DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0128
THE DWELLINGS OF THE DEAD 85
For this curious ring-wall does not inclose a level space.
On the contrary, the ground falls off so abruptly that on
the west a Cyclopean retaining wall over 18 feet high (at
the maximum) had to be built for the support of the ter-
race, and even this wall is still two feet below the level of
the native rock in the eastern part of the inclosure. Thus
to bring the ring-wall to a uniform level, the upright slabs
on the Cyclopean foundation are as much as five feet high,
while on the living rock they are only three. Entering this
inclosure by the open passage, about six feet wide, — there
is no trace of a door, — we see hewn in the western slope
of the rock, at different levels, six graves of varying size.
Such is the aspect of the Royal Necropolis of Mycenae
to-day, but it was very different when Dr. Schliemann put in
the spade twenty years ago. Then the area, in-
cluding the circle, was buried under the deepest Schliemann
1 , t ■ i i i ■ found it
mound to be seen on the citadel — a mound ris-
ing 9 to 10 feet above the top of the ring-wall and 12 to
13 feet above the highest level of the rock, while the bottom
of some of the graves lay as much as 33 feet below the surface.
Naturally, it was the ring of slabs which first came to light,
and Dr. Schliemann at once thought he had uncovered the
agora of Agamemnon and his counsellors — a notion not with-
out a very plausible show of reason in the Greek writers,1
and espoused at first by an archaeologist so sober and well-
trained as C. T. Newton. Even the discovery of the tomb-
stones and then of the tombs themselves, filled with skele-
tons and offerings, did not shake Schliemann's faith, in view
of Pausanias' statement that at Megara the sepulchre of
the heroes was within the council-house (ftovfavrripiov),
which would naturally be in the agora. But the " bench
of the agora," — namely, the ring-wall with its covering of
1 See Mycenae, pp. 125-132.
For this curious ring-wall does not inclose a level space.
On the contrary, the ground falls off so abruptly that on
the west a Cyclopean retaining wall over 18 feet high (at
the maximum) had to be built for the support of the ter-
race, and even this wall is still two feet below the level of
the native rock in the eastern part of the inclosure. Thus
to bring the ring-wall to a uniform level, the upright slabs
on the Cyclopean foundation are as much as five feet high,
while on the living rock they are only three. Entering this
inclosure by the open passage, about six feet wide, — there
is no trace of a door, — we see hewn in the western slope
of the rock, at different levels, six graves of varying size.
Such is the aspect of the Royal Necropolis of Mycenae
to-day, but it was very different when Dr. Schliemann put in
the spade twenty years ago. Then the area, in-
cluding the circle, was buried under the deepest Schliemann
1 , t ■ i i i ■ found it
mound to be seen on the citadel — a mound ris-
ing 9 to 10 feet above the top of the ring-wall and 12 to
13 feet above the highest level of the rock, while the bottom
of some of the graves lay as much as 33 feet below the surface.
Naturally, it was the ring of slabs which first came to light,
and Dr. Schliemann at once thought he had uncovered the
agora of Agamemnon and his counsellors — a notion not with-
out a very plausible show of reason in the Greek writers,1
and espoused at first by an archaeologist so sober and well-
trained as C. T. Newton. Even the discovery of the tomb-
stones and then of the tombs themselves, filled with skele-
tons and offerings, did not shake Schliemann's faith, in view
of Pausanias' statement that at Megara the sepulchre of
the heroes was within the council-house (ftovfavrripiov),
which would naturally be in the agora. But the " bench
of the agora," — namely, the ring-wall with its covering of
1 See Mycenae, pp. 125-132.