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Mons Palatinus

(203 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] Centrally-located, spacious, steep-sided hill - at 51 m, however, relatively modest in height - at Rome. Probably settled from as early as the 10th cent. BC (Iron Age wattle-and-daub huts), the MP was an important nucleus of what was to become the world city of Rome. At first, an aristocratic residential area extended between two places of worship (Temple of Magna Mater, from 204 BC; Temple of Jupiter Victor, from 295 BC, as yet not archaeologically identified); numerous remains o…

Theatrum Pompei(i)

(294 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] The Theatre of Pompey, Rome's first stone theatre, interrupted a long sequence of predominantly wooden theatres which had previously been built temporarily for reasons of public safety in Rome and throughout Italy (Amphitheatre; Theatre II.); it was begun by the triumvir Pompeius [I 3] after his triumph (in 61 BC) and dedicated with lavish games in 55 BC, the second year of his consulship. The gigantic complex on the western part of the Field of Mars (Campus Martius) outside the c…

Stairs; Stairways

(991 words)

Author(s): Hausleiter | Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
(κλίμαξ/ klímax, Latin scalae, plural). [German version] I. Ancient Orient and Egypt Stairways were installed to overcome differences in height, but in the form of monumental constructs, they also created distance between buildings and people. There is evidence from the Ancient Orient of stairways ranging from a few steps between street level and a house or stairs inside houses and palaces, through monumental staircases in temples and palaces to stairways in funerary architecture. The materials used were dr…

Aule

(236 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] (αὐλή; aulḗ) In Homer (Od. 14,5) the enclosed, light courtyard of a  house. Since the 7th cent. BC, the aule is a central part of the Greek courtyard house, where the multi-room house is grouped around the aule, which can be used agriculturally, for example as stables. The development of the courtyard house marks an important point in the development of Greek house architecture; it displaces the until that time usual form of the one-room house (megaron, oval and apsidal house). The aule was usually paved; from classical times, it is present in nearly all houses…

Ustrinum

(113 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] ('crematorium'). An architectural cremation place for Roman rulers, of which often only an altar remains. The best-known example is the Ustrinum of Augustus on the Field of Mars in Rome (Campus Martius; Roma III.) near the Mausoleum Augusti; Strabo (5,3,8), describes it as lavishly built and preserved, after the act of cremation, as a monument. Remains of other ustrina on the Field of Mars are assigned to the emperors Hadrianus, Marcus Aurelius and Antoninus Pius. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography A. Danti, s. v. Arae Consecrationis, LTUR 1, 1993, 75 f.  H. …

Lacunar

(269 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] Passed down in Vitruvius [1. s.v. l.], an architectural technical term, on many occasions there also designated as lacunaria (pl.), for the sunken panels that decorated the ceiling between wooden beams crossing one another ( Roofing), the Greek equivalent being phátnōma, gastḗr, kaláthōsis [2. 45-52 with additional terms for details of the lacunar]. Lacunaria were as a rule three-dimensionally recessed and decorated with paintings or reliefs (mostly ornamental). In the temple or columned building, the place where they were first app…

Incrustation

(507 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] Wall decoration with a structure imitating architecture misleadingly described in Vitruvius (7,5) as stucco facing in the sense of the 1st Pompeian style ( Stucco;  Wall paintings); as an archaeological technical term incrustation (from Latin   crustae sc. marmoreae, Greek πλάκωσις/ plákōsis) in contrast describes solely the interior facing of walls of lesser material with marble slabs (however, the relationship of this ‘genuine’ incrustation to the 1st Pompeian style which imitates incrustation and therefore is frequen…

Pnyx

(127 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] (πνύξ/ pnýx). Conspicious large hill built with houses in the urban area of Athens to the west of the Acropolis (Athens II. 3, Hill of the Muses). From the late 6th century BC this was the place of the people's assembly (Ekklesia). Initially they held sessions on a gently sloping piece of ground following a natural semi-circle, which was almost undeveloped; the only structure was a rostrum (βῆμα/ bêma). In the late 5th century BC the whole site was architecturally shaped and in the process turned through c. 180°. The lavishly and representatively built orchestra-sha…

Egg-and-dart moulding

(216 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] Distinct  ornamentation in the decorative canon of Ionic architecture, in modern architectural terminology also known as the ‘Ionian  kymation’: a profiled ledge with an arched cross section whose relief or painted ornamentation consisted of an alternation of oval leaves and lancet-shaped spandrel tips and which often concludes at the lower end with pearl staff (astragal) corresponding to the rhythm of the egg-and-dart moulding. Apart from decorating the  epistylion or the  frieze…

Compluvium

(84 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] According to Varro (Ling. 5,161) and Vitruvius (6,3,1f.) the customary formation of the roof opening of all types of the  atrium in the Roman  house. The funnel-shaped roof surfaces of the compluvium, which slope inward, conduct rainwater into the  impluvium, a basin at the atrium's centre. In the older displuvium the roof surfaces slanted outwards. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography E. M. Evans, The Atrium Complex in the Houses of Pompeii, 1980 R. Förtsch, Arch. Komm. zu den Villenbriefen des jüngeren Plinius, 1993, 30-31.

Anathyrosis

(113 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] Ancient technical term related to  building technology (IG VII 3073, 121; 142). In Greek stone block construction, anathyrosis refers to the partial removal of material from contact surfaces between two stone blocks or column sections (usually by picking). By this minimization of the contact zone between two construction elements, not visible from the outside, their fit could be improved; viewed from the outside, the joints formed a network of superfine lines. The disadvantage of the anathyrosis is an increased pressure on the reduced bearing surfaces, w…

Pseudodipteros

(123 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] Architectural term recorded in Vitruvius (3,2,6; 3,8-9), used to label one of the forms of temple listed there. The pseudodipteros type was, according to Vitruvius (7 praef. 12), developed at the Temple of Artemis at Magnesia [2] on the Maeander by the architect Hermogenes [4], who omitted the inner row of columns of a dipteros. The characteristic result of this is the unusually wide ambulatory (Greek pterón) around the cella. In this sense e.g. the temple at Sardis, which also is dedicated to Artemis, is likewise considered a pseudodipteros.…

Gates; porches

(613 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] Gates that went beyond purely military aspects (for these cf.  Fortifications) are to be found in Greek architecture from the 6th cent. BC onwards ─ initially as imposingly designed entrances to sanctuaries, and from about 400 BC also in secular contexts (entrances to the  Agora,  Gymnasium,  Stadium or  Assembly buildings, e.g. in Miletus, Priene, Olympia). The development and extension of the própylon as a decorative entrance gate to a  sanctuary can be reconstructed, for example, from the Acropolis of Athens (cf.  Athens II. with locati…

Ptolemaeum

(85 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] Modern term for various buildings of the dynasty of the Ptolemies serving the ruler cult; the first Ptolemaeum is considered to be a building built by  Ptolemy [3] II adjacent to the tomb of  Alexander [4]  the Great (later amalgamated by Ptolemy [7] IV with Alexander's tomb into a connected mausoleum complex). There are further Ptolemaea e.g. in Athens (Gymnasion), Limyra (?) and Rhodes (Temenos). Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography J. Borchardt, Ein Ptolemaion in Limyra, in: RA 1991, 309-322  Will, vol. 1, 329.

Chersiphron

(170 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] (Χερσίφρων; Chersíphrōn) from Cnossus. Father of  Metagenes; these two being the  architects of the archaic  dipteros of Artemis at Ephesus (2nd half of the 6th cent. BC), as recorded in Strabo (14,640), Vitruvius (3,2,7) and Pliny (HN 7,125; 36,95). Both of them wrote about this temple in a work which was evidently still known to Vitruvius (Vitr. De arch. 7,1,12), and is one of the earliest formulations of ancient architectural theory ( Architecture, theory of); through his develo…

Pillar, monumental

(459 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] As well as the column/monumental column, there was another possibility available for the displaying of monuments, in their placement on free-standing monumental pillars (on the incorporation of monumental pillars in buildings, cf. pilaster), a form of honouring rulers primarily found in Greece in the vicinity of sanctuaries. An early example of a pillar-mounted monument is the bronze Nike of the Messenians and Naupactians sculpted by Paeonius [1] and placed before the eastern front of the temple of Zeus at  Olympia, atop - and…

Megaron

(444 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] (μέγαρον; mégaron). Architectural feature mentioned several times in the Homeric epics (e.g. Hom. Od. 2,94; 19,16; 20,6). It was evidently the main room of the palace or house with the communal hearth in the centre. On later mentions of megara. in Greek literature (esp. Hdt. 7,140f.) cf. Temple. Scholarship on the archaic period contains considerably different ideas about the understanding of the term megaron and the derivation of the corresponding building forms connected with it at different times. On the one hand, the megaro…

Saepta

(104 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] A large rectangular square, surrounded by porticoes, on the Field of Mars (Campus Martius) in Rome, on which (allegedly since the time of the mythical kings) the citizens fit to bear arms met in the context of the c omitia centuriata in order to elect the magistrates; there is evidence of a structure from the 6th cent. BC onwards. Under Caesar the square (under the name of Saepta Iulia) was remodelled with architectural splendour, just as the political and functional body of the c omitia centuriata was reduced to a pseudo-Republican relic. Assembly buildings Höcker, Christ…

Pinacotheca

(135 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] (πινακοθήκη/ pinakothḗkē: Str. 14,1,14; Lat. pinacotheca). Rooms designed for collections of pictures (cf. Varro, Rust. 1,2,10; 59,2; Vitr. De arch. 6,2,5; Plin. HN 35,4,148). According to Vitruvius (6,3,8; 1,2,7; 6,4,2; 7,3) the room or rooms should be large and, in consideration of lighting requirements, face north. There is a problem with this conceptualisation: the name pinacotheca for the north wing of the Propylaea on the Acropolis in Athens is not ancient; other buildings displa…

Altar

(1,994 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) | Prayon, Friedhelm (Tübingen)
[German version] A. Definition and function The Graeco-Roman altar (ἐσχάρα, βωμός; eschára, bōmós; Lat. ara, ‘fireplace’) is defined by its function and not as an object of a certain type. An altar can be an ephemeral natural or artificial elevation, hearth or building for sacrifices involving fire, drink or other elements (in contrast to the sacrificial pit dug into the ground, the βόθρος [ bóthros], Hom. Od. 10, 517; Lucian Char. 22) and marks the centre of a sacrificial act. There are sanctuaries without a  temple, but never without an altar ([23. 150]; a…

Spina

(237 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) | Uggeri, Giovanni (Florence)
[German version] [1] Barrier in a Roman circus Term for the massive elongated barrier that divided a Roman circus into two tracks running in opposite directions. A spina was usually walled and variously decorated (e.g. with statues); at its ends stood the metae (Meta [2]) that marked the turning point of the running track. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography J. Humphrey, Roman Circuses, 1986, Index s. v. S. [German version] [2] City at the mouth of the Spines This item can be found on the following maps: Venetic | Etrusci, Etruria | Colonization Etruscan city at the mouth of th…

Gymnasium

(3,037 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) | Hadot, Pierre (Limours)
(γυμνάσιον; gymnásion). [German version] I. Building style Public facility for sporting and musical leisure activities in the Greek polis; the term is derived from γυμνός/ gymnós (naked) and refers to the  nakedness at sports practices and competitions. Synonymous with gymnasium for the period from the 4th cent. BC in ancient written sources as well as in modern specialized literature is the concept of the  palaistra (cf. Vitruvius 5,11). This as the ‘Wrestler school’ originally referred only to a functionally determine…

Pythium

(243 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) | Kramolisch, Herwig (Eppelheim)
(Πύθιον/ Pýthion). [German version] [1] Term for Attic sanctuaries to Apollo A term rarely used in modern archaeology but common in Antiquity for various Athenian and Attic sanctuaries to Apollo: 1. in southeast Athens on the right bank of the Ilissus (inscriptions, tripod bases extant); 2. cave sanctuary in the cliff on the northwest side of the Acropolis (numerous finds; however, often denoted in ancient literature with the cult name of Apóllōn Hypakraîos); 3. near the Daphni monastery on the sacred way to Eleusis (of undetermined location but presumably the sourc…

Kommos

(404 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) | Zimmermann, Bernhard (Freiburg)
[German version] [1] Cretan port This item can be found on the following maps: Dark Ages | Colonization | Aegean Koine (Κόμμος; Kómmos). Port on the southern coast of Crete, situated near Matala and Phaestus. In the Minoan period K., which was founded around 2000 BC, probably served as the harbour for the palace of Phaestus, until its destruction around 1200 BC. After being deserted for c. 200 years, it was resettled around 1000 BC, presumably the result of Phoenician stimuli, and was increasingly Hellenized until the 4th cent. BC. Archaeological excavations (…

Halicarnassus

(1,697 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) | Kaletsch, Hans (Regensburg)
This item can be found on the following maps: Theatre | | Dark Ages | Alexander | Ionic | Peloponnesian War | Pergamum | Pompeius | Delian League | Education / Culture (Ἁλικαρνασσός; Halikarnassós). [German version] I. Location Coastal city in the south of  Caria on the Gulf of Ceramus, modern Bodrum. The plan of the city (Str. 14,2,16; Steph. Byz. s.v. Ἁ.; Vitr. De arch. 2,8,10-14) resembled the seating arrangement of a theatre: a circular harbour bay, the ‘enclosed harbour’ (λιμὴν κλειστός, Ps.-Scyl. 98a), framed on both sides by …

Mausoleum

(600 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) | Kaletsch, Hans (Regensburg)
[German version] (Μαυσ(σ)ωλεῖον; Maus(s)ōleîon; Lat. mausoleum). Monumental tomb for the satrap Maussollus of Caria (died 353 BC) and his wife Artemisia [2] (died 351 BC) near the city of Halicarnassus in Lycia, probably only completed during the time of Alexander. It was counted as one of the Wonders of the World and became eponymous for a standard type of representative funerary architecture. Modern archaeology has focused much on the monument, which was frequently discussed and described in ancient literature (Str. 14,656 ff.; Diod. Sic. 16,45; Plin. HN 36, 30-31 and passim). Scan…

House

(3,655 words)

Author(s): Sievertsen, Uwe (Tübingen) | Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] I. Near East and Egypt In the Near East, the residential ground plan was usually of a rectangular shape containing multiple cells. Clay bricks were the most important building material in Mesopotamia, while stone was more frequently used in Iran, Syria and Asia Minor. The typical Babylonian residential house consists of rooms around a central courtyard. It usually has only one entrance and a main hall located to the south, directed away from the midday sun. The Neo-Assyrian residence, …

Orthostats

(230 words)

Author(s): Nissen, Hans Jörg (Berlin) | Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] I. Ancient Orient and Egypt Ancient Near East and Egypt In Near Eastern archaeology, orthostats are standing stone slabs, which in the Anatolian region originally protected the base of walls from backsplash. From the 9th cent. onwards, especially in the Neo-Assyrian palaces, they were used as mounts for static and narrative reliefs. The narrative cycles in the palaces of the rulers Assurnaṣirpal II. in Kalḫu, Sennacherib and Assurbanipal in Nineveh (Ninos [2]) are famous. In the contemporar…

Krepis

(395 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) | Hurschmann, Rolf (Hamburg)
[German version] [1] Architectural term (κρηπίς/ krēpís, κρηπίδωμα/ krēpídōma). Ancient term, documented frequently in building inscriptions, for the stepped base which served as the foundation for various edifices, but particularly for Greek colonnade construction (sources: Ebert 7-9). The krepis rests on the euthynteria (the top layer of the foundation, the first to be precisely planed) and ends in the stylobate, the surface on which the columns stand. The shaping of the initially one- or two-stepped krepis in the early 6th cent. BC is an important result of the comi…

Cistern

(334 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) | Niemeyer, Hans Georg (Hamburg)
[German version] I. General Cisterns as storage for rain water or as reservoirs for spring and well water were customary and necessary for a regulated and sufficient  water supply in the climatically unfavourable regions of the southern and eastern Mediterranean, both as small systems for individual houses and farms and as communal systems for settlements. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) [German version] II. Ancient Orient s.  Water supply I. D. Niemeyer, Hans Georg (Hamburg) [German version] III. Phoenician-Punic region Systems for securing the water supply by collecting …

Vaults and arches, construction of

(1,257 words)

Author(s): Sievertsen, Uwe (Tübingen) | Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] I. Ancient Orient and Egypt There is evidence of vaults and arches in western Asia, chiefly in crypts and on canals. There are only few surviving examples of the vaulting of above ground spaces. Both true and corbelled vaults are documented, over quite small or passage-like rooms, posterns, staircase substructures and doorway, gateway and bridge arches. Barrel vaults and domes were comparatively common, primarily on storage spaces and furnaces. For the most part techniques were used in…

Coroebus

(410 words)

Author(s): Ambühl, Annemarie (Groningen) | Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
(Κόροιβος; Kóroibos). [German version] [1] Hero founder of Tripodiscus in the Megaris Hero founder of Tripodiscus in the Megaris. The legend is told in Callim. Fr. 26-31 in connection with an Argive aition according to the local historians Agias and Dercylus (FGrH 305 F 8 to) [1]:  Linus, the son of Apollo and  Psamathe, is torn apart by dogs, and Psamathe is killed by her father  Crotopus. As a punishment Apollo sends a child-murdering demon, the Poineḗ or   Ker , to Argus. When the brave C. kills the monster, the god sends a further plague, whereupon…

Daphnis

(540 words)

Author(s): Baudy, Gerhard (Constance) | Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
(Δάφνις; Dáphnis). [German version] [1] Mythical cowherd Mythical cowherd of Sicilian tradition, son of  Hermes (Stesich. fr. 102 PMG = Ael. VH 10.18; Timaeus, FGrH 566 F 83; Diod. Sic. 4,84,2). He died still a youth because of an unfortunate love affair with a  nymph and was honoured with ritual mourning songs typical of those for Adonis (Theoc. 1,64ff.; 7,73ff.). In bucolic poetry he served as the ideal for the adolescent shepherd and was seen as the originator of the shepherd's song (e.g. Diod. 4,84,3). Despite the Greek name (from   dáphnē : ‘laurel’), the fig…

Dolphin

(513 words)

Author(s): Hünemörder, Christian (Hamburg) | Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
(δελφίς/ delphís and δελφίν/ delphín, Lat. delphinus and delphin). [German version] [1] Representative of the small viviparous whale A frequent representative in the Mediterranean of the small viviparous  whale, with a spout (αὐλός; aulós), articulation of sounds, and pulmonary respiration (Aristot. Hist. an. 1,5,489a 35-b 5; 4,9,535b 32-536a 4; 8,2,589a 31-b 11 with a discussion of its role as an aquatic animal, ἔνυδρος; énydros), was admired chiefly by the Greeks as ‘king of marine animals’ (or of fishes; Ael. NA 15,17; Opp. Hal. 1,643 and 5,421 or 441). …

Intarsia

(538 words)

Author(s): Wartke, Ralf-B. (Berlin) | Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] I. Ancient Orient In Middle Eastern archaeology intarsia is the term for the laying of decorative elements of different materials onto or into a substratum. To achieve better colour contrasts, combinations of different materials, especially coloured stones, shells, bones, ivory, metals, ceramics, glass and silicate were used; the most common substrata were stone, metal, wood and clay/ceramics. The binder was usually bitumen. The oldest examples of intarsia were found in the preceramic Neolithic of Palestine ( c. 8000 BC; e.g. gypsum-coated human skulls wi…

Ala

(332 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) | Le Bohec, Yann (Lyon)
[German version] [1] Part of the Roman atrium house Part of the Roman atrium house ( House;  Atrium). The term ala designates two opposing rooms, open in their full width and height, that form the cross axis in front of the tablinum or main room of the house. Alae were very common in Roman home construction; Vitruvius lists the correct proportions for design (6,3,4). The origin of the design type is unclear. The conjecture that, in Vitruvius' description of the Tuscan temple (4,7,1), the term for the two outer cellae of the Etruscan temple ( Temple) is alae (instead of aliae, as the text has…

Column

(3,015 words)

Author(s): Nissen, Hans Jörg (Berlin) | Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] I. Egypt and the Ancient Orient As a statically significant building element, whether in wood or modelled from stone or brick, the column played different roles in Egypt and the Ancient Orient. In Egypt columns were a component of almost every form of architecture, from roof-bearing wooden posts in family residences to extravagantly shaped stone columns in temples and palaces. Having bases and capitals, the latter, too, betrayed the evolution from wooden columns. Columns frequently took on the shape of plants; they were probably always painted. Columns were used sp…

Building trade

(3,561 words)

Author(s): Sievertsen, Uwe (Tübingen) | Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] I. Near East and Egypt Near East: the lack of preliminary studies makes a comprehensive account of the Old Oriental building world across several periods impossible; investigations exist for only a few selective periods. It is the Neo-Assyrian period (1st half of the 1st millennium BC), which to date provides the clearest insight because of the availability of extensive source material in respect of the architecture of palaces, temples and fortifications. Royal inscriptions prove the i…

Tainia

(303 words)

Author(s): Hurschmann, Rolf (Hamburg) | Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
(Greek ταινία/ tainía). Term for bindings of all kinds. [German version] [1] Headband for festivals (Head)band, worn at Greek festivals (Pl. Symp. 212d.e, 213d; Xen. Symp. 5,9). Even gods wore, or bound their heads with, tainiai. (Paus. 1,8,4). Furthermore, cult images (Paus. 8,31,8; 10,35,10), trees (Theocr. 18,44), monuments [3], urns, sacrificial animals and deceased (Lucian, Dial. mort. 13,4) had tainiai wound round them. The Romans adopted tainiai from the Greeks (e.g. Ov. Met. 8,724 f.). As a sign of a victor and of success (Paus. 4,16,6; 6,20,10; 9,22,3…

Vitruvius

(1,935 words)

Author(s): Müller, Christian (Bochum) | Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] [1] Vitruvius Vaccus, Marcus According to Livy (8,19,4-8,20,10), V. was an influential citizen of Fundi (Fondi) who led the revolt against Rome that was undertaken by Privernum (Piperno) with the support of Fondi in 330/329 BC.  After the failed insurrection he was executed in Rome.  It is difficult to explain V's role in this revolt, given that he was clearly not an unimportant figure in Rome and owned a house there, which was then destroyed by decree of the Senate (Cic. Dom. 101 sti…

Bricks; Brick stamps

(1,288 words)

Author(s): Wartke, Ralf-B. (Berlin) | Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] I. Ancient Orient In Egypt and the Near East, the history of the brick and its predecessor, the mud brick, dates back to the 8th/7th millennia BC. The raw material was generally a local mixture from clay/loam and sand/gravel, in Egypt the silt deposits of the Nile. The mixture, made lean through the addition of vegetal (chopped) straw, chaff, mineral (crushed stones or potsherds) or waste material (animal dung), was shaped into bricks in wooden frames. After drying out in the sun, th…

Cossutius

(314 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) | Neudecker, Richard (Rome)
Roman family name, attested since the 2nd cent. BC [1. 189-203]. Several artists belonged to this gens. [German version] [1] Architect mentioned by Vitruvius The  architect C., whom Vitruvius (7, praef. 15ff.) called a civis romanus, probably under  Antiochus [6] IV Epiphanes (ruled 176/5-164 BC) in  Athens ‘took over the construction of the Olympieion using a large measure according to Corinthian symmetries and proportions ’(Vitr. De arch. 7, praef. 17). The late archaic new construction of the Zeus temple, which was begun unde…

Window

(997 words)

Author(s): Sievertsen, Uwe (Tübingen) | Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] I. Ancient Orient and Egypt Ancient oriental houses usually had small highly placed window slits. Internal spaces in larger architectural complexes required special lighting by means of a clerestory or openable skylights in the ceiling. Findings in Egypt are in principle similar. Some wider window openings there had richly decorated grilles. Sievertsen, Uwe (Tübingen) Bibliography D. Arnold, s.v. Fenster, Lexicon der ägyptischen Baukunst, 80-82 G. Leick, A Dictionary of Near Eastern Architecture, 1988, 242-244. [German version] II. Greece and Rome As a means …

Megacles

(635 words)

Author(s): Kinzl, Konrad (Peterborough) | Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
(Μεγακλῆς; Megaklês). A name that was increasingly common in the Athenian house of the Alcmaeonids in the 7th-5th cents. BC. [German version] [1] Árchon (632/1? B.C.) according to Plutarch The first historical M. Plutarch (Solon 12,1) designates him by name as the árchōn (632/1?), allegedly responsible for the defeat of the Cylonian revolution ( Cylon [1]) and the subsequent curse of the Alcmaeonids (Hdt. 5,71; Thuc. 1,126). Peisistratids Kinzl, Konrad (Peterborough) Bibliography Develin, 30f. PA 9688 Traill, PAA 636340. [German version] [2] Politican and strongman in 6th-ce…

Water supply

(4,233 words)

Author(s): A.M.B. | Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
I. Ancient Orient [German version] A. General Points Despite its central importance to the origin and development of settlements, the supply of water for drinking and other uses in the cities of the ancient Orient has to date not been systematically studied. The analysis of the numerous archaeological discoveries is made difficult by the fact that in most cases they have not been adequately recorded, in others not at all. Individual exceptions are the water installations in the cities and fortresses of ancient Israel, which have been accurately recorded and studied in depth [5]. A.M.B. …

Hermocreon

(168 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) | Albiani, Maria Grazia (Bologna)
[German version] [1] Greek architect, 3rd cent. BC Greek architect of the 3rd cent. BC; according to Str. 10,5,7 and 13,1,13, he built a state altar, 1 stadium long ( Measures), from the material of an abandoned temple near Parium; it is presumably depicted on coins (London, BM) and could be compared with the Hieronian monumental altar of  Syracusae. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography Overbeck, 2086-2087 (sources) G. A. Mansuelli, s.v. H., EAA 4, 1961, 13 (with fig. 18). [German version] [2] Epigrammatist, 3rd cent. BC Epigrammatist whose existence cannot be proven with…

Atrium

(292 words)

Author(s): Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) | Prayon, Friedhelm (Tübingen)
[German version] 1. Central room in the ancient Italian and Roman house with lateral cubicula (sleeping chambers) and rear tablinum (room serving as passage between the atrium and the peristylion) flanked by the   alae which had no door. Early forms of the atrium are reproduced in Etruscan chamber tombs (Cerveteri), the oldest evidence is represented by Etruscan domestic architecture at the end of the 6th cent. BC in Rome (the Palatine) and in the Etruscan Marzabotto. The early Roman atrium served as a reception room for the clientes whom the patron received while sitting on the solium. In …

Construction technique

(3,375 words)

Author(s): Sievertsen, Uwe (Tübingen) | Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
I.Near East and Egypt [German version] A. Near East From the earliest times clay was the most important building material in Mesopotamia, along with reeds in the marshlands of the extreme south. With only a few exceptions, stone architecture, in a fairly strict sense of the term, is not found either in Babylon, which was lacking in raw materials other than limestone lodes, or in Assyria. When stone was used it was mainly for functional purposes, e.g. in laying foundations. Only in late Assyrian monumenta…

Architecture

(5,740 words)

Author(s): Sievertsen, Uwe (Tübingen) | Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
[German version] A. I. Middle East Since Neolithic times, the most important building material in Mesopotamia has been the unkilned clay brick. A more extensive use of stone can be found in western regions of the Old Orient, in particular Asia Minor, and in Iran during Persian times. The typical New Assyrian house is divided into two sections: a forecourt with utility rooms and an inner courtyard with residential quarters. By contrast, rooms in a Babylonian house as of the 3rd millennium are usually …

Metagenes

(253 words)

Author(s): Hidber, Thomas (Berne) | Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)
(Μεταγένης; Metagénēs). [German version] [1] Attic poet of the Old Comedy, 5th/4th cent. BC Attic poet of the last years of the Old Comedy (end of the 5th and early 4th cent. BC), listed among the winners at the Lenaea with two victories, immediately before Theopompus [1. test. 2]. The Suda mentions the titles of five plays: Αὖραι ἢ Μαμμάκυθος , Θουριοπέρσαι, Φιλοθύτης, Ὅμηρος ἢ Ἀσκηταί (or Ὅμηρος ἢ Σοφισταί [1. fr. 11]) [1. test. 1]. The plays have been lost, except for a few fragments. In the most extensive fragment (11 V. from the Θουριοπέρσαι) the na…
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