I at first thought that every one of the large slabs of the circular double parallel row, which forms the enclosure of the Agora and its benches was a tombstone, and marked a grave; but this could not be the case. There are no real tombs either between the two parallel rows or on either side of them. The twelve quadrangular tomb-like recesses which form part of the enclosure of the Agora on the north side, have turned out to be nothing else than small reservoirs or cisterns. They were filled with household remains and bones of animals. At all events the Agora appears to have been erected in honour of those who were buried in the five sepulchres, but evidently at a later period, though undoubtedly centuries before the capture of Mycenæ by the Argives. I infer this from the irregular and careless architecture of the Cyclopean wall which supports the double parallel row in the lower part of the Acropolis, and from the number of slabs which it contains resembling those of that enclosure. As a further proof, I may mention that between the stones of this wall, as well as between the two double circular rows of slabs which form the enclosure and benches of the Agora, and in the tomb-shaped cisterns, I find only fragments of the usual Mycenean pottery, and no trace of that ancient hand-made and wheel-made pottery which is found in the royal tombs. I think it therefore highly probable that the erection of the Agora coincides with the renewal of the tombstones on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th tombs, and the erection of the sacrificial altar on the 4th tomb; and that this renewal was occasioned by the immense enthusiasm which the Rhapsodists, who went from house to house chanting the Homeric hymns, roused among the people for the heroes of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Very likely the glorious acts of the king of men, Agamemnon, and his companions, were frequently chanted here in the Agora on their very sepulchres. I may here observe that while the whole Acropolis is covered with remnants of Cyclopean house-walls, I found no trace whatever of any prehistoric building within the sacred precincts of the circular Agora. [Sidenote: DATE OF THE AGORA.]