of 



cm6 



By H. COLLEY MARCH, M.D., F.S.A. 



(Read Wth August, 1908.) 



'T is strictly in accordance with the etymology of the 

 term to say that a building is " oriented " when it 

 faces the sunrise, at whatever part of the horizon 

 this may be, between midsummer and midwinter. 



It is usual to extend this meaning, and to say of 

 a building, mainly quadrangular, that it is oriented 

 when it faces due south, so that its four sides are 

 opposite the four cardinal points ; or when it faces 

 south-east, so that its angles are opposite the 

 cardinal points. 



But it is altogether wrong to use the term orientation to denote 

 mere direction, apart from sunrise and from the cardinal points. 



Either an orientation, or some other specific direction, was in 

 the earliest times always given to sacred buildings. 



All the very ancient sacred edifices of the Romans were 

 trapezoidal in form ; they were four-sided, but not rectangular ; 

 and their acute angle was directed, not towards the east, but 

 towards the Palatine Hill. Even the terramare villages on both 



