In Asia Minor a series of monuments, many of them rock-cut, has been discovered, which throw a curious light upon the early growth of architecture. We refer to tombs found in Lycia, and attributed to about the seventh century B.C. In these we obviously have the first work in stone of a nation of ship builders. A Lycian tomb--such as the one now to be seen, accurately restored, in the British Museum--represents a structure of beams of wood framed together, surmounted by a roof which closely resembles a boat turned upside down. The planks, the beams to which they were secured, and even a ridge similar to the keel of a vessel, all reappear here, showing that the material in use for building was so universally timber, that when the tomb was to be "graven in the rock for ever" the forms of a timber structure were those that presented themselves to the imagination of the sculptor. In other instances the resemblance to shipwrights' work disappears, and that of a carpenter is followed by that of the mason. Thus we find imitations of timber beams framed together and of overhanging low-pitched roofs, in some cases carried on unsquared rafters lying side by side, in several of these tombs. What happened on the Asiatic shore of the Egean must have occurred on the Greek shores, and though none of the very earliest specimens of reproduction in stone of timber structures has come down to us, there are abundant traces, as we shall presently see, of timber originals in buildings of the Doric order. Timber originals were not, however, the only sources from which the early inhabitants of Greece drew their inspiration. Constructions of extreme antiquity, and free from any appearance of imitating structures of timber, mark the sites of the oldest cities of Greece, Mycenæ and Orchomenos for example, the most ancient being Pelasgic city walls of unwrought stone (Fig. 51). The so-called Treasury of Atreus at Mycenæ, a circular underground chamber 48 ft. 6 in. in diameter, and with a pointed vault, is a well-known specimen of more regular yet archaic building. Its vault is constructed of stones corbelling over one another, and is not a true arch (Figs. 52, 52a). The treatment of an ornamental column found here, and of the remains of sculptured ornaments over a neighbouring gateway called the Gate of the Lions, is of very Asiatic character, and seems to show that whatever influences had been brought to bear on their design were Oriental. [Illustration: FIG. 51.--ANCIENT GREEK WALL OF UNWROUGHT STONE FROM SAMOTHRACE.] [Illustration: FIG. 52.--PLAN OF THE TREASURY OF ATREUS AT MYCENÆ.] [Illustration: FIG. 52a.--SECTION OF THE TREASURY OF ATREUS AT MYCENÆ.] [Illustration: FIG. 53.--GREEK DORIC CAPITAL FROM SELINUS.] [Illustration: FIG. 53a.--GREEK DORIC CAPITAL FROM THE THESEUM.] [Illustration: FIG. 53b.--GREEK DORIC CAPITAL FROM SAMOTHRACE.]