DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0094
THE PALACE 53
posts were of wood — probably of one thick trunk, but gen-
erally set on square sandstone bases, two feet high, some
of them doweled to receive the upright. The wooden
doors revolved on pivots sheathed with bronze. One of
these bronze sheaths * was found in its socket in the sill of
the door leading into the women's apartments.
The column which plays so large a part at Tiryns was
also of wood, while the base was of stone so imbedded as
to rise but little above the ground. The fact
that not a vestige of shaft or capital remains,
while we find thirty-one stone bases in situ, is sufficient
proof that the pillars were of perishable material, and the
evidence of their destruction by fire is conclusive.2
We come now to a more difficult problem : How was
this great pile roofed over ? In the debris we find neither
tiles nor roofing stones, and so we are shut up to>
one of two hypotheses: that of the flat clay roof
and that of the steep roof thatched with rushes — like
Achilles' quarters in the camp at Troy,3 or the houses of
Sardis.4 As has been shown by the accomplished architect
to whom we owe the scientific excavation as well as the clear
interpretation of this palace, the thatch roof could not have
been used at Tiryns. Says Dorpfeld :E "A rush-thatch,
like one of straw, requires a steep roof, that the water may
not penetrate, but run down the individual straws. Such
a roof may be well suited for an isolated house; but to
thatch a great system of buildings like the palace of Tiryns
1 "It is a hollow cylinder of 118 mm. diam. inside, and closed below like a
ball. The square cut in the cylinder is to receive the lower frame of the door,
which was mortised into the side beam used as the turning-post." — Dorpfeld.
2 Cf. Dorpfeld, Tiryns, p. 270 f.
8 Iliad, xxiv. 450 ff.
* Herodotus, v. 101.
6 Tiryns, 272 f.
posts were of wood — probably of one thick trunk, but gen-
erally set on square sandstone bases, two feet high, some
of them doweled to receive the upright. The wooden
doors revolved on pivots sheathed with bronze. One of
these bronze sheaths * was found in its socket in the sill of
the door leading into the women's apartments.
The column which plays so large a part at Tiryns was
also of wood, while the base was of stone so imbedded as
to rise but little above the ground. The fact
that not a vestige of shaft or capital remains,
while we find thirty-one stone bases in situ, is sufficient
proof that the pillars were of perishable material, and the
evidence of their destruction by fire is conclusive.2
We come now to a more difficult problem : How was
this great pile roofed over ? In the debris we find neither
tiles nor roofing stones, and so we are shut up to>
one of two hypotheses: that of the flat clay roof
and that of the steep roof thatched with rushes — like
Achilles' quarters in the camp at Troy,3 or the houses of
Sardis.4 As has been shown by the accomplished architect
to whom we owe the scientific excavation as well as the clear
interpretation of this palace, the thatch roof could not have
been used at Tiryns. Says Dorpfeld :E "A rush-thatch,
like one of straw, requires a steep roof, that the water may
not penetrate, but run down the individual straws. Such
a roof may be well suited for an isolated house; but to
thatch a great system of buildings like the palace of Tiryns
1 "It is a hollow cylinder of 118 mm. diam. inside, and closed below like a
ball. The square cut in the cylinder is to receive the lower frame of the door,
which was mortised into the side beam used as the turning-post." — Dorpfeld.
2 Cf. Dorpfeld, Tiryns, p. 270 f.
8 Iliad, xxiv. 450 ff.
* Herodotus, v. 101.
6 Tiryns, 272 f.