Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/368

Mycen.iu 341 towards the top are still visible. These steps are from ten to twelve centimetres in height, and average forty centimetres in depth. The breadth was not obtained by a single stone, but three or four made up the tale. They were overlaid with a coating of plaster ; this, having often been renewed, is one and a half centimetres thick. The whole south-east corner of the upper level has been destroyed by a landslip ; as a consequence of it, we know not where or how the staircase ended. Did it turn the south corner and curve round with a single flight to the south-west angle ? or bend sharply near to the point where it now breaks off, and debouch on the south front of the esplanade ? It is impossible to say. From the fact that a huge ground-sill was lying at the entrance leading from the courtyard, one is tempted to set up before the upper landing a propylseum analogous to the Trojan and Tirynthian examples. The stone in question was cleared, but it no longer occupied its original position ; this, from reasons of size, cannot have been far distant. The breadth of the courtyard, eleven metres fifty centimetres, can alone be ascertained ; its length is an unknown quantity, the whole of the front, as referred to above, having disappeared, along with the wall which supported the platform on this side. Per contra, the north wall of the courtyard, consisting of six courses of large blocks set out in horizontal beds, is still stand- ing to a height of two metres forty centimetres. Here and there, hollows in the masonry tell us that they were once occupied by transverse beams, just as in the mud walls of Troy and Tiryns. On the right of the court rose a pavilion, in which we guess the main apartment, the reception-room, both from its size and the few scraps left of its decoration. Speaking generally, its inner details coincide with those of the similar building at Tiryns. It had an open vestibule or verandah, three metres nineteen centimetres deep. Two columns in antis, equally spaced, supported the roof. Traces of wooden pillars and antae still adhere to the stone bases which formerly sup- ported them. At the back of this porch was a second and deeper vestibule. At the entrance, one metre ninety-four centi- metres broad, is a stone threshold with large holes on each side, into which the door-posts were sunk. The ground-sills are all of amygdaloid porphyry, a substance much harder than