DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12762#0163
APPENDIX
NOTE ON THE VAULTED CHEESE DAIRIES OF MOUNT IDA
On the plain of Nida in Mount Ida and around it there are to-day some dozens of
vaulted buildings which the shepherds of Ida build and use as dairies for cheese-making
(/xirara, Plate LX a), or as store-rooms through the summer for the cheese they make
{TvpoairiTa, Plate LX b).
I first turned my attention to these vaulted structures in 1913, and I was astounded
to see how like they are in form and in method of construction to the Minoan vaulted
tombs of the neighbouring plain.1
The fxirara are built by the same primitive method of vaulting with large slabs of
stone, and have the same circular plan. Looked at from without, they have the form of
a truncated cone. Further, they have a similar low doorway, generally on the eastern
side, framed by large monolithic jambs and a large lintel. As a rule, there is a second
very small tholos by the side of the large one and entered from it by a small opening, and
it is in this small chamber that they temporarily store away the cheese,2 until they remove
it to the Tvpoa-n-ira, the special vaulted store-chambers.
The only difference between the nirdra and the Mesara tholoi lies in this, that the
former are built of the large slabs, which the limestone of Ida supplies in plenty, laid dry
without any clay to bind them, since the district is rocky and practically waterless ;
while the Minoan tholoi in the plain, where large stones are not as a rule readily procurable,
but where there is plenty of clay and water, were constructed of smaller stones bonded
together by quantities of clay.
Moreover, the general size of these vaulted iiirara is about that of the medium and
smaller tombs, that is, they have a diameter of from 5 to 8 metres. The height inside
(3 m. to 4 m.) is small in proportion, because the great size of the slabs allows them to be
laid without fear of collapse with a greater overlap inwards than would be the case with
the clay and small stones of the Mesara tholoi. These, then, having for reasons of stability
a lesser inward lean, we must suppose to have risen to a greater height before reaching
the apex.
In my view this resemblance is not fortuitous. The shepherds answered my ques-
tions by saying that this method of building their /xtrara had been handed down from
father to son. I like to think that these buildings are the outcome of a very old tradition
going right back to the oldest civilisation in the island, and that this method of building,
kept up at first for religious reasons, never died out in Ida owing to the local conditions.
For it was admirably suited to the only materials at hand, and the solidity of the vaulted
form was well fitted to resist the weight of the winter snow.
The little chapel of the Holy Cross 3 on the summit of Ida is built in the selfsame
fashion, with a vault formed by overlapping slabs without mortar.
1 I pointed out the resemblance to Mr.
Dawkins, who was then excavating the Kamares
Cave close by, and he mentions this resemblance
in his report (B.S.A., XIX, p. 6).
2 The name for the small building, seen to the
right in Plate LX a, is TvpoKtWi. It recalls the
rectangular chamber in the ' Treasury ' of Atreus
and the Orchomenos tomb.
3 Spratt, Travels and Researches in Crete (1865),
I, p. 17.
NOTE ON THE VAULTED CHEESE DAIRIES OF MOUNT IDA
On the plain of Nida in Mount Ida and around it there are to-day some dozens of
vaulted buildings which the shepherds of Ida build and use as dairies for cheese-making
(/xirara, Plate LX a), or as store-rooms through the summer for the cheese they make
{TvpoairiTa, Plate LX b).
I first turned my attention to these vaulted structures in 1913, and I was astounded
to see how like they are in form and in method of construction to the Minoan vaulted
tombs of the neighbouring plain.1
The fxirara are built by the same primitive method of vaulting with large slabs of
stone, and have the same circular plan. Looked at from without, they have the form of
a truncated cone. Further, they have a similar low doorway, generally on the eastern
side, framed by large monolithic jambs and a large lintel. As a rule, there is a second
very small tholos by the side of the large one and entered from it by a small opening, and
it is in this small chamber that they temporarily store away the cheese,2 until they remove
it to the Tvpoa-n-ira, the special vaulted store-chambers.
The only difference between the nirdra and the Mesara tholoi lies in this, that the
former are built of the large slabs, which the limestone of Ida supplies in plenty, laid dry
without any clay to bind them, since the district is rocky and practically waterless ;
while the Minoan tholoi in the plain, where large stones are not as a rule readily procurable,
but where there is plenty of clay and water, were constructed of smaller stones bonded
together by quantities of clay.
Moreover, the general size of these vaulted iiirara is about that of the medium and
smaller tombs, that is, they have a diameter of from 5 to 8 metres. The height inside
(3 m. to 4 m.) is small in proportion, because the great size of the slabs allows them to be
laid without fear of collapse with a greater overlap inwards than would be the case with
the clay and small stones of the Mesara tholoi. These, then, having for reasons of stability
a lesser inward lean, we must suppose to have risen to a greater height before reaching
the apex.
In my view this resemblance is not fortuitous. The shepherds answered my ques-
tions by saying that this method of building their /xtrara had been handed down from
father to son. I like to think that these buildings are the outcome of a very old tradition
going right back to the oldest civilisation in the island, and that this method of building,
kept up at first for religious reasons, never died out in Ida owing to the local conditions.
For it was admirably suited to the only materials at hand, and the solidity of the vaulted
form was well fitted to resist the weight of the winter snow.
The little chapel of the Holy Cross 3 on the summit of Ida is built in the selfsame
fashion, with a vault formed by overlapping slabs without mortar.
1 I pointed out the resemblance to Mr.
Dawkins, who was then excavating the Kamares
Cave close by, and he mentions this resemblance
in his report (B.S.A., XIX, p. 6).
2 The name for the small building, seen to the
right in Plate LX a, is TvpoKtWi. It recalls the
rectangular chamber in the ' Treasury ' of Atreus
and the Orchomenos tomb.
3 Spratt, Travels and Researches in Crete (1865),
I, p. 17.