Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/172

Thera and its Prehistoric Ruins. 151 from a lai^e vase of lava uncovered by M. Fouqu^ in chamber A. It is provided with a cone-like internal cavity forty centi- metres in diameter and thirty centimetres deep, exhibiting a hole at the bottom which communicated with the outside by a small runlet, opening above a small trough evidently meant to receive the liquid flowing from the upper vase. The inner wall of this recipient is much worn by friction. When held up to the local folk they at once exclaimed that an oil-mill had been brought to light, resembling those which are still in use all over the island. They served to grind corn, and mayhap olives also. These build- ings exhibit a very peculiar mode of construction. The walls are made of blocks of lava, set up irregularly and haphazard, the one upon the other ; but they are cut and arranged in horizontal beds at the corners of the exterior wall of the house, and laid in a clayey, reddish substance mixed with vegetable FiC. 3*,— Lava weightj. matter {Fig. 29). Between the stones are long pieces of olive wood, of varying size ; easily recognizable notwithstanding their advanced state of decomposition. Every door and window had wooden frames ; but they have been crushed out of all semblance by the downward pressure of the pumice. The difficulty of identifying them therefore is very great ; still, in some instances it has been possible to determine their situation. Difference of level between the rooms was made good by two or three steps. The roof consisted of a bed of earth some thirty centimetres deep, kept in place by multitudinous beams. The larger apart- ments show a more complicated arrangement. Thus, in the centre of the main chamber a (Fig. 29) was found a circular block, dressed fair, the upper face of which is plain and cir. thirty centimetres in diameter. We doubtless have here the base of an unsquared timber column. The cross-beams inserted in the walls of this chamber had a uniform upward incline towards