SCI 



PELASGIAN ARCHITECTURE. 



PELASGIAN ARCHITECTURE. 



382 



next step was comparatively easy to the so-called Cyclopean masonry 

 of the ancient Etrurians, which consisted of squared blocks laid with- 

 out cement in horizontal courses. [ETRUSCAN ARCHITECTURE.] The 

 walls of Cosa, near Orbitella, afford a good example of the latest form 

 of Pelasgic masonry, with, in the upper part, the earliest Etruscan. 

 Cosa, there can be little doubt, was a Pelasgian city before it was 

 colonised by the Etruscans. 



Walla of Cosa. 



Of Pelasgian buildings, properly so called, the examples remaining 

 are few, and comparatively unimportant. Of their palaces, which 

 judging from Homer's description of that of Odysseus, and indications 

 in other early writers, must have possessed a certain amount of splen- 

 dour, no remains exist. They were probably built for show rather 

 than permanency, and may, as has been conjectured, have been con- 

 structed chiefly of wood : at any rate they have long perished. Nor 

 are any temples or religious edifices extant. The most remarkable 

 of the existing structures are the subterranean domed buildings called 

 treasuries, but which were more probably tombs, of which that at 

 Myceiwc is the oldest and most important example. This is now 

 usually called the Treasury of Atreus ; but its local name appears to 

 be the Tomb of Agamemnon. Constructed under the slope of a hill, 

 the approach to it is by a passage 20 feet wide. The doorway was 

 flanked by highly ornamented semi-columns, portions of which still 

 remain. The interior consists of two domicular chambers. The dome 

 of the largest is 47 feet 6 inches in diameter, and 50 feet high. A 

 doorway leads from it to a smaller chamber, which is about 23 feet in 

 diameter. The domes are formed by horizontal courses of stones, each 

 course projecting beyond that beneath. The walls, of course, gradually 

 approach towards the top, which ia closed by a large single slab, thus 

 forming an equilateral pointed instead of a semicircular vault. These 

 are the largest structures of that kind known. The walls of the larger 

 chamber have numerous nail-holes, in horizontal rows, and near the 

 apex of the dome several nails still project from the surface. These 

 are believed to be the fastenings of the brazen plates with which the 

 walls were covered : this being probably one of those " brazen 

 chambers " of which mention is frequently made by Greek writers. 

 The entrance doorway, like nearly all Pelasgian doorways, is formed 

 by two large upright blocks of stone, or jambs, which incline slightly 

 inwards towards the top, and a larger block, or lintel, laid on them. 

 The opening is 18 feet high, 11 feet wide at bottom, and some- 

 what less at top ; the lintel is formed by a block of stone 27 feet 

 long and 18 broad. Over the doorway is a triangular opening. The 

 facade was ornamented with semi-columns and slabs of coloured 

 marbles, with peculiar zigzag carvings in an essentially Oriental style. 

 The characteristic Ionic scroll also occurs. Two similar but smaller 

 and less elaborate structures occur at Mycetuc. Remains of another, 

 known as the Treasury of Minyaa, are found at Scripu, the site of the 

 Boeotian Orchomenon ; and others in a more or less perfect condition 

 elsewhere. 



The walls of Tiryns, of which we spoke above, were a part of the 

 original fortifications, a branch of engineering in which the Pelasgi 

 attained remarkable proficiency, and they are the best remaining 

 example of the fortifications of the heroic ages. 



The fortifications occupied the summit of a rocky height (the 

 Acropolis) and covered an area of 660 feet by 180. The walls are in 

 places above 20 feet high, but have been higher ; their average thick- 

 ness is 25 feet. According to Colonel Leake " the fortress appears to 

 have consisted of an upper and lower enclosure, of nearly equal dimen- 

 sions, with an intermediate platform, which may have served for the 

 defence of the upper castle against an enemy in possession of the 

 lower one." 



Besides the principal entrance, which was reached by a zig-zag flight 

 of steps, there were postern gates ; passages connected the upper and 

 lower fortresses, and there were semicircular bastions and projecting 

 defences with retirements in the walls which served to cover the 

 approaches. But the most remarkable constructive features remaining 

 are galleries formed in the walls ; that in the eastern wall consisting 

 of two parallel passages, the centre of which has six recesses or 

 niches hi th>> .:;'.ur;or wall. 



Gallery at Tjryns. 



" These niches," says Colonel Leake, \yho brought to his examina- 

 tion of the fortifications professional as well as archaeological knowledge, 

 " were probably intended to serve for the defence of the galleries ; and 

 the galleries for covered communications to towers or places of arms 

 at the extremity of them. One of these still exists at the south-west 

 angle." These galleries, it will be observed, were formed by making 

 the courses of stones project over each other, the curved form of a 

 pointed arch being given by cutting the inner surface of the projecting 

 stones. 



Openings of this form are frequent in doorways and in Pelasgic 

 remains in Italy, as well as in Greece, though no example of a true 

 arch occurs. We give an illustration from Segni in Latium. 



Walls and Gateway at Scgni. 



The fortifications at Mycenso are even more remarkable from their 

 extent than those at Tiryns. Their builders, as has been mentioned, 

 were said to be the Cyclopes ; they were destroyed as far as they could 

 be destroyed by the Argives, 466 B.C. What remains of them consists 

 of an irregular enclosure above 1000 feet long by nearly 700 broad, and 



