Search

[German version] (γεῖσον; geîson). Ancient architectural term (instances from Greek antiquity in [1. 32f.]) designating the cornice, the upper section of the entablature, originally in columned buildings with a hipped or saddleback roof, later also in storey and wall construction. The compact, monolithic or many-stone, horizontal cornice runs around the whole colonnade. Used since the first Doric peripteral temples, imitates the overhang of roof beams providing shelter from rain water in buildings …

[German version] Hearth of limekiln or furnace; also central heating chamber in Roman thermal bath systems. Baths; Heating; Thermae [1] Höcker, Christoph (Kissing)

[German version] A. Concept Collective term used in Vitruvius (4,2,1) for all kinds of timber construction and the carpentry trades necessary in building. Materiatio thus comprises the field of constructional wood building, including the construction of framework structures, roof-trusses ( Roofing), galleries and inserted ceilings but also the manufacturing of the necessary tools and implements (dowels, wooden nails, wedges, rafters, pegs) as well as, finally, the provision of temporary scaffolding for moving stone in…

[German version] Modern technical term in urban studies derived from Latin insula (‘island’, ‘residence’) that in  town planning describes an area surrounded on all sides by streets and marked for development because of this structure. Insulae are not exclusively the products of comprehensive town planning. Within an orthogonal street grid they are usually rectangular or trapezoid, and rarely square, but the cut-out section of the irregular street system of a ‘grown’ town is also called an insula (e.g. in Delos or parts of Pompeii). In Greek town planning the insula as the resu…

[German version] Roughly hewn, unfinished external surface of a piece of work in stone ( Sculpture or  Architecture). The final shaping of the external surface constituted the final phase of work in both construction and sculpture; up to that point the boss provided protection from damage ( Construction technique;  Sculpting, technique of). Unremoved bosses on buildings may indicate incompleteness, but at times a ‘boss style’ was also seen as a distinct aesthetic element in construction art and wa…

[German version] General term for an ornament ( Ornaments) shaped like a strip or a ribbon, which is encountered in all the plastic arts from antiquity, above all in relief sculpture or architectural sculpture, painting/vase painting, and toreutics. Scholars distinguish the Doric kymation, consisting of a double band of orthogonal elements not dissimilar to the maeander, the Ionian kymation, with its sequence of egg and darts ( Egg-and-dart moulding), as well as the Lesbian kymation with its heart-shaped leaves, separated by lance-like darts. Especially Ionian and Lesbian kymatia …

[German version] [1] Name to describe the plurality of gods In modern scholarship on religious history, the term 'pantheon' is used in systematizing the plurality of ancient gods (Polytheism). In the following, it will be used accordingly to denote all the many deities worshipped in a particular geographical area and socio-historical context. Richter, Thomas (Frankfurt/Main) [German version] I. Mesopotamia Sumerian does not have its own expression for a collective of gods corresponding to the term 'pantheon'. The Sumerian term A-nun-na, 'seed of the prince' (i.e. of Enki, …

[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…

(θησαυρός/ thēsaurós; 'treasure', 'treasure house'). [German version] [1] Treasure house A treasure house in the sense of a protective structure within a sanctuary that housed a valuable object crafted from delicate materials, e.g. a votive offering (votive practice), although in ancient Greek terminology, thesauros not only referred to the location or the structural container but to the actual content (the respective piece of value) as well. In Greek sanctuaries esp. from the 7th to the early 5th cents. BC, thēsauroí were the generally common form of votive offerings. Th…

[German version] (πρόθυρον; próthyron). The entrance hall of the Greek house in the form of a roofed vestibule leading to the courtyard, marking the connection of the private and the public areas and thus used as a communicative, connecting element (because the próthyron could also serve as a shelter or meeting place for passers-by). Sometimes, the próthyron was even equipped with benches. The próthyron could usually be closed from the inside by a wooden folding door . Numerous próthyra have been preserved in the houses of Olynthus. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography W. Hoepfner,…

[German version] (eaves). Upturned edge of the roof (together with the waterspouts needed to carry water off the roof) of a Greek columned building on the slopes of the pediment and the long sides of the roof. The name is recorded as a Latin technical term in Vitruvius (3,5,12 et passim) [1; 2]. In archaic architecture, particularly in Doric columned buildings, the sima was a favourite location for architectural decoration; it is part of the roof and has no essential static function. Initially - probably in the tradition of wooden buildings - terracotta simae were predominant; they were…

[German version] A. Definition In this article, masonry will be understood as the various construction and design techniques of the structure of the walls of buildings, terraces, and defensive architecture (city walls, etc.) in ancient stonework, but not the various areas of application of woodworking; cf. construction technique; materiatio; on Roman cement construction cf. also opus caementicium. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) B. Greece [German version] 1. Simple masonry The walls of simple early Greek buildings were first made of wood or wattle work. From the 8t…

[German version] Modern technical term which in the archaeology of buildings denotes the interaxial distance between two columns (as different from the free interspace, which has been known as the intercolumnium since Antiquity, cf. [1]). The interaxial space was a clearly defined subset of the axial distances, i.e. the distances between the centres of the four corner columns and as such served as one of the crucial design parameters in temple architecture (Temple; Building trade). This goes especially for the peripteral temp…

[German version] Modern architectural term, borrowed from French, for a spiral or helical decorative element on corbels, pediments and capitals usually of the Ionic order (Column). The much-admired precise incision of a High or Late Classical capital volute with its often painted or inlaid decoration (Intarsia) was presumably produced with the help of a pair of compasses uniformly decreasing in diameter; a corresponding instrument can at least hypothetically be reconstructed. The V. also appears a…

[German version] Ancient technical term, frequently appearing In Greek architectural inscriptions as well as in Vitruvius (4,3,4 and passim); applicable to all ancient orders of column construction, it refers to that part of the entablature of the peristasis which rests immediately on top of the columns. Modern architectural terminology often refers to the epistylion as ‘architrave’, whereas the entablature in its entirety ─ i.e. architrave,  frieze, and cornice ( geison) together ─ are referred to as epistylion. The translation of the initially wooden epistylion to stone rep…

[German version] (γραμμή; grammḗ). A component of the start and finish line in the Greek stadium (  balbís ), which indicated the start and finish marking. It usually consisted of two parallel lines carved into stone and sunk into the ground. Examples are preserved, e.g., in Olympia, Delphi, Epidaurus and Priene. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography W. Zschietzschmann, Wettkampf- und Übungsstätten in Griechenland I. Das Stadion, 1960, 35-39 O. Broneer, Isthmia II, 1973, 137-142 P. Roos, Wiederverwendete Startblöcke vom Stadion in Ephesos, in: JÖAI 52, 1979/80, 109-113.

[German version] The most important church of Constantinople, built on the site of the church Μεγάλη Ἐκκλησία ( Megálē Ekklēsía; 1st half of the 4th cent.). It was destroyed in AD 532 in an uprising, instigated and paid for by Justinian based on designs by the architect Anthemius of Tralles and  Isidorus [9] of Miletus as a combination of nave and  central-plan building of gigantic dimensions. The huge dome rests on four pillars with foundations in rock. Dedicated on 27 December 537 in the presence of the emperor …

[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, they were laid in clay mortar. While standardized within each time period, bricks greatly varied in shape and size across the millennia. Fired bricks (rare because of the high fuel consumption) were used in building fortifications, for monumental structures such as temples and palaces, and for the facing of walls made from unfired bricks. As paving stones and in the context of water usage, they were generally laid in bitumen ( Pitch). From the 3rd millennium, bricks in the Near East and in Egypt were marked with royal inscriptions (hand-written or stamped), more rarely with signs and symbols prior to being fired. By varying the bricklaying techniques, façades could be richly embellished with horizontal or vertical structures. From the mid 2nd millennium BC, relief bricks were used for figurative wall decorations (Karaindaš temple/Uruk). Fired bricks with coloured glaze are known from written records dating back to the mid 2nd millennium BC and archaeologically evident from the Neo-Assyrian period. Of particular fame are the Babylonian brick reliefs with their colourful glazes ( Ishtar Gate: beginning of the 6th cent. BC). Corresponding Achaemenid reliefs ( Susa) were made from quartz …

…

[German version] Latin for drops (pl.); in the architectonic sense, ancient technical term only attested in Vitruvius (4,1,2 and 4,3,6) for the drop-like cylindrical shapes that are found on parts of the stone entablature of the Doric building style and that as imitated nails or nail heads attest …

[German version] Ancient technical term used in  construction technique. According to Vitruvius (2,8,7 and passim), a term for the frames or facings of walls made from cast cement (  opus caementicium…

[German version] Architectural term recorded at Vitr. De arch. 3,2,3, denoting one of the temple forms listed in that work (Temple). According to Vitruvius' description, a prostylos is an ante temple with one row of columns in front of the pronaos (Cella). An extended variant of the prostylos is the amphiprostylos.…

[German version] Architect or building craftsman from Naxos, active around 600 BC. Pausanias (5,10,3) concluded from a supposed epigram that B. was the first to produce roof tiles of marble. An inscription on a marble roof tile from the Athenian Acropolis (CY=BY in the Naxian  alphabet) was interpreted as a reference to B.…

[German version] Steep trapezoidal hill in Rome, stretching from the southernmost point of the city to the Tiber. It includes the Augustan regio XIII and parts of regio XII. The MA consists of two hilltops connected by a ridge (Aventinus Maior and Aventinus Minor). Until the regency of the emperor Claudius it was outside the Pomerium (but within the Servian walls). The MA was inhabited early, evidently Ancus Marcius [I 3] settled there natives of various Latin localities he had conquered and devastated. Subsequently the MA…

[German version] Modern collective term for various phenomena of Greek column construction, coined by the American archaeologist W.H. Goodyear in 1912. They include specifically: (a) solution of the angle triglyph problem; (b) entasis (outward curvature of the column shaft); (c) inclination (inward leaning of columns and cella walls); (d) curvature (slight arching of the stylobate, sometimes also of all ot…

[German version] (περιστύλιον/ peristýlion, Latin peristylium). Representational element of ancient public and private architecture: …

[German version] (Lat. 'slat', 'bar', or 'guideline'). Architectural technical term used in Vitr. De arch. 4,3,4 et alibi to refer to a slat with guttae on the epistylion (architrave) of a building of Doric structure. In width, the regula corresponds to the triglyphos and forms its lower end which structurally belongs to the architrave (and not to the frieze). Furthermore, the regula corresponds to the blocks of the geison that are resting on the frieze. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography D. Mertens, Der Tempel von Segesta und die dorische Tempelbaukunst des griechisc…

[German version] I. Ancient Near East Mouldable, quickly hardening material of gypsum, lime, sand and water, occasionally with stone powder, which was used in many places (in Egypt from the Old Kingdom onwards, c. 2700-2190 BC) to smooth walls and as a base for painting. Figurines, vases and moulds for casting metal were also made from stucco. From the Parthian period onwards (1st cent. BC), figured or geometric stucco reliefs covering long walls are attested. They were modelled by hand or using templates; in the Sassanid and early Islamic periods they were also carved.…

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…

[German version] Derived from Latin puteus ('well'), a term for enclosures around profane draw-wells, some of which were covered, or for stones pointing out sacred lightning marks. Particularly in the neo-Attic art of Hellenistic times, puteals were  a popular place for relief sculpture. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography E. Bielefeld, Ein neuattisches Puteal in Kopenhagen, in: Gymnasium 70, 1963, 338-356  K. Schneider, s. v. P., RE 23, 2034-2036  O. Viedebantt, s. v. Forum Romanum (46. Das Puteal Libonis), RE Suppl. 4, 511.

[German version] I. General Private sphere as a term denotes that area of life possessing an individual quality, and contrasts with the public sphere by virtue of its intimate character. While the term derives from the Latin privatim/privatus ('personal, discrete, private'), the pair of opposites denoting a polarization of two more or less strictly segregated spheres has existed only since the advent of a middle-class conception of standards in the late 18th cent. Before that, even events such as a ruler's toilet visits or dressing…

[German version] I. Definition of terms, state of research In what follows, road is used to denote a way that is at least partly of artificial construction, i.e. of architectural fashioning in the broadest sense, but not those more or less established, traditional trade and caravan routes and intercontinental links such as the Silk Road. The term covers long-distance roads as well as smaller trails and mule trails connecting towns and regions, but not intra-urban streets (on which see town planning). The…

This item can be found on the following maps: Writing | Theatre | Byzantium | Caesar | Christianity | Wine | | Commerce | Ḫattusa | Hellenistic states | Ionic | Asia Minor | Asia Minor | Asia Minor | Limes | Marble | Peloponnesian War | Pergamum | Persian Wars | Pilgrimage | Pompeius | Rome | Rome | Athletes | Delian League | Aegean Koine | Education / Culture | Mineral Resources I. History [German version] A. Site City (today Turkish county seat Selçuk) at the mouth of the Caystrus in the Aegean Sea, 80 km south of Izmir. The river sedimentation moved the coastline by abou…

[German version] A building in Rome ([III] with map 2, no. 62), probably built or dedicated in 78 BC under the consul Q. Lutatius [4] Catulus, after the fire of 83 BC, as a place of safe-keeping for public and private documents (CIL I2 736; 737). It was originally primarily public monies that were kept here, later numerous archived materials of state and city administration. According to a funerary inscription found in 1971, its architect was probably a certain Lucius Cornelius. The huge structure, almost 74 m long and, together with the…

[German version] The sundial with calendrical functions described by Pliny (HN 36,72f.), which was built on the Field of Mars in Rome ( Roma) in the reign of Augustus and renovated many times in the 1st and 2nd cents. AD. The gnomon ( Clocks) consisted of an obelisk which threw its shadow on to a paved area with a network of lines marked with bronze inlays. The reconstruction by [1] suggested as a result of various excavations and interpretations of the ancient and modern written records, assumed …

[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 …

(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…

[German version] (ἀκρωτήριον; akrōtḗrion) Akroteria are sculptured figures or ornamental pieces that decorate the ridge (middle akroterion) or the sides (side akroterion) of  gables of representative public buildings. Akroteria can be made of clay or stone (poros, marble). Initially, in the 7th/6th cents. BC, round, disc-like akroteria with ornamentation dominate (e.g. Heraeum of Olympia) while later on, three-dimensionally crafted plant combinations (volutes and palmettes) or statue-like figures a…

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. …

[German version] Modern term, derived from French, for a horizontal support protruding from a wall or pillar, and serving as a ledge for an arch, statuary, or as the base of a corbel or  geison. As multi-storey buildings became more frequent with the increasing range of constructional forms available to Hellenistic architects, the console could form the transition to the roof of a building while still serving as a structural element of the multi-storeyed façade. The combination of console and corb…

[German version] (from the adjective τετράστυλος/ tetrástylos, 'four-columned'). Modern architectural term describing, in analogy to the established term hexastylos ('six-columned'), a temple or column construction with only four frontal columns. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) Bibliography Lit. vgl. Tempel (V. A.3)

[German version] (λέσχη; léschē). An architectural structure, belonging to the category of Greek assembly buildings, where citizens met for negotiations, transactions and discussions (the term lesche is derived from the Greek λέγω/ légō, ‘to speak/to talk’); usually located in the vicinity of the agora or - as a consecrated building - in sanctuaries, and, especially in the latter location, occasionally serving as a hostel. The lesche of the Cnidians at Delphi ( Delphi), described in Paus. 10,15ff., a long, rectangular hall structure with eight internal column…

[German version] A funerary monument on the west bank of the Tiber; construction began around AD 130 under Hadrianus and was completed in AD 139 by Antoninus Pius. In a solemn dedication ceremony Hadrian's remains were transferred from Puteoli where he had been buried provisionally. Although the MH was located in the horti Domitiae it directly was connected with the Campus Martiusthrough the newly constructed pons Aelius (dedicated AD 134). The two-storied circular building (diameter: c. 64 m; original height: c. 21 m) stood on a square base with massive projecting cor…

[German version] (κενοτάφιον; kenotáphion, Lat. cenotaphium, literally ‘empty grave’). In classical archaeology, kenotaphion refers to a tomb structure without the remains of a burial; a kenotaphion is usually a monument for a deceased person whose body was either no longer at hand, e.g. warriors who died in foreign lands or at sea, or a special form of the heroon ( Hero cult). The erection of a kenotaphion often constituted an outstanding way for a community or family to honour those warriors or generals whose remains were known to be in a specific place, but…

[German version] A modern term of classical archaeology, borrowed from Latin, Italian and French, for a half-pillar built into a wall. This architectural element consists, in analogy with a column or a half-column, of a capital, a shaft and a base. Rare in Archaic and Classical Greek architecture (but cf. Ante), pilasters increasingly appear in Hellenistic and especially Imperial Roman architecture and find an application as structural elements of large wall complexes, and also in door and window …

[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…

This item can be found on the following maps: Theatre | Dark Ages | Oracles | Persian Wars | Aegean Koine | Education / Culture (Δωδώνη; Dōdṓnē). [German version] I. Topography, historical development Sanctuary and settlement in Epirus, 22 km south-west of today's Ioannina in the 640 m high plain of Hellopia beneath the Tomarus [1. 85-87, 92]. D. is the oldest oracle site in Greece attested in literature (myth of its founding in Hdt. 2,54f. [2. 51-54]), already known to the Homeric epics (Il. 16,233-235; Od. 19,296-301). The or…

(Θεόδοτος; Theódotos). [German version] [1] Greek architect, c.370 BC Mentioned several times in the construction records for the temple of Asclepius at Epidaurus as its architect; his origins are as unknown as his subsequent whereabouts. T.’ salary during the project amounted to 365 drachmae per year, together with further payments of unknown object. It is uncertain whether he is the same person as the sculptor T. named in IG IV2 102 (B 1 line 97) as having, for 2,340 drachmae, fashioned the acroteria for the pediment; it is possible that the name T. has been in…

[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…

(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…