would have been in- adequate ; here the combatants felt the need of a more efficacious protection against missiles, and the want was met with those platforms, the timbers of which, devoured by the flame, have left ashes round about, and calcined the stone and brick in their immediate neighbourhood, both at Troy and Tiryns. Reference to PI. VIII. will show how varied were the shapes which these shelters might assume. The closed niches in question, with window-like openings, though affording excellent protection to the defenders, were poor places wherefrom to discharge missiles with telling effect against the foe. In a supreme struggle they were content with such shelter as a wide projecting roof and pillars at the corners of the walls were able to supply. Merlon, roof, and pillar arrested many a murderous dart ; whilst the com- batants had not only more elbow-room, but could repulse the attack in every direction. ^ Expedition de Moree,