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the earlier excavations on the hill of Hissarlik the stately circuit wall and the buildings of the VI Stratum had not come to light. Shortly before Schliemann's death, in the year 1890, the first structure, with the vases of Mycenaean pattern found therein, was unearthed. This building (VI A), we may say, formed the starting point for completely laying bare the Mycenaean citadel. While on the southeast and northeast of the hill a part of the South Circuit Wall and several inner buildings remain buried under ruins and débris, yet the excavations enable us to form a satisfactory picture of the massive city wall, the huge towers, the gates, the terraces, and the dwellings of the ancient fortress.

 The VI City shows a marked difference in its style of masonry. Some portions of the walls are made of blocks carefully wrought and fitted together, without cement, so closely that the interstices are hardly visible; others are constructed of stones, only the outside of which is polished, and the interstices filled with rubble and clay; again, in several places, the stones are unwrought, as in the so-called Cyclopean masonry. (45)