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House of the Tiles


Stairway remains of the House of the Tiles.

The House of the Tiles is a large Early Bronze Age building with two stories located at Lerna in southern Greece.[1] It is known for its advanced architecture, especially its roof covered by baked tiles giving the building its name.[1][2] The building is a type of house called a "corridor house".[3][4]

History

Excavation

The House of the Tiles was discovered during excavations made in the early 1950s by the American School of Classical Studies led by John Langdon Caskey of the University of Cincinnati.[5]

Structure

The building dates back to 2500–2300 BCE and is either the dwelling of a high member of the community, an early palace, or an administrative center. It may also have been a communal structure meaning the property of all the townspeople.[6] The building's function remains unknown.[6] The house had a stairway leading to a second story and was protected by a tiled roof.[7] The building also had areas for storage.[8] Debris found at the site of the building had many terracotta tiles that fell from the roof.[9] Such roofs were also found in the Early Bronze Age site of Akovitika,[10] as well as in the Mycenaean towns of Gla and Midea.[11] But roofs with baked tiles only became common in Greek architecture in the 7th century BC.[12] The walls of the House of the Tiles were made with bricks on stone.[2]

Destruction

Carbon-14 dating shows that the House of the Tiles was destroyed by fire in the 22nd century BC.[9] Not long after the destruction, the place was cleared in a way as to leave a low tumulus over the site.[9] The cause of the destruction was first attributed by John Langdon Caskey to an invasion of Greeks and/or Indo-Europeans during the Early Bronze Age.[13] But the complexity of the tumulus built over the house's ruins by Bronze Age people shows instead a "showing of respect for their predecessors that one would not expect of invaders of a different culture."[14]

References

Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Cline 2012, p. 202: "The House of the Tiles was named for the enormous quantity of fired clay roof tiles associated with the building. It was built of mud brick over a substantial stone foundation course (ca. 12 x 25 m), with traces of wood-sheathed doorjambs and stucco-plastered walls in some rooms. It was two stories high, as indicated by traces of stairways, and may have had several verandas upstairs, partially covered by a pitched roof, as suggested by Shaw (1990). The House of the Tiles was preceded by an earlier structure of similar type, House BG. Those buildings sometimes also incorporated elaborate clay hearths that are decorated with stamped-seal impressions."
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Overbeck 1969, p. 5.
  3. ↑ Shaw 1987, pp. 59–79.
  4. ↑ Pullen 2008, pp. 36, 43 (Endnote #22): "A corridor house is a large, two-story building consisting of two or more large rooms flanked by narrow corridors on the sides. Some of those corridors held staircases; others were used for storage."
  5. ↑ John Langdon Caskey, Professor of Archeology. 8 December 1981. https://www.nytimes.com/1981/12/08/obituaries/john-langdon-caskey-professor-of-archeology.html. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Overbeck 1969, p. 6.
  7. ↑ Overbeck 1969, p. 5; Shaw 1987, p. 59.
  8. ↑ Neer 2012, pp. 44–45.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Caskey 1968, p. 314.
  10. ↑ Shaw 1987, p. 72.
  11. ↑ Shear 2000, pp. 133–134.
  12. ↑ Wikander 1990, p. 285.
  13. ↑ Caskey 1960, pp. 285–303.
  14. ↑ Coleman 2000, p. 106: "The people of EH III constructed an elaborate tumulus over the ruins of the EH II "House of the Tiles (Caskey 1960; 1965:144–145) showing respect for their predecessors that one would not expect of invaders of a different culture."

Sources

  • Caskey, John L. (July–September 1960). "The Early Helladic Period in the Argolid". Hesperia. The American School of Classical Studies at Athens. 29 (3): 285–303. doi:10.2307/147199. JSTOR 147199.
  • Caskey, John L. (1968). "Lerna in the Early Bronze Age". American Journal of Archaeology. 72 (4): 313–316. doi:10.2307/503823. JSTOR 503823.
  • Cline, Eric H., ed. (2012). The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-987360-9.
  • Coleman, John E. (2000). "An Archaeological Scenario for the "Coming of the Greeks" ca. 3200 B.C." The Journal of Indo-European Studies. 28 (1–2): 101–153.
  • Neer, Richard T. (2012). Greek Art and Archaeology. New York: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-28877-1.
  • Overbeck, John C. (October 1969). "Greek Towns of the Early Bronze Age". The Classical Journal. The Classical Association of the Middle West and South. 65 (1): 1–7. JSTOR 3295660.
  • Pullen, Daniel (2008). "The Early Bronze Age in Greece". In Shelmerdine, Cynthia W. (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 19–46. ISBN 978-0-521-81444-7.
  • Shaw, Joseph W. (1987). "The Early Helladic II Corridor House: Development and Form". American Journal of Archaeology. Archaeological Institute of America. 91 (1): 59–79. doi:10.2307/505457. JSTOR 505457.
  • Shear, Ione Mylonas (January 2000). "Excavations on the Acropolis of Midea: Results of the Greek–Swedish Excavations under the Direction of Katie Demakopoulou and Paul Åström". American Journal of Archaeology. 104 (1): 133–134. doi:10.2307/506802. JSTOR 506802.
  • Wikander, Örjan (January–March 1990). "Archaic Roof Tiles the First Generations". Hesperia. 59 (1): 285–290. doi:10.2307/148143. JSTOR 148143.

Coordinates: 37°33′04″N 22°43′06″E / 37.5512°N 22.7183°E / 37.5512; 22.7183

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