Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/468

Tut; Islands ok thk ^Egean. 441 the chambers. Thorough excavations are needed to bring out the real character of the building. Even as it is, putting together the lofty situation of the building, the thickness of the walls, and the extent of ground it covers, we may safely infer that we have here a private abode of considerable importance ; one is even tempted to juxtapose it with the Mycenian and Tirynthian palaces. For although the thickness of the enclosing wall cannot be measured with precision, there is enough to show that it was one of great strength, akin to the rampart of Tiryns ; and, as at Mycena; and Tiryns, the inner walls have been stuccoed and painted to hide Kiu. 171, — Filhos found al Ciiosiis. the coarseness of the building material. Finally, here as there a layer of lime concrete has been spread over the floor of the chambers. We now pass on to the points of divergence : here are no cross-beams embedded between stone and brick, or set up by way of anta; at the heads of the wall ; the masonry through- out is of solid stone (Fig. 170. a). The reason for this preference may reside in the fact that stone of fine quality could be quarried from the hill adjoining the city, hardly more than one mile distant. Then, too, the style of the pottery, numbering some twelve huge Wfioi, jars, several of them still half filled with cereals, is another proof of the great antiquity of the building. Their pecu- liarly short handles, and the spirals decorating them, irresistibly