DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1038#0071
57
when the additional security acquired by the position of
the centre of a lower stone opposite to the junction of the
two superincumbent blocks had not been observed.
This defect is more observable in No. 7, particularly
about the centre of the upper part, where each stone rests
almost entirely upon that immediately below it. This pe-
culiarity is observable in the walls of Mycense and Tiryn-
thus, as well as in those of Lycosura, in Arcadia, which was
reputed the most ancient city of the Peloponnesus.1 It
may possibly be imagined that this method of building
might have prevailed to a later period in Ithaca, than in
the other parts of Greece, as it may be presumed, from the
silence of history, that this island did not partake so fully
in the progress of the arts as the nations of the terra firma.
Yet that opinion is improbable, for we find buildings of
every age in the same place. The style of Nos. 5 and 7 is
certainly the most ancient. No. 3 is later, with some ap-
proach to horizontal lines, about 3 rows of stone, forming a
course, the upper and lower extremities of which are pa-
rallel. A similar gradation is observable in the walls of
1 Pausanias Arcad.
I
-2»!
when the additional security acquired by the position of
the centre of a lower stone opposite to the junction of the
two superincumbent blocks had not been observed.
This defect is more observable in No. 7, particularly
about the centre of the upper part, where each stone rests
almost entirely upon that immediately below it. This pe-
culiarity is observable in the walls of Mycense and Tiryn-
thus, as well as in those of Lycosura, in Arcadia, which was
reputed the most ancient city of the Peloponnesus.1 It
may possibly be imagined that this method of building
might have prevailed to a later period in Ithaca, than in
the other parts of Greece, as it may be presumed, from the
silence of history, that this island did not partake so fully
in the progress of the arts as the nations of the terra firma.
Yet that opinion is improbable, for we find buildings of
every age in the same place. The style of Nos. 5 and 7 is
certainly the most ancient. No. 3 is later, with some ap-
proach to horizontal lines, about 3 rows of stone, forming a
course, the upper and lower extremities of which are pa-
rallel. A similar gradation is observable in the walls of
1 Pausanias Arcad.
I
-2»!