Mycenæ: a narrative of researches and discoveries at Mycenæ and TirynsSchliemann, Heinrich
History
Mycenæ: a narrative of researches and discoveries at Mycenæ and Tiryns
Schliemann, Heinrich
Mycenae (Extinct city); Tiryns (Extinct city)
My engineer, the Lieutenant Vasilios Drosinos, of Nauplia, having
proceeded on the 20th of January to Mycenæ, in company with the painter
D. Tountopoulos, who had to make for me an Ichnography of the five
large sepulchres and the circular Agora by which they are surrounded,
in verifying the plans he had made for me, recognised, due south of the
Agora the form of a tomb, the site of which is marked with the letter P
on the Flan B, and of which I give a most accurate separate plan.[398]
By the latter it will be seen that the construction of this tomb differs
from that of the five sepulchres within the Agora, for on its north side
the rock is cut vertically for a distance of 2 metres (6 ft. 8 in.) only,
whilst on its east side it is cut for more than double the distance
required for it; the vertical height of this rock being 1 m. 70 c. (5 ft.
8 in.) The eastern rock, which is cut vertically, is lined with a roughly
built wall of stones joined without cement, and the same is the case with
the northern rock, but here the Cyclopean wall continues in a straight
line for 6 metres (20 feet), and thus for 13 ft. 4 in. farther west than
the extent of the rock. On the west and south sides there is no rock at
all, but merely the same kind of rude wall, which is so irregularly built
that, whilst the north side of the tomb is 20 ft. and the eastern side
13 ft. 4 in. long, its southern side is 17 ft. 4 in. and its west side
12 ft. long. In the south-east corner of the tomb the Cyclopean masonry
has been demolished for a distance of 1 m. 80 c. (6 feet), apparently by
those who laid the water conduit, which, built of uncut stones without
cement, runs all along the eastern and northern sides of the tomb, and is
doubtless much later than the latter.
As will be seen by Plan G, I had excavated this site to a depth of 6 m.
70 c. or 22 ft. 4 in., and had penetrated on one side 5 ft., on the other
5 ft. 4 in. deep within the walls of the tomb, in which I had left a
layer of _débris_ only 1 ft. 10 in. deep. But as the tomb is immediately
east of the large Cyclopean house, of which I had excavated many rooms
down to the rock without finding anything particular, I had considered
the sepulchre as a dependency of the house, and had not cared to excavate
the little _débris_ which still covered its site.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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