Evans, Arthur: The shaft graves and bee-hive tombs of Mycenae and their interrelation (London, 1929)

6o FINAL ARRANGEMENT OF STELAE IN STONE CIRCLE

time that elapsed between the removal of the remains and the final con-
struction of the Grave Circle, entailing a rearrangement of the stelae at
a somewhat higher level, one or other of the stones with a plain surface, that

Fig. 44. Sepulchral Area within Orthostatic Circle on Artificial Walled
Mound, Mycenae. (From Ch. Belger, Mykenische Localsage.)

it had at first been sufficiently preserved to set up, had become so far
defaced that it did not seem worth while to include it in the new arrange-
ment, and that it was therefore buried, standing as it was.

That the final erection of the gravestones on the new platforms was
a task of some elaboration is shown by the difficulty found by Schliemann
in removing them. He says of the large unsculptured stelae of Grave III
that they were extremely well fastened by square blocks, so that' they could
not be got out without great efforts'. In this case he found two other
' large slabs in the form of sepulchral monuments' lying horizontally two feet