Architectural historian employs modern tools to defend Greek heritage
But why test a model of the Toumba building for wind loads and stability?1Pierattini said there has been a long-standing question of who invented the idea of building a temple with columns all around it — what is called the peristyle that characterizes classical architecture. Some have hypothesized that the Greeks learned the concept from similar temples in Egypt thousands of years earlier.
- 1. “The Greek temple is one of the most enduring and influential icons in many disciplines of the humanities — in archaeology, art, history, architectural history,” Pierattini said. “The most characteristic feature of the Greek temple is its columns; there is a central structure surrounded by columns on all four sides.”
But Pierattini’s mentor, Oxford and Edinburgh architectural historian Jim Coulton, in 1993 drew a reconstruction based on the ruins of a large building at Lefkandi on the Greek island of Euboea. While few traces remained of the wood and thatch building discovered in the 1980s, Coulton used evidence of post holes around the perimeter to establish it as the earliest-known local antecedent of the peristyle of later Greek temples.
At more than 160 feet long and 45 feet wide, the structure is 10 times larger than other known buildings from this period. Archaeologists believe it was used as a wealthy couple’s home before becoming their burial site, including jewelry and sacrificed horses.
Because the Toumba building dates back to the 10th century B.C., experts believe it could not have been copied from Egyptian temples. While there is evidence of contact between the earlier Bronze Age Egyptians and Greeks, none is found during what was called the Greek Dark Age between 1100 B.C. and a period of growth starting in the eighth century B.C.
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The ISHA team presented preliminary data to an international group of experts in an online colloquium in May. Pierattini said more refined data will be presented at a future meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, and he is working on an article he hopes to publish next year in the peer-reviewed Annual of the British School at Athens, a top journal from Cambridge University.1
- 1. “I’m the author so I’m obviously biased, but I think this will answer the question of whether this is the first-known peripteral building in Greek history, once it is published,” Pierattini said. “It’s also interesting because we need to develop a common interdisciplinary language between architects, physicists and engineers. I imagine it will be very visual.”
