Mycen/i:. 333 of its swaddling-clothes, the sculptures on the stela; would betray rehandlings of a later and more advanced age, side by side with forms belonging to the early stage of the industry we are con- sidering, and which would have been left untouched. Here, on the contrary, figures, whether of men or animals, and ornament pure and simple, are all welded together into an indivisible whole ; all belong to one culture, of which we shall have more to say hereafter, when we come to examine the objects found in the graves. The exhumation of these graves and their incomparable wealth of offerings constitute Schliemann's principal finds in the Fig. 113.— Gold rings. Twice over actual ^i^c. Mycenian acropolis. He also cleared out, south of the temenos, a whole mass of buildings with Cyclopa;an masonry ; and in the course of the excavations many a rare vase and personal ornament were brought out. The most important objects in this find are four beautiful golden goblets, and rings of the same metal (Fig. 1 13). Two of these are signet-rings decorated with intaglios, and deservedly reckoned among the most exquisite instances of Mycenian glyptic art. They are from a circular excavation which Schliemann at that time identified with the site of a grave, because it was enclosed on two sides by built walls, with a filling of rubbish at the back ; and that at two of the corners these walls
