DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0060
THE FORTRESS-CITY 23
Extraordinary as is this construction, it is not absolutely
unique. It occurs in the Punic cities of North Africa,
notably at Carthage. So close is the correspondence that
Dr. Dorpfeld at first found himself constrained to accept it
as "a proof that both [Tiryns and Carthage] were erected
by Phoenician builders." At Carthage, indeed, the corridors
lie outside the chambers, and the chambers are not square
but rounded. " Still the conformity goes so far that the
length and breadth of the chambers in Byrsa (the Cartha-
ginian citadel) almost exactly recur in the two central
rooms of the southern wall of Tiryns." l
But the legends of Tiryns point consistently to Lycia.
It is from Lycia that Proitos fetches the Cyclopes to build
his walls, as well as the queen to share his throne ; and
Lycia, in its advanced civilization and artistic creativeness,
is " the precursor and model of the Hellenes," although a
Semitic element — the Solymi — is early established there.
We may then "assume that Phoenician and Lycian alike,
in Africa and in Argolis, are employing a construction
borrowed from an earlier Asiatic race. This is Dorpfeld's
own alternative,2 though he regards it as the less likely
one.
But the circuit of the Cyclopes now above ground is
not the oldest work here. A much earlier settlement is
attested not only by finds of pottery of the Earlier
primitive Trojan type, but also by traces of ear- oecuPation
lier buildings on the Middle Citadel and under the Palace.3
1 See Dorpfeld, ib., p. 324, where ground-plans are figured and compared.
2 Tiryns, p. 325.
3 " The existence of an older settlement in Tiryns is therefore certain, but of
its size and form we know hardly anything. We do not even know whether
it was surrounded with a wall. For I regard it as certain that the gigantic
wall which is still preserved does not belong to the earlier settlement, but
was built at the same time as the stately palace." — Dorpfeld, Tiryns, p. 252.
Extraordinary as is this construction, it is not absolutely
unique. It occurs in the Punic cities of North Africa,
notably at Carthage. So close is the correspondence that
Dr. Dorpfeld at first found himself constrained to accept it
as "a proof that both [Tiryns and Carthage] were erected
by Phoenician builders." At Carthage, indeed, the corridors
lie outside the chambers, and the chambers are not square
but rounded. " Still the conformity goes so far that the
length and breadth of the chambers in Byrsa (the Cartha-
ginian citadel) almost exactly recur in the two central
rooms of the southern wall of Tiryns." l
But the legends of Tiryns point consistently to Lycia.
It is from Lycia that Proitos fetches the Cyclopes to build
his walls, as well as the queen to share his throne ; and
Lycia, in its advanced civilization and artistic creativeness,
is " the precursor and model of the Hellenes," although a
Semitic element — the Solymi — is early established there.
We may then "assume that Phoenician and Lycian alike,
in Africa and in Argolis, are employing a construction
borrowed from an earlier Asiatic race. This is Dorpfeld's
own alternative,2 though he regards it as the less likely
one.
But the circuit of the Cyclopes now above ground is
not the oldest work here. A much earlier settlement is
attested not only by finds of pottery of the Earlier
primitive Trojan type, but also by traces of ear- oecuPation
lier buildings on the Middle Citadel and under the Palace.3
1 See Dorpfeld, ib., p. 324, where ground-plans are figured and compared.
2 Tiryns, p. 325.
3 " The existence of an older settlement in Tiryns is therefore certain, but of
its size and form we know hardly anything. We do not even know whether
it was surrounded with a wall. For I regard it as certain that the gigantic
wall which is still preserved does not belong to the earlier settlement, but
was built at the same time as the stately palace." — Dorpfeld, Tiryns, p. 252.