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Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/286

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236
TRAVELS AND DISCOVERIES

as the sites of Mycente aud Tiryns are strewn with. it.110 I also found at Kalavarda several jugs, amphoræ, and oinoclioæ, on "which "were painted black figures on a red ground, or red figures on a black ground. None of these designs were remarkable for beauty of drawing or excellence of fabric, but mostly specimens of the later period of the art. The clay seemed rather thick and heavy. The peasants also showed me some small terra-cotta figures. On inquiry I was told that all these objects were found in tombs near the village. The inhabitants, fearing probably interference on the part of the Turkish authorities, declined to show the site where these tombs were found; but I was taken by my muleteer Panga to a place on the shore called Agios Minas, distant three- quarters of an hour from Kalavarda.

Here is a mediæval tower, at the foot of which are the remains of a wall built with cement, which runs out into the sea. On the shore here I found three handles of Greek unpainted dlotæ on which magistrates' names are stamped.

Between this spot and Kalavarda, the fields along the shore are strewn with fragments of pottery, and in several places are traces of tombs. In one spot I found the fragments of a Rhodian diota, which had apparently been displaced from a tomb by a torrent rushing down from the hill. The handle of this diota was also inscribed with a magistrate's name. This ground would probably repay excavation.

By the skilful mediation of Panga, I succeeded in purchasing the vases I had seen at Kalavarda, and