Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/39

1 8 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. here, no serious objection can be raised against the conjecture. If they stowed away priceless objects with the dead, it was not a bit more strange to execute, on purely artistic grounds, an architectural decoration fated to disappear from human gaze after the interment. Have not the Egyptians, under the influence of very similar beliefs, covered the walls of the royal tombs with marvellous series of bas-reliefs, cunningly hiding and obstructing their entrances with the landslips of the Libyan range ?'^ Never- theless, there are two, or perhaps three, tombs here which have been provided with real doors, and not simply barred with planks. This is proved in the Treasury of Atreus by the holes pierced in the door-case for the pivot and the bolts, as well as the channel worn in the sill by the movement of the door to and fro.^ The same arrangement occurs in Tomb 11.;^ and Tomb III. has no threshold, but a hole meant to receive a metal stem appears on the lower face of the pivot.* The mode of closing which these dowel-holes reveal, shows that the doors were used for a certain time. Why and for how long did this provision last ere the chamber was made fast for all time ? This is what we discern. Granted the importance which the people of that period attached to burial and its consequent arrangements, there is a prima facie presumption that the Mycenian kings, like the Pharaohs, began to build and adorn their own tomb in their lifetime, to make sure of having one to their liking. If their reign extended beyond the completion of the edifice, it could wait until they were ready for it. Meanwhile, the magnificent and highly-ornate fa9ade would remain visible to all the world, and be a standing witness to the power of the chieftain who had had it built ; the door, whilst helping the eflFect, would prevent intrusion and depredation. Did the death of the prince always put an end to this pro visionary arrangement ? We think not. We know that the bee-hive graves were family vaults, whilst in the cemetery of the Mycenian acropolis women's and children's bones have been found by the side of men's bones. If the cupola-tombs display a better order and greater sumptuousness, is it a reason why ^ History of Art '^ Thiersch, in At/ienische MittheUungen, 3 Adler, Preface to Tiryns, ^ Letter of M. Tsoundas, December lo, 1892.