DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0425
370 THE MYCENAEAN AGE
equal in area to Tiryns; while its area was only one fourth less than that
of the Athenian Acropolis, and one half less than that of Mycenae.
Tins circuit wall forms a great polygon, whose sides have an average
length of nine metres. These sides are uniformly straight; there is no
curve anywhere, as at Tiryns or Mycenae. Instead of meeting the next
at a simple angle, each side forms a ressault, or advancing angle, standing
out .10 in. or .15 m. (in a single instance .30 m.) beyond its predecessor.
These projections, whose like occur occasionally at Tiryns and regularly,
at Gha, apparently had no further purpose than to relieve the otherwise
monotonous line of the wall.
The substructure of the wall is from 4.60 to 5 metres thick, and from
5 to 7 high, and its outside surface is strongly scarped and more or less
smoothly wrought. The courses are not quite horizontal, but incline
slightly inward, thus materially strengthening the construction. On this
foundation rises the almost perpendicular upper wall (still preserved at
several points on the east) with a thickness of 1.80 to 2 metres. While
one can clamber up the scarped substruction on the east, the upper wall
is unsealeable ; and on the south the wall is everywhere proof against es-
calade. It is built entirely of hewn stone more or less carefully cut, and
varying in size. In the west wall the blocks are not more than .50 to.
in length, while in the east they are as much as 1 m. and on the south
1.50 m. With the varying size of the blocks, the construction varies as
well. Three different styles are easily distinguishable. In the west wall,
where the smallest blocks are employed, skill and care are least apparent.
These qualities are more noticeable in the east wall and most prominent
in the south wall, where all the stones — even in the core of the wall —-
are hewn and the outside joints are so exact and the scarped surface so
smooth that, at first glance, it might be taken for regular Hellenic ma-
sonry. In fact Dorpfeld sees in it evidence of a gradual progress in
military architecture, while these 500 metres of wall were building. At
Tiryns we note no such progress though the circuit is a larger one;
there the hard limestone did not invite fine work. On the other hand,
the Troy wall is built of the facile poros, which served Greek sculpture
and architecture alike in their early stages.
The circuit is broken by three gates — the first, on the east, protected
by a bastion formed by an extension of the wall coming from the north ;
the second on the south ; the third (already walled up and disused during
the existence of the sixth city) on the southwest. On the north, where
two fifths of the circuit is destroyed, the formation of the hill renders it
improbable that there was a fourth gate. The principal gate is the second
above mentioned and stands in the south or southeast wall, where the
castle rises but little above the adjoining plateau. Here, likewise, was the
main ascent to the prehistoric (second) as well as to the later Roman city.
equal in area to Tiryns; while its area was only one fourth less than that
of the Athenian Acropolis, and one half less than that of Mycenae.
Tins circuit wall forms a great polygon, whose sides have an average
length of nine metres. These sides are uniformly straight; there is no
curve anywhere, as at Tiryns or Mycenae. Instead of meeting the next
at a simple angle, each side forms a ressault, or advancing angle, standing
out .10 in. or .15 m. (in a single instance .30 m.) beyond its predecessor.
These projections, whose like occur occasionally at Tiryns and regularly,
at Gha, apparently had no further purpose than to relieve the otherwise
monotonous line of the wall.
The substructure of the wall is from 4.60 to 5 metres thick, and from
5 to 7 high, and its outside surface is strongly scarped and more or less
smoothly wrought. The courses are not quite horizontal, but incline
slightly inward, thus materially strengthening the construction. On this
foundation rises the almost perpendicular upper wall (still preserved at
several points on the east) with a thickness of 1.80 to 2 metres. While
one can clamber up the scarped substruction on the east, the upper wall
is unsealeable ; and on the south the wall is everywhere proof against es-
calade. It is built entirely of hewn stone more or less carefully cut, and
varying in size. In the west wall the blocks are not more than .50 to.
in length, while in the east they are as much as 1 m. and on the south
1.50 m. With the varying size of the blocks, the construction varies as
well. Three different styles are easily distinguishable. In the west wall,
where the smallest blocks are employed, skill and care are least apparent.
These qualities are more noticeable in the east wall and most prominent
in the south wall, where all the stones — even in the core of the wall —-
are hewn and the outside joints are so exact and the scarped surface so
smooth that, at first glance, it might be taken for regular Hellenic ma-
sonry. In fact Dorpfeld sees in it evidence of a gradual progress in
military architecture, while these 500 metres of wall were building. At
Tiryns we note no such progress though the circuit is a larger one;
there the hard limestone did not invite fine work. On the other hand,
the Troy wall is built of the facile poros, which served Greek sculpture
and architecture alike in their early stages.
The circuit is broken by three gates — the first, on the east, protected
by a bastion formed by an extension of the wall coming from the north ;
the second on the south ; the third (already walled up and disused during
the existence of the sixth city) on the southwest. On the north, where
two fifths of the circuit is destroyed, the formation of the hill renders it
improbable that there was a fourth gate. The principal gate is the second
above mentioned and stands in the south or southeast wall, where the
castle rises but little above the adjoining plateau. Here, likewise, was the
main ascent to the prehistoric (second) as well as to the later Roman city.