Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/475

 4i8 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. Ivory, Bone, Wood, and Stone. The timber frames which support the flat roofs of Mycenian palaces, the wood wainscoting and square beams used as linings to the inner walls of these habitations, imply workmen very skilful in the art of carpentry. The decoration of these panels must have been analogous to that seen on less perishable materials. Wood, more or less richly carved, necessarily entered into the composition of those pieces of furniture — chests and caskets — inlaid with glass, ivory, and metal plates. The Mycenae wood- carver was no doubt quite as clever as the worker in bronze and ivory. We are obliged, however, to accept him on trust, for his work has entirely perished, save a box cover, which the dry soil of Egypt has miraculously preserved these many thousand years. ^ Gold and ivory are more resisting. Bone rendered many services which now are demanded of steel, ere the domestication of metal was widely diffused. Of it were made stilettoes, and those awls found in such quantities in the oldest layers of ruin at Troy (Fig. 501). Some are veritable needles, with a hole pierced at the thickest end.*^ The purpose of the small object covered all over with rings is obscure. From bone, too, were derived knife-handles, cases, and utensils of all kinds. It was soon discoVered that the finer and more precious material of ivory could be made as serviceable as bone. Some pieces of it were picked up by Schliemann in what he calls the first city,^ but he found many more in the second or burnt town.* A trade having its point of departure in Africa supplied the ever-increasing demand for ivory to all the markets of Greece, where a taste had been created by the accumulation of wealth. Tiryns is represented by a unique specimen ; ^ but from the ^ Nevertheless, a wooden fish was found within a building of the burnt city at Troy. The scales appear to have been cut with a pointed flint. Schliemann also mentions two sides of a small square box which he picked up in the fifth Mycenae grave ; each of the sides showed, carved in relief, a lion and a dog {Afycefice). The design is that of our lid. A second but tiny fish made of wood has also come from Mycence. - Schliemann, liios. '' Ibid, * Ibid, ^ Tirym,