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Emplekton Masonry and ‘Greek Structura’1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

R. A. Tomlinson
R. A. Tomlinson
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
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Extract

Our knowledge of Greek Architecture depends almost entirely on its actual remains. Undoubtedly the Greeks themselves were much concerned with its more theoretical aspects, and in pursuit of this wrote a large number of treatises, descriptive and analytical, which are frequently referred to by our chief authority for ancient architectural theory, Vitruvius. Since, with one exception—and that only in part (Philo Mechanicus, named by Vitruvius vii praef. 14 as an author ‘de machinationibus’)—none of Vitruvius' Greek sources survives, we experience considerable difficulty in controlling the information he gives us about these aspects of Greek architecture, especially when we try to apply his various theories to the actual remains. First, for all we know, theories and techniques described with some prominence by Vitruvius may not have had a corresponding prominence in the Greek authorities, or actual practice. Secondly, a theory described by Vitruvius as apparently universal may actually have been very limited, either in scope or time. It is in fact true to say that many of Vitruvius' ideas of Greek architecture apply to the Hellenistic period only. Thus the passage on the spacing of columns (iii 3) must owe much to Hermogenes, two of whose temples are given as examples.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 81 , November 1961 , pp. 133 - 140
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1961

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References

2 One MS. (Sc.) reads farciunt factis, the rest faciunt factis. But cf. una media farturae and non media farciunt, immediately below.

3 MSS. frontatis, emended by Marini. Even if this is not correct, the sense required must be ‘from one face to the other’.

4 Structura in Vitruvius essentially involves the use of mortar: see Boëthius, in Δράγμα 133Google Scholar; Jüngst, and Thielscher, , RM li (1936) 164Google Scholar; Scranton, Greek Walls 18 n. 19.Google Scholar On the other hand, a non-technical author, Livy, describing the walls of Saguntum (xxi 11) which used mud instead of lime as a binding agent, calk them structurae antiquum genus.

5 RE s.v. ‘Emplekton’. He is followed by Professor Lawrence, A. W., Greek Architecture 230Google Scholar (translating ἔμπλεκτον as ‘entwined’), and anticipated by Dennis, , Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria (third edition) 65Google Scholar, 80 (but he takes non media farciunt to mean there was no fill at all).

6 e.g. Wrede, , AM xlix (1924) 220Google Scholar; Pouilloux, J., La forteresse de Rhamnonte 50Google Scholar; Martin, R., BCH lxxi/lxxii 120Google Scholar; Krischen, F., Milet iii.2 9Google Scholar; and LSJ.

7 Dennis, op. cit., 80, attributes a similar interpretation to ‘the Italians’ ‘as though it were derived from ἐμπίμπλημι or ἐμπλήθω, to fill up’. He rightly rejects this.

8 Hence the ‘structural’ styles of wall painting, and the retention of orthostates in stone walls when all constructional justification for them (as footings for mud-brick walls) had gone.

9 For an example, see the outer wall of the three-storey stoa at Aegae, Bohn, and Schuchhardt, , Altertümer von Aegae (JdI Erg. Heft ii) fig. 15.Google Scholar Headers and stretchers are typical of the Hekatomnid (fourth century B.C.) walls at Labraunda: Jeppesen, , Labraunda i 1Google Scholar (The Propylaea) 14.

10 As at Labraunda, Jeppesen, loc. cit.

11 Numerous examples in Blake, Roman Construction in Italy.

12 Quoted by Polybius x 44. See Hunter's edition of Aeneas, Πολιορκητικά, note to 8.4.

13 Philo 90.28 f. All references to Philo are to the edition of Diels, and Schramm, , Abh. Berl. Akad. phil.-hist. Kl. 1919Google Scholar, which uses the page and line numbers of Thevenot's edition.

14 Corinth: Foster, , Journal of Chemical Education xi (1934) 223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Laureion: Ardaillon, , Les Mines du Laurion 65Google Scholar, quoting Negris, Ph., Laveries anciennes du Laurion, in Annales des Mines, Juillet-Août 1881.Google Scholar

15 Caley and Richards in their recent edition of the Περί Λίθων point out the difficulties of Theo-phrastus' account, which seems to confuse under the single term γνψος gypsum (plaster of Paris) and quicklime. It seems probable that in Theophrastus' time no distinction was made between the two. I have not therefore attempted to translate the term γύψος where it occurs in a Hellenistic context.

16 Cumont, , Fouilles de Doura-Europos, 1922–1923 4 f.Google Scholar The use of gypsum, as opposed to quicklime, is of course here certain.

17 Caley and Richards, 215, note on section 65.

18 i.e. this was the normal technique, cf. the building of the walls of Cloud-cuckoo city in Aristophanes, Birds 839Google Scholar,

19 So we have large stones, not rubble, used for the fill of the walls of the fourth-century fort at Phyle in Attica (Wrede, op. cit. in n. 6), while IG ii2 244, the specification for the fortifications at Eetioneia and Mounychia, states categorically that the rubble must be removed from inside the round tower, and replaced by stones greater than a certain minimum size.

20 Some examples:

(i) Headers, stretchers (and through-stones) with rubble fill:

Assos (Clarke, et al. , Investigations at Assos, 189Google Scholar);

Magnesia ad Maeandrum (Humann, , Magnesia 19Google Scholar).

(ii) ‘Compartment’ walls with rubble fill:

Athens, the diateichisma on the Pnyx, (Hesperia xii 303sq.)Google Scholar;

Chalkis, Aetolia (Woodhouse, , Aelolia 110Google Scholar);

Sounion, the ‘Granary’ (Wrede, , Attische Mauern 37Google Scholar);

Gortys in Arcadia (Martin, R., BCH lxxi/lxxii 120Google Scholar).

(iii) Walls with coursed, large stone fill:

Phyle (Wrede, loc. cit.; Säflund, , Opuse. Arch. i 98Google Scholar).

(iv) Experimental walls:

Corinth, E. city wall (Parsons, , Corinth iii 2Google Scholar Appendix A 282), fill of unbaked mud-brick; W. long wall (ibid., 93), fill of packed earth.