TllE DOMED-TOMIIS OF LaCONIA, 393 The idea that the hole may have been dug in antiquity has little to commend itself to one's belief. In the first place, thieves who knew what they were about would not- have looked for treasures here ; in the second place, the cutting has no clearly-defined shape, it is broader at one end than at the other, and it contracts towards the bottom into a mere line. But what clinches the question is the fact that M. Tsoundas found 140.— Plan of loiiib, Vapliio. the bottom of the excavation covered with a bed of ashes ten centimetres thick, overlaid with a stratum of undisturbed earth. These are sufficient indications that we have here a sacrificial pit, contemporary with the building, in which, on certain days, offerings were cast in honour of the dead, until the final closing of the sepulture. Up to the present no other instance has been found in a domed-grave of a pit-offering in this situation. lo. 141.— i'lan of tomb, Vaphio. On the floor of the chamber a grave has been cut, one with the soft limestone. Its length is two metres twenty-five centi- metres, one metre ten centimetres broad, and about one metre deep. Thin walls made of slabs horizontally placed one upon the other lean against the sides of the grave ; larger slabs form the lid and the bottom. Some of the covering stones have slightly moved, and left tiny fissures through which a little dust
