DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4376#0158
140 EXCAVATIONS ON SITE OF MAUSOLEUM.
wall of isodomous masonry, built of blocks of the
native rock. (See the cut already referred to.)
On the south side the boundary of the stair is a
cutting in the rock, which, as will be seen by the
Plan (Plate III.), turns below the stair at a right
angle to the south, and, after making two more
returns, falls in with the west side of the Quadrangle.
If this stair had been designed to form a visible
feature in so sumptuous an edifice as the Mauso-
leum, it would not have been finished in so rough
a manner, having only a wall of coarse material on
one flank, and an irregular and unsightly cutting
on the other. It would more probably have been
faced with marble or the green stone of the
basement. In that case the holes for the insertion
of metal clamps would still be visible on the
steps and flanks. No such marks, however, were
discernible, though the surface of the rock and
wall was carefully examined.
3. The earth with which this stair was covered
was a white soil, full of crumbling fragments of the
native rock. This white soil is, as I have already
stated, the substratum throughout the Mausoleum
platform, below the black superficial humus. No
fragments of the architecture or sculpture of the
building itself were ever found in the lower soil;
moreover, it exhibited no trace of vegetable matter,
either in a decomposed or groAving state. I am,
therefore, of opinion that this ground had never
been disturbed since the platform was originally
formed round the Mausoleum.
4. By reference to Plate VIII., it will be seen
wall of isodomous masonry, built of blocks of the
native rock. (See the cut already referred to.)
On the south side the boundary of the stair is a
cutting in the rock, which, as will be seen by the
Plan (Plate III.), turns below the stair at a right
angle to the south, and, after making two more
returns, falls in with the west side of the Quadrangle.
If this stair had been designed to form a visible
feature in so sumptuous an edifice as the Mauso-
leum, it would not have been finished in so rough
a manner, having only a wall of coarse material on
one flank, and an irregular and unsightly cutting
on the other. It would more probably have been
faced with marble or the green stone of the
basement. In that case the holes for the insertion
of metal clamps would still be visible on the
steps and flanks. No such marks, however, were
discernible, though the surface of the rock and
wall was carefully examined.
3. The earth with which this stair was covered
was a white soil, full of crumbling fragments of the
native rock. This white soil is, as I have already
stated, the substratum throughout the Mausoleum
platform, below the black superficial humus. No
fragments of the architecture or sculpture of the
building itself were ever found in the lower soil;
moreover, it exhibited no trace of vegetable matter,
either in a decomposed or groAving state. I am,
therefore, of opinion that this ground had never
been disturbed since the platform was originally
formed round the Mausoleum.
4. By reference to Plate VIII., it will be seen