6 4 HISTORY OF ART IN ANTIQUITY. floor of the mortuary chamber. The ledge is non-existent on the opposite wall. About the exterior doorway no trace of hinges or frame was found. The passage must have been closed by a heavy slab rolled up against the open- ing, which may have been broken in early days by treasure-seekers. The inner work is rudimentary enough. The stone-cutters FIG. 37. Tomb near Mag- reserved all their thought and care to nesia. Transverse section. . ' WEBER, Trois tombeaux, smoothing and polishing the outer faces ; this they did so well and thoroughly as to leave no mark of the chisel. Above, the hypogee table, 9 m. 50 c. by 5 m. 60 c., was levelled out, with a deep groove which separates it from the stony mass by which it is enframed (Fig. 38). The advantages of a similar arrangement are twofold : despite its simplicity it in- vests the whole with a monumental aspect, whilst it serves to iso- late the tomb, and to guard it as well. The rain water that falls on the surface of the rock is thus collected in a double gutter and dis- charged on either side some distance in front. Thanks to this precau- tionary measure, the faade is unimpaired, and looks almost as FIG. 38. Tomb near Magnesia. Horizontal projection of fresh as if Carved but upper part. H u MANN. Ausflu?. Fig. <;. i -NT i yesterday. Neverthe- less not one among the explorers who have studied this hypogee hesitates in assigning to it a remote antiquity. There is no inscrip- tion, nor the slightest sign of mouldings which might indicate a T
