DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0306
254 THE MYCENAEAN AGE
larger than that of Tiryns— must have carried a single
roof, and that, as the excavations indicate,1 horizontal.
The gold-leaf temples from the royal graves at Mycenae, as
we have seen, show a roof similar to that assumed for the
Mycenaean megara; and, since these are models of the
Aphrodite temple as we know it at Paphos, we infer that
the Mycenaeans probably learned the clere-story principle
from the Phoenicians.
Though unknown at Troy, the pillar is not wanting at
Thera. There we have found evidence for one central
The column cphimn supporting a conical roof, exactly as would
at Thera seem to have been the case in the side chamber
of the Atreus Treasury at Mycenae. Closer connection
there may have been between the Mycenaean and the
Theraean column, but at all events they represent two
different stages of evolution from the same original. In
the first place the column at Thera, judging from frag-
ments only, seems to diminish downward just as we find
with actual pillars or copies of them at Mycenae, Spata
and Menidi; and a terra-cotta vase-stand-
ard with seven annular mouldings seems
to point to the annular or spiral finish of
the pillar.2 Now the genuine spiral pillar
was not unknown at Mycenae; we have
Fiff. 131 it distinctly shown on the engraved gem
em rom ycenae (Yig. 131), and a further refinement of it
1 " There is no trace of tiles, while the floor is strewn with a thick layer of
clay and charred rafters as well as large pieces of wood. It therefore appears
certain that, just like the houses of the present inhabitants of the Troad, the
houses of all the five prehistoric cities which succeeded each other here were
covered with flat roofs of beams on which were heaped a thick layer of clay as
protection against the rain." — Scldiemann, llios, p. 214.
2 Fonque-, Santorin, p. 117. Cf. Perrot & Chipiez, Myc. Art, ii. 365 f. and
Fig. 450.
larger than that of Tiryns— must have carried a single
roof, and that, as the excavations indicate,1 horizontal.
The gold-leaf temples from the royal graves at Mycenae, as
we have seen, show a roof similar to that assumed for the
Mycenaean megara; and, since these are models of the
Aphrodite temple as we know it at Paphos, we infer that
the Mycenaeans probably learned the clere-story principle
from the Phoenicians.
Though unknown at Troy, the pillar is not wanting at
Thera. There we have found evidence for one central
The column cphimn supporting a conical roof, exactly as would
at Thera seem to have been the case in the side chamber
of the Atreus Treasury at Mycenae. Closer connection
there may have been between the Mycenaean and the
Theraean column, but at all events they represent two
different stages of evolution from the same original. In
the first place the column at Thera, judging from frag-
ments only, seems to diminish downward just as we find
with actual pillars or copies of them at Mycenae, Spata
and Menidi; and a terra-cotta vase-stand-
ard with seven annular mouldings seems
to point to the annular or spiral finish of
the pillar.2 Now the genuine spiral pillar
was not unknown at Mycenae; we have
Fiff. 131 it distinctly shown on the engraved gem
em rom ycenae (Yig. 131), and a further refinement of it
1 " There is no trace of tiles, while the floor is strewn with a thick layer of
clay and charred rafters as well as large pieces of wood. It therefore appears
certain that, just like the houses of the present inhabitants of the Troad, the
houses of all the five prehistoric cities which succeeded each other here were
covered with flat roofs of beams on which were heaped a thick layer of clay as
protection against the rain." — Scldiemann, llios, p. 214.
2 Fonque-, Santorin, p. 117. Cf. Perrot & Chipiez, Myc. Art, ii. 365 f. and
Fig. 450.