Tsuntas, Chrestos: The Mycenaean age: a study of the monuments and culture of pre-homeric Greece (London, 1897)

• 140 THE MYCENAEAN AGE

was actually blocked by a poros wall which remained stand-
ing till quite recently — a palpable proof that the ap-
proaches to the three great tombs mentioned, as well as all
the rest, were filled up; and other facts point to the same
conclusion. In excavating the dromos of the tomb of Cly-
temnestra, we observed clear indications that the earth had
been brought and deposited there expressly to block up the
passage. It is a familiar fact that, in dumping from a higher
level, the stones roll to the edge of the mound so formed,
while the earth itself stays in the centre. This is just what
happened in the dromos in question, and it proves beyond
a doubt that the filling was not due to the action of the
elements, as assumed. The finds made in the lower strata
of the filling confirm this observation, for without a single
exception they all belong to the Mycenaean epoch, which
could not possibly be the case had the dromos been closed
only by natural agencies operating through long ages. It
is only at the mouth of the tomb that vase-fragments of
the geometric style are found, showing (as observed already)
that, immediately after the Mycenaean age, the dromos was
opened at this point for purposes of plunder and remained
open for some time. Again, there is the poros wall, more
than 7 feet high, still blocking the outer end of the pas-
sage ; what possible purpose could it have served save to
retain the filling ? For, if we assume that the dromos was
an open one, this wall was high enough to cut off the view
of the tomb-facade; only at a great distance and, of course,
indistinctly could it have been seen at all over the wall.
That it was actually, in origin and use, a retaining-wall — a
part of the great work of blocking up the tomb — is still
further attested by the existence of similar walls, not only
in the Treasury of Atreus and the tomb north of the Lions'
Gate, but in the tombs of the Heraion, Menidi, and Demini,