Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/37

1 6 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. it IS because after the fall of Mycenae thieves, guided by local tradition, or a top-gap which may have disclosed the cupola underneath, opened a passage towards the upper portion of the doorway just large enough to let themselves through (Fig. 120). Thus both rock-excavated graves and domed-tombs were permanently closed, by having their dromos filled up with earth and stones. The object of this was to secure the dead against unwelcome visitors. Every precaution was taken to prevent exciting the greed of later generations and their love of plunder ; it was safer to count upon their ignorance than their pity. To this end they smoothed out the soil above the passages, re- established the natural slope of the hill, where grass and shrubs soon grew up, and effaced all trace of the late works. We do not think that there were two sets of tombs : (i) tombs in which every conceivable means were employed to keep the site secret, and (2) tombs where the high estate and importance of the defunct were proclaimed to the world at large by a stately portal and richly-decorated fa9ade.^ The excavations carried on by MM. Stamakis and Tsoundas in the passage entrance of the two most sumptuously adorned cupola- tombs at Mycenae (Fig. 88 and Pis. I., II.) have disclosed the fact that they were completely blocked up ; accordingly, their fronts were not in- tended to be always visible.^ As regards the majority of bee-hive graves, years must have intervened between the completion of the vault and the blocking-up of the corridor. To this universal rule there are apparently some exceptions, brought about, mayhap, by an epidemic, or accidents consequent on war, when the vault was filled at once with as many people as it could hold. This is the case with the tomb shown in Fig. 248 and PI. XIII., where M. Tsoundas found traces of coloured stucco on the stones of the wall which blocked up the passage, as well as on pebbles which ^ Dr. Adler, in his Preface to Tiryns^ divides the tombs under consideration into two classes. 2 Stamakis never published his excavation joumal relative to Tomb I. ; but he alludes to it in his account of the grave which he cleared near to the Heraeum. Nor has Tsoundas given a report of his excavations of 1892, when Tomb II. was cleared. After describing the walls that blocked up the dromos at the two extremities, he concludes thus : " In my opinion, such facts certainly prove that the beautiful sepulchral facade, with its semi-columns and sculptured marbles, was intended to be exix)sed until and during the performance of the funeral ; when, the dromos being wide open, the approach to the grave was closed by the * stomion ' door alone."