DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32867#0075
THE MOST ANCIENT MONUMENTS
45
mented in classic style (see page 72), all of which, I take it, belong to a period of re-
construction. If this be true, the preserved portions of the other walls are to be
considered as earlier;
how much earlier, it
is impossible to say.
The rear and western
walls are the only por-
tions, besides the front
wall, which are still
standing. The angles
are laid in large quad-
rated blocks; all the
rest is made of stones
of irregular shapes and
unequal sizes, fitted to-
gether with the great-
est care, and preserv-
ing something like horizontal courses. The outer faces are in numerous instances
undressed, yet the wall has a smooth and even appearance. At irregular intervals,
uncut stones protrude 6 to 10 cm. from the wall, forming crude bosses of irreg-
ular shape. Iligh upon the west end is a quadrangular opening, now closed by a
thin slab flush with the outer surface of the wall.
Rock-hewn Chambers. In this same connection may be mentioned the more
crude type of underground chambers; for there exist in this region two distinct
varieties of rock-hewn chambers which were not
used as places of burial: those which are roughly
hewn out and irregular in shape, and those
which are more carefully executed and of more sym-
metrical arrangement. The former are, in some
cases at least, partly natural caverns which may have
been used as human habitations at some very remote
period; but those of which I am speaking show un-
mistakable signs of early cutting with the pointed
chisel in the effort to make them serviceable to a
higher state of civilization than that of the cave-
dweller.
I his particular type is excavated beneath the level
rock surface, and is reached by a broad, open dromos of gradual descent, with perpen-
dicular walls, leading to an opening of large size, not symmetrically cut, though
Entrance to rock-hewn chamber, at
Bankusa.
West wall of house built in mixed styles, at Babiska.
45
mented in classic style (see page 72), all of which, I take it, belong to a period of re-
construction. If this be true, the preserved portions of the other walls are to be
considered as earlier;
how much earlier, it
is impossible to say.
The rear and western
walls are the only por-
tions, besides the front
wall, which are still
standing. The angles
are laid in large quad-
rated blocks; all the
rest is made of stones
of irregular shapes and
unequal sizes, fitted to-
gether with the great-
est care, and preserv-
ing something like horizontal courses. The outer faces are in numerous instances
undressed, yet the wall has a smooth and even appearance. At irregular intervals,
uncut stones protrude 6 to 10 cm. from the wall, forming crude bosses of irreg-
ular shape. Iligh upon the west end is a quadrangular opening, now closed by a
thin slab flush with the outer surface of the wall.
Rock-hewn Chambers. In this same connection may be mentioned the more
crude type of underground chambers; for there exist in this region two distinct
varieties of rock-hewn chambers which were not
used as places of burial: those which are roughly
hewn out and irregular in shape, and those
which are more carefully executed and of more sym-
metrical arrangement. The former are, in some
cases at least, partly natural caverns which may have
been used as human habitations at some very remote
period; but those of which I am speaking show un-
mistakable signs of early cutting with the pointed
chisel in the effort to make them serviceable to a
higher state of civilization than that of the cave-
dweller.
I his particular type is excavated beneath the level
rock surface, and is reached by a broad, open dromos of gradual descent, with perpen-
dicular walls, leading to an opening of large size, not symmetrically cut, though
Entrance to rock-hewn chamber, at
Bankusa.
West wall of house built in mixed styles, at Babiska.