DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0091
50 THE MYCENAEAN AGE
clear, simple and practical. The palace is composed of two
main suites, one for the men, the other for the
Plan of the women, each with a court of its own. Both
quarters communicate directly with the outer
court (F), though their communication with each other is
only by narrow and winding passages. In easy reach from
the men's hall is the bath-room, to which by Homeric cus-
tom the guest was conducted on his arrival. Adjoining
the women's hall is the Royal Bedchamber, and disposed
about the same quarter of the palace are lodgings for the
rest .of the household, storerooms and the like.
The principal building materials employed in the palace
of Tiryns are limestone, breccia,1 sandstone, clay, lime and
timber. The lower part of the walls, as a rale,
and eon- was built of rubble masonry, but in the upper
part sun-dried bricks are used as well. In two
places only (the hall and outer court of the women), the
brick wall starts from the ground, and is therefore in part
preserved. Elsewhere only the rubble footing (about a
metre high) is left; but nearly every room was found lit-
tered with bricks, so as to leave no doubt of their free use
in the walls. To strengthen these walls, at intervals
wooden-beams were built in lengthwise. Such "tie-beams"
are still much used in the East, as they were in classical
Wails and antiquity.2 Walls thus built would be far from
Frescoes weather-proof without a good outside coating,
and this was provided at Tiryns first by a layer of clay to
1 "Breccia, a conglomerate of pebbles, is used as freestone for door-sills and
antae bioeks ; the gigantic door-posts of the gate of the upper fort are also of
this material. In proportion to limestone breccia is very little used ; for it is
harder, and hence more troublesome to quarry. Sandstone is used less than
breccia, only indeed for some antae-blocks and for the lower step of the great
Megaron." — Dorpfeld, Tiryns, p. 255.
2 Cf. Winckler, Die Wohnhauser der Hellenen, p. 77 f.
clear, simple and practical. The palace is composed of two
main suites, one for the men, the other for the
Plan of the women, each with a court of its own. Both
quarters communicate directly with the outer
court (F), though their communication with each other is
only by narrow and winding passages. In easy reach from
the men's hall is the bath-room, to which by Homeric cus-
tom the guest was conducted on his arrival. Adjoining
the women's hall is the Royal Bedchamber, and disposed
about the same quarter of the palace are lodgings for the
rest .of the household, storerooms and the like.
The principal building materials employed in the palace
of Tiryns are limestone, breccia,1 sandstone, clay, lime and
timber. The lower part of the walls, as a rale,
and eon- was built of rubble masonry, but in the upper
part sun-dried bricks are used as well. In two
places only (the hall and outer court of the women), the
brick wall starts from the ground, and is therefore in part
preserved. Elsewhere only the rubble footing (about a
metre high) is left; but nearly every room was found lit-
tered with bricks, so as to leave no doubt of their free use
in the walls. To strengthen these walls, at intervals
wooden-beams were built in lengthwise. Such "tie-beams"
are still much used in the East, as they were in classical
Wails and antiquity.2 Walls thus built would be far from
Frescoes weather-proof without a good outside coating,
and this was provided at Tiryns first by a layer of clay to
1 "Breccia, a conglomerate of pebbles, is used as freestone for door-sills and
antae bioeks ; the gigantic door-posts of the gate of the upper fort are also of
this material. In proportion to limestone breccia is very little used ; for it is
harder, and hence more troublesome to quarry. Sandstone is used less than
breccia, only indeed for some antae-blocks and for the lower step of the great
Megaron." — Dorpfeld, Tiryns, p. 255.
2 Cf. Winckler, Die Wohnhauser der Hellenen, p. 77 f.