218

THE MYCENAEAN AGE

ponderous bulk quarried, transported, raised and fitted so
snugly in its place ?

Nor was it in mechanical skill alone that the Mycenaeans
were gifted. They were masters of many crafts with many
tools. They had saws* to cut the hardest rocks, and drills
to bore them.2 They had begun to chisel exquisite designs
in marble — witness the sculptured ceiling of Orchomenos.

Figs. 96-103. Engraved Gems from Mycenae {Eph. Arch., 1888, PL 10)

In gem-engraving, especially, their achievement left little
for their successors to compass. Beginning (it would seem)
with the soft steatite or " soapstone," the artist proceeded to
a mastery of the harder and more precious stones, — crystal,

1 Saws of silex have been found at Troy ; but as the width of the incision
made in the blocks at Tiryns is less than one tenth of an inch the saw in
use tbere must have been of bronze. This saw (according to Dr. Diirpfeld) had
no teeth, as. "the limestone, and particularly the breccia of Tiryns, belong to
the class of hard stones which can only be cut through with a smooth saw and
extremely sharp sand (emery) " (Tiryns, p. 264).

2 "The lower end of the drill-auger used at Tiryns must have been a hollow
cylinder, and was, in fact, like a strong reed. Emery was employed as with
the saw, and the rapid twirling of the drill bored a cylindrical hole in the midst
of which a stone core remained standing. This was afterwards broken off;
but a stump was often left, which now affords us this interesting explanation."
— Schucbhardt, Schliemann's Excavations, p. 115.