Greek Masonry

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Greek Masonryand Construction Techniques


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Masonry

Cyclopean The earliest example of substantial building in Greece was the Cyclopean masonry

found in Mycenae and nearby in other Bronze Age citadel cities.

It is unknown how the ancient Mycenaeans moved such large stones, some ofthem, such as the megalithic lintel stones over the Lions Gate, weighing up toseveral tons. In fact, very little is known about any of their construction techniques.The skills were lost in the years after the Bronze Age ended, around 1100 B.C.

What we know though, is that the stones were only very slightly worked with tools,and were probably found lying around the area rather then quarried. Smallerchunks of stones would be jammed between any cracks between the larger ones.Because of the great mass and weight of the larger stones, the walls proved to bevery durable and sturdy.

Wall in Mycenae, built c. 1500 B.C.


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Polygonal When Greece came out of its Dark

Age around 800 B.C., it had to

reinvent the masonry skills it saw inthe ruins of Mycenae.

Unless rectangular blocks werenecessary for aesthetic reasons,masons tended to try and imitatethe Cyclopean style as best theycould, because it took less time and

effort to work the stones into propershape.

They used smaller stones thanseen in Cyclopean masonrybecause they didnt have thetechnology to move stones as largeas those used in Mycenae.

In Polygonal masonry, masons cutblocks with curved outlines and fitthem together like a puzzle, usingthe natural form of the rock

This masonry was very stable, andbecause they interlocked so tightly,the wall didnt need any extrasupport from metal clamps.

Delphi terrace wall, early sixth century


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Horizontal

About 500 B.C., it became high

style to lay blocks in more or lesshorizontal rows. This sense of orderwas seen as more formal than theirregularity of the polygonalmasonry, and was often used withtemples and important civicstructures.

It was less stable than theinterlocking polygonal style though,and so the masons would securethe blocks with horizontal claspsand vertical metal dowels to preventany lateral shifting.

All of the metal was further fixed by

a seal of molten lead, all of thissecurity important in Greece, whichwas often hit by earthquakes.

With all of the metal used and thetime it took to finely shape thestone, this sort of masonry wasexpensive, and saved for only the

most prestigious structures.

Priene street with supporting wall for the

temple of Athena Polias, fourth century


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Ashlar / Isodomic This masonry was a fifth century development, and basically a refinement of the

horizontal masonry.

At the corners, the joints were often placed perpendicular to one another inalternating layers.

Generally this was used for smaller or highly important surfaces as the regularitycould seem monotonous if carried on for too long.

Generally, for added interest, larger blocks were used for the lower courses ofthe walls, and is often seen in temples where the foundation is above groundand where an intermediate size stone softens the difference between the large

foundation slabs and the smaller ashlar stones.

The

Erechtheion,

Athens, c.

421-407 B.C.


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Others

Decorative Polygonal In the Hellenistic period,

polygonal masonry came backinto style, but instead ofselecting rocks from thesurface of the ground and justbarely working them, latermasons deliberately carvedthe stones into complexgeometrical shapes.

This style was mainly reserved

for decorative masonry, realpolygonal masonry was stillused for more utilitarianpurposes.

Knidos terrace-wall 3rd- 2nd c.


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Others



Others



Knidos terrace-wall 3rd- 2nd c.

The earlier polygonal fromDelphi shows more natural

shapes, while the irregularities

of the later wall seem

manufactured in comparison


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Others Slanted Ashlar

This style seems to be a sort ofcompromise between polygonaland horizontal masonry.

The blocks are flat on the top andbottom and set in relatively straightcourses, the only difference wasthat every so often, the sides werecut on angles.

These angled edges retained someof the extra stability polygonalmasonry gave and so masons feltsafe to use this style for purposessuch as fortification despite thesmall block size, which wouldusually lead to weaker walls.

Although most of the walls were stillconstructed using Polygonalmasonry, this provided a cleaner-looking alternative for embellishedpieces of the walls.

Messene, city wall and tower, min 4th c.


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Others Slanted Ashlar

This style seems to be a sort ofcompromise between polygonaland horizontal masonry.

The blocks are flat on the top andbottom and set in relatively straightcourses, the only difference wasthat every so often, the sides werecut on angles.

These angled edges retained someof the extra stability polygonalmasonry gave and so masons feltsafe to use this style for purposessuch as fortification despite thesmall block size, which wouldusually lead to weaker walls.

Although most of the walls were stillconstructed using Polygonalmasonry, this provided a cleaner-looking alternative for embellishedpieces of the walls.

Messene, city wall and tower, min 4th c.


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Building Techniques

Mystery of Mycenae When Greece regained an interest

for monumental building around 800

B.C., Mycenae was already in ruins.

The Greeks knew that they still had

the same materials as theirancestors; timber, mud bricks, andstone, but they had forgotten thetechniques that the Mycenaeanshad developed for their massivestructures.

The Greeks could only guess thatthe walls and other structures musthave been built by the giantCyclopes, hence the nameCyclopean masonry.


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Dark Age of Greek History

During the Dark Age of Greece, buildings hadbeen mainly made of sun-baked mud brick withtimber support frames and thatched roofs.

Buildings were not meant to be monumental,and most sacred places were not temples butrather natural formations such as caves.

Stone was used only for the base of thebuildings to keep water moister away from themud walls, but these unworked stones weregenerally just those that were found on thesurface of the ground.

The buildings themselves were competentlybuilt, but there was certainly little if any attemptof elaboration, and everything was kept on arelatively small scale as the proportions weredependent of the size of the tree trunks theycould find.


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Historical and Egyptian Inspiration

Around 800 B.C., there was an increased interestin the historical past, perpetuated by people likeHomer who told stories about the heroic past ofGreece.

Greeks wanted to emulate the style of theirancient heroes, and were given the chancethrough increased interactions with Egypt.

Around 660 B.C., the Greeks had given support toPharaoh Psamtik, who regained control of Egypt

from Assyrian control. His victory opened thedoor for increased trade and communication, andthe Greeks founded a trading town namedNaukratis on the western Egyptian coastlinearound 620 B.C..

Homer


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Megalithic Building Egypt built monumental works completely in stone, and the Greeks eagerly

studied their techniques in order to develop their own style.

From the early seventh century onward, they would have had new knowledge ofhow to dress stone as well as how to physically put up such megalithicbuildings.

One of the easiest comparisons

between Greek and Egyptian architecture

is the Doric order.

The Greeks at first closely followed the

Egyptian models, although in their earlier

temples it can be seen that they still

needed to develop their refinement.

But although the Greeks did copy someof Egyptian building techniques, their

buildings in whole were very different

from their Egyptian counterparts, keeping

to traditional Greek forms.

Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Deir-el-Bahari, Egypt, c. 1500 BC


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Megalithic Building Note that the Temple of Apollo, which is one of the earliest examples of

Greek megalithic buildings, has monolithic columns. This would later berefined by building the columns up in drums rather than trying to carvethe entire pillar, which took larger pieces of stone and so was both moreexpensive and more cumbersome.

Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Deir-el-Bahari, Egypt, c. 1500 BC The Temple of Apollo at Corinth, mid-6th

century B.C.


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Steps to Construction: The Architects Job

In ancient Greece, there was no difference betweenarchitect and engineer until the late fourth century, andhe was the most important person on the project,sometimes even more so than the patrons themselves.

The architect of the building project was expected tocontrol all details of workmanship, inspect each courseof stone before the next could be laid down, approve thetightness of each joint and the quality of the clamps, and

authorize payments to all the workmen and contractors.

In fact, the only part of the building process which he hadno direct control over was the quarrying process.


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Steps to Construction: Quarrying

and Initial Carving

After the 6th century BC, theGreeks followed the Egyptianmethod of quarrying.

Blocks were cut from thequarry on order from thebuilder, and even columndrums were sometimes precutin their cylinder shape.

A channel would be cutaround the block to the depthof the height required andthen it would be detachedfrom its base with wedges.


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Steps to Construction: Quarrying and Initial

Carving

As Greek masons and architect refined their work, temples (it wasmostly temples that were built with the best stonework) grew in size to amore monumental scale.

As the temples grew, so did the size of the required blocks if the stylewas to remain in the same proportions.

To ease the growingpressures on lifting andtransportation, stoneworkerswould often hollow out partsof the stone that werentessential to the support ofthe building.


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Steps to Construction: Transporting the

Stone

Most blocks could be transported to the build site in ox-drawnwagons, and this was the standard practice.

The Greeks did at times use the Egyptian method of having blocksmoved on sledges and rollers, but it wasnt practical for longdistances, and took too many men to execute properly.

At times though, loadswould become too heavy for

wagons, and new plans

would have to be worked

out. Some worked while

others not so much.

Lower left design was

actually used by the

architect Cherisphron to

move the architrave blocks

for the Temple of Artemis at

Ephesos (c. 560 BC).


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Steps to Construction: Lifting and

Leveling

Once the blocks had arrived at the constructionsite, the real work began.

The Greeks did employ the earthen rampmethod of the Egyptians, and even improved onthe idea by using sandbags instead of earth sothat once the stone block was in place, it could

be lowered by a controlled flow of sand as theyloosened the bags one by one.

A preferred method though, was the use ofcranes, much like the cranes we have todayexcept made mainly of wood and rope.

These cranes made it possible to have only asmall workforce of professional workmen on thesite, rather than the large mob it would take touse other methods like the earth ramp, and sowas much more efficient and reasonable in asociety which didnt have the instant workforcewhich a pharaoh would have.


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Steps to Construction: Lifting and Leveling

II The cranes, however more efficient thanramps, could only handle smaller sized

blocks.

Multiple cranes could be used on oneblocks, but architects adapted to themachinery instead by having the same

structure made of smaller individual units.

U-shaped notches or protruding bumpswould be carved into the stone pieces sothat ropes would have somewhere to attachto when the block was lifted into place.

Once the blocks were set in place, as wellas during initial carving, masons wouldcheck that the blocks were level using an A-shaped level. This level had a plumb-linehanging from the apex, which on a levelplane would hang directly between the twolegs.


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Steps to Construction: Connecting and

Finishing

The column drums were connected bymetal dowels which were fixed with lead,and the regular blocks of the walls werefixed by metal clamps and lead as ingeneral horizontal masonry practices, withno mortar used.

To make sure everything looked regularand aligned properly, the final carving wassaved until all the blocks were in place.

The stone was worked down with chisels

until it was finally smoothed by smallstones and sand. If it was marble, it couldbe further polished with leather.

Completely finishing stone seemed to bereserved for only the most importantbuildings, as it took a lot of detailed work.

a) The U-Shape holes on top, here for levers

rather than cranes because of the small

stone size

b) The dove-tail clamp connecting the top of

the two stones

f) Preliminary finishing


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Temples versus Secular Temples were unique to Greek architecture in that their form never changed

much. It was always a post and lintel structure, mimicking the homes of the early

Greeks.

This is somewhat misleading, because the Greeks did know about otherconstruction methods such as the arch, they just chose tradition instead of newforms.

In fact, the arch and other more experimental forms can be seen in secularstructures. The arch in particular, was saved for structures with thicker walls,which would provide the proper amount of buttressing for the outward thrust.

Parthenon, Athens,

447- 431 BC


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Techniques Seen in

Fortifications

Because of their thick walls, fortifications(as well as tombs) often had domes,because they didnt need buttressing.

Seen here is also an example ofcantilevering, where the steps aresupported only on one end of the stoneblock which is embedded into the wall.

The Greeks though never built a domelarger than the span of a small room. It

would be the Romans who would fullyexplore the use of domes as well asother more experimental forms of stoneconstruction, aided dramatically by theirinvention of concrete.


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Bibliography

Coulton, J. J. Greek Architects at Work. London: Elek Books Ltd.,1977.

Lawrence, A. W. Greek Architecture. 5th ed. New York: Yale UP,Pelican history of art, 1996.

Sadler, Simon. "Lecture 3." AHI025. ART 217. 14 Apr. 2008.

Tomlinson, Richard A. From Mycenae to Constantinople: TheEvolution of the Ancient City. New York: Routledge, 1992.

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Greek Masonry