30 



ARCHAEOLOGY. 



contents of the tomb were probably removed 

 when the wall was built. Thirteen gold but- 

 tons only were found remaining, on which 

 pretty spiral ornaments were engraved, and 

 on some of them the sign sometimes called the 

 Svastika or Arani, from its similarity to the 

 Indian symbols of those names. Numbers of 

 gold blades were also found scattered about in 

 confusion, containing indented circular and 

 spiral ornaments. Under the other row of 

 tombstones was, beneath two of them, an ob- 

 long excavation, llf feet broad by 21 in length, 

 and 14 feet deep. Around its four sides is a 

 cyclopean wall, five feet high and two feet 

 thick. This contained bodies, surrounded by 

 black ashes and covered by a layer of large 

 stones, which shows that they had been burnt. 

 One of the corpses was covered with five great 

 leaves of gold, forty-seven to sixty-three cen- 

 timetres long and some six and a half centi- 

 metres in breadth, upon which were crosses 

 of gold-foil eighteen centimetres long and four 

 broad. There were also four gold blades of a 

 round shape, and numerous other ornaments. 



About this spot he found twelve different 

 sepulchres, and a cyclopean house which also 

 had once served as a tomb. In this house he 

 found ashes of wood and animal matter, some 

 baked grain, a jasper weight, whorls of blue 

 stone, and some archaic vases, one of which 

 contained an interesting painting of two swans. 

 He conjectures that each of the slabs in the 

 double circular row marks the place of a tomb. 

 The circumference of the circle is 555 feet. 

 Of archaic sculptures he found two fragments 

 of porphyry columns, one of them with a 

 frieze of gray-stone, the former bearing a bass- 

 relief representing a hall with seats and at each 

 end a rose, and the latter covered with spiral 

 ornamentation. 



Near the gate of the lions he discovered a 

 great treasury containing many precious arti- 

 cles. It is dome-shaped like the treasury of 

 Atreus, with an entrance thirteen feet long, 

 and a roof of four slabs eighteeen and one-half 

 feet in length. It was evidently covered up at 

 an early period, and was probably a secret 

 subterranean royal treasure-chamber. In the 

 treasury there were many ancient Juno idols, 

 a female shape, rudely made, with a head either 

 round or oblong, and large eyes, some having a 

 diadem, and some with, others without breasts. 

 Other idols represent a female form with hands 

 stretched out, with horns starting below the 

 breast and meeting in the form of a semicircle. 

 Male idols of Oriental type have bare heads 

 with incised diadems and a star in front, a long 

 aquiline nose, and an Assyrian beard. There 

 were also very ancient Juno idols in the form 

 of a cow, with painted red or black ornaments. 

 The idols were mostly found about the treas- 

 ury, except the Juno idols, of which several 

 hundreds were collected in different parts of the 

 Acropolis, and a bird-headed idol with a bowl- 

 shaped protuberance, oa which, sometimes, a 

 cross was painted. There were other idols 



with round bodies; and female forms with 

 cow's-heads were found on vase-handles. A 

 porphyry form-stone had upon it the patterns 

 of fifteen different descriptions of ear-rings and 

 other articles of jewelry. In bronze, five 

 knives, two small wheels, two lances, two 

 double-edged hatchets, two vases and four 

 others mutilated, a tripod, and hairpins, were 

 found together. A number of perforated 

 agates showed figures of animals in intag- 

 lio, done in an archaic style, some of them 

 quite artistically, which evidently belonged 

 to necklaces. Vases were found in great num- 

 bers, and painted with the greatest variety of 

 design. Most of them had both outside and 

 inside paintings. Small balls of white glass 

 and perforated pieces of a black kind of glass, 

 which probably served as wall -ornaments, 

 were found in numbers, as well as small cones 

 with spiral lines upon them. Large, tall gob- 

 lets with one and two handles recall the 

 goblets mentioned by Homer. A disk and 

 two idols were found containing inscriptions 

 which have not yet been deciphered. Among 

 the pottery were pieces with the forms of men, 

 holding their horses' necks with both hands, 

 modeled upon them, and horses rudely painted 

 upon their bases. A portion of a necklace 

 with three beads of different materials strung 

 upon a copper wire was found in the treasury. 

 The fragment of a white-marble frieze has 

 spiral ornaments. Above the entrance to the 

 treasury were the remains of a dwelling, ap- 

 parently of the Macedonian epoch. 



At the gate of the lions, beneath the ruins 

 of a Greek dwelling, there was a series of an- 

 cient walls and corridors, one of which leads 

 to the cyclopean house excavated near the 

 tombs. Here Juno idols were found in abun- 

 dance, and some interesting arrows, one cop- 

 per-headed, and one with a head of iron. 

 Next the circular rows of slabs, at another 

 point, were found a wooden fish, a sceptre- 

 head of green-stone carved in the form of a 

 human countenance of Egyptian type, and 

 numbers of Juno idols, some of them in the 

 form of a cow, standing or sitting, hornless 

 and with a female head-dress, and other idols 

 of new forms. Two knives and two arrows 

 of obsidian, many perforated glass beads, and a 

 small glass disk with a finely-executed im- 

 pressed image of a fly, were also found here. 



To the south of the circle of tombstones a 

 vast cyclopean house was excavated, of five or 

 more chambers and four intersecting corridors, 

 and a deep cistern and conduit. Traces of the 

 clay coating still adhere to the walls in parts. 

 This building, the doctor pronounces, was the 

 royal palace. In this house many most interest- 

 ing implements and articles of jewelry were dis- 

 covered. A finger-ring of onyx has an intaglio 

 of two figures of cows without horns, in an 

 archaic but elaborate manner. Disks of ser- 

 pentine and agate, which were evidently neck- 

 lace-beads, contain incised spiral ornaments 

 and the figures of horses and deer. An inter- 



