DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29899#0618
598
ANCIENT AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE.
Part III.
elaborate in its decorations. It stands alone, however, with orily a
temple attached unsyrmnetrically to one angle of it.
AVith regarcl to construction, as above remarked, the style may be
generally characterized as one remove from the original wooden
construction of early times. No wooden buildings, or even wooden
roofs, now remain, nor could any have been expected to resist the
effects of the climate ; but many of the lintels of the doorways were
formecl by wooclen beams, and some of these still remain, though most
of them have perished, bringing clown with them large portions of the
walls which were supported by them. In other instances, ancl
generally speaking in those that seem most moclern, the upper parts of
the doorways, as well as the
roofs of the chambers, are
formed by bringing the courses
nearer together till they rueet
in the centre, thus forming a
horizontal arch, as it is callecl,
jrrecisely as the Etruscans and
all the earlier tribes of Pelasgic
race dicl in Europe at the dawn
of civilisation, and as is done in
India to this clay. This form
is well shown in the annexecl
woodcut, representing a chamber
in the Casa de las Monjas at
Uxmal, 13 ft. wide. The upper
part of the doorway on the
right hancl has fallen in, from
itswooclen lintelhaving decayed.
A still more remarkable
instance of this mode of con-
1024. Interior of a Chamber, Uxmal. (From a , ,. . . . .. m .
Drawing by F. Catherwood.) StructlOll 1S shown m the VV OOd-
cut No. 1025, representing a
roorn in a temple at Chichen Itza in Yucatan. The room is 19 ft.
8 in. by 12 ft. 9 in. ; in the centre of ib stancl two pillars of stone,
supporting beams of sapote-wood, which also forms the lintels of the
door, and over these is the stone vaulting of the usual construction :
the whole apparently still perfect and entire, though time-worn, and
bearing the marks of as great age as any of the other builclings of
the |ilace.
Whcn the roof was constructed entirely of wood, it probably par-
took very much of the same form, the horizontal beam being supported
by two struts meeting at the centre, and framed up at the sides, which
would at once account for the appearances shown in the Woodcuts
Nos. 1020, 1021. It is also probable that both light and air were
ANCIENT AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE.
Part III.
elaborate in its decorations. It stands alone, however, with orily a
temple attached unsyrmnetrically to one angle of it.
AVith regarcl to construction, as above remarked, the style may be
generally characterized as one remove from the original wooden
construction of early times. No wooden buildings, or even wooden
roofs, now remain, nor could any have been expected to resist the
effects of the climate ; but many of the lintels of the doorways were
formecl by wooclen beams, and some of these still remain, though most
of them have perished, bringing clown with them large portions of the
walls which were supported by them. In other instances, ancl
generally speaking in those that seem most moclern, the upper parts of
the doorways, as well as the
roofs of the chambers, are
formed by bringing the courses
nearer together till they rueet
in the centre, thus forming a
horizontal arch, as it is callecl,
jrrecisely as the Etruscans and
all the earlier tribes of Pelasgic
race dicl in Europe at the dawn
of civilisation, and as is done in
India to this clay. This form
is well shown in the annexecl
woodcut, representing a chamber
in the Casa de las Monjas at
Uxmal, 13 ft. wide. The upper
part of the doorway on the
right hancl has fallen in, from
itswooclen lintelhaving decayed.
A still more remarkable
instance of this mode of con-
1024. Interior of a Chamber, Uxmal. (From a , ,. . . . .. m .
Drawing by F. Catherwood.) StructlOll 1S shown m the VV OOd-
cut No. 1025, representing a
roorn in a temple at Chichen Itza in Yucatan. The room is 19 ft.
8 in. by 12 ft. 9 in. ; in the centre of ib stancl two pillars of stone,
supporting beams of sapote-wood, which also forms the lintels of the
door, and over these is the stone vaulting of the usual construction :
the whole apparently still perfect and entire, though time-worn, and
bearing the marks of as great age as any of the other builclings of
the |ilace.
Whcn the roof was constructed entirely of wood, it probably par-
took very much of the same form, the horizontal beam being supported
by two struts meeting at the centre, and framed up at the sides, which
would at once account for the appearances shown in the Woodcuts
Nos. 1020, 1021. It is also probable that both light and air were