Page:Mycenaean Troy.djvu/95



Mycenaean Age is a bronze age, and in a general way is similar to the bronze ages of Northern Europe. It offers many problems which have not yet been solved. Each year brings numerous and important discoveries. It is not our purpose to give even a superficial presentation of this civilization, but only to discuss its main characteristics, with reference to life as pictured in the Homeric poems.

 We can classify under the head of the architecture of this age those mighty walls, usually designated Cyclopean, their massive gateways, and the walls which even at this time were constructed of uniformly fitted stones. Here, too, belong the palaces, with wooden columns resting on stone bases, and the so-called "beehive" tombs (fig. 33), (91)