THE ARCHITECTU HE.

27

found is tlie Mycenaean Palace, of whicli a fairly complete plan can be made
out (Fig. 49). In front of it was a spacious court-yard containing a Well
lined with earthenware cylinders (Fig. 51). A portico of comfortable
dimensions and facing due south formed the entrance to tlie Megaron, a room
22 feet by 19 feet, paved with a sort of rough plaster and having a square
hearth in the middle. To the right of the megaron was a series of small
rooms, presmnably for the women.

Other buildings, fairly perfect so far as the ground plan is concerned,
and with walls standing in some cases to a more considerable height than
those of the palace, will be described in speaking of each particular
period.

The methods of construction employed at one period do not seem to
have differed very mach from those in use at another. In the Second
Period the work was on the whole better done than in the Third Period, but
the Systems werc presumably the same. The stones employed are basalt and
several varieties of limestone. Marble is not included among the rocks of
the island and only a small fragment was found in the town. The walls are
usually two feet thick and are built of rubble with a sort of mud-movtar.
The outsides were probably daubed with plaster of some sort and white-
washed. In some places the rock was found to have been carefully levelled
before the wall was begun. Evidence of scaffolding similar to that in use in
England at tbe present time is clearly seen in one building. The doorways
were square-headed and received various degrees of finish; the lintel was
probably used in some instances, in others the wah appears to have been
built over a wooden frame. Threc of the four complete examples remaining
are very narrow and so low that only a child could enter without stooping.
Besides the earthy plaster which seems to have covered most walls a good
plaster made with lime was used and was sometimes very beautifully painted
(pp. 70-79). The ceilings seem to have been of plaster on reeds like those
used in the island at the present time.

S 2.—lielationship of the Buildings of the Thrce Periods,

One of the most interesting questions is the degree of continuity of
occupation in the history of the town. To this, however, the evidence of the
buildings themselves does not seem to offer any answer. The same style,
or perhaps I should say absence of style, is observable in all the three
periods into which the buildings seem to group themselves. The same
methods of construction, with slight variations, were employed. In many
cases the walls of one period are built upon the ruins of earlier work.
Sometimes the coincidence is exaet, sometimes it is so rough as to show
that the lower wall was used merely as a foundation. But generally
speaking there is no connection at all between the walls of different periods
(Fig. 14).

It would seem to be clear, therefore, that twice over all the buildings