Listed 21 sub titles with search on: Archaeological sites for wider area of: "MYKINES Municipality ARGOLIS" .
MYCENAE (Mycenean palace) ARGOLIS
. . . The most celebrated of these are the so-called thesaurus of Atreus at Mycenae,
and that of Minyas at Orchomenus (see Trophonius). The latter is only partly,
the former wholly, preserved. The ground-plan of these structures is circular,
and consists of one enclosed room with a domed roof, constructed of horizontal
layers of massive stone blocks, projecting one over the other. This circular chamber
was used probably for service in honour of the dead. The actual resting-place
of the body was a square room adjoining. The large room at Mycenae is fifty feet
in diameter, and about the same in height. It consists of thirteen courses, the
uppermost of which was only a single stone. It was decorated with hundreds of
bronze plates, the holes for the nails being still visible.
This extract is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Dec 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
I. Greek.
Sepulchral chambers cut in the rock are found at all periods and in all parts
of the Greek world. The so-called prison of Socrates at Athens is a well-known
example of this kind of grave (Curtius, Atlas von Athen, vii. 4). The form and
arrangement of these rock-cut tombs are very various. They consist sometimes of
a single chamber, sometimes of an assemblage of chambers forming a small catacomb.
Generally one or more shelves are cut in the rock, at the side of each chamber,
for the reception of the bodies, and for the vases and other objects which are
placed beside them. (Rock-cut graves found in Cyprus, at and near Paphos, at Rhodes,
at Selinus in Sicily, in Karpathos)>
In the greater part of the Hellenic world rock-tombs are rather the
exception than the rule, and were probably a luxury of the rich; but in Asia Minor,
and especially in Phrygia and Lycia, they are found in enormous numbers, and often
of elaborate and ornate kinds.
(1) The commonest type of ornate rock-tomb in Lycia is a very close imitation
of a wooden structure, in which a framework of beams, the intervening spaces being
filled with wooden panels, supports a flat roof with projecting eaves. The minutest
details of wood-construction are reproduced in stone. Sometimes the facade only
of such a house is cut in a wall of rock; sometimes it stands cornerwise, with
two sides free; sometimes it is attached to the rock at the back only; and sometimes
it stands entirely free. The interior consists of a small low chamber, generally
furnished with three stone couches upon which to place the bodies. In some cases
a pointed arch is found above the flat roof, similar to that which forms the top
of the sarcophagus tombs. In the later examples the whole facade is gradually
assimilated to the typical facade of orthodox Greek architecture, with columns
and architrave. The pointed arch then becomes converted into a pediment.
(2)The sarcophagus tombs are very numerous. Benndorf estimates that there are
some two thousand of them in Lycia ...
(3)Tombs in the shape of a high square column or pedestal, with a projecting cornice
at the top, are found at Xanthos and elsewhere. Benndorf enumerates eleven of
them. The best known example is the Harpy Tomb --the sculptures from which are
now in the British Museum...
In Phrygia many rock-tombs are found. In some cases the facade is
architectural in character, and ornamented with geometrical patterns.
Large temple-tombs or hcroa are found in various parts of Asia Minor.
A central chamber stands upon a high basis or podium, and is surrounded by a colonnade.
The Nereid Monument at Xanthus was of this type, and was probably sepulchral...
This type found its highest development in the Mausoleum
at Halicarnassus in Caria, which was so widely celebrated in the ancient world
that the word Mausoleum was used by the Romans in the meaning of a splendid tomb.
Large stone or marble structures of this type are seldom found in Greece proper;
perhaps to some extent on account of the sumptuary laws, which restrained expenditure
upon monuments. Thus, at Athens, it was provided by one of Solon's laws that no
one should erect a monument which could not be completed by ten men in the course
of three days; and Demetrius Phalereus forbade the erection of any funeral monument
more than three cubits in height (Cic. de Legg. ii. 2. 6, 66).
An early and very remarkable form of tomb is that known as
the bee-hive, or domed tomb. The best known example of this type is the socalled
Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae (image in the link below). A large circular
chamber is built of courses of stones, which gradually overlap until they meet
at the apex, so as to form a dome-shaped building, but not a true dome. The space
for this chamber is excavated in the side of a hill, so that the whole projects
very little above the natural level of the ground. It is approached by a stone-lined
passage or dromos cut into the slope of the hill. The lintel of the door to which
the dromos leads is formed of a single enormous block of stone. A door at one
side of the domed chamber leads into the small sepulchral chamber cut in the rock.
Other graves of a similar type have been found at Mycenae, and at
many other places on the eastern shores of Greece; for example, at Menidi (Acharnae),
Spata in Attica, Orchomenos, Nauplia, near the Heraeon in the neighbourhood of
Argos, and at Volo in Thessaly. It seems probable that these tombs represent a
later stage of the same civilisation which produced the graves excavated by Dr.
Schliemann upon the Acropolis at Mycenae; but it is impossible here to discuss
the questions which arise in connexion with them.
The normal form of Greek grave may be considered sidered to be a hole
or trench in the ground, whether dug in earth or cut in rock. These are generally
found in groups; forming, in fact, cemeteries. They are often marked with a monument;
and they contain many objects besides the body. We have therefore to consider
(1) the position in which graves were placed; (2) the form of the grave; (3) the
monument placed above the grave; (4) the contents of the grave.
1. Place of Burial.
In the earliest times it was the custom, in Attica at any rate, for
the dead to be buried in their own houses (Plat. Minos, 315 D); and traces of
graves inside houses have been found at Athens. At Mycenae the very early graves
excavated by Dr. Schliemann are within the circuit of the citadel walls; and at
certain places the burial of the dead within the city was not forbidden in historical
times; as at Sparta (Plut. Lyc. 27:en tei polei thaptein tous nekrous kai pleoion
echein ta mnemata ton hieron ouk ekoluse), Megara (Paus. i. 43 3), and Tarentum
(Polyb. viii. 30). As a general rule, however, the places of burial were outside
the city walls, and frequently by the side of roads and near the gates of the
city. Thus at Athens the place of burial for those who had fallen in war was the
outer Kerameikos, outside the Dipylon gate, on the road leading to the Academia
(Thuc. ii. 34; Aristoph. Av. 395; Paus. i. 29, 4); and the common place of burial
was outside the Itonian Gate, near the road leading to the Piraeus (Eriai pulai,
Etym. Mag. and Harpocr; Theophr. Char. 14); while burial within the walls was
strictly forbidden (Cic. ad Fam. iv. 1. 2, 3). At Tanagra the tombs are outside
the ancient town; the three chief cemeteries being on the E., N., and S., and
the groups of tombs chiefly cluster round the roads.
2. The Forms of Graves.
At the Necropolis. of Myrina, far the commonest form of grave was
an oblong trench cut in the tufa, corresponding in size with the body to be buried.
This sometimes had a covering of stone plaques, but often was merely filled in
with earth. This form of grave was also common at Tanagra; but when it was covered,
tiles were used instead of stone plaques, and the trenches are for the most part
dug in the earth, not cut in rock. At Tanagra round pits, 1 ft. 6 in. to 5 ft.
in diameter, are also found. At both places the graves are sometimes lined with
stone slabs. In Cyprus, in the neighbourhood of Paphos, the tombs consist almost
entirely of vaulted chambers, cut in the rock or earth, sometimes with niches
radiating from a central chamber. The cut below shows one of the more. elaborate
rock-tombs.
There are various statements in ancient authors as to the orientation
of tombs (Plut. Solon, c. 10; Aelian, V. Hist. v. 14; Diog. Laert. i. 2, 48);
but in cases in which careful observations have been made, no uniformity of direction
has been found.
3. Outer Adornment or Monument.
The earliest kind of mark placed over a grave was probably the simple
tumulus. In later times a grave-stone of some kind was generally set up. The shapes
of these grave-stones are extremely various. They are divided by Koumanoudes into
the following classes: (1) kionisko. Small round columns, often with a simple
moulding near the top, below which is the inscription. This is the commonest shape.
(2) plakes, rectangular slabs, lying upon the ground. (3) stelai. (4) Aediculae
or shrine-shaped stones. The top is generally of pedimental form, supported by
pilasters or free columns. The space thus enclosed is filled by a sculptured representation,
in very high relief in the later examples. (5) Mensae (a term used by Cicero,
apparently for monuments of this class). Large rectangular blocks of stone, with
architectural ornament at the base and on the cornice. (6) Hydriae. Large marble
vases, in the shape of a lekythus, or of a tall amphora, of the kind used for
funeral purposes (funus),
were sometimes set up as funeral monuments. Eustathius (ad Il. xxiii. 141) says
that tois pro gamou teleutosin he loutrophoros, phasin, epetitheto kalpis, eis
endeixin tou hoti aloutos ta numphika kai agonos apeisi. Koumanoudes argues from
this passage that these marble vases were loutrophoroi, and marked the graves
of unmarried persons, and confirms his view by the fact that out of 171 cases
in which the tombstone is a vase or bears a representation of one, all but five
are certainly to be referred to unmarried persons. Other passages, however (Demosth.
adv. Leoc. § 18; Pollux, viii. 66), seem to show that the loutrophoros was a figure
bearing a vase: as, indeed, the formation of the word would indicate. (7) thekai,
stone receptacles, for the ashes after cremation; round or square, with a lid.
(8) Sarcophagi. The word stele is also used in a more general sense to include
most kinds of funeral monuments; and a fuller discussion of the artistic ornament
of funeral monuments will be found in... sarcophagus.
This classification of Attic monuments will apply with little modification
to other parts of Greece. Thus at Tanagra we find classes (1), (3), (4), and in
addition tombstones in the shape of altars. Altar-tombs are also common in Delos.
4. The Contents of the Grave
It was the universal custom, at all periods and in all parts of the
Greek would to bury objects, of a great. variety of kinds and often in great numbers,
with the corpse. Our knowledge of the minor Greek arts -pottery, vase-painting,
jewellery, terra-cotta work, gem-engraving e.t.c.- is almost entirely due to this
custom. The scores of thousands of vases and terra-cottas contained in the Museums
of Europe were, with few exceptions, discovered in tombs.
That the custom goes back to very early times is shown by the rich
contents of the Mycenaean graves, now in the National Museum at Athens. These
include gold and silver cups and ornaments; bronze caldrons and other vessels;
bronze sword-blades and other weapons, sometimes decorated with inlaid work of
gold or other metals; and other objects, too numerous to mention here.
The objects usually placed in tombs may be thus classified (La Necropole
de Myrina):
(a) The vase which contained the ashes, if the body had been burnt. This was most
often of pottery, but sometimes of gold, silver, or other precious material. If
the body had not been burnt, a coffin was often used. This was either of wood
(as in some Greek graves in the Crimea, or of earthenware, or of stone.
(b) Objects which apparently belonged to the dead, and were used by him when alive:
such as strigils, mirrors, perfume bottles, needles, &c.; rings, brooches, and
other personal ornaments, including wreaths and diadems, which were often made
of flimsy material for funeral purposes.
(c) Vessels intended to hold meat and drink for the dead. Sometimes remains of
food are found in these vessels. The number of them is sometimes very large; in
some tombs at Myrina as many as sixty or seventy earthenware bottles and vases
were found.
(d) Small terracotta figures. The reason for placing these in the tomb has been
much discussed. They are specially frequent in Boeotia, and are usually named
after Tanagra, the place where they were first found in large numbers. They were
sometimes intentionally broken before being placed in the tomb. Some connexion
may be traced between the subject represented and the owner of the grave. Statuettes
of women and of female divinities are more common in the graves of women; male
divinities, as Dionysus, Heracles, Atys, in those of men; and toys in those of
children (La Necropole de Myrina - terra-cotta).
(e) Charon's coin (see funus).
To these must be added a variety of miscellaneous objects,
such as engraved gems, earthenware lamps, small objects of bronze, glass bottles
and cups, so far as they are not included under the first category.
II. Italian.
Among the nations of Italy the Etruscans are remarkable for the care which they
gave to their graves. These graves are almost always subterranean. The more sumptuous
tombs consist of chambers hewn in the rock; either beneath the surface of the
ground, or penetrating horizontally into a cliff. A large number of such tombs
are described and represented in Dennis's Etruria, and the accompanying woodcut
of the Tomb of the Tarquins at Cervetri is taken from that work (i. 242).
It will be observed that this tomb is hewn in imitation of wood-construction;
and in fact the sepulchral chambers generally imitate the abodes of the living.
For example, a tomb at Corneto has its roof cut in the form of a cavaedium displuviatum.
In these tombs the bodies were generally placed upon stone couches, accompanied
by numerous vases and other objects (see below). The walls also are frequently
adorned with paintings, representing scenes of the cult of the dead, and of daily
life, and, in some of the late examples, scenes from Greek mythology.
But, as in Greece, so in Italy, rock-tombs are not the most common
form. Extensive and careful excavations in the neighbourhood of Bologna, at Falerii,
and in other places, have given us full knowledge of several Italian cemeteries.
The objects found in graves at Bologna are admirably arranged in the Museo Civico
at that place. The results obtained from comparison of them are, shortly, as follows.
The graves may be divided into three classes.
(1) Umbrian. The graves are oblong, polygonal, or square holes lined with stone.
In each tomb is a large earthenware vase, containing the ashes of the burnt body.
In a few of the later tombs unburnt skeletons are found, but these are very rare.
Arms, knives, and ornaments are found in great numbers; in the earlier tombs of
bronze only, in the later of iron also. Vases, spindles. and whorls of pottery
also occur in great numbers. In the later tombs a great advance is shown in the
skill with which the potter varies the forms and adornment of the vases.
(2) Etruscan. The earliest Etruscan tombs appear to be of about the same date
as the latest Umbrian: possibly of the 6th century B.C. They are distinguished
from the Umbrian tombs partly by the method of burial,--two-thirds of the bodies
are buried without burning, and one-third only are burnt,--partly by the tombstones,
often bearing representations of Etruscan religious scenes, which are placed above
the graves, and partly by the contents. The shapes of the bronze objects found
are characteristic and varied; and the pottery is almost all of Greek workmanship,
or imitated from Greek models. The Greek vases are for the most part red-figured;
but vessels of the Corinthian style, and an amphora partly black-figured and partly
red-figured, have been found in the earlier tombs.
(3) Gallic. A certain number of graves, of a rather late period, appear to be
Gallic in character.
The collection of objects found at Falerii is now displayed in the
new museum at the Villa Giulia, outside the Porta del Popolo at Rome. The graves
at Falerii consist for the most part of chambers furnished with a number of niches,
and so capable of receiving the remains of a number of persons. This peculiarity
makes the investigation of the chronological sequence of the graves difficult;
for the interments in each chamber extend over a considerable period. It is impossible
here to discuss in detail the questions involved. It must suffice to mention one
remarkable method of burial. In several cases coffins have been found made of
the trunk of a tree, cut in half and hollowed. A similar coffin has been found
near Gabii; and at Rome, beneath the agger of Servius, a terra-cotta sarcophagus
has been discovered, resembling in form the trunk of a tree. This form of treecoffin
appears frequently in Northern Europe, especially in Westphalia.
At Rome it has been shown by recent excavations that a large cemetery
lay on the east side of the city, outside the Porta Viminalis, and that it was
still in use in the latest times of the Republic. This was the place of burial
for slaves and poor people (Hor. Sat. i. 8, 8). The graves are of various kinds;
among others puticuli or well-graves; that is to say, pits which served as a common
grave for the bodies of those who could not afford the expense of separate burial.
(Varro, L. L. 5, 25: a puteis puticuli, quod ibi in puteis obruebantur homines,
nisi potius, ut Aelius scribit, puticulae, quod putescebant ibi cadavera projecta.
Qui locus publicus ultra Exquilias. Festus, Ep. p. 216; Com. Cruq. ad Hor. Sat.
i. 8, 10, &c.) Here, too, the bodies of executed criminals were thrown unburied
(Hor. Sat. i. 8, 17; Epod. 5, 99; Dionys. xx. 16). This cemetery was disused from
the time of Augustus onwards, and was turned into gardens, to the great improvement
of the sanitary condition of the district (Hor. Sat. i. 8, 14; Porphyrio and Com.
Cruq. in loc.).
Burial within the city was forbidden, from the time of the Twelve
Tables; but exceptions might be made in the case of specially distinguished persons--as,
for example, in the case of C. Fabricius (Cic. de Legg. ii. 2. 3, 58) and Valerius
(Plut. Q. R. 79), and generally in the case of those who had celebrated a triumph
(Plut. ib.). The Vestal Virgins and the emperors were buried in the city, according
to Servius (ad Aen. xi. 205), because they were not bound by the laws, but Eutropius
(8, 5) tells us that Trajan was the only emperor for whom the privilege was used.
By a rescript of Hadrian, those who buried a person in the city were liable to
a penalty of 40 aurei (Dig. 47, 12, 3, 5). The practice was also forbidden by
Antoninus Pius (Capitol. Anton. Pius, 12) and Theodosius II. (Cod. Theod. 9, 17,
6). A similar prohibition was in force elsewhere (Lex Coloniae Genetivae, lxxiii.;
Ephem. Ep. iii. p. 94).
The customary place for the tombs of well to-do families was by the
side of the roads leading out of the city. Many such tombs are still preserved
by the side of the roads leading out of Rome, especially the Appian Way, and many
more have been destroyed in comparatively recent times. A row of them also stands
outside the Herculanean gate at Pompeii. Part of this Pompeian street of tombs
is represented in the accompanying woodcut, taken from Mazois, Pompeiana, part
i. pl. 18. These private tombs vary very widely in arrangement and architecture.
In some cases we have underground chambers, similar to those found in Etruria;
as, for instance, the tomb of the Scipios on the Via Appia. But generally the
tomb consists of a building enclosing a chamber; and in this chamber are placed
the urns containing the ashes of the dead. Some not uncommon forms are shown in
the above representation of tombs at Pompeii. Other forms are the pyramid, as
in the case of the tomb of C. Cestius, near the Porta Ostiensis; the round tower,
as in the well-known tomb of Caecilia Metella; and the conical turret, as in the
so-called tomb of Virgil near Naples, and the so-called tomb of Aruns or of the
Horatii and Curiatii near Albano. This last shape seems to follow an Etruscan
model, for conical turrets are the chief feature of the tomb of Porsenna, as described
by Pliny (H. N. xxxvi 91-93). One of the most splendid sepulchral edifices was
the Mausoleum of Hadrian.
Another form of grave is the columbarium. This is found not unfrequently
at Rome, but is hardly known elsewhere; probably because land; at Rome was much
more valuable than at any other place. It consists of a building provided on the
inside with a large number of niches, flat at the bottom, arched at the top. Each
niche, as a rule, is intended to hold two urns, in which the ashes were placed.
The name columbarium was given to such graves because of the resemblance which
these niches bear to the holes of a pigeon-house. The general arrangement of a
columbarium is shown in the above woodcut, which represents one found in the year
1822 at the Villa Rufini, about two miles beyond the Porta Pia. Columbaria were
sometimes provided by great families as a burying-place for their slaves, freedmen,
and dependents: e. g. by the Statilii Tauri, by the Volussi, and by Livia.. But
most frequently they were erected by burial societies, formed by persons who were
too poor to purchase a place of burial for themselves. Considerable light has
been thrown upon the constitution and arrangement of these societies by inscriptions,
and especially by those found in the year 1852 in a columbarium upon the Via Appia,
not far from the tomb of the Scipios.
An account of Roman tombs would not be complete without some mention
of the Catacombs; but as they were almost exclusively used by the Christians,
it must suffice here to refer to the Dictionary of Christian Antiquities and the
authorities there cited.
Contents of Tombs.
If the body was not burnt, it was placed in the tomb either enclosed
in a coffin or sarcophagus, or unenclosed. In the latter case in Etruscan tombs
it is generally placed upon a couch of stone, as is shown in the accompanying
representation of a tomb at Veil (see in the URL below). If the body was burnt,
the ashes were placed in an urn or pot (urna, olla). The urn takes many forms.
The hut-urns found at Albanos (see cut under tugurium)
are made of earthenware, and represent a primitive hut, with a peaked straw roof,
similar apparently to the contemporary dwellings of the living. The urns also
in the Bolognese cemeteries and in the columbaria are generally of earthenware.
In Etruria a favourite form is a miniature sarcophagus of earthenware or stone,
with a recumbent figure upon the lid. Marble, stone, and alabaster are commonly
used; and the next woodcut (see in the URL below) represents a sepulchral urn
of marble in the British Museum. The inscription shows that it contained the ashes
of Cossutia Prima. It is of an upright rectangular form, richly ornamented with
foliage and supported at the side. by pilasters. Its height is 21 inches, and
its width about 15. Other materials used are glass, and various metals, -lead,
bronze, silver, and even gold.
A large number of other objects (of which some mention has been made
above) were generally placed in the tomb, apparently with the intention of supplying
the dead with the customary apparatus of life. Thus in the early tombs weapons
and armour frequently occur. Later, agricultural implements and tools are often
found; and in the case of women, articles of the toilet, scent-bottles, ornaments,
and so forth. Clothes, money, food and drink, and vessels for containing them,
were often added. The last purpose may explain to some extent the large number
of vases which are often found in tombs. Several are to be seen in the picture
of a tomb at Veii given above. In Etruria Greek vases and native imitations of
Greek vases were used in very large numbers for this purpose; and it is from Etruscan
tombs that the majority of extant Greek vases comes. With the exception of those
which were found at Pompeii, nearly all the objects of daily use in our Museums
have been taken from graves. We must add lastly altars, lamps and candelabra,
intended for ritual purposes.
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited June 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Mycenae was the center of the Mycenaean Civilization during the period
that Greece prospered, that is, the Bronze Age. Mycenae, with all its wild beauty,
is located in the northern section of the Argolic Gulf and has been built at the
top of a fortified hill. This location comprised a transport intersection. Homer
refers to Mycenae as "polychryses" and "efktimenes", meaning well built with multiple
gold. Perseus (son of Zeus and Danae) is said to have built Mycenae in 1500 B.C.
Under the Atreides' Dynasty, Mycenae reached great prosperity. King Atreus was
the leader of the Greeks in their crusade to Troy.
In 468 B.C., the people of Argos destroyed Mycenae and Tiryns.
Since then, the buildings' ruins were covered with dirt. The excavations within
the Mycenaean site began in 1841. H. Schliemann began excavating Grave Circle
A. The work of the Archaeology Service in conjunction with P. Stamatakis, Ch.
Tsountas, J. Papadimitriou, N. Verdelis, G. Mylonas, S. Iakovides as well as the
British School of Archaeology of Athens (A.J. B, Wace, W. Taylor) maintains great
significance.
Mycenae was comprised within a Citadel or an Acropolis during the
period of prosperity, which could be accessed only through the renowned Lion Gate
(it was named after the pictured sculpture) from the Lower City, which was also
encased within the surrounding settlements that were found outside the walls.
The Acropolis Wall was built between 1350 - 1300 B.C. and was comprised of a rectangular
stone cube (Cyclopean Fortification wall). The Palace of Atreides as well as the
framework of a Doric Temple that was built in place of a Mycenaean Palace were
located at the Citadel's peak. The most noteworthy area is the Royal Cemetery,
which was protected by a circular surrounding wall. Schliemann discovered five
shaft graves (1876) and P. Stamatakis uncovered the sixth (1877). On the east
side of the Citadel, remains of many Mycenaean buildings are found, the largest
of which is the House with the columns. This comprises the central section of
the Palace's east aisle, which was surrounded by warehouses, workshops, shops
and the Residences of the Officials. The southeastern side of the hill was constructed
in 1225 B.C., a tunnel of circular inner walls that led to an underground cistern
fed by the Persian Spring (12 meters in depth) that was used for the purpose of
ensuring water in the event of a siege.
There was a series of houses in the Lower City of Mycenae, such as
the House of Shields (Aspidon), the House of an olive-oil trader (13th century),
which was found in 1950 upon which tile was used that illustrated linear graphics
as well as the House of Sphinxes. Today, only their foundations have been preserved.
The famous Tomb of Agamemnon or Treasury of Atreus is found in the Lower City.
It was agreed that it would be referred to as such even though it was constructed
in 1350 B.C. and belongs to a King that followed. A narrow path carved into a
cliff leads to a colonnade and lintel that are formed by two massive blocs. The
arched booth continues, which comprises a circular hall that is shaped like a
beehive. The Tholos is comprised of 33 successive rings built in accordance with
the bearing system, thus resulting in the fact that the peak can only be closed
by one slab. A passage leads to a side hall (ossuary). The tomb walls are covered
by bronze slabs and the entire structure is covered with dirt. To the right of
the Treasury of Atreus is Clytmenestra's Tomb and the Aegisthus in addition to
a fourth tomb, a little older and near the Lion Gate. Additional tombs were uncovered
in 1902 by J. Papadimitriou. Numerous tombs are located on the west side of the
hill with the Treasury of Atreus (Tomb of Spirits, the Hill of Panagia, Epano
Phournos and Kato Phournos).
This text is cited May 2003 from the Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs URL below.
PROSYMNA (Archaeological site) MYKINES
Berbati in the Argolid
In 1934 Axel W. Persson initiated his archaeological investigations
in the Berbati Valley east of Mycenae. In the ensuing years he worked in the valley
together with among others: Ake Akerstrom, Gosta Saflund and Erik J. Holmberg.
Each of them had his own excavation: Saflund the south slope of the Mastos Hill
and the Western Necropolis, Holmberg a chamber tomb to the east and Akerstrom
the Potter?s Quarter. Akerstrom continued working in that area after the War.
The investigations in the 1930?s were concentrated in the western
part of the valley, where Orestes from Mycenae, who had worked with Persson at
Dendra, had pointed out the most promising site: that on the eastern slope of
the Mastos Hill (i.e. the Potter?s Quarter). In 1935 Persson excavated the tholos
tomb, which contained one burial. The Palace style and other pottery associated
with it date the tomb to the LH II period or c. 1400 BC. Pottery of Late Geometric
(late 8th century BC) and Late Roman date attest the fact that the tholos tomb
was reused in later periods. The tholos tomb was published by Barbro Santillo
Frizell in Opuscula Atheniensia 15, 1984. The chamber tombs were published much
later by Saflund (1965) and Holmberg (1983).
The most interesting excavations were the ones on the Mastos Hill,
where Saflund and Akerstrom investigated each his settlement area: Saflund the
Early Helladic (c. 2600-2000 BC) one on the south slope and Akerstrom the Late
Helladic (c. 1600-1200 BC) on the east slope. Saflund published his results (together
with the chamber tombs in the Western Necropolis) in 1965 in the Stockholm University
Studies, while Akerstrom resumed work at the Mastos in 1953 and finished fieldwork
in 1959. He published the pictorial pottery in the institute series in 1987. The
large amounts of pottery that remain are now under study by Mats Johnson (Neolithic),
Jeannette Forsen (Early Helladic), Michael Lindblom (Middle Helladic), Ann-Louise
Schallin (Mycenaean) and Jenni Hjohlman (Medieval).
The most spectacular structure in the Potter?s Quarter is the kiln,
which Akerstrom dated stratigraphically to the transition LH II/LH IIIA1 or c.
1400 BC. He found a dump south of the kiln with pottery supporting the date. Production
continued at the site and dumped material east of the kiln testifies to hundreds
of years of pottery making. Akerstrom maintained that Berbati was the production
center of the spectacular pictorial vases found on Cyprus and in the Levant. Not
everybody has accepted his theory but most scholars now seem to agree that the
northeast Peloponnese was the origin of these prestigious vessels. Analyses of
the fabrics have shown that the clays are consistent with the clays in the general
Berbati/Mycenae area. Schallin?s research into the Berbati production aims at
studying the relationship of shape and decoration in the local Mycenaean repertoir
employing statistical methods.
In the late 1980?s Berit Wells initiated fieldwork on a large scale.
A surface survey of the valley and of the mountainous area to the east around
Limnes was carried out. The scope of the survey was to study the interaction of
man and environment through time, from the Middle Palaeolithic 50,000 years ago
until the 18th century AD. The publication, which appeared in 1996 in the institute
series, changed the hitherto accepted view of the Berbati valley as an archaeological
entity. The previous Bronze Age finds now could be put into a historical framework.
Before the survey we knew nothing, or next to nothing, about the Neolithic (5th-4th
mill. BC), the Early Hellenistic (3rd century BC) and the Late Roman (4-6th century
AD) periods in the valley. Now we know that it flourished during those times.
Regional and diachronic studies became almost the rule in Greece during the last
two decades of the last century, but The Berbati-Limnes Survey is one of the few
that has been completely published so far.
From 1994 onwards several sites documented during the survey were
investigated or underwent further documentation. These sites were included in
a larger research project (the Berbati Valley Project) to investigate the agrarian
economy of the valley. In 1994 the Late Geometric/Archaic cult place defined in
the survey and associated with the tholos tomb was excavated. Gunnel Ekroth is
studying the assemblage and published a preliminary report on the material in
the Opuscula Atheniensia 21 for 1996. The same season a study of the Late Roman
bath was carried out, also reported on in the same Opuscula. Kai Holmgren did
a CAD model of the extant structure within the framework of a project designed
jointly by the departments of Archaeology at Lund University: Swedish Prehistory,
Medieval Archaeology and Classical Archaeology and the Swedish Institute at Athens.
From 1995 onwards the project focused entirely on the agrarian economy
of the valley. Although several targets had been chosen for excavation, only one
at Pyrgouthi or the Hellenistic Tower could be realized. It turned out to represent
a spectrum of chronological phases contrary to what the survey had shown: from
the early Iron Age to the 6th century AD.
Penttinen (diss. 2001) redefines the Berbati Valley as a typical border
region, which sometimes is dominated by Corinth, sometimes by Argos. Most of the
material comes from disturbed contexts, which, however, reflects migrant animal
husbandry rather than sedentary agriculture thus defining a border zone. The most
spectacular finds at Pyrgouthi date from the 6th century AD (Hjohlman diss. 2002).
A farmstead with its press-house was destroyed in a conflagration. Whatever was
in the press-house at the time was buried under the debris, presenting a frozen
moment in the history of the site. Large storage jars, which could be mended,
wine presses and agricultural tools were found.
Kilns datable to the 5th century BC were found also at Pyrgouthi.
At present we have a substantial amount of evidence of ceramic production in the
valley with all in all four production sites: the previously well-known Early
Mycenaean kiln from the Mastos Hill, the 5th century Pyrgouthi kilns, a Late Roman
kiln found by our Greek colleagues west of the Roman bath, and the waste from
a kiln built for the production of roof tiles after the German destruction of
the village of Berbati in 1943. Obviously the manufacture of ceramics was a by-product
of the agrarian economy during several periods of the history of the valley. Berit
Wells together with Ian Whitbread and Matthew Ponting of the Fitch Laboratory
at the British School at Athens are doing a comprehensive study of the Berbati
clay beds and ceramics through time. Undoubtedly ceramic production was an added
asset for people living in the valley.
See Arto Penttinen, Berbati between Argos and Corinth (diss. University
of Stockholm, Department of Classical Archaeology and Ancient History), 2001 and
Jenni Hjohlman, Farming the land in Late Antiquity. The case of Berbati in the
northeastern Peloponnese (diss. Stockholm University, Department of Classical
Archaeology and Ancient History), 2002.
These dissertations together with a number of specialist reports on
botanical and faunal remains etc will be published in the institute series in
early 2005.
The Berbati Valley Project was brought to conclusion in 1999 with
an intensive survey of the Mastos Hill, which had been excluded from our permit
for the 1988-1990 survey. The aim of the 1999 survey was to test new methods of
field sampling and digital processing of data. Terrace by terrace all artifacts
were collected and analyzed in the field. Small samples were collected for further
study in the laboratory. The artifact database was related to a digitized model
of the hill creating distribution maps to illustrate artifact density on each
terrace and thus activity on each terrace period by period. In this way we have
gathered new information on the history of the hill. So far our knowledge of the
medieval period was very scant. It is now obvious from the distribution map below
that a small medieval habitation must be sought on the top of the Mastos Hill.
The investigations in the Berbati Valley during the 1980?s and 1990?s
have not produced artifacts comparable to the old excavations at Asine and Dendra.
The objectives have been different. The importance of the investigations for Swedish
Classical Archaeology lies in the fact that new methods have been tested and young
scholars have been entrusted with the publication of material, sometimes for their
dissertations, which has ensured quick publication. Therefore Berbati also became
a training ground for a whole new generation of archaeologists. In this respect
it can be compared only to Asine in the 1920?s and Acquarossa in Italy in the
1960?s and 1970?s.
Arto Penttinen, ed.
This text is cited Jun 2005 from The Swedish Institute at Athens URL below
Report on the investigations carried out at the Mastos, Berbati, in 1999
The 1999 investigations at the Mastos hill in the western part of
the Berbati Valley (Prosimni) had two objectives: a) to carry out a surface survey
of the entire hill in order to learn how it was utilized in different periods
and b) to create a computerized 3D map which would visualize human activity in
relation to the landscape and such modern human activity as harrowing and grazing.
All artifacts lying on the surface were classified in the field and entered into
the computer together with information on landscape type and land use A small
sample of material was brought to the museum, where it will be studied in detail
in the summer of the year 2000.
The excavations on the southern and eastern slopes of the Mastos in
the 1930s and 1950s showed that habitation on the hill goes back to Middle Neolithic
times and that there is continued activity until the Late Helladic IIIB period.
Coins found in 1953 assert activities in the historical period as late as the
12th century AD but the excavators correctly saw Mastos primarily as a prehistoric
site. Although this year's investigations corroborate this general picture we
now have a more complete grasp of human utilization of the slopes through the
period and can further modify the picture for the historical periods.
In the Neolithic period activity was almost exclusively documented on the southern and eastern slopes, although it should be noted that the top terrace of the hill yielded a number of sherds. Whether these originated there or were brought there through manuring or similar activities cannot be ascertained at this point.
From the old excavations we know that there was an important Early
Helladic settlement with preserved architecture in the south and that this continued
towards the east into the southwestern part of the Potter's Quarter. Our survey
now has registered a considerable density of EH material not only on all the terraces
in the south but also on the terraces in the east and southeast.
In the Middle Helladic period, if we are to judge by the numbers of
sherds studied, activity at the Mastos increases. Although we see particularly
dense concentrations on some of the terraces in the south and southeast, it is
obvious that all slopes were utilized. Much of the transitional MH/LH pottery
is notoriously difficult to define and this is especially true of survey material.
Therefore some caution should be applied when studying the distribution maps of
MH and LH I-II.
Even with great caution applied it is quite evident from the map that
Late Helladic I-II was a major phase at the Mastos. Now, this is of course may
come as no surprise considering the production connected with the LH I-II kiln
excavated in the 1930s. However, activity is not restricted to the kiln area but
is very much in evidence in the west, a fact that heralds a major extension of
habitation or other activities in LH III.
Studying every single sherd on the surface at the Mastos is, as everybody understands who has walked the area, very time consuming. For this reason we did not manage to survey all the fields neither in the south nor in the east. The carpet of material stretches some 20-30 meters south of the lowest terrace of the hill and in the east the fields below the road all the way to the rema would yield masses of material, predominately Late Mycenaean to judge from walking over the fields.
Late Helladic III by far yielded the most sherds. Now, sherd counts
can be vastly misleading, as Mycenaean pottery easily breaks into tiny fragments
during cultivation or even walking over the surface. EH and MH pottery is preserved
in large fragments on the same surface. However, in the case of the Mastos we
can still safely conclude that activity in LH III superceded that in any other
period as the numbers are overwhelming, which can be observed on the distribution
map.
In the Archaic to Hellenistic and Roman periods there is scattered
evidence of human activity. For the earlier periods most of the artifacts are
tiles and there is evidence that especially Corinthian tiles were reused in later
walls. Thus they could well have been brought from a wider area around the Mastos.
There is clearly a Late Roman presence but the nature of it is, as is the case
also with the Archaic to Hellenistic, impossible to discern.
The distribution of Medieval sherds (see design inside URL below)
shows an interesting pattern. The main concentrations are on the top terrace of
the Mastos and on the rather steep slopes immediately below. We interpret this
as activity mainly on the top terrace and from there material has spilled over
on the slopes. On the northern side this terrace still preserves a substantial
fortification wall, clearly built in Byzantine times but utilizing a prehistoric
wall as its foundation. Here lay a fort which ties in very nicely with the finds
of Late Byzantine coins referred to at the beginning of this report.
Arto Penttinen, ed.
This text is cited Jun 2005 from The Swedish Institute at Athens URL below
Murus or Moenia (teichos). A wall surrounding an unroofed enclosure, as opposed
to paries (toichos), the wall of a building. The word maceria denotes a boundary
wall, fence-wall. Cities were enclosed by walls at a very early period of Greek
history, as is shown by the epithet used by Homer "well-walled" of Tiryns,
Mycenae, etc., and the massive remains of those cities have also demonstrated
the fact So vast, in truth, are some of these structures as to have induced a
belief among the ancients that they were the work of Cyclopes. (See Cyclopes.)
The following principal species of city walls are to be distinguished:
(a) those in which the masses of stone are of irregular shape and put together
loosely, the interstices being filled by smaller stones, as in the wall at Tiryns;
(b) those in which polygonal stones are carefully fitted together, and their faces
cut so as to give the whole a comparatively smooth surface, as in the walls at
Larissa and at Cenchreae; and (c) those in which the blocks are laid in horizontal
courses more or less regular with the vertical joints either perpendicular or
oblique, and are more or less accurately fitted together, as in the walls beside
the "Lion Gate" at Mycenae.
Brick was largely used in Egypt, Assyria, and Chaldaea, and also in
Greece and Italy; but was often defended against the weather by an outer casing
of stone, when the bricks were sun-dried instead of burned (See Fictile).
After the first Persian War the Athenians began to use marble for their finest
buildings, as in the Propylaea and the Parthenon. A century later marble was also
used for facing walls of brick. Less important structures were made of smaller
stones, rough or square, flints, or bricks.
At Rome there were several kinds of masonry (See Caementum).
(a) Blocks of stone were laid in alternate conrses, lengthwise in one course and
crosswise in the next. (b) The stones in each course were laid alternately along
and across. (c) The stones were laid all lengthwise. (d) The stones entirely crosswise.
(e) The courses were alternately higher and lower than each other. The earliest
walls at Rome, largely of Etruscan origin, were built of huge quadrangular stones,
hewn, and placed together without cement. Such were the Carcer Mamertinus (see
Carcer),
the Cloaca Maxima (see Cloaca),
and the Servian Walls (see Etruria).
The Romans also used small rough stones, not laid in courses, but held together
by mortar (opus incertum) and courses of flat tiles. Tiles were also introduced
in the stone and brick walls. Brick covered with painted stucco was a very common
material at Rome, and even columns were so constructed.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited June 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Porta (pyle, pule), the gate of a city, citadel, or other open space enclosed
by a wall, in contradistinction to janua
(=door) which was the door of a house or any covered edifice. The word pule is
often found in the plural, even when applied to a single gate, because it consisted
of two leaves (Thuc. ii. 4, &c.).
In tracing out the walls of an Italian city with the ceremony described
under pomerium
the plough was lifted and carried across the openings to be left for the gates.
The number and position of city gates in ancient Greece and Italy naturally varied
according to circumstances. The old Etruscan custom was to give three gates to
a walled city, dedicated to the three chief deities of the Etruscans: the same
custom may possibly be seen in the three gates of Roma Quadrata (Plin. H. N. iii.66,
where an alternative tradition of four gates is mentioned): two of these were
the Porta Mugonia and Porta Romanula (Varro, L. L. v. 164). The ancient walls
of Paestum, Sepianum, and Aosta enclose a square: in the centre of each of the
four walls was a gate; the arrangement, however, was obviously affected by the
nature of the ground, and the size of the city. Thus Megara had five gates; Thebes
seven; others, as Rome, many more.
The gates in ancient Greek walls were formed in various ways, showing
progressive art in building. We may give, from Reber (Gesch. d. Baukunst, 231),
four distinct methods:
1. The simple straight lintel, consisting of a long and massive block, as in the
Lion Gate of Mycenae.
2. Stones projecting one beyond another in a step form from each side, and so
gradually approaching till they can be topped by a flat lintel: an example is
afforded by a gate at Phigalia.(see image in URL below)
3. A gable shape, formed by two massive stones meeting in an angle, as shown in
a gate at Delos.(see image in URL below)
4. A refinement on No. 2, where the stones approach gradually, cut into shape,
sometimes with a slight curve, till they join at the apex: they sometimes begin
their slope from the ground, as in the gates of Missolonghi and Thoricos, or,
in a more developed form, they are straight in their lower part, as the gate of
Ephesus.(see image in URL below)
When the arch was introduced (see arcus
=arch), the construction of the gate itself varied only as regards its size: but
there were many differences and improvements as regards its defence. From early
days the importance of flanking bastions had been seen; these were at first simple
projections of the wall at right angles, from the summit of which the defenders
could shoot, and this developed into bastions formed by circular swellings of
the wall on each side of the gate, and thence into regular flanking towers, round
or square (see turris
=tower), often with additional defences, such as are shown in the gate of Posidonia,
or Paestum (see murus
=wall). An additional security to the entrance was given by a double gateway,
having an outer and inner gate with a space between. At Messene the space between
was circular, so that the wall at that part had the shape of a round tower pierced
by two opposite openings. This system of double gates was very early, as in the
second and third gateways of the fortress at Tiryns; and it is instructive also
in this early fortress to see how the besiegers were exposed to fire when they
forced one gateway and passed round to the next. Care was taken here, and elsewhere,
that the right or unshielded side should be towards the wall in their approach.
At Como, Verona, and other ancient cities of Lombardy, the gate contains
two passages close together, the one designed for carriages entering, and the
other for carriages leaving the city. The same provision is observed in the magnificent
ruin of a gate at Treves (see image in URL below). In other instances we find
only one gate for carriages, but a smaller one on each side of it (parapulis,
Heliodor. n viii) for foot-passengers. Each of the fine gates which remain at
Autun has not only two carriage-ways, but exterior to them two sideways for pedestrians.
Such sideways are well seen in the Porta d'Ercolano of Pompeii. When there were
no sideways, one of the valves of the large gate sometimes contained a wicket
(portula, pulis: rhinopule), large enough to admit a single person. The porter
opened it when any one wished to go in or out by night (Polyb. viii. 20, 24; Liv.
xxv. 9).
The contrivances for fastening gates were in general the same as those
used for doors, but larger in proportion. The wooden bar placed across them in
the inside (mochlos) was kept in its position by the following method. A hole,
passing through it perpendicularly (balanodoke, Aen. Tact. 18), admitted a cylindrical
piece of iron, called balanos, which also entered a hole in the gate, so that,
until it was taken out, the bar could not be removed either to the one side, or
the other (Thuc. ii. 4; Aristoph. Vesp. 200; bebalanotai, Aves, 1159). Another
piece of iron, fitted to the balanos and called balanagra, was used to extract
it (Aen. Tact. l. c.). When the accomplices within, for want of this key, the
balanagra, were unable to remove the bar, they cut it through with a hatchet (Thuc.
iv. 111; Polyb. viii. 23, 24), or set it on fire (Aen. Tact. 19). (For the portcullis,
see cataracta
=katapakte)
The gateway had commonly a chamber, either on one side or on both,
which served as the residence of the porter or guard. It was called tulon (Polyb.
viii. 20, 23, 24). Its situation is shown in the following plan.The Porta Ostiensis,
the finest and best-preserved of the gates in the Aurelian wall, affords an instance
of the more elaborate kind:--The central part of the gate with its arched doorway
is of travertine, the outer arch is grooved, to receive a portcullis, and from
the inner and higher arch two travertine corbels project, which received the upper
pivots of the doors, the lower ones being let into holes in a massive travertine
threshold. Above this stone archway is a battlemented wall of brickfaced concrete,
pierced with a row of 7 arched windows, opening into a gate chamber with similar
windows on the inside. On each side are two brick-faced towers with semicircular
projections on the outside. In the gates of Como and Verona the gatehouse is three
stories high. At Treves it was four stories high in the flanks, although the four
stories remain standing in one of them only, as may be observed in the annexed
woodcut. The length of this building is 115 feet; its depth 47 in the middle,
67 in the flanks; its greatest height, 92. All the four stories are ornamented
in every direction with rows of Tuscan columns. The gateways are each 14 feet
wide. The entrance of each appears to have been guarded, as at Pompeii, first
by a portcullis, and then by gates of wood and iron. The barbican, between the
double portcullis and the pair of gates, was no doubt open to the sky, as in the
gates of Pompeii. The gate at Treves was probably erected by Constantine.
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited June 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Architectura (architektonia, architechtonike).
(I.) Greek
Of the earliest efforts of the Greeks in architecture we have evidence
in the so-called Cyclopean Walls surrounding the castles of kings in the Heroic
Age of Tiryns, Argos, Mycenae, and elsewhere. They are of enormous thickness,
some being constructed of rude, colossal blocks, whose gaps are filled up with
smaller stones; while others are built of stones more or less carefully hewn,
their interstices exactly fitting into each other. Gradually they begin to show
an approximation to buildings with rectan gular blocks. The gates let into these
walls are closed at the top either by the courses of stone jutting over from each
side till they touch, or by a long straight block laid over the two leaning side-posts.
Of the latter kind is the famous Lion Gate at Mycenae, so called from its two
lions standing with their forefeet on the broad pedestal of a pillar, and remarkable
as the oldest specimen of Greek sculpture.
Among the most striking relics of this primitive age are the so-called
thesauroi (treasuries, usually subterranean) of ancient dynasties, the most considerable
being the treasure-house of Atreus at Mycenae. The usual form of these buildings
is that of a circular chamber vaulted over by the horizontal courses approaching
from all sides till they meet. Thus the vault is not a true arch. The interior
seems originally to have been covered with metal plates, thus agreeing with Homer's
descriptions of metal as a favourite ornament of princely houses (See Domus).
An open-air building preserved from that age is the supposed Temple of Here on
Mt.
Ocha (now Hagios Elias ) in Euboea, a rectangle built of regular square blocks,
with walls more than a yard thick, two small windows, and a door with leaning
posts and a huge lintel in the southern side-wall. The sloping roof is of hewn
flag-stones resting on the thickness of the wall and overlapping each other, but
the centre is left open as in the hypaethral temples of a later time.
From the simple shape of a rectangular house shut in by blank walls
we gradually advance to finer and richer types, formed especially by the introduction
of columns detached from the wall and serving to support the roof and ceiling.
Even in Homer we find columns in the palaces to support the halls that surround
the court-yard and the ceiling of the banqueting-room. The construction of columns
(see Columna)
received its artistic development first from the Dorians, after their migration
into the Peloponnesus about B.C. 1000, next from the Ionians -and from each in
a form suitable to their several characters. If the simple, serious character
of the Dorians speaks in the Doric order, no less does the lighter, nimbler, and
more showy genius of the Ionian race appear in the order named after them. By
about B.C. 650, the Ionic style was flourishing side by side with the Doric.
As it was in the construction of temples that architecture had developed
her favourite forms, all other public buildings borrowed their artistic character
from the temple (See Templum).
The structure and furniture of private houses were, during the best days of Greece,
kept down to the simplest forms. About B.C. 600, in the Greek islands and on the
coast of Asia Minor, we come across the first architects known to us by name.
It was then that Rhoecus and Theodorus of Samos, celebrated likewise as inventors
of casting in bronze, built the great Temple of Here in that island, while Chersiphron
of Cnosus in Crete, with his son Metagenes, began the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus,
one of the seven wonders of the world, which was not finished till one hundred
and twenty years after. In Greece Proper a vast temple to Zeus was begun at Athens
in the sixth century B.C. (see Olympieum),
and two more at Delphi and Olympia -one of the Corinthian Spintharus, the other
by the Elean Libon. Here, and in the western colonies, the Doric style still predominated
everywhere. Among the chief remains of this period, in addition to many ruined
temples in Sicily, especially at Selinus and Agrigentum, should be mentioned the
Temple of Poseidon at Paestum (Posidonia) in South Italy, one of the best preserved
and most beautiful relics of antiquity. The patriotic fervour of the Persian Wars
created a general expansion of Greek life, in which architecture and the sister
art of sculpture were not slow to take a part. In these departments, as in the
whole onward movement, a central position was taken by Athens, whose leading statesmen,
Cimon and Pericles, lavished the great resources of the state at once in strengthening
and beautifying the city. During this period arose a group of masterpieces that
still astonish us in their ruins, some in the forms of a softened Doric, others
in the Ionic style, which had now found its way into Attica, and was here developed
into nobler shapes. The Doric order is represented by the Temple of Theseus; the
Propylaea, built by Mnesicles; the Parthenon, a joint production of Ictinus and
Callicrates -while the Erechtheum is the most brilliant creation of the Ionic
order in Attica.
The progress of the drama to its perfection in this period led to
a corresponding improvement in the building of theatres. A stone theatre was begun
at Athens even before the Persian Wars, and the Odeum of Pericles served similar
purposes. How soon the highest results were achieved in this department, when
once the fundamental forms had thus been laid down in outline at Athens, is shown
by the theatre at Epidaurus, a work of Polyclitus, unsurpassed, as the ancients
testify, by any later theatres in harmony and beauty. Another was built at Syracuse
before B.C. 420. Nor is it only in the erection of single buildings that the great
advance then made by architecture shows itself. In laying out new towns, or parts
of towns, men began to proceed on artistic principles, an innovation due to Hippodamus
of Miletus. (See Theatrum)
In the fourth century B.C., owing to the change wrought in the Greek
mind by the Peloponnesian War, in place of the pure and even tone of the preceding
period, a desire for effect became more and more general, both in architecture
and sculpture. The sober Doric style fell into abeyance and gave way to the Ionic,
by the side of which a new order, the Corinthian, said to have been invented by
the sculptor Callimachus, with its more gorgeous decorations, became increasingly
fashionable. In the first half of the fourth century arose what the ancients considered
the largest and grandest temple in the Peloponnesus, that of Athene at Tegea,
a work of the sculptor and architect Scopas. During the middle of the century
another of the "seven wonders", the splendid tomb of Mausolus at Halicarnassus,
was constructed (See Mausoleum).
Many magnificent temples arose in that time. In Asia Minor, the temple at Ephesus,
burned down by Herostratus, was rebuilt by Alexander's bold architect Dinocrates.
In the islands the ruins of the Temple of Athene at Priene, of Apollo at Miletus,
of Dionysus at Teos, and others, even to this day offer a brilliant testimony
to their former magnificence. Among Athenian buildings of that age the Monument
of Lysicrates is conspicuous for its graceful elegance and elaborate development
of the Corinthian style. In the succeeding age, Greek architecture shows its finest
achievements in the building of theatres, especially those of Asiatic towns; in
the gorgeous palaces of newly built royal capitals; and in general in the luxurious
completeness of private buildings. As an important specimen of the last age of
Attic architecture may also be mentioned the Tower of the Winds at Athens. (See
Andronicus)
(II.) Etruscan and Roman.
In architecture, as well as sculpture, the Romans were long under
the influence of the Etruscans, who, though not possessing the gift of rising
to the ideal, united wonderful activity and inventiveness with a passion for covering
their buildings with rich ornamental carving. None of their temples have survived,
for they built all the upper parts of wood; but many proofs of their activity
in building remain, surviving from various ages, in the shape of tombs and walls.
The latter clearly show how they progressed from piling up polygonal blocks in
Cyclopean style to regular courses of squared stone. Here and there a building
still shows that the Etruscans originally made vaultings by letting horizontal
courses jut over, as in the ancient Greek thesauroi above mentioned: on the other
hand, some very old gateways, as at Volterra and Perugia, exhibit the true arch
of wedge-shaped stones, the introduction of which into Italy is probably due to
Etruscan ingenuity, and from the introduction of which a new and magnificent development
of architecture takes its rise. The most imposing of ancient Italian arch building
is to be seen in the sewers of Rome constructed in the sixth century B.C. (See
Cloaca =sewer, drain, hyponomos)
When all other traces of Etruscan influence were being swept away
at Rome by the intrusion of Greek forms of art, especially after the conquest
of Greece in the middle of the second century B.C., the Roman architects kept
alive in full vigour the Etruscan method of building the arch, which they developed
and completed by the inventions of the cross-arch (or groined vault) and the dome.
With the arch, which admits of a bolder and more varied management of spaces,
the Romans combined, as a decorative element, the columns of the Greek orders.
Among these their growing love of pomp gave the preference more and more to the
Corinthian, adding to it afterwards a still more gorgeous embellishment in what
is called the Roman or Composite capital. Another service rendered by the Romans
was the introduction of building in brick. A more vigorous advance in Roman architecture
dates from the opening of the third century B.C., when they began making great
military roads and aqueducts. In the first half of the second century they built,
on Greek models, the first basilica, which, besides its practical utility, served
to embellish the Forum. Soon after the middle of the century appeared the first
of their more ambitious temples in the Greek style. There is simple grandeur in
the ruins of the Tabularium, or Record Office, built B.C. 78 on the slope of the
Capitol next the Forum. These are among the few remains of Roman republican architecture;
but in the last decades of the Republic simplicity gradually disappeared, and
men were eager to display a princely pomp in public and private buildings; witness
the first stone theatre erected by Pompey as early as B.C. 55. Then all that went
before was eclipsed by the vast works undertaken by Caesar--the Theatre, Amphitheatre,
Circus, Basilica Iulia, Forum Caesaris with its temple to Venus Genetrix. These
were finished by Augustus, under whom Roman architecture seems to have reached
its culminating-point. Augustus, aided by his son-in-law Agrippa, a man who understood
building, not only completed his uncle's plans, but added many magnificent structures
-the Forum Augusti with its temple to Mars Ultor, the Theatre of Marcellus with
its Portico of Octavia, the Mausoleum, and others. Augustus could fairly boast
that "having found Rome a city of brick, he left it a city of marble".
The grandest monument of that age, and one of the loftiest creations of Roman
art in general, is the Pantheon, built by Agrippa, adjacent to, but not connected
with, his Thermae, the first of the many works of that kind in Rome. This structure
is remarkable as being the only ancient building in Rome of which the walls and
arches are now in a complete state of preservation. It was erected by Agrippa
in B.C. 27, the original inscription being still retained upon the architrave
of its porch. The Pantheon is a circular structure 146 feet and 6 inches in height
and inner diameter, with a portico 103 feet long composed of sixteen Corinthian
columns, 46 feet in height. Inside the portico at the entrance are two niches
which once contained the colossal statues of Agrippa the builder, and of Augustus
Caesar. The walls of the building, which are 19 feet thick, support a dome or
cupola of vast dimensions, constructed of concrete. At the vertex of the cupola
is an opening nearly 30 feet in diameter, lighting the interior.
A still more splendid aspect was imparted to the city by the rebuilding
of the old town burned down in Nero's fire, and by the "Golden House"
of Nero, a gorgeous pile, the like of which was never seen before, but which was
destroyed on the violent death of its creator. The immense and complicated structure,
or rather mass of structures, known as the Palace of the Caesars, formed one of
the most striking achievements of Roman architectural genius (See Palatium).
It was, as Professor Lanciani puts it, a labyrinth of "endless suites of
apartments, halls, terraces, porticoes, crypts, and cellars", having its
main approach on the Via Sacra. At its arched entrance was a magnificent quadriga
cut from a single block of white marble by Lysias. Beyond was a peristyle of fifty-two
fluted columns adorned with a host of exquisite statues representing the Danaidae,
and adjacent to a great library. The magnificence of the palace as a whole may
be conjectured from a simple summary of the treasures which we know to have been
lavished upon the mere vestibule--a hundred and twenty columns of marble and bronze,
statuary, bas-reliefs by Bupalus and Anthermus, a quadriga in gilded bronze, exquisite
ivory carvings, hundreds of medallions in gold, silver, and bronze, immense collections
of gold and silver plate, gems and cameos, and a colossal bronze statue of Augustus,
fifty feet in height.
Of the luxurious grandeur of private buildings we have ocular proof
in the dwelling-houses of Pompeii, a petty country town in comparison with Rome.
The progress made under the Flavian emperors is evidenced by Vespasian's amphitheatre,
known as the Colosseum, the mightiest Roman ruin in the world; by the ruined Thermae,
or Baths, of Titus, and by his triumphal arch, the oldest specimen extant in Rome
of this class of monument, itself a creation of the Roman mind. But all previous
buildings were surpassed in size and splendour when Trajan's architect, Apollodorus
of Damascus, raised the Forum Traianum with its huge Basilica Ulpia and the still
surviving Column of Trajan, besides other magnificent structures, including libraries,
a great temple, a two-storied gallery, and a triumphal arch. The Basilica had
five halls, the central one being 27 yards long, and the whole structure 61 yards
wide. It was paved with slabs of rare marble. Only a part of this Forum has yet
been excavated, but enough has been brought to light to justify the vivid description
of Ammianus Marcellinus (xvi. 10), whose account refers to the time of the emperor
Constantine's visit to Rome in the year 356. No less extensive were the works
of Hadrian, who, besides adorning Athens with many magnificent buildings, bequeathed
to Rome a Temple of Venus and Roma, the most colossal of all Roman temples, and
his own Mausoleum, the core of which is preserved in the Castle of St. Angelo.
While the works of the Antonines already show a gradual decline in architectural
feeling, the Triumphal Arch of Severus ushers in the period of decay that set
in with the third century. In this closing period of Roman rule the buildings
grow more and more gigantic -witness the Baths of Caracalla, those of Diocletian,
with his palace at Salona (three miles from Spalatro) in Dalmatia, and the Basilica
of Constantine, breathing the last feeble gasp of ancient life. But outside of
Rome and Italy, in every part of the enormous Empire to its utmost barbarian borders,
bridges, numberless remains of roads and aqueducts and viaducts, ramparts and
gateways, palaces, villas, marketplaces and judgment-halls, baths, theatres, amphitheatres,
and temples, attest the versatility, majesty, and solidity of Roman architecture,
most of whose creations only the rudest shocks have been able to destroy.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited June 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Pseudisodomum: An early style of masonry used by the Greeks, in which the stones were regularly laid but were not of the same size. (See Isodomus.) An example is found in the wall of the Lion Gate at Mycenae
Site: Mycenae
Type: Palace
Summary: The palace at Mycenae is on the summit of the citadel hill
Date: 1250 B.C. - 1200 B.C.
Period: Late Bronze Age
Plan:
Built in different levels on the uneven ground, the main elements of the complex
were the megaron with central hearth and anteroom and the central court. Two entrances
led to the central court: the propylon and west passage at NW, and the Grand Staircase
to the S. A long corridor separated the official room from the private apartments
and bath located to the N, at the highest position on the summit. The House of
Columns or Little Palace and artists' quarters to the E may have been a part of
the palace complex. Other corridors, guard rooms and store rooms have also been
identified.
History:
Large scale levelling and terracing for the palace destroyed remains of an earlier,
smaller palace. Construction in later Hellenistic times and erosion destroyed
much of the palace, especially the private rooms and the area to SE.
This text is cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains 6 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Site: Mycenae
Type: Gate
Summary: Postern Gate at Mycenae is located in the N wall ca. 250
m. E of the Lion Gate.
Date: 1250 B.C. - 1200 B.C.
Period: Late Bronze Age
Plan:
A narrow gate for double wooden doors built with an enceinte or narrow passage
before it and massive flanking walls. Same strategic construction as the Lion
Gate, but on smaller scale.
History:
Constructed at same time as Lion Gate, Northeastern Extension and other enlargements
to the citadel at ca. 1250 BC.
This text is cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains 2 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Site: Mycenae
Type: Sanctuary
Summary: The Cult Center at Mycenae is a complex S of Grave Circle
A and between the Great Ramp and the E citadel circuit wall
Date: 1250 B.C. - 1200 B.C.
Period: Late Bronze Age
Plan:
A maze-like complex of structures that may, on the basis of layout and character
of artifacts, be grouped into 4 zones: E group including "Tsountas' House" and
Shrine with altar, N group with large open area, Central group including Room
with the Idols, and W group including Room with the Fresco. Perhaps an indication
of different cult deities. Also indications of temple industries in ivory and
other materials.
History:
The area, as Grave Circle A, was originally outside the citadel walls and the
basic layout of the buildings date to just after the enlargement of the fortress
walls at ca. 1250 B.C. There may have been earlier cult activity in the area before
the citadel walls enclosed it.
This text is cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains 1 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Site: Mycenae
Type: Fortification
Summary: Citadel walls of Mycenae protected the palace, administration
buildings and some habitations.
Date: 1350 B.C. - 1200 B.C.
Period: Late Bronze Age
Plan:
A roughly triangular fortress around a low hill (280 m. above sea level) with
1 main gate, a postern gate and 1 or 2 sally ports. A paved ramp-road winds from
the main gate, past Grave Circle A, past buildings of lower citadel, and up to
the palace.
History:
3 stages of construction: 1) ca. 1350 BC, walls enclosed highest portion of hill;
2) ca. 1250 BC, area enlarged to S and W, enclosing Grave Circle A. Lion Gage
and postern gate added: 3) ca. 1200 BC, NE Extension encloses access to water
reservoir. SE section of citadel lost to later natural erosion.
This text is cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains 1 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Site: Mycenae
Type: Fortification
Summary: Northeastern Extension is a small enlargement to the Mycenae
citadel walls at the NE.
Date: 1250 B.C. - 1200 B.C.
Period: Late Bronze Age
Plan:
Walls, 7 m. thick., enclose an area added to the circuit walls to provide access
to an underground water reservoir and a sally port. A second opening in the wall
gave access to a watch platform along the SE side of the citadel extension or
served as a S sally port.
History:
A major element in the strengthening of the citadel defenses at cat 1250 - 1200
BC.
This text is cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains 1 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Site: Mycenae
Type: Tomb
Summary: Grave Circle A is inside the citadel walls at Mycenae,
S of the Lion Gate.
Date: 1550 B.C. - 1500 B.C.
Period: Middle Bronze Age
Plan:
A circular area enclosed by a low wall with a wide entrance facing the Lion Gate.
In circle were 10 grave stelai carved in low relief and 6 shaft graves containing
19 bodies.
History:
Originally outside the citadel walls, Grave Circle A seems to have been established
as a heroon and was enclosed within the enlargement of the fortress at ca. 1250
BC.
This text is cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains 9 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Site: Mycenae
Type: Tomb
Summary: One of 9 tholos tombs located outside the walls at Mycenae
Date: 1300 B.C. - 1250 B.C.
Period: Late Bronze Age
Plan:
Subterranean circular chamber with a corbelled dome (hence also called "beehive
tombs"), small adjacent rock-cut chamber and level dromos or access way leading
to the side of the hill.
History:
Largest and best preserved of the 9 tholos tombs at Mycenae. Believed to be one
of the latest built. In Pausanias' time thought to have served originally as a
treasury.
This text is cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains 19 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Site: Mycenae
Type: Gate
Summary: The Lion Gate is main entrance to citadel of Mycenae, located
in NW wall of the fortress.
Date: 1250 B.C. - 1200 B.C.
Period: Late Bronze Age
Plan:
A gateway for double wooden doors set into the thick fortification walls. Approach
to the gate is up a ramp and through an enceinte or confining passage. A second
passage and guardroom are located inside the gate. From here the ramp-road circled
through the lower citadel up to the palace.
History:
The monumental gateway was erected when the citadel walls were enlarged and strengthened
ca. 1250 BC.
This text is cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains 8 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
IREON (Ancient sanctuary) ARGOS - MYKINES
Region: Argolid
Periods: Geometric, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, Roman
Type: Sanctuary
Summary: The main sanctuary to Hera in the Argive territory.
Physical Description:
The Heraion is located approximately equidistant from Argos
and Mycenae, in an area referred to by Pausanias as Prosymna. The sanctuary occupies
3 artificial terraces below Mt. Euboea and has a commanding view of the Argive
plain. The upper terrace, supported by a retaining wall of possible late Geometric
date, is a level paved area occupied by the Old Temple and an altar. The later,
middle terrace supports the New Temple, where a chryselephantine statue of Hera
by Polykleitos was housed. Other structures located on this terrace included one
of the earliest examples of a building with a peristyle court, which may have
served as a banquet hall. On the lowest terrace is a stoa and an Archaic step-like
retaining wall. To the W are Roman baths and palaestra.
Description:
Although tradition states that Agamemnon was elected at
the Heraion to lead the Trojan expedition, the earliest finds at the cult area
date to the Geometric period. The sanctuary grew and expended during the Archaic
and Classical period and most of the remains (with the exception of the Roman
baths and palaestra) date to the 7th through 5th centuries B.C. The sanctuary
continued in importance through the Roman period.
Exploration:
Discovered 1831 by T. Gordon. Minor excavations: Gordon
(1836), Rangabe and Bursian (1854), Schliemann (1874), Stamatakis (1878) and Caskey
and Amandry 1949. Major excavations: American School of Classical Studies; C.
Waldstein 1892-1895, C. Blegen 1925-1928.
Donald R. Keller, ed.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains 77 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
MYCENAE (Mycenean palace) ARGOLIS
Region: Argolid
Periods: Neolithic, Early Bronze Age, Middle Bronze Age, Late Bronze
Age, Geometric, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic
Type: Fortified city
Summary: Center of the Mycenaean Empire and traditional palace of
Agamemnon.
Physical Description:
Located ca. half-way between Corinth and Argos and controlling
the natural pass from the Isthmus to the Peloponnese, Mycenae was a citadel palace
that included extensive fortifications, granaries, guardrooms, shrines and a few
private dwellings situated around the palace complex. The palace consisted of
a central megaron meeting hall, throne room and courtyard with adjacent private
quarters, storerooms, guard stations and administrative rooms. Outside the Lion
Gate and massive walls of the citadel are found the private houses, workshops,
public works and other features of the dispersed settlement and the tholos tombs
of the ruling clans.
Description:
Mycenae, on a naturally defensible hill with a commanding
view and plentiful nearby fresh water, was first occupied in the Neolithic period.
Habitation continued throughout the Early and Middle Helladic periods and the
first palace complex was probably built at the beginning of the Late Helladic
period. In the Late Helladic IIIA period the fortifications probably followed
the natural boundary of the hilltop. In Late Helladic IIIB the circuit was enlarged
to the S and W, and toward the end of Late Helladic IIIB an E extension to the
citadel was added with a sally port and access to an underground water supply.
It was at this time that the great Lion Gate was also constructed. The citadel
and palace of Mycenae were destroyed at the end of the Late Helladic IIIB, although
some occupation continued at the site during the Late Helladic IIIC period. In
the Geometric period only a few small houses occupied the summit of the hill.
In the Archaic period a temple was built on the summit. During the Persian Wars
Mycenae sent a small force to fight at Thermopylae and Plataea. In 468 B.C. Argos
destroyed the acropolis at Mycenae and the city later came under direct Argive
control. As a deme of Argos the acropolis was rebuilt and fortification walls
were built around the lower town. The site continued to be inhabited until the
end of the 3rd century A.D.
Exploration:
Lord Elgin explored the Treasury of Atreus in 1802 and
Lord Sligo took the columns from it to London in 1910. Excavations: 1874-76, H.
Schliemann; 1876-77, P. Stamatakis; 1884-1902, C. Tsountas; 1920-23, 1939, and
1950-57, A. Wace, British School of Archaeology; 1950s to present, J. Papadimitriou,
G. Mylonas, D. Theocharis, N. Verdelis, A. Orlandos, E. Stikas, A. Keramopoullos,
S. Marinatos, and S. Iakovidis of the Greek Archaeological Society and the Greek
Archaeological Service and E. French and W. Taylour of the British School of Archaeology.
Donald R. Keller, ed.
This text is cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains 54 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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