CHAPTER IV.

EXCAVATIONS IN THE CITADEL OF MYCENÆ--_continued_.

Wages and worth of labour at Mycenæ--The double circle of slabs--Two more sculptured _stêlæ_--Unsculptured _stêlæ_--Ashes and bones, probably of sacrifices--Fragments of other sculptured tombstones--The style of these _stêlæ_ unique--Their probable age about 1500 B.C.--A Cyclopean house filled with ashes, bones, &c.--Objects found there and in the twelve reservoirs--Great significance of the tombstones found in the Acropolis--They mark the Royal Tombs, mentioned by Pausanias from tradition only--Excavation of the Treasury close to the Lions' Gate: about as large as that of Atreus--Antiquity of the covering-up proved by the ancient vases, idols, &c. in the _débris_ above--Hera-idols, and others, found in the _dromos_, and in the Acropolis--Their vast abundance--Cow-heads on handles of vases, as at Troy--Moulds for earrings and other ornaments of gold and silver, and curious clay cones--Other ornaments of glazed clay, potstone, &c.--Numerous objects of bronze--Curious wheels--Necklace beads of various stones, with intaglios of animals, and similar objects of other shapes--Two-handled goblets; the δέπας ἀμϕικύπελλον of Homer--Depth of the _débris_--Breach in the great Cyclopean wall, repaired by an ancient wall of small stones--The quarry of Mycenæ 86