Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (6.1890-1897 (1897))

222

EXCAVATIONS AT SPARTA.

scription found on the same site evidently belongs to the
archaic Greek period. It appears beyond a doubt that the
circular wall with the ortliostatai is of early Hellenic struct-
ure. The poros blocks in situ probably also belong to this

Fig. 5.

early Hellenic building. The identification of this edifice
with the circular building mentioned by Pausanias ° is most
natural. The masonry of the large stones, without clamps
or mortar, points to an age preceding the early historical
buildings of the fifth century b. c.

Epirnenides, to whom this building is assigned by Pau-
sanias, furnishes us with a date which corresponds well with
the archaeological evidence. We cannot go far wrong in
fixing upon the year 600 b. c. as an approximate central date.
It may have been erected several years earlier in the life of
Epirnenides, but as lie appears, according to one tradition, to
have died at Sparta, perhaps the beginning of the sixth
century may be a more likely date. In the traditions con-
cerning Epirnenides10 there are no doubt uncritical and myth-

' Lot. cit.

10 The chief sources are Diog. Laert. i § 109-115 ; Plut., Solon. 22 ■ Stbabo,
x. p. 479 c ; Paus. 1, 14, 3.