for which, however, I cannot claim a higher antiquity than the 6th century B.C.; in fact, the fragment of a vase on which it is scratched is of the usual black Hellenic pottery, which is so widely different from the archaic pottery of Mycenæ that I could not venture to attribute it to a remoter epoch than the 5th century, were it not for the archaic characters which are decidedly of the 6th century. But this fragment of black pottery again gives us an idea of the age of the ancient Mycenean pottery. I suppose that the first Ο stands for ΟΥ, the second Ο for Ω and that the sign ] is merely a comma. I read it thus: τού ἥρωός εἰμ(ι), "I belong to the heros." Besides the goblets already mentioned in the form of large Bordeaux wine-glasses with one handle,[221] which continue to be found in enormous quantities, there are also frequently found goblets of the same form with two handles. Although these goblets have not the slightest resemblance to the splendid Trojan goblets,[222] yet, like the latter, those with two handles can fully claim to represent the Homeric δέπας ἀμφικύπελλον. I think Aristotle[223] is wrong in his theory that the ἀμφικύπελλον had the shape of a bee's cell. The best judge, nay, the highest authority, for the form of the Homeric δέπας ἀμφικύπελλον must necessarily be Homer himself; and according to him the δέπας ἀμφικύπελλον is always synonymous with ἄλεισον ἄμφωτον,[224] which latter cannot possibly mean anything else than a simple goblet with a large handle on each side. In speaking of the shape of the Homeric δέπας ἀμφικύπελλον, Athenæus[225] does not even mention the opinion of Aristotle, but he cites the opinion of Asclepiades of Myrlea, who says that ἀμφικύπελλον does not mean anything else than that the goblet is ἀμφίκυρτον. But the following phrase leaves no doubt that the latter word signifies "with two handles," and this is confirmed by Passow's Greek Lexicon (ed. Rost and Palm). As far as my excavations have proceeded, I nowhere find an accumulation of _débris_ exceeding 26 ft.; and even this depth is only found near the great circuit wall. Thence the rock rises rapidly, and further on the depth of the _débris_ is not more than from 13 to 20 ft. On the west side the Cyclopean wall has been nearly demolished for a distance of 46 ft., and on its interior side a wall of small stones joined with earth has been built to sustain its ruins. It must remain mere guesswork when the Cyclopean wall was destroyed and the small wall built, but at all events this must have occurred long before the capture of Mycenæ by the Argives in 468 B.C., because the small wall was buried deep in the prehistoric _débris_. [Sidenote: THE QUARRY AT CHARVATI.]