To the left of the entrance is, first, the small chamber of the door-keeper, and then follows a wall of huge stones, intended merely to sustain the masses of débris (24 ft. to 26 ft. high) which have been washed down from the mount in the course of ages. Further on, in the same line, is a Cyclopean wall (166 ft. long and 30 ft. high) of enormous stones joined together with small ones, which, as already mentioned, is crowned by the ruins of a tower, and gives the Acropolis a peculiarly grand aspect.[233] This wall was imbedded from 10 ft. to 12 ft. deep in the débris, and has now been brought to light down to the rock on which it is founded.

My supposition that the double parallel row of large slabs would be found to form a complete circle has been proved correct. One-half of it rests on the wall which was intended to support it in the lower part of the Acropolis, the other half is founded on the higher flat rock, and touches the foot of the Cyclopean wall before mentioned; the entrance to it is from the north side.[234]

At first I thought that the space between the two rows might have served for libations or for offerings of flowers in honour of the illustrious dead. But I now find this to be impossible, because the double row of slabs was originally covered with cross-slabs, of which six are still in situ; they are firmly fitted in and consolidated by means of notches, 1¼ to 3⅓ in. deep, and 4 in. broad, in the upper edges of the aslant standing slabs of the two parallel rows, which received similar projections on the cross stones, forming a mortice and tenon joint.[235] As these latter exist on all the slabs, there can be no doubt that the whole circle was originally covered in the same way. The vertical slabs are from 4 ft. 2 in. to 8 ft. 2 in. long and 1 ft. 8 in. to 4 ft. broad, and the largest are in the two places where the double row descends from the rock to the supporting wall. Inside, there is first a layer of stones 1 ft. 4 in. thick, for the purpose of holding the slabs in their place; the remaining space is filled up with pure earth mixed with long thin cockle shells in the places where the original covering remains in its position, or with household remains, mixed with innumerable fragments of archaic pottery wherever the covering is missing. This circumstance can leave no doubt that the cross slabs were only removed after the city had been captured and deserted, because all the fragments of archaic pottery must necessarily have been washed down by the rain from the five natural or artificial upper terraces of the Acropolis, and this can of course only have taken place after Mycenæ had been abandoned by its inhabitants.

PLATE VI.

ICHNOGRAPHY OF THE ROYAL TOMBS WITHIN THE CIRCLE OF THE AGORA. To face page 124.

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CIRCULAR BENCH OF THE AGORA.

It must be particularly observed that the whole arrangement of slabs slopes inwards at an angle of 75°; so that, the ground within the circle being raised, as just described, the horizontal slabs formed a continuous bench, on which people could sit, looking towards the enclosure, the inclination leaving convenient room for the feet, as is the case also with the stone seats for the priests in the theatre of Dionysus at Athens.