Buried Cities, Volume 3: Mycenae

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Jennie Hall. Buried Cities, Volume 3: Mycenae

BURIED CITIES. BY. JENNIE HALL

FOREWORD: TO BOYS AND GIRLS

MYCENAE

HOW A LOST CITY WAS FOUND

PICTURES OF MYCENAE

THE CIRCLE OF ROYAL TOMBS

DR. AND MRS. SCHLIEMANN AT WORK

THE GATE OF LIONS

INSIDE THE TREASURY OF ATREUS

THE INTERIOR OF THE PALACE

GOLD MASK

A COW'S HEAD OF SILVER

THE WARRIOR VASE

BRONZE HELMETS

GEM FROM MYCENAE

BRONZE DAGGERS

CARVED IVORY HEAD

BRONZE BROOCHES

ONE OF THE CUPS FOUND AT VAPHIO

PLATES

GOLD ORNAMENT

MYCENAE IN THE DISTANCE

Отрывок из книги

Do you like to dig for hidden treasure? Have you ever found Indian arrowheads or Indian pottery? I knew a boy who was digging a cave in a sandy place, and he found an Indian grave. With his own hands he uncovered the bones and skull of some brave warrior. That brown skull was more precious to him than a mint of money. Another boy I knew was making a cave of his own. Suddenly he dug into an older one made years before. He crawled into it with a leaping heart and began to explore. He found an old carpet and a bit of burned candle. They proved that some one had lived there. What kind of a man had he been and what kind of life had he lived—black or white or red, robber or beggar or adventurer? Some of us were walking in the woods one day when we saw a bone sticking out of the ground. Luckily we had a spade, and we set to work digging. Not one moment was the tool idle. First one bone and then another came to light and among them a perfect horse's skull. We felt as though we had rescued Captain Kidd's treasure, and we went home draped in bones.

Suppose that instead of finding the bones of a horse we had uncovered a gold-wrapped king. Suppose that instead of a deserted cave that boy had dug into a whole buried city with theaters and mills and shops and beautiful houses. Suppose that instead of picking up an Indian arrowhead you could find old golden vases and crowns and bronze swords lying in the earth. If you could be a digger and a finder and could choose your find, would you choose a marble statue or a buried bakeshop with bread two thousand years old still in the oven or a king's grave filled with golden gifts? It is of such digging and such finding that this book tells.

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"You are right," he said. "There was once a great city inside these walls. Houses were crowded together on this hill where we stand. Men and women walked the streets of a city that is buried under our feet, but they were not giants. They were beautiful women and handsome men.

"It was a famous old city, this Mycenae. Poets sang songs about her. I have read those old songs. They tell of Agamemnon, its king, and his war against Troy. They call him the king of men. They tell of his gold-decked palace and his rich treasures and the thick walls of his city.

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