Its lower section is adorned by the ornament known as guttæ, the origin and meaning of which had hitherto been unsatisfactorily explained. The guttæ are cylindrical in shape detached from the walls, and in every respect identical with the wooden pegs which occur in this situation below the timber entablature. These same pegs again appear above the frieze in the semblance of another ornamental form, the “mutules” which, until lately, had seemed every whit as strange and problematical as the guttæ. The stone table N, in the lower surface of which the guttæ are carved, is no other than our old wood-plate, which in the Mycenian carpentry work exhibits these same saliences or pegs, and served to fix the lining of the joists below. If the Selinous mutules are sloped, it is because they are associated with a ridged roof; but as a flat covering has been assumed for Mycenæ, it involved—without prejudice to the system—a horizontal position for the mutules. As regards the frieze, both here and in every Doric building, it invariably consists, like the alabaster frieze, of pillars D alternating with slabs E. The function of the pillars (triglyphs) is to maintain the slabs (metopes) in place. [Illustration: Fig. 290.—The Marseilles Ewer. (P. & C.)] Comparison between these two figures will further show all the details, with slight modifications, to be practically similar. Thus, the whole of the Doric order, the basis of all Greek architecture, including the column, longitudinal beams, and joists supporting the roof, as well as the secondary decorative construction, had its origin in wooden construction, and there is hardly any doubt but that the Mycenian palace was its prototype. The Greeks of later days forgot the borrowing of the timber construction, and have given names to some parts, such as “guttæ” (drops), which ought to be more correctly pegs. [Illustration: Fig. 291.—Gold Pendant, from Troy. (P. & C.)] [Illustration: Fig. 292.—Gold Ornaments, from Troy. (P. & C.)] Great quantities of pottery and objects of industrial art in metal—more especially in gold—have been found in the excavations at Mycenæ, Tiryns, and Troy. The earthenware pottery is generally decorated in colours of brown, red, and greyish white. The patterns are very simple, bands and squares arranged in rows, some animal forms, leaves with wavy stems, and spirals; some of the pottery is decorated with marine animals, such as the octopus, cuttle-fish, argonaut, and with seaweed. Some curious shaped vases of woman forms (Figs. 285, 286) have been found by Dr. Schliemann. [Illustration: Fig. 293.—Gold Plate Ornament, from Troy.] [Illustration: Fig. 294.—Gold Disc. (P. & C.)]