Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/35

 14 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. was added (Fig. 127), there another was hastily run up on the spur of the moment, as is proved by the bad construction beheld in the traditional vault and passage, where all the lines are crooked (Fig. 128). The rebuildings and the precautions taken to provide a place for all the members of one family in the common family vault, speak in plain language as to the mode of burial that went on here for generations. The chamber and its contents were secured by a wall of loose stones against stray animals or malevolent persons. This wall was easily taken down and run up again with each successive burial. When, in despite of all possible additions to the original plan, the vault became chock-full of bones, it was permanently closed, and another was built as required hard by. In the lower city of Mycenee are no isolated hypoga^a ; they always occur in groups (Fig. 88). Fig. 247. — MyccDit. Plan of rock-cut tomb. Although, considered as a whole, they all belong to the same period, the single graves of any one cemetery cannot, of course, be all of one date. Here, iron, in the shape of rings — which is to seek in the upper necropolis — has been found in two of the tombs. Each family, then, was represented in the ceme- teries in question by several graves, and each of these answered to a distinct phase in the life of the "gens." Here, too, as soon as a vault became full, it was walled up for good. It has been conjectured that, like the vault, the passage leading to it was filled up and cleared after each burial, but we think on insufficient ground. The operation would by no means have been a light one, and might have recurred the following year or week. The dromos, by which the Treasury of Atreus is entered, is over thirty metres in length, and this distance is increased by ten and twelve metres for the passages of many of the bee-hive tombs at Mycenae.