Mycenaean and Hellenic

PERIODS OF ANCIENT GREEK

Mycenaean Period
ca. 16001100 BC

last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece

Architecture, art and religious practices were
assimilated and adapted to better express the
perhaps more militaristic and austere
Mycenaean culture

In A R C H I T E C T U R E

Cyclopean Architecture

Cyclopean masonry, a type of stonework found in Mycenaean architecture,

built with massive limestone boulders, roughly fitted together with
minimal clearance between adjacent stones and no use of mortar. The
boulders typically seem unworked, but some may have been worked roughly
with a hammer and the gaps between boulders filled in with smaller chunks of
limestone

'Cyclopean', the term normally applied to the masonry style characteristic of

Mycenaean fortification systems, describes walls built of huge, unworked
limestone boulders which are roughly fitted together

Cyclopean Masonry Wall

Reflect a need for protection and self-defense since these
walls often encircled the citadel site and the acropolis on
which the site was located

The walls are usually founded in extremely shallow beddings carved out of the
bedrock

As these boulders are very big in size, the ancient people believed that it was
the Cyclops who built these gates, as the thought it impossible for men to
move such big rocks. That is why these walls were named Cyclopean Walls

Rectangular Masonry Wall

rectangular stones of unequal height, known as the fourth
style of Cyclopean architecture

Polygonal Masonry Wall

Known as the second style of Mycenaean Period

Polygonal masonry is a technique of stone construction of the ancient

Mediterranean world. True polygonal masonry is a technique wherein the
visible surfaces of the stones are dressed with straight sides or joints, giving the
block the appearance of a polygon
This technique is found throughout the Mediterranean and sometimes
corresponds to the less technical category of Cyclopean masonry

Mycenae Tholos
Also known as tombs
Mycenaean chamber tombs which seem to have emerged at about
the same time. Both have chamber, doorway stomion and entrance
passage dromos but tholoi are largely built while chamber tombs
are rock-cut

The vaulted tholoi are a monumental Late Bronze Age development

tumulus burials dating to the Middle Bronze Age

Tombs that usually contain more than one burial, in various places in the tomb
either on the floor, in pits and cists or on stone-built or rock-cut benches, and
with various grave goods. After a burial, the entrance to the tomb was filled in
with soil, leaving a small mound with most of the tomb underground

the chamber is always built in masonry

the dromos in early examples was usually just cut from the bedrock, as in the
Panagia Tomb at Mycenae itself

the chambers were built as corbelled vaults, with layers of stone placed closer
together as the vault tapers toward the top of the tomb

Hellenic Period
ca. 32330 BC

period of ancient Greek and Mediterranean history between

the death of Alexander the Great
A part of the Ancient Period for the European and Near Asian
space. The use of this period is justified by the extent of the
Hellenic culture in most of these areas, due to the Greek political
presence especially in Asia after Alexander's conquests, but also
to a new wave of Greek colonization

In A R C H I T E C T U R E

It resulted a vast in urban plans and large complexes which had mostly
disappeared from city-states by the 5th century BC. This city planning was quite
innovative for the Greek world; rather than manipulating space by correcting
its faults, building plans conformed to the natural setting
This city planning was quite innovative for the Greek world; rather than
manipulating space by correcting its faults, building plans conformed to the
natural setting

One notes the appearance of many places of amusement and leisure, notably
the multiplication of theatres and parks
The Hellenistic monarchies were advantaged in this regard in that they often
had vast spaces where they could build large cities: such as Antioch, Pergamon,
and Seleucia on the Tigris

Corbel
A solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a
piece applied to the structure
Corbeling is the construction of corbel

"corbel" comes from Old French and derives from the Latin corbellus, a
diminutive of corvus (a raven) which refers to the beak-like
appearance. Similarly, the French refer to a bracket-corbel, usually a loadbearing internal feature, as a corbeau (a crow)

a corbel or console is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a

wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket
The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall
support a projecting wall or parapet, has been used since Neolithic times.

Corbeled Arch
an arch-like construction method that uses the architectural
technique of corbeling to span a space or void in a structure,
such as an entranceway in a wall or as the span of a bridge

Corbeled Tables
a projecting moulded string course supported by a range of
corbels. Sometimes these corbels carry a small arcade under the
string course, the arches of which are pointed and trefoil

Temple of Apollo
Grand and monumental architecture can be found in Ionia, modern
day Turkey in Pergamon and Didyma. The Temple of Apollo at
Didyma was both a temple and an oracle site for the god Apollo

designed by the architects Paionios of Ephesus and Daphnis of Miletus and was
begun in 313 BCE and was never completed, although work continued until the
second century CE

The interior court was 71 feet wide by 175 feet long and contained a small
shrine. The court was also dipteral in form, edged with a double row of 108
columns 65 feet tall which surrounded the temple
The structure creates a series of imposing spaces from the exterior colonnade
to the oracle rooms and the interior courtyard inside of which the shrine to
Apollo stood

Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae

a hexa-style temple with fifteen columns down its length. The
temple was built by the Parthenon architect, Iktinos, in the second
half of the fifth century BCE

the temple faces north-south instead of east-west, which accommodates the

landscape of the site
the temple has a door on the naos which provides access and light to the naos
it takes some cues from the Parthenon, such as a colonnade in the naos, but in
this case the colonnade is a single story and only the columns of the temple
and not the stylobate have entasis
the temple has elements of all three architectural orders and is currently has
the earliest known example of a Corinthian capital

Tholos of Athena Pronaia

a circular shrine with twenty exterior Doric columns and
10 Corinthian columns in the interior. The Corinthian capital was
developed in the middle of the fifth century and used minimally
until the Hellenistic era and was later popular with the Romans

located at Epidaurus and an example of the architecture and engineering at the

time

was designed by Polykleitos the Younger, the son of the sculptor Polykleitos, in
the mid fourth century BCE
the theater seats up to 15,000 people
this theatre was built into the hillside, which supports the stadium seating, and
the theater overlooks a lush valley and mountainous landscape

The theater is especially well known for its acoustics that could amplify a
spoken voice on the stage to every spectator, no matter where they sat
The shape of the theater helped to amplify the sounds from the stage, while
the limestone seating is credited with muffling additional noises coming from
the crowd

Corinthian
considered the third order of Classical architecture
The order's columns are similar to Ionic columns; the columns are
slender and fluted and sit atop a base

The capital of the column differs and is substantially vegetal

The capital consists of a double layer of acanthus leaves and a stylized plant
stem that curls up towards the abacus in the shape of a scroll or volute
The decorative Corinthian order was not widely adopted in Greece, although it
was popular in tholos shrines; it was, however, used substantially throughout
the Roman period

TERMS

 Orthogonal - in linear perspective drawing, the diagonal line pointing to the

vanishing point; sometimes referred to as vanishing or convergence line

Stoa - in Ancient Greece, a walkway with a roof supported by colonnades,

often with a wall on one side; a portico
Dipteral - having a double row of columns on each on the flanks, as well as
in front and rear, often said of a temple
Collonade - a series of columns at regular intervals

 Volute - the spiral curve on an Ionic capital

Acanthus - an ornament resembling the foliage or leaves of Acanthus

spinosus, and used in the capitals of the Corinthian and composite orders
Corbel - a structural member jutting out of a wall to carry a superincumbent
weight
Post and Lintel a simple construction method using a header (lintel) as the
horizontal member over a building void supported at its ends by two vertical
columns (posts)

 Megaron - the rectangular great hall in a Mycenaean building, usually

supported with pillars
Cyclopean Masonry - A type of stonework found in Mycenaean architecture,
built with massive limestone boulders, roughly fitted together with minimal
clearance between adjacent stones and no use of mortar

Dromos - an entrance passage or avenue leading to a building

submitted to:
Ar Glenn Ymballa, UAP

submitted by:
Group of Jesus Garucha IV