^it 
 
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 CORNELL University. 
 
The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924008711834 
 
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 Cornell University Library 
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 A doric shaft and base found at Assos. 
 
 3 1924 008 711 834 
 
IPaptrs of l^e Ju^iKfllflgical |nstilulc of Jmmca. 
 
 A DORIC SHAFT AND BASE 
 
 K O IJ K D AT 
 
 ASSOS. 
 
 By JOSEPH THACHER CLARKE. 
 
 mf . .INSTITUTE \B 
 
 fei OF " 
 
 \^\ AMERICA. /■*, 
 1879 
 
 BALTIMORE: 
 
 PUBLISHED FOB THE INSTITUTE BY 
 
 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ARCHEOLOGY. 
 1886. 
 
.R. ftry. 
 
 JOHN HUBPHY A CO., PBINTEBS, 
 BiL^TIUOBE. 
 
A DOEIC SHAFT AND BASE FOUND AT ASSOS. 
 
 ' I I 
 
 
 Fig. 1. 
 
 A«Lr. luo-i.^ C.!,.^ , lii cL..,$] 
 
 One of the most interesting monuments unearthed in the Nekropolis 
 of Assos is the stump of an archaic Doric shaft : the only known 
 example of a column of that order provided with an Egyptian base.* 
 
 ' It is to be observed that the Attic bases of late form, which appear in the 
 engraving of the two extremely ancient Doric colnmns found on the Akropolis of 
 Athens (published by Ludwig Boss in vol. xill of the Annali ddP InMitvio, Roma, 
 1841, tav. c) do not belong to these shafts, but were added through an error, 
 explained in the letter-press. As these columns were free-standing, they were, 
 
 3 
 
4 PAPERS 0^ ARCH^OLOOICAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 Its relation to the earliest development of Greek architecture makes 
 it a striking parallel to the proto-Ionic capital from Neandreia.'' Both 
 are important illustrations of the methods by which the Greeks sim- 
 plified and improved architectural details derived from older civiliza- 
 tions. Each is a link in a long chain, and hence the presentation of 
 each requires that more attention be devoted to the adjoining links, to 
 the antique remains of similar character, than is possible in the nar- 
 row limits of a Keport on the excavation of one site. The writer 
 trusts that this consideration may be held to justify the separate pub- 
 lication of these results of the exploration of Assos and the southern 
 Troad, undertaken by the Archaeological Institute of America. 
 
 The column shown in figure 1 was found during the digging of 
 the second year (1882). It stood by the side of the main road which 
 led through the burial-ground ffom the principal western gate of the 
 
 city, and was distant about 130 
 
 metres from the fortifications. At 
 
 this point, the native rock rises al- 
 
 - most vertically, having been fully 
 
 ' 1.2 ra. above the pavement of the 
 
 ' ancient street which passed close 
 
 ' to it. When found, the column 
 
 .5)5 — ,a^..^ 
 
 4: 
 
 Ldnluk. Mat- was but little below the surface 
 
 ¥ia.2.—Secii(mofiheDm-ieshafiandbase.* of the accumulated earth; The 
 
 rock was here levelled and cut 
 to a broad base, in the centre of which was sunk a deep socket of the 
 same plan as the lower diameter of the shaft [fig. 2). Into this the 
 column was inserted, and set by a lead casting. A considerable part of 
 this lead had been picked away by despoilers before being covered by 
 the accumulating d6bris, and it is fortunate that the stone itself had 
 not been entirely shattered in order to get at the six or eight pounds of 
 of metal which remained around and bisneath it. Among the ruins of 
 
 without doubt, originally provided with bases ; but at all events these members 
 have not been found. 
 
 The only Greek Doric base known to the writer has little or no bearing upon the 
 development of the style : it is that of the Column of the Naxians at Delphi, discov- 
 ered and published by M. P. Foucart in his Mimunre mr lea mines et I'hisUnre de Vd- 
 phes; Archives des Missions scientifigues et litteraires: Deux. Sdrie, vol. 11: Paris, 1865. 
 
 ' J. T. Clarke, A proto-Ionic Capital, in the Amer. Journal of Arch., vol. II, pp. 20, 1 36. 
 
 * These measurements differ from those on the following page, being taken from 
 one side of the shaft, whereas the latter represent the average of both sides. 
 
A DORIC SHAFT AND :BASE- FO UND A T ASSOS. 5 
 
 Assos those stones still exposed above-ground which were united by 
 iron'cramps have, almost without exception, been broken by the sledge- 
 hammer, the employment of which for the purpose of obtaining such 
 lead castings is familiar to the wandering gypsy-smiths in Asia Minor. 
 So securely was the column attached to the bed rock that, although 
 it is beyond question the oldest of all the monuments discovered in 
 the Nekropolis, it is the only one which has not been overthrown. 
 The shaft was irregularly broken off at a height of about 0.65 m. from 
 its base. No remains of the upper part were brought to light by the 
 further excavations in the vicinity. 
 
 During the Roman dominion, a segment of the base was cut away 
 to make room for a monolithic sarcophagus,^ the approximate date of 
 which is evident from its having contained, together with crumbling 
 bones, the sherds of a vessel of red pottery ornamented with figures 
 in reliefj — the well-known Samian ware. This sarcophagus was 
 buried beneath the surface of the earth, no respect being paid to the 
 integrity of the, column, which must, at that time, have been at least 
 five hundred years old. The remaining part of the base, although 
 much worn and fractured, shows the stone-cutting to have been care- 
 ful and accurate : the bevelled edge is perfectly regular, and the dis- 
 tance from its upper circumference to the arrises of the shaft is on all 
 sides exactly 0.298 m. The lower diameter of the base is 1.06 m. ; 
 its height 0.034 m. 
 
 The shaft is 0.425 m. in diameter. The stone of which it is cut is 
 the same andesite as the bed rock. ^ (The resistance of this material to 
 weathering depends greatly upon tfie stratum from which it is quar- 
 ried, ^nd the degree of exposure tovthe elements. Thus, some of the 
 stones of the lower wall of the great eastern gate, which probably dates 
 from the fourth .century, having been subjected to the percolation of 
 water since the time of the Turkish: occupation, may be easily crum- 
 bled with the finger nail. The archaic column, on the other hand, 
 has hardly been weathered at all : its arrises are perfectly sharp, and 
 the letters engraved upon it as legible as when first cut. The chan- 
 nels, of an approximately segmental plan, are twenty-five in number. 
 Their extreme shallowness, like the slight elevation of the base cut 
 upon the bed foek, is sufficiently accounted for by the difficulty of 
 
 ' No'. 76 of the list and general plan which will be given in the second Keport on 
 the Excavations at Assos. 
 
6 PAPERS OF ARCHMOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 working this exceedingly hard and gritty stone. Eecent experiments 
 made upon the andesite of Assos by a lapidary, under the supervision 
 of the writer, have shown it to be one of the most intractable mate- 
 rials ever chosen for architectural details. 
 
 The number of the channels, unique among the remains of anti- 
 quity, is to be explained by the entirely isolated position of the 
 column. As it stood in no rdation to the axes of a building, it was 
 not absolutely necessary to make the number of channels divisible by 
 four,* or even the opposite sides of the column symmetrical,^ and 
 the channels consequently of even number. Within these limita- 
 tions, the subsequent usage of the Greeks in channelling their col- 
 umns seems to have been determined solely by considerations based 
 upon the absolute size of the shafts, and the distance from which 
 they were generally to be seen. The simile of Aristotle, in his 
 Ethics,^ from which is derived our knowledge of the technical term 
 employed for this detail, clearly shows that the rhabdosis was regarded 
 by the architect, not as an independent feature of the design," but 
 
 * All the multiples of four, from sixteen to thirty-two, appear in the buildings of 
 Greece. Twenty-eight and thirty-two channels are, however, exceedingly rare : the 
 former number being known to the writer only by the fragment of a Doric column 
 found by him among the foundation stones of the theatre of Ephesos; the latter 
 only by two Doric drums on the island of Samos, which have been described by L. 
 Koss, in his Beisen amf den griechigehen Inedn dee aegaeischen Meeres : Stuttgart, 1840- 
 43. .These last were seen and measured by the present writer in 1879. They had 
 then been removed from their former position and built into the wall of a vineyard. 
 An approximate diameter is 1.04 m., showing that the building to which they 
 belonged was of considerable size : at least half as large again as, for instance, the 
 chief temple of .\ssos. 
 
 " Eighteen channels (the only number not a multiple of four known to have been 
 employed by the Greeks) are to be observed in the pronaos of the temple of Assos. 
 The peculiar considerations which led to the adoption of this number have been set 
 forth in the Report on the investigations at Assos, 1881 : Boston, 1882, p. 89. 
 
 ' Elhika Nihom. x. 4. 2. The commentary upon this passage, attributed to Eustra- 
 tios, betrays a want of understanding of the word 'Pd/3(Ju<T(f, which is explained: 
 T^v KOTO /i^KOQ Tz^iiv, fJTiQ flvETai, btav vpoQ 'o/)fldf yu/vloq larval. Still, it is not sur- 
 prising that a Byzantine ecclesiastic of the twelfth century should have been wholly 
 unacquainted with the details of antique architecture, and have supposed that the 
 rhabdosis signified the erection of the column to a position exactly vertical. 
 
 'Certain writers on Greek architecture fancifully assume this striation of the 
 shaft to have been derived from, or at least to be analogous to, the ribbed stems of 
 umbelliferous plants, notably the Herademn sUphiitm narthex (K. Botticher, Die 
 Teklonik der HeUenen: Ed. 2: Berlin, 1874, vol; l) ; or the cracked bark of the 
 trunks of trees (P. F. Erell, Gesehichte des dorischen Styls; Stuttgart, 1870 : and many 
 
A DOBIO SHAFT AND BASE FOUND AT ASSOS. 7 
 
 simply in its relation to the general effect of the building.* The num- 
 ber of channels is thus no indication of age, as has been so often 
 assumed. For instance, the columns of the archaic temple of Kor- 
 inth, of large dimensions and situated in the plain, have twenty chan- 
 nels ; while the small shafts of the interior of the temple of Aigina 
 have only sixteen, as have also those of the much more recent temple 
 of Sunion, which stand upon the narrow summit of an eminence, form- 
 ing a. landmark for mariners doubling the cape. All the instances of 
 sixteen-channelled shafts, which are exceptions to the general usage, 
 are to be explained by these considerations. The best parallel to 
 the memberment of the Assos coluiAn is presented by the forty-four 
 channels of that of the Naxians at Delphi (of. Note 1), both intended 
 to be seen from immediate proximity. It is evident, however, that, 
 at the time when the Assos monument was erected, the practice of 
 channelling had not been reduced to the system which reUdered 
 the Doric columns of later ages so Jregular in detail, but, frequently, 
 so mechanical and uninteresting. Whe artistic effect of channelling a 
 cylindrical shaft, thus emphasizing the line of support, had undoubt- 
 
 othere). But that the Greeks attached ao symbolical significance, no peculiarly 
 architectural character even, to the channelling, is evident from the employment of 
 the adjective 'fiapdardi for any striation, — such as the farrows of sea-shells (Aristotle, 
 Sist, Animal. IV. 4. 3), the ribbed ornamentation of drinking- vessels (Polemon 
 in Aithenaios, XI. 67), and even the stripes of garments (Xenophon, Kyr-VJii. 3. 16). 
 " In the fourth chapter of the tenth book of the Nikomachean Ethics, Aristotle 
 reviews his analysis of pleasure, and by the synthetical method determines its defi- 
 nitions. He explains that it is somethingjcOmplete in itself; not something gradu- 
 ally attained, but a consciousness of perfection which is independent of the condition 
 of time. Hence, pleasure is not motion, inasmuch as this requires time, and pre- 
 supposes some higher end, being thus, in itself, incomplete. This he illustrates by 
 a comparison with architecture, which is "perfect when it has produced that at which 
 it ultimately aims, while its separate processes are imperfect, and differ entirely 
 from each other. In specifying the details of the building of a temple, and in 
 explaining the differences observable between them, he says : ^ yap rav Xidov aMcatg 
 ircfM T^c Tov Kiovoc pa^SiiaeuiQ, ml avrac TijQ rov vaov iroi^aeag.' Did the great philo- 
 sopher intend, in thus contrasting the 'fitting together of the stones with the channel- 
 ling of the column, to illustrate also the distinction which is to be made between the 
 mechanical juncture of the drums, on the one hand, and their incorporation into an 
 aesthetic unity by this architectural expedient, on the other ? He probably did not. 
 The marked distinction which is to be made between these two processes may have 
 led to the instinctive choice of them as similes ; but it is plain from the details of 
 the construction subsequently adduced, — namely the entirely unrelated krepis and 
 ■ triglyph,^that this idea was not definite!^' present in his mind. Such aesthetic subtle- 
 ties would be less natural to the ancient Greeks than, let us say, to the modern Germans. 
 
PAPERS OF A&CH^OLOQICAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 
 =- 'S. 
 
 — _ -_"~I. w 
 
 It 
 
 
 
 S i 
 
 
 "■¥ 
 
 O 
 
 M 
 
 »;:^i 
 
 edly been observed by the 
 primitive stone-cutter upon 
 other columns, and imita- 
 ted by him in a perfectly 
 natural manner. Hedivid^ 
 ed the circumference with 
 a unit of. measurement de- 
 termined in entire indepen- 
 dence of the axes. This 
 proved to adjust itself most 
 readi ly to twenty-five divis- 
 ions of equal width ; and 
 the separating lines were 
 cut as arrises, — no atten- 
 tion being paid to the odd 
 number, or to the want of 
 that symmetry .which re- 
 sults from a correspond- 
 ence of the channels to one 
 ortwo parallel faces. From 
 this peculiarity of the chan- 
 nelling, it is to be inferred 
 that the abacus of the cap- 
 ital was not of a square but 
 of a round plan, as is the 
 case with the archaic col- 
 umns found on the Akro- 
 polis of Athens (cf. Note 1). 
 There does not remain 
 enough of the shaft to prove 
 with certainty the apparent 
 lack of an entasis. This 
 refinement could hardly he 
 expected, as the columns 
 of the chief temple of As- 
 sos itself, though certainly 
 of much later date, are 
 straight-lined. Moreover, - 
 the small monument was 
 
A DORIC SHAFT AND BASE FOUND AT ASSOS. 9 
 
 not exposed to be seen from a standpoint much below its base ; there 
 was thus little or no optical illusion, and consequent need of a correct 
 tion of this kind. 
 
 The great age of the shaft (evident also from architectural considera- 
 tions) is certified by an archaic inscriptiMi engraved in two of the chan- 
 nels (fig. 3). This inscription has been published by Dr. Sterrett,' 
 who assigns it to the sixth century, and reads : APISTANAPEi[A?]. 
 The last letter of the first line is, however, undoubtedly K. Professor 
 Ramsay ^^ hence suggested ^ Apiazdudprj z[. . . ; but, owing to the im- 
 probability of this Ionic form occurring at Aiolie Assos, has since, 
 with the writer, preferred 'Aplaraudps Ix\^. . . ; exempU gratia, 'Ixtwou. 
 This last reading has great weight of probability. Epitaph inscrip- 
 tions not unfrequently began with the vocative ; and, while neither of 
 the feminine forms have been known to occur, no less than six men by 
 the name of Aristandros are known from antiquity, the chief among 
 these being Asiatics and Islanders. ;Furthermore, although of course 
 not impossible, it would have been' entirely exceptional, aniong the 
 remains of Assos, for so prominent amonument to have been dedicated 
 alone, or, in the first word, to a woman. The lines dixeboustrophedmi. 
 Of the second only the termination KI05 remains. The low position 
 of these letters upon the stone (beginning 0.11 m. from the base) war- 
 rants the assumption that the inscription extended at least above the 
 middle of the column. It would have been quite as easy to read letters 
 engraved even at a height of two metres, as those nearthe bottom of 
 the shaft; and the most natural liiethod of inscribing the epitaph 
 would be to extend the words along^the greater length of the chan- 
 nel. That this was the lisual relation is apparent from the noted 
 inscription upon the Colonna Nania,^^ and from that upon the round 
 
 ' J. R. S. Sterrett, Inscriptions of Assos. "-Papers of the Arahceologieal Institute of 
 America. Boston, 1885. 
 
 '" W. M. Eamsay, Notes and Inscriptions from Asia Minor. VI. The Inscriptions 
 of Assos, in the American Journal of Archaeology, vol. i. 2. Baltimore, 1885.' 
 
 "Chief among the free-standing votive columns known, is the archaic Colonna 
 Nania, from the Islahd of Melos : first described and engraved by G. F. Zanetti, Due 
 anlichissime greche iscrfzioni, Venezia, 1 755 ; and since often repnblisjied, appearing 
 in the Corpus In«cr. Oraec. vol. i, no. 3. Neither the capital nor the base of this 
 column liave been found, but apopliyges at either end of the shaft prove the original 
 existence of both. The celebrated inscription, occupying three-quarters of the total 
 length, is engraved in two of the channels. 
 
10 PAPERS OF ARCHMOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 stele found by Finlay on the island of Aigina.^^ It is hence to be 
 assumed that we have recovered less than one-eighth of the inscrip- 
 tion, — even supposing it to have been restricted to two channels. No 
 importance is however to be attached to this, beyond the consideration 
 that an inscription of such length must have contained more than the 
 name and patronymic of a single individual, which are all that appear 
 upon the other tombstones of the Nekropolis. 
 
 The indications to be deriyed from the length of the inscription ; 
 from its commencing with the vocative ; and, above all, from the 
 situation of the column directly upon the native rock (so that no 
 bodies could have been buried beneath it, as beneath every other 
 sepulchral monument found at Assos) ; give some weight to the sup- 
 position that the column may have been erected, and the epitaph 
 inscribed, as a memorial to a number of persons whose bodies had 
 not been recovered for sepulture : persons, for instance, who may 
 have been lost at sea, or have fallen in battle, and were thus honored 
 by their relatives or by the Denfos. Such were many of the sepul- 
 chral steles of the ancients. ' Tu/jt^o^ ohrof; ivdov oux iy^si v&xpov. 
 {Antkol. Pakti. vii. 311). Epitaphs of this kind have been pre- 
 served in great number in the Avihohgy}^ Still, it must be admitted 
 that enough does not remain of the Assos column to seriously argue 
 that we have here to deal with a cenotaph. The side of the stone 
 bearing the inscription has been broken away fully ten centimetres 
 lower than the rest, as if wantonly mutilated. With a few more 
 letters its significance would have been clear. 
 
 The original height of the shaft in proportion to its diameter was 
 without doubt considerably greater than was customary in the func- 
 tional supports of the style. A comparison with the archaic free- 
 standing columns hitherto known (among which, besides the Colonna 
 Nania and the above-mentioned two archaic columns found upon the 
 Akropolis of Athens, is a Doric shaft standing in the Athenian ceme- 
 
 " This archaic shaft, unchannelled and with a dedicatory inscription, engraved in 
 four lines along almost its entire length, was first published by W. M. Leake, On an 
 VHseriptUm found in Aigina, in the Tranaaetions of the Boyal Society of Literature, vol. 
 II, XX : London, 1834. It wa.s subsequently redrawn for the Expedition, scientifiqtie 
 de Moree: Paris, 1831 etc., vol. lii, pi. 46. The inscription is given in the C. I. G., 
 vol. II, appendix 2138, d. 
 
 " Anthol. Palat. vn. 74, 272, 273, 274, 397, and others. The first of these was 
 Avritten npon the monument erected by the Magnesians above the empty-tomb of 
 Themistokles. Cf. Plutarch, Themist. xxxii. 4. 
 
A BOBIO SHAFT AND BASE FO UND AT ASSOS. 1 1 
 
 tery before the Dipylon^*) leads to the assumption of a height of about 
 six and a half diameters/' or two metres and three-quarters. This 
 estimate can hardly involve an error greater than 0.2m. A column 
 of this height would have just sufficed to elevate an agalma above 
 the reach of passers-by. It is clear thiEiit this was the purpose of the 
 support. Upon vases, reliefs and coins^ too numerous to be specified, , 
 free-standing shafts are represented, upholding an image, a vase, or 
 other votive offering; these being ^nerally of a symbolic charac- 
 ter, as, for instance, the two cocks significant of the palaistra, the Nikes, 
 or the owls of Athena, seen on almost all the Panathenaic vases. 
 The two well-known columns with triangular capitals, standing on 
 the side of the Akropolis of Athens, above the theatre of Dionysos, 
 supported tripods.^^ 
 
 During the earliest ages, diminutive columns, generally of the Doric 
 style, were employed to uphold the fe,oaf Ilapdeuoc}^ But the most 
 
 I. . 
 
 " The only fr-ee-standing shaft erected as ABepulchral monument that has hitherto 
 been known, is a Doric column elevated upon a round pedestal, and still standing in 
 the cemetery before the Dipylon of Athens,' — inadequately published, without illus- 
 tration, by A. S. Khonsopoulos in the '^tfTi/ieplc tov ^lAoftoBav, 'Adijvyai, 1870, No. 
 739; and by E. Scholl in the BuUeitino deU^ Instiivio, Boma, 1&70, No. xiii. These 
 accounts disagree in important particulars :.; the former, for instance, stating that the 
 upper and lower circumference of the shaft are respectively 0.88 m. and 1.0 m. ; 
 while the latter affirms the shaft to be senza la solita redvzwne. The writer, who has 
 himself examined the monument, is indebted to Dr. Sterrett for a drawing of the 
 lower part of the shaft and of its peculiar support. 
 
 This column is of interest in the present consideration, from the fact that it stands, 
 not upon a true base, but upon a round pedestal with terminal and socle mouldings. 
 Nevertheless, as the monument is some tWo or three hundred years more recent 
 than that of Assos, and consequently belotngs to a period when the art of Greece 
 was in its decline, and when the archaic and primitive features of the leading styles 
 had been forgotten, it naturally cannot be compared, in historical significance, with 
 the column of the sixth century from provincial Assos. 
 
 '* This is a weighted average of all the examples known, and closely agrees with 
 the proportions of the column in the Athenian cemetery. This last monument, the 
 best parallel in this respect, is stated by Khousopoulos to have been 2.03m. high, 
 with a lower circumference of 1.0, and a base 0.38 m. high. Scholl assigns to it a 
 total height of 2.34 m. 
 
 " E.. D. Clarke, Tfavds in various muntriei of Europe, Asia and Africa : Cambridge, 
 1810-23, vol. II, part 2. Also G. I. O. No. 227 b. Many representations of tripods 
 supported upon columns appear upon vases and reliefs ; a number of these have been 
 collected by F. Wieseler, Das Satyrspiel, in the OoUinger Studien, ■ zweile. Abtheilung : 
 Gottingen, 1847. 
 
 " This is proved by Eoss, Berichte von den Ausgrubuitgen avf der Akropolis von Athen, 
 in his ArchUologische Avfsdtse: Leipzig, 1855-61. The inscriptions of the Colonna 
 
12 PAPEBS OF ARCHMOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 striking parallel to the sepulchral column of Assos is supplied by the 
 descriptions of the famous tomb of the orator Isokrates, erected near 
 the Kynosarges. This was a round column (z/wv)'* surmounted by 
 the figure of a siren." The dimensions of the shaft and of the statue 
 (respectively thirty and seven cubits), though much greater than those 
 of the Assos column, and, indeed, exceptional during all Greek 
 antiquity, agree with the representations of such monuments ; and 
 may serve to give an idea of the customary proportion between the 
 support and the agalma. The loss of the capital of the column at 
 Assos is to be regretted, not only on accouut of its independent archi- 
 
 Nania, the two archaic shafts from the Akropolis of Athens, and the round stele from 
 the island of Aigina, before mentioned, all refer to the dedication of the votive 
 ofierings which were placed upon these, supports. The same is true of the inscrip- 
 tion in three of the flutes of the drum of an Ionic column from the PeloponnesoH, 
 given by P. M. Paoiaudi, Monumenta Pdoponnesia, Komae, 1761, vol. l; and reprinted 
 in the C. I. O. No. 24. 
 
 " Before the employment of stone cbfaimns in the temple architecture of Greece, 
 the word Kiui> designated the great posts of wood which served as the supports of the 
 timbered ceilings. In later times it was restricted, by common usage, to shafts of 
 round plan, while the word oTijW-^ signified a square, free-standing pillar. The 
 exceptions prove this rule. Careful writers, when using either of these terms 
 in a sense different from that usually Mtached to it, qualify it by an adjective. 
 Thus, Plutarch [Aem. Paul, xxvm) speaks of a /ciuiv TerpayiMog, while the obelisk in 
 the Hippodrome of Constantinople, being too large to be termed a. stele, is called 
 Kiov T-eTpdirlevpo^ [Anthol. Pcdat. IX. 682). A small round cippus, probably without 
 a capital, is called ffr^^i? irepupeptic by Pausanias (ll. 12. 5).' The exact determina- 
 tion of the use of these words is a point of great importance in'the study of ancient 
 architecture. t 
 
 The learned authors of Liddejl and Scott's Greek Lexicon (seventh edition, 1883) 
 remark, in their definition of Ktuv, that the word is " expressly distinguished from 
 oTifkri" by Andokides (vi. 15). The passage in question throws, however, no light 
 whatever upon the distinguishing differences between these two kinds of shafts. 
 The orator merely relates that Diokleides, while witnessing the mutilation of the 
 hermae, stood between a certain column and a certain stele. 
 
 '"Plutarch, Yita decern rhet. rv. 25. The same statements concerning the column 
 are made by the ancient author of the anonymous life of Isokrates (ii. 96., ed. Wes- 
 termann). Philostratos ( VUae sophist. 1. 1 7. 1) in describing this monument uses only 
 the general term a^/ia. 
 
 A siren was placed also above the tomb of Sokrates (Anonymous Vita Soph. I. 74, 
 ed. Westermann), above that of the poetess Baukis (Erinna, frag. 5 : Bergk, Poet, 
 lyr. ed. 1876, p. 927,— from Anthol. PaHU. vii. 710), and above that of Kleo 
 (Mnasalkas, frag. 17, from Anthol. Palat. vil. 491). Alexander, as is well known, 
 erected statues of sirens upon the funeral pyre of Hephaistion (Diodoros, xvii. 115. 
 4). Images of sirens, placed upon the summit of free-standing columns and steles, 
 are frequently shown by vase-paintings and other representations. 
 
A DORIC SHAFT AND BASE FOUND AT ASSOS. 13 
 
 tectural significance, but because the dowel-holes upon its abacus 
 would undoubtedly have given some indications of the nature of the 
 image which it supported. 
 
 Architectural history has long led to the conclusion that the char- 
 acteristic features of the Doric shaft were derived by the Greeks 
 from the banks of the Nile. Since its demonstration, through the 
 first adequate surveys of the monuments of ancient Egyptian archi- 
 tecture, no valid objection has been raised against this derivation, 
 of which the present discovery may be considered a direct proof. 
 
 So striking is the resemblance of the channelled shafts of Egypt 
 to those of Greece, that Jomard,^ who first called attention, to the 
 proto-Doric character of the columns ,5 of Beni Hassan, felt it neces- 
 sary to explain that they could not have been the work of Hellenic 
 architects. In the supports of the rock-cut tombs of Beni Hassan, 
 and in those found among the ruins of Calabsheh, Amada and other 
 places, there is to be recognized a fixjed architectiiral system, evidently 
 determined by long practice, and, with but slight variations, adopted 
 throughout Egypt as an established Srder. The columns of the first- 
 named monuments may be considej^pd as typical of this formation, 
 not inaptly termed by .Lepsius I'ordre des colonnes-piliers.^^ 
 
 The manner in which the number of channels was determined is 
 made evident by the existence, almost side by side, of supports illus- 
 trating the various stages of development. The multiplication of 
 the facets was brought about by chamfering the corners of a square 
 pier, which was thus transformed into an eight-sided, and, when the 
 process was repeated, into a sixteen-sided shaft. It was found, how- 
 ever, that the column of sixteen-§ided polygonal plan had angles 
 much too obtuse to give the desirable play of light and shade, and 
 the natural expedient' of grooving the narrow facets was hence 
 adopted, the edges being sharpened into arrises, and the slu-faajs 
 becoming channels.^^ A portion of the original square pier was left 
 
 ^"Description de I'Egypte: Paris, 1821, vol. IV. 
 
 "' K. E. Lepsius, Sur I'ordre des colonnea-pUiers en Egypte, in the Annali deW. Insti- 
 tula, vol. IX, Rome, 1838. 
 
 *'The argument of Semper {Der SlU in, den tedmischen und tektonischen Kdnsien. 
 3d. e(i.,.Munchen 1878), that the chann^s of the Poric column resulted, from an 
 iniitatiqn of long strips of metal soldered together around a core of wood, appears 
 inadmissible; and his remark: "the number of the channels increases in exact pro- , 
 portion with the absolute dimensions of the shaft, inasmuch as the grooving of the 
 strips is dependent solely upon the character and thickness of the metal" (vol. ii. 
 
14 PAPERS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 at the top, as an abacus ; while the shaft was provided with a broad 
 and flat base, projecting far beyond the lower diameter of the column. 
 This sixteen-sided, channelled support was in general use during the 
 twelfth dynasty, which is held by Mariette to have ruled during the 
 twenty-ninth century B. c, and, even according to the calculations of 
 Lepsius which place it at the latest possible date, was still some thous- 
 and years before the Trojan war. 
 
 It is not here necessary to bring foi"ward proofs of the intimate 
 connection of the Greeks with the inhabitants of Egypt, especially 
 after the seventh century b. c, the period when the most important 
 advances were being made in Hellenic architecture. The researches of 
 modern Egyptologists have shown that, after the age of Psammetichos, 
 no great work of the Egyptians could have remained unknown to the 
 Greeks. The Egyptians had been, for centuries, the greatest masters 
 in the art of stone-cutting which the world has known, while in this 
 branch the Greeks had then everything to learn. The tradition that 
 squared stones were first employed in Greece by the Phoenician Kad- 
 mos while building the walls of Boiotian Thebes,''' is a reminiscence 
 of this influence. The Egyptian origin of many of the methods of 
 quarrying, cutting and lifting large blocks of stone, in use among the 
 Greeks, becomes more and more certain as our acquaintance with the 
 architectural remains of these countries increases. To take one in- 
 stance among many : the peculiar method of employing the lewis, 
 observable in early Hellenic buildings (witness the temple of Assos), 
 is the same as that which appears upon Egyptian reliefs, and is recog- 
 nizable among the d6bris of Egyptian quarries. 
 
 Thus, in the design and execution of stone supports, the architects 
 of Greece, after the seventh century, had no need to make indepen- 
 dent experiments. It was not necessary for them to pass through a 
 development corresponding to that displayed by the square pier, the 
 eight-sided, the sixteen-sided, and the channelled shafts of Beni Has- 
 san. It is not probable that the octagonal shafts found at Troizen^ 
 
 p. 380) : is sufficiently disproved by the many channels of the small columns of 
 Delphi and Assos. Indeed Semper, while so clearly setting forth the develppment 
 of the Ionic capital, is most unsatisfactory and contradictory in his account of the 
 derivation of the forms of the Doric column : even going so far as to assume the sup- 
 ports of Beni Hassan to be either archaistic or debased (vol. i, p. 392), and to doubt 
 the truth of there having been any historical connection between the primitive, 
 architectural styles of Egypt and Greece (vol. ii, p. 382). 
 
 "Pliny, Hist. Nat. vu. 57. 5. 
 
 " W. GeU, Itinerary of the Marea: London, 1817. 
 
A DOMIC SHAFT AND BASE FO VND AT ASSOS. 1 5 
 
 and the drums of the same plan from Bolyranos ^ antedate the intro- 
 duction of the Egyptian proto-Doric column, in the same way as do 
 the well-known supports of the Tholos of Atreus and that shown on 
 the relief of the Gate of the Lions at Mykenai. Pausanias (ii. 31. 6) 
 speaks of a temple at Troizen as one pf the most ancient which he 
 saw in Greece. But this passage, written during the second century 
 A. D., though it certainly attests the gr^t relative age of the building 
 in question, can by no means be taken as an evidence that these 
 columns, the very identity of which is not assured, are older than the 
 seventh century b. c, and consequently could not owe the peculiarity 
 for which they are remarkable to an imitation of the architectural 
 details of Egypt. The shape of the Qolumns of Troizen and Bolym- 
 nos, sufficiently common in Egypt, isirather to be taken as an indica- 
 tion that the designers of the earliest stone temples of Greece were 
 uncertain which to choose among the three varieties of supports 
 presented by the tombs of Beni Hassan. Were it nevertheless to be 
 assumed that these archaic Greek jpnonuments display no foreign 
 influences whatever, the appearance of octagonal pillars in connection 
 with- them would, of itself, by no means suffice to prove that an 
 independent Hellenic development determined all the features of the 
 Doric column, which was of such marvellous perfection even in the 
 most ancient and most primitive temples of the style. Moreover, 
 the twenty-five channels of the shaftrfound at Assos make it extremely 
 improbable that the sixteen-fold striation had been independently 
 developed by the Greeks. As hag .already been mentioned, the 
 irregular number shows that the gtone-cutter imitated, from some 
 model, the general effect of channelling, without understanding the 
 significant artistic traditions which were so clearly pronounced and so 
 invariably maintained in Egypt, where this model originated in that 
 treatment of the facets first devised tp sharpen the angles of the six- 
 teen-sided prism which had resulted from chamfering the corners of 
 a square pier. Had the Assos column been the direct outcome of 
 the evolution which determined the order of the pier-columns, it 
 would, in all probability, like them have pr^ehted a number of 
 channels divisible by four. 
 
 How closely the Egyptian base was imitated, will be made plain 
 
 "^ L. Boss, Reisen und Bewerouten durch Qriechenland. Vol. i. Bdsen, im Peloponnes. 
 Berlin, 1841. Neither the remains from Troizen (Damala) nor those from Bplymnos 
 have ever been drawn. Excavations at these ancient sites are greatly to be desired. 
 
16 
 
 PAPERS OF ARCHJEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 by a comparison of the stump found in the Nekropolis of Asses {fig. 
 4, a) with one of the interior shafts of the north-western tomb of 
 Beni Hassan"^ {fig. 4, b), drawn with the old-fashioned modulus on 
 the same scale. For such free-standing columns the channelled shaft 
 and the broad base of Egypt were admirably fitted. These features 
 were probably adopted, without essential change, throughout Greece. 
 But, with the employment of the base in the functional supports of a 
 
 A B 
 
 Fig. 4. — A, plan and eUmUtion of the Doric shaft and hose at Assos. 
 
 B, plan and elevaiion of a shaft and base from a tomb at Beni Hassan, Egypt. 
 
 '° The measurements adopted for this illustration have been taken from the mono- 
 graph of Lepsius, quoted above. That publication was based, in regard to the details 
 in question, not only upon the previous surveys of Beni Hassan made by the French 
 expedition, by Eosellini (I Monwmenii detl' Egitlo e deUa NvMa: Pisa, 1832-44), and 
 by Wilkinson (TAe ArehUedure of ancient Egypt: London, 1850, pi. 2), but also upon 
 the inedited drawings of a Eussian architect, M. Jefimoff. Lepsius makes, however, 
 the curious error of placing the arris, not the channel, in the axis of the abacus; cf. 
 pi. XXXV. That this is not correct is evident from the drawings given by other 
 authors (instance EoselUni, Adas, vol. ll, pi. 3) and especially from photographs. 
 
A BORIC SHAFT AND BASE FOUND AT ASSOS 17 
 
 building (notably in connection with the plan of the primitive temple 
 in aniis), a practical disadvantage made itself felt; one so serious that, 
 in avoiding it, the appearance of the column was entirely changed. 
 This was the interference of the projecting plinths with the passage 
 through the intercolumniation. The slight elevation of the bases of 
 Beni Hassan, like that of the one found at Assos, is to be explained 
 by the extreme difficulty of cutting this member from the native rock. 
 It is evident that, when such a base was formed of a separate stone 
 slab, this must have been made of much greater thickness in order 
 to bear, without cracking, the weight placed upon it. The propor- 
 tional thickness thus determined may, in the buildings of small 
 dimensions customary during the earliest ages, be estimated to have 
 fully equalled the height of the upper step of later Doric temples. 
 This assumption is borne out by the oldest and most carefully drawn 
 representation of archaic Doric structures, that upon the well-known 
 Frangois vase.^' The buildings here shown (for instance the house 
 of the goddess Thetis, which is characterized in every way as a tem- 
 ple) have Doric columns with bases of considerable pi'ojection : 
 straight-edged like those of Egypt, but higher and unbevelled. That 
 this base was held by the designer to be an indispensable and char- 
 acterisiic feature, is evident from its being repeated in all the scenes 
 where Doric columns were introduced. Nor is such a member shown 
 upon the Fraiipois vase alone.^ In the archaic art of Greece chan- 
 nelled columns are frequently, nay generally, represented as standing 
 upon bases of rectilinear outline.^' ^ 
 
 In Xhs^DenkmSler am Aegypten und Aethiopien (Berlin, 1849-59, vol. i), Lepsius 
 ascribes somewhat different dimensions to this column ; the projection of the base, 
 from the shaft to the upper edge of the bevel, being scaled as 0.37 ui. 
 
 " Monumenti inediti, vol. IV, Boma, 1844-48, pis. Liv, LV. 
 
 '"Compare the important representation upon the vase referred to in Note 37: 
 furthermore, the ba:ses of the channelled Doric shafts shown in E. Gerhard, Auser- 
 lesene'grieehische Vasenbilder ; Berlin, 1839-58, vol. ii, pi. 143; vol. IV, pi. 293; and, 
 especially, pi. 281, Nos. 1, 2. The majority of the Fanathenaic vases in the British 
 Museum show Doric columns with bases. 
 
 " The wide distribution of such architectural forms throughout the ancient world 
 is attested by the appearance, among the remains of Persian constructions referable 
 to the age of Cyrus, of a base of precisely the same character as those of Beni Has- 
 san, and as that now discovered at AssoS." Compare the illustration published by M. 
 iDieulafoy, L'Art antiqae de la Perse; Aehemeaides, Parthes, Sassanides: Paris, 1884, 
 pi. XII and fig. 28. The materials as yet available for comparison do not suffice for 
 us to decide with certainty whether this feature was derived by the well-trained 
 architects of the Achaemenidae from the banks of the Nile, or from the coasts of 
 
18 PAPERS OF ARCHJEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 As illustrated in figure 5, the projecting stones, aa, would have 
 greatly interfered with the passage. Such an obstruction had beeii 
 no disadvantage before the closed tombs of Beni Hassan, but upon 
 the threshold of the Hellenic temple it would have been intolerable. 
 Nothing could be more natural than to fill out the narrow space 
 between the sides of the bases, b, so connecting the separate blocks 
 as to form a continuous plinth : the common base of all the columns. 
 Thus originated the Doric stylobate. This would remain a. mere 
 hypothesis, but for the explicit testimony of those ancient authors 
 who have defined this architectural term: the stylobate wa.s the upper 
 step alone.^ And, what is still more to the point, it was in the Doric 
 style, and in no other, that this character of a base was attached to 
 the upper step.^' 
 
 \^/ - \ 
 
 Fig. 5. 
 
 In the Ionic style the base, which, together with the capital, had been 
 derived from Mesopotamia, consisted of mouldings. These roundels 
 and scotias permitted great emphasis to be given to the member, its 
 diameter being at the same time comparatively restricted. Hence, 
 the projection of the Ionic base could never seriously interfere with 
 the passage between the columns. In the Doric style, on the other 
 hand, the principles of design were essentially different, and did not 
 permit the introduction of curved lines of a contrary flexure in a 
 member of such eminent importance to the constructive framework 
 as the base. Moreover, the well-known tendency of the Doric, in 
 
 the Aegean. The gabled roof and archaic-Greek proportions of the tomb of Cyrus 
 certainly favor the latter assumption. 
 
 '"This is plain from the fact that the stylobate was considered requisite, even 
 when the steps were transformed into a socle : Vitruvius, in. 4. .5. The Roman archi- 
 tect here evidently follows Hellenic traditions. Compare Hesychios, s. v. Kpijwic. 
 The distinct character of the stylobate is especially apparent when, as in certain 
 archaic temples of Sicily, it is of considerably greater lieight than the lower steps. 
 
 "This all-important passage of Pollux (vil. 121) reads arvAojiaTVi, ^ rob Aopiiiov 
 Kiovog pdaiQ • airelpa 6e, tj tov 'luvticov. Hesychios, s. v. aTvXojia.TTig, also attributes to 
 tlie stylobate the character of a base. 
 
A D OHIO SHAFT AND BASE FO UND A T ASSOS. 1 9 
 
 contrast to the lonic/^ was to merge all the constituent parts in an 
 inseverable whole, depriving them, as far as possible, of their indi- 
 vidual independence. The only way, in accordance with these prin- 
 ciples, by which the straight-lined base could be retained in the 
 temple in antis and in the peripteros, was so to unite the separate 
 slabs as to form a continuous plinth. Thus was the channelled shaft 
 of Egypt, together with its base, introduced into the'architecture of 
 Greece, and embodied with the native Doric entablature in a fabric 
 of perfect unity. 
 
 In aesthetic respects, the ultimate criterion of all artistic develop- 
 ment, the creation of the stylobate was decidedly advantageous 
 The peripteral temple was to the Greeks an anathema, a votive oifer- 
 ing to the deity. This was hereby elevated upon a single base, upon a 
 consecrated floor, which isolated the fane even from the surrounding 
 steps and the pavement of the temenos. Notwithstanding the fact 
 that the stylobate, at least in later times, seems , to have been con- 
 ceived as extending over the entire foundation,^ the columns of the 
 Doric pronaos were provided with a separate plinth,^^ and the same 
 member appears within the naos of those temples which were pro- 
 vided with galleries and inner ranges of columns.'^ The fact that 
 
 ''Ionic columns, from their independent and more decorative character, were 
 more frequently employed as free-standing shafts than were those of the Doric style. 
 The general use of the former as sepulchral monuments has led to the erroneous 
 assumption that the ancients attached to the Ionic column a distinctly mortuary 
 significance. This view, first suggested by.O. M. von Stackelberg (Der ApoUo Tem- 
 pd zu JBcmsae in Armdien, und die daselbst ausgegrabenen BUdwerke : Frankfurt am 
 Main, 1826), has been elaborated by F. Carellius [Dmertmjio-ne esegetica intomo all' 
 origine ed al sistema ddla sacra architetlura presso i Greei: Napoli, 1831), and espe- 
 cially by Eaoul-Eochette (Monmnents iiiSdits d' antiquity, Paris, 1833 ; and in the 
 Journal des. Savants, Paris, 1833). This hypothesis scarcely needs serious disproof. 
 The frequent adoption of Ionic forms for the isolated monuments of a nekropolis is 
 fully explained by the architectura,l considerations before indicated. 
 
 Instances of the employment of Doric columns as sepulchral monuments are, how- 
 ever, by no means uncommon. Such shafts are represented upon many painted 
 vases: to name one. collection, instance Inghirami, PUture di vasi etruschi: Ed. 2: 
 Firenze, 1852-56, vol. ii, 137, 142, 154, etc. The majority of the existing remains 
 of such columns are of the Doric style. At least one other Doric shaft stood in the 
 Nekropolis of Assos. 
 
 ''That the stylobate comprised the entire floor, above the foundations and steps, 
 is evident from Vitruvius, m. 4. 2. 
 
 '^This is the rule, the only exceptions being the temples of Selinous and Assos. 
 
 ''Instance the Parthenon, the great temple of Zeus at Olympia, that of Aigina, 
 that of Poseidonia, — ^in short all the edifices with this arrangement. 
 
20 PAPERS OF ARCH^OLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 the dipteral plan, so common in the Ionic style, is never known to 
 Ijave occurred in the Doric, may in some measure be explained by 
 the consideration that the inner columns would, from many points of 
 view, have appeared altogether destitute of a base. Taken together 
 with the greater relative height of the Ionic column, its possession of 
 an independent base may have also contributed to the not unfrequent 
 adoption of Ionic columns in the interior of Doric structures : instance 
 the Propylaia of Athens. 
 
 The supports employed by the Greeks before the introduction of 
 the proto-Doric shaft from Egypt seem to have been i-ound wooden 
 posts, encased in sheets of beaten metal, without vertical striation, but 
 provided with bases as well as capitals of round mouldings. The 
 engaged columns of the Tholos of Atreus, and that represented upon 
 the relief above the Gate of the Lions at Mykenai, certainly imitate 
 empaistic forms. While the use of these columns was entirely 
 discontinued in Greece, reminiscences of them were preserved in 
 the corresponding details of Etruscan architecture. The so-called 
 Tuscan order had derived many of its leading features from Greece 
 at a period when the columns of Beni Hassan were still unknown to 
 Hellenic designers. In Italy the development of the column, not 
 being influenced by the straight-lined and projecting base, followed 
 an entirely diiferent course, much less successful than that of Greece. 
 The base of the former, with its circular plinth and tore of equal 
 height, described by Vitruvius (iv. 7. 3), retained the primitive 
 Hellenic forms almost unaltered. Such bases as these could never 
 have been combined in a continuous plinth. Without the influence 
 of Egypt the column of the Doric style must have remained similar 
 to 'that of the Etruscan temple. 
 
 Ainong the Greeks the adjacent bases of the functional supports 
 wei"e so connected as to form the stylobate ; but the case was not the 
 same with the free-standing shafts of the Doric style. In isolated 
 monuments, aesthetic and practical considerations, as well as ancient 
 traditions, led to the retention of the independent plinth. The Greeks 
 seem never to have been guilty of that modern solecism i*' the erection 
 of a free-standing col umn without a base. The inorganic j uncture of a 
 channelled shaft with a pavement was held to be inadmissible, even by 
 the designers of the Hellenistic period; as is exemplified by the before- 
 
 ^ Instance the light-house on the jetty at Margate, and similar Doric colamns with- 
 out bases in London, Paris, etc. , 
 
A DORIC SHAFT AND BASE FOUND AT ASSOS. 21 
 
 mentioned column of the Athenian cemetery. Vase-paintings, too nu- 
 merous to require specification, show that, after the characteristic forms 
 of the original Doric base had been entirely forgotten, the three steps 
 of the peripteros were placed beneath the channelled column, to form 
 a transition between the horiz&ntal pavement and the upright shaft. 
 
 That the Egyptian forms of the base, however, long continued 
 unaltered, is proved by the accurate representation of this member in 
 the careful drawing of a vase in the museum of Florence.^^ A Doric 
 column is there shown, standing upon a low projecting slab, with 
 bevelled edge, in all respects like the bases of Beni Hassan. The 
 indications of primitive usage to be derived from such representations, 
 — indeed, the entire history of Greek architecture, — might well have 
 led to the assumption that the Egyptian basis would be found in 
 Hellas, were it possible to bring to light some column of the archaic 
 period,^ erected in entire independence of any other support. These 
 conditions are fulfilled in the discovery now published, which pro- 
 vides a striking proof of this theory of development. 
 
 Unfortunately, so little remains of the column that it is not possible 
 to perceive from it what progress the Asiatic Greeks of the sixth 
 century had made in that incomparable artistic development which 
 led from the mechanical baldness of the rock-cut supports of Beni 
 Hassan to the organic perfection of the inclined and curved shafts 
 and of the vigorous and graceful capitals of the Parthenon. No 
 epoch of architectural history is of greater interest, the knowledge of 
 none could be of greater practical value, than that immediately pre- 
 ceding the first appearance of the Doric style in its completeness : for 
 complete it is, even in the oldest known temples. The column from 
 Assos is a memorial of this period ; and, though but a fragment, 
 forms one of the most important results of the investigations carried 
 on at that site, by furnishing a direct and decisive proof of the 
 Egyptian origin of the Doric shaft, and by explaining the character 
 of a common base which, throughout antiquity, was attached to the 
 
 stylobate. 
 
 Joseph Thacher Clarke. 
 
 " Engraved in Inghirami, op. cU., vol. iii, pi. cccxiv. 
 
 " It may be observed in this connection that the peculiarly provincial character 
 of the art of Assos greatly increased the probability of primitive features being there 
 retained. The sculptures of the temple upon the akropolis, for instance, "are so 
 archaic that they have hitherto been universally regarded as nearly a century more 
 ancient than the date to which the building is now assigned. 
 
% 
 
 *« 
 
 
 ' / 
 
 
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