DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5009#0021
WALLS. 3
Corinth, Eretria, and Cadyanda in Lyoia, the most ancient walls are
of irregular polygons, carefully cut, and well joined together.
When Grecian architecture arrived at perfection, it adopted three
different kinds of masonry :■—the isodomum; courses of stone of the
same height, and in general very long: thepseudo-isodomum; courses
oi stone of irregular height : the emplecton, for extraordinary
thicknesses. The two faces of the wall were built with cut stone, and
the intervening space was filled with rough stones imbedded in
mortar, and, at certain distances, stones (oWoi'oi) long enough to
extend to both sides, consolidated this kind of construction.
Italian.—In Italy the stages of the develojjinent of masonry are
not very different from those followed in Greece. The following
division of the relative antiquity of the different styles of masonry
in ancient walls seems to be approved of by the best authorities,
and may answer for the description of walls both in Greece and
Italy, for the sequence of styles was similar in both countries. First,
the Cyclopean, composed of unhewn masses, rudely piled uj>, with
CYCLOPEAN WALLS.
no further adjustment than the insertion of small blocks in the
interstices, and so described by Pausanias. Of this rudest style of
masonry few specimens now exist; the most celebrated one is the
citadel of Tiryns. The second style, which wo would call the
Polygonal, though generally called the Pelasgian, is a natural and
obvious improvement of the former. The improvement consists in
fitting the side of the polygonal blocks to each other, so that
exteriorly the walls may present a smooth and solid surface. What
goes far to prove the high antiquity of this polygonal masonry is
the primitive style of its gateways, and the absence of the arch in
u 2
Corinth, Eretria, and Cadyanda in Lyoia, the most ancient walls are
of irregular polygons, carefully cut, and well joined together.
When Grecian architecture arrived at perfection, it adopted three
different kinds of masonry :■—the isodomum; courses of stone of the
same height, and in general very long: thepseudo-isodomum; courses
oi stone of irregular height : the emplecton, for extraordinary
thicknesses. The two faces of the wall were built with cut stone, and
the intervening space was filled with rough stones imbedded in
mortar, and, at certain distances, stones (oWoi'oi) long enough to
extend to both sides, consolidated this kind of construction.
Italian.—In Italy the stages of the develojjinent of masonry are
not very different from those followed in Greece. The following
division of the relative antiquity of the different styles of masonry
in ancient walls seems to be approved of by the best authorities,
and may answer for the description of walls both in Greece and
Italy, for the sequence of styles was similar in both countries. First,
the Cyclopean, composed of unhewn masses, rudely piled uj>, with
CYCLOPEAN WALLS.
no further adjustment than the insertion of small blocks in the
interstices, and so described by Pausanias. Of this rudest style of
masonry few specimens now exist; the most celebrated one is the
citadel of Tiryns. The second style, which wo would call the
Polygonal, though generally called the Pelasgian, is a natural and
obvious improvement of the former. The improvement consists in
fitting the side of the polygonal blocks to each other, so that
exteriorly the walls may present a smooth and solid surface. What
goes far to prove the high antiquity of this polygonal masonry is
the primitive style of its gateways, and the absence of the arch in
u 2