Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/36

FUNERKAL RlTHS. 15 Apart from these objections, we huve substantial proof that the entrance-passage was deliberately walled up for at least a series of years. M. Tsoundas noticed that, in front of the wall blocking up the entrance to the chamber, huge boulders' had in every instance been piled up high, to remove which would have entailed great expenditure of time and labour; the more so that the blocking system narrows from bottom to top (Fig- Fiu. 248.— Nfyceniv. Entraace to rock-excavated lomb. 248). The tomb could only be entered by clearing the dromos of the earth and rubbish filling it. This sometimes has acquired great compactness from having been rammed down hard, at Vaphio and the Treasury of Atreus for example. The passage of the latter was filled with virgin earth, and therefore undis- turbed. If the chamber was accessible in the time of Pausanias, > Upon the closing of the graves at Palamidi, see Lolling, AOtenischt Miltheilungm, 1880.