Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/148

 Fortified Towns and their General Characteristics. 113 felt that the buildings of the lower city and the boundary wall afforded sufficient protection for it. The wall, for the most part, has gone ; but two pieces of it are extant at one of the extrem- ities, in front of the north-west corner of the castle (Fig. 295) ; ^ though much thinner than the citadel rampart, it is none the less constructed in Cyclopsean style. According to StefTen, the meeting of the boundary wall and the inner enclosure occurred somewhere at that point. In PI. X. the junction in question is seen almost on the first plane, to the right. We have likewise followed his instructions for the westward curve made by the city wall, some seventy metres or thereabouts in front of the Lions Gate, so that it formed on this side a first line of defence of no inconsiderable strength. Fronting the north side of the enclosure we have, in this same perspective view, the foundations of a causeway which from the valley of Cephisus and the lower city led to the spring of the Perseia, and the small plateau which interposes between the heights of Haghios Ilias and the Zara. The edifices planted on the summit of the acropolis are seen sideways ; this was done for the sake of showing the powerful mass of Cyclopaean masonry, which not only served to make good the steepness of the slope on that side, but constituted the esplanade whereon stood the palace. But in the western view (PI. IX.), if the Lions Gate, masked by the salience of the spur covering it, is not visible, we obtain a front view of the palace block of build- ings commanding the edifices staged on the slope. The houses shown in these two drawings are put there on Steffen's authority and the result of subsequent researches, in the course of which their remains and substructures were uncovered. Thus, the state of the ground (PI. X.) indicates that the abrupt sides turned to the Kokoretza ravine had but very few dwellings ; whilst both on the gentle declivities to the westward, which face the castle gate, and towards the Treasury of Atreus (PI. IX.), they muster stronger. We have enclosed them within walls of dry stones placed there, like those of many a modern Greek village, to prevent animals from straying away when not pasturing;. The stones that everywhere strew the ground must to a great extent come from these ancient low walls. But for the fear of over-crowding the foreground of the picture and concealing, on 1 Steffen, Karien. VOL. II. I