CEMENT DADOES
One of the discoveries made recently in clearing the lower portions of interior faces of walls from débris, which appears to have covered them for centuries, is that some portions of such walls have been found to be covered with the remains of excellent granite cement dadoes. This is particularly to be noticed on three walls of the Sacred Enclosure, on the south wall of No. 11 Enclosure, and at the Little Enclosure and the Upper Passage on the Acropolis, and in other ruins where portions of this dado still remain.
These dadoes extended to a height of 7 ft., the cement being found in patches still intact and in the joints of the blocks to this height, the courses above this height being entirely free from traces of cement.
In passages and narrow places great quantities of this cement lay on the original floors along the bottoms of the walls on either side, some fragments showing on their backs the ribbed markings of the courses up against which the cement had been pressed, also bevelled edges, as if from the top and ends of such dadoes. This was particularly the experience on clearing out the Parallel Passage in the Elliptical Temple. It is possible that these dadoes had once facings of white soapstone clay, beautifully smoothed, for this was found on some fragments of such cement dadoes, and the facing, when cut with a knife, powdered exactly as soapstone does.
It can be noticed by anyone that the lower portions of the walls which once had dadoes have their block faces somewhat roughly built as compared with the upper portions of the walls. This appears to suggest that the original builders, in erecting the wall, had calculated upon certain portions of the faces being covered with dadoes. These rougher surfaces would provide a better hold for the cement than would the smoother faces of the walls above.
The cavities in the dry masonry of the main walls of the Elliptical Temple contain cooled air even at noontide, and this rushes out from between the courses with such a force as to make it impossible to light a match close to them, while it is a very easy matter to carry on a conversation through a wall 15 ft. thick and 32 ft. high.
To the original builders who, as is shown elsewhere, thoroughly understood and appreciated the art of sanitation, it is quite probable that these dadoes were considered necessary, especially as these dry masonry walls are the homes of snakes, lizards, and other unpleasant reptiles and creatures which probably were more abundant here three thousand years ago when, as competent scientists affirm, the climate was more humid. Whether for the exclusion of sound, for the securing of privacy, for the protection of their dwellings from reptiles, or to avoid the tearing by rough granite blocks in very narrow passages of such garments as they might have worn, or for the purpose of artistic effect—and these ancients practised several fine arts—the fact has recently been revealed that at any rate some of the ancient walls were once covered with these cement dadoes.[45]