together, the chinks

Still the blocks are

very varying sizes and are very roughly fitted being filled with small stones, not with mortar. roughly squared, their outer surfaces are to some extent smoothed, and on the whole they are laid in horizontal courses, though the exceptions are so numerous that by some they might be thought to constitute the rule. Many of the stones are very large, some of them measuring 6 feet long by 3 feet deep and 3 feet thick. One stone which I measured The style of masonry of the

at the southern gate was 7 ft. 8 in. long.

walls is so thoroughly homogeneous that we cannot doubt that they were all built at the same period, probably within the space of a few

years.

FIG. 6.-PLAN OF RUINS OF GLA (GHA, GOULAS) IN THE COPAIC PLAIN.

A remarkable feature of their construction is that they are built, not in a curved line, but in a series of retreating angles, these angles occurring at intervals which vary from about 20 to 40 feet, but which in general measure about 30 feet. The effect of this is to give to the outline of the walls, on the inner as well as on the outer side, an appearance resembling the edge of a saw or the steps of a staircase. The depth of these backsets of the wall varies from about 4 inches to about 2 feet; commonly they measure 10, 12, or 16 inches. And it is to be observed that the walls are built in this peculiar style not merely where the edge of the plateau is curved, but even where it is straight. This method of construction appears to have been characteristic of the Mycenaean age, for it occurs in the fortification-walls of the citadel of Troy (W. Dörpfeld, Troja 1893, p. 41 sq.; id., in Mittheil. d. arch.

Inst. in Athen, 19 (1894), p. 383 sq.), in portions of the walls of Tiryns and Mycenae, and in the walls of the Mycenaean fortress recently excavated by English archaeologists in Melos, as well as in the walls of Samia (Samicum) in Elis, which probably belong to a somewhat later period. The original intention of building walls in this manner was perhaps to compel an assailant to expose his flank to the defenders of the wall; but since the backsets are often far too short to answer this purpose, and since moreover they occur on the inner as well as on the outer sides of fortification-walls, and even in the walls of ordinary buildings at Troy, it is clear that, whatever may have been its purpose originally, this mode of construction had become thoroughly conventional and had ceased to serve any practical end.

There are no towers on the walls except at the gates. Of these gates there are four, one on the north, one on the west, one on the south, and one on the south-east. The northern and the southern seem to have been the principal gates.

The northern gate, situated about 300 yards to the east of the palace at a point where the slope to the plain is low and gentle, is a simple opening in the wall, 18 feet wide, flanked on each side by two towers of solid masonry. These towers are about 19 feet broad on the face and about 23 feet deep from front to back; they project only about 2 feet from the curtain. The tower on the east side is the better preserved; seven courses are standing to a height of about 11 feet. The masonry of the towers is more massive and regular than that of the walls; the blocks are larger, more carefully squared, smoothed on their outer surfaces, and laid in horizontal courses. Inside of the gateway there was a court about 20 feet deep by 28 feet broad, enclosed by slighter walls. On the inner side of the court, facing the outer gateway, was a second gateway about 13 feet wide.

The southern gate is flanked by towers which project obliquely (not, like those of the north gate, perpendicularly) from the line of wall. The opening of the gateway is 17 feet wide. The tower which flanks it on the west projects about 16 feet from the line of wall, while the tower on the east projects about 13 feet farther beyond the face of the western tower, thus forming a sort of bastion, which must have commanded the right or unshielded side of an enemy attacking the gate. The western tower is 18 feet broad on the face, and is standing to a height of six courses or 12 feet. The eastern tower is more ruinous. Both are built of rough but massive and solid masonry; the blocks are rudely squared and smoothed on the outside, and the chinks are filled with small stones. The depth of the eastern tower from front to back is about 62 feet, and the depth of the western tower about 49 feet. These figures thus represent the respective lengths of the two sides of the passage which all who entered by this gate had to traverse. The southern gateway was naturally as well as artificially much stronger than the northern gateway. For whereas the latter is only about 40 feet above the plain, at the head of a gentle slope, the southern gateway stands on rocks at a height of about 130 feet above the plain, and can be reached from below only by a steep and narrow path.

The western gateway is much smaller than either of the preceding, its opening being only about 7 feet wide. On the north it is flanked by a tower which projects 5 ft. 5 in. from the curtain. The gateway seems to have led into a court about 17 feet square. The south-eastern gateway is double; that is, it consists of two openings, each about 16 feet wide, side by side in the wall. The flanking towers, about 23 feet deep, no longer rise above the line of the wall. From the length to which the lines of fallen stones run inward from the gate it may perhaps be inferred that this gate also, like the northern and western gates, opened into a court.

Such are in brief the remains of the prehistoric fortress of Gha, Goulas, or Gla. Although it is built on the whole of much less massive stones than Tiryns, and has not the grand situation of Mycenae, it far surpasses both of them together in size; and if we consider the immense length (about 2 miles) of the walls, their massiveness, and the excellence of their preservation, we shall be inclined to pronounce it the most imposing of all existing ancient fortresses in Greece.

As

Within the circuit of this great fortress the ruins of an ancient palace were laid bare by the excavations of Mr. A. de Ridder in 1893. has already been indicated, the palace occupies the most northerly and highest ground of the whole tableland. Its north wall rests directly throughout its whole length on the fortification-wall, which here runs along the brow of high precipices. The inner walls, built of irregularlyshaped stones of various sizes, with small stones and mortar in the interstices, are everywhere standing to a height varying from 18 inches to 2 and 3 feet, so that the plan of the palace is completely revealed. It consisted of two long wings, one on the north and one on the east, which met each other at right angles. The northern wing ends on the west in a large tower of a roughly quadrangular shape; the eastern wing ended on the south in a much smaller quadrangular tower. Inclusive of these two towers, the north wing is 80.20 metres (about 263 feet) long with an average breadth of about 14.55 metres (about 48 feet); and the east wing is 72.65 metres (about 239 feet) with an average breadth of 12.25 metres (about 40 feet). Each wing comprises a series of chambers on its outer side, while its inner side is occupied for the greater part by two broad passages or corridors running beside and parallel to each other. But towards the western end of the north wing and the southern end of the east wing there is only one such corridor. Where two corridors exist, the chambers of course open off the inner corridor. Some of the chambers communicate with each other, forming suites. They are of very various sizes. The largest of all, towards the west end of the north wing, is about 11.75 metres long (39 feet) by 7 metres (23 feet) wide. Next to it in size is a room near the southern end of the east wing, which is 9.40 metres (30 ft. 10 in.) long by 6.55 metres (21 ft. 5 in.) wide.1 Both these chambers or halls open through anterooms. The partition-walls, which, as has been

1 These are Mr. de Ridder's measurements. My measurements were-largest chamber, length 36 feet, breadth 21 feet; second chamber, length 33 feet, breadth about 21 feet.

already mentioned, are built of irregularly-shaped stones of various sizes with small stones and mortar in the crevices, average 3 ft. 3 in. thick; but some of them are 4 ft. 5 in. thick. They seem to have been covered with a thick coating of stucco, which is preserved in many places, especially in the eastern wing. In one room and a vestibule there are some remains of frescoes painted on the stucco. Chambers and corridors were alike paved with concrete, of which also there are considerable remains, especially in the east wing. The concrete is com

L

-E

Walker & Boutall sc

FIG. 7.-PLAN OF PALACE OF GLA (GHA, GOULAS) IN THE COPAIC PLAIN. posed of lime-mortar mixed here and there with pebbles; it rests on a bed of small stones. Only in one room are there faint traces of a painted decoration on the pavement; and only in one room, or rather vestibule, in the north wing is there a stone pavement, which in this case consists of eighteen large slabs of bluish limestone. Many of the thresholds of the chambers are preserved; they are formed of immense slabs of stone carefully smoothed. One of these slabs which I measured was about 10 feet long by 6 feet wide; another was 9 feet long; another 8 ft. 6 in. The threshold of the large hall in the north wing consists of three great slabs, each about 7 feet long and 4 ft. 3 in. wide. The long corridors which run along the whole length of both wings vary

What the object of The entrance to the

in width from about 6 feet to about 6 ft. 7 in. the outer corridor may have been is not clear. palace is through this outer corridor, about the middle of the north wing.

With regard to the outer walls of the palace, the north wall rests, as has been said, on the circuit-wall of the fortress, from which it is indistinguishable. At the north-eastern corner of the palace the fortificationwall is preserved to a height of seven courses or about 12 feet; it forms a sort of bastion about 34 feet broad on the north face and projecting about 3 feet from the line of wall. The outer wall of the east wing of the palace, though it lies within the circuit-wall of the fortress, is itself a fortification- wall built of enormous blocks; one block is 2 ft. 6 in. high, 4 ft. 2 in. broad (deep), and over 7 feet long. The ground here falls away, so that this outer wall is much higher than the inner walls of the palace. At the south-east corner of the palace the outer wall is standing to a height of over 6 feet. The external walls of the palace on the inner side, that is the south wall of the north wing and the west wall of the east wing, are built in a style intermediate between that of the outer fortification- walls and the inner partition - walls. They are constructed of smaller blocks than the outer fortification-walls, bonded with mortar, and are from 5 to 7 feet thick.

Amongst the objects discovered by Mr. de Ridder in the palace are four bronze hinges. They were found near the stone thresholds of some of the doorways in the east wing. These are the only objects of bronze which have as yet come to light at Gla. Further, there were found in the palace a number of plates of lead, which would seem to have been used to fasten wooden doorposts to the walls; also fragments of stucco ornaments in the shape of small engaged columns, fluted, about 3 inches in diameter, which were attached to the walls of the rooms, three at least of them having been found so attached. The fragments of pottery discovered are few and insignificant. The vessels of which they formed part are of two sorts, cups and bowls. Though the forms are rude, they have all, with one exception, been made on the wheel. The quality of the ware is poor; the clay is not homogeneous and is mixed with splinters of stone. Only four fragments have been found coated with a glaze (couverte) on the outside; the colour of the glaze in one case is black, in the others yellow of various shades from orange to tawny. The inner side of one piece is coated with a dark brown glaze. Only two painted sherds, belonging to different vessels, have been found; the decoration consists of broad transverse bands of reddish brown or violet on a ground of creamy yellow.

But the palace is not the only ancient building of which there are ruins. Remains of walls may be traced which seem to have formed part of a great fortified enclosure or inner fortress stretching nearly across the middle of the plateau from north to south. Beginning at the northern edge of the plateau and including within it the palace, this inner fortress (if it was such) extended southward for a length of about 300 yards, with a breadth of about 140 yards. From the wall which closed this fortress on the south, two walls, each 83 yards long, ran