Close to the twelve small reservoirs on the north side of my second trench, is a Cyclopean house without a roof, which even now is on its south side 24 ft. high. It contains only one chamber, 17 ft. long and 9½ ft. broad; its east wall is 3 ft. 4 in., and its west wall 3 ft., thick. On the south side it has two walls, the inner one 3 ft. 4 in., the outer one 3 ft. 8 in., thick; against its north wall, which is 3 ft. thick, leans another, 6½ ft. thick; and thus the passage of the door, which is on this side, is not less than 9½ ft. long. I excavated in this house, and found it filled with ashes both of wood and of animal matter, intermixed with bones, particularly of swine, and with millions of fragments of painted archaic vases. But I found nothing worth mentioning, except a certain quantity of baked wheat and vetches, a weight of jasper with a perforated handle for suspension (No. 155), some well-preserved archaic vases, the fragment (No. 156) of a vase with sieve-like perforations, and a certain number of whorls of blue stone. One of these vases is particularly interesting for its painted ornamentation, showing two swans, which hold their heads together, much like the two eagles in the Russian arms.
No. 155. A Jasper Weight, with a hole for suspension. (5½ M.) Actual size.
I have not been more lucky with the twelve small reservoirs formed of four large slabs, for they contain nothing else than the remnants of household utensils, and particularly fragments of archaic vases.
The four sculptured and five unsculptured sepulchral slabs undoubtedly mark the sites of tombs cut deep in the rock, the exploration of which, however, I must needs delay until I have terminated all my excavations in the northern part of the Acropolis.
TOMBS IN THE ACROPOLIS.
The presence of these numerous sepulchres near the Lions' Gate, and thus in the most prominent part of the citadel, in a place where one would have expected to find the king's palace, is very significant; the more so, as the slabs of the two parallel rows perfectly resemble the five unsculptured tombstones and the slabs of the twelve small reservoirs, and all these monuments appear to have been erected simultaneously.
No. 156. Fragment of a perforated Terra-cotta Vase. (2½ M.) Actual size.
I know of no example in history of an acropolis having ever served as a burial place, except the small building of the Caryatides in the Acropolis of Athens, which was called the Sepulchre of Cecrops, the first king of Athens. But we now know with certainty that Cecrops is nothing else than Kacyapa or Cacyapa, who was a sun-god, and thus the story of Cecrops having been buried in the Acropolis is a pure myth. But here in the Acropolis of Mycenæ the tombs are no myth, they are a tangible reality. But who have the great personages been, and what immense services did they render to Mycenæ, to have received the signal honour of such a burial place?