DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.572#0041
BART I. POLYGONAL MASONRY. 13
struction with unhewn blocks, which had their
interstices filled up with small stones. The first
step was to cleave them, so as to fit more closely,
and rest more firmly, on those below; the next
was to cut them into regular polygons; which,
when the art of building improved, were accu-
rately fitted, by means of the leaden ruler, men-
tioned by Aristotle.* Hewn polygonal masonry
wastherefore the perfection of that style; but only
adopted, when a particular quality of stone wras
found.f Its origin, and continuance, may be as-
cribed to two circumstances; first, to the nature of
the materials, and secondly, to custom; and since
the same kind of stone was squared for the angles
of. walls, and for other purposes, whenever found
necessary, there is sufficient evidence that their
builders were not ignorant of the horizontal style.
It may also be doubted, whether those, who put
up the huge blocks of the walls of Tiryns, were
unacquainted with horizontal masonry; their suc-
cess in raising, and fitting, those ponderous masses,
must be attributed to skill, not to ignorance ;^ and
the mechanism required to move, and build up,
* Ethic. 8,10. In speaking of legislation, Aristotle says, " The rule
of the undefined is indefinite, like the leaden ruler used in the building
of Lesbos, which alters according to the form of the stones."
t The singular instance of polygonal tufo, at Empulum, does not
argue against this.
X It may be observed that in the Etruscan walls of horizontal work,
small stones were frequently used to fill up vacant spaces, when the
angles of the stones happened to be broken off; or when, owing to an
irregularity, not unusual, in the courses, the blocks did not exactly fit;
and we find the same introduction of small stones, at the corners of the
large blocks of lava, in the paved roads of the Romans, as in that on
the Alban hill, or Monte Cavi.
struction with unhewn blocks, which had their
interstices filled up with small stones. The first
step was to cleave them, so as to fit more closely,
and rest more firmly, on those below; the next
was to cut them into regular polygons; which,
when the art of building improved, were accu-
rately fitted, by means of the leaden ruler, men-
tioned by Aristotle.* Hewn polygonal masonry
wastherefore the perfection of that style; but only
adopted, when a particular quality of stone wras
found.f Its origin, and continuance, may be as-
cribed to two circumstances; first, to the nature of
the materials, and secondly, to custom; and since
the same kind of stone was squared for the angles
of. walls, and for other purposes, whenever found
necessary, there is sufficient evidence that their
builders were not ignorant of the horizontal style.
It may also be doubted, whether those, who put
up the huge blocks of the walls of Tiryns, were
unacquainted with horizontal masonry; their suc-
cess in raising, and fitting, those ponderous masses,
must be attributed to skill, not to ignorance ;^ and
the mechanism required to move, and build up,
* Ethic. 8,10. In speaking of legislation, Aristotle says, " The rule
of the undefined is indefinite, like the leaden ruler used in the building
of Lesbos, which alters according to the form of the stones."
t The singular instance of polygonal tufo, at Empulum, does not
argue against this.
X It may be observed that in the Etruscan walls of horizontal work,
small stones were frequently used to fill up vacant spaces, when the
angles of the stones happened to be broken off; or when, owing to an
irregularity, not unusual, in the courses, the blocks did not exactly fit;
and we find the same introduction of small stones, at the corners of the
large blocks of lava, in the paved roads of the Romans, as in that on
the Alban hill, or Monte Cavi.