Emulation of Greek Palaces - Research Paper

Taylor Speer-Sims
May 21, 2012

Emulation of Greek Palaces 

            Many groups of people lived in Greece throughout time. These people had such creativity in their buildings. Small homes turned into palaces, and then went further into the designs of palace-temples. Other contemporary cultures began emulating the Greek styles. Later societies found their love of Grecian design and began to reproduce or reinterpret these ideas. Contemporaries, as well as subsequent societies, emulated the palaces of Greece.           

People that lived in the area that was later to be known as Greece were not Greeks. However, they thought of this area as their home. So, to them they were. The point of geographical location was more important than the origination of their ancestry for this paper. Paleolithic people of Greek were certainly living on the Greek homeland.

            Paleolithic people of millions of years ago found their way to Greece from the East. Greece had been the thoroughfare of people transverse to the rest of Europe. The cave complex of Lakonis showed evidence of use throughout time. There are overlapping hearths by the Neanderthals.  Extremely rich cultural remains indicated the multitudes of hominids that used the caves as domiciles throughout an immensely large period of time, possibly up to the Neolithic period.[1]

            The people of the Neolithic era concerned themselves more with farming than ostentatious housing. This time, in Greece, was thought to be from 5000 to 3200 BCE. They were farmers that had a terrestrial diet with little marine, or even animal, consumption. The bones of these early farmers reveal a vitamin deficiency that point to possibly a vegan style lifestyle.[2] By 5800 BCE houses of stick and mud were found in small groupings. Later in the Neolithic period, ca. 5500 BCE, the one-room houses were made with stone foundations and clay and timber roofing.  The settlements of Dimini, ca. 4000 BCE, had been built as encircling enclosures that were used for the distribution of land.[3]

            The first Greek speaking people arrived in their homeland around somewhere between ca. 2100 BCE and 1600 BCE.[4] These Bronze-Age Greeks found that it was the elite that had the greatest access to bronze and other metals, including those of a precious nature. Wealth allowed the beginnings of separation of classes due to possession of precious items. As the economy in Greece increased, the population grew. This created more separation of classes. The rulers grew in wealth, as well as power.[5]

            The powerful ruler of Lerna had the largest house within the Bronze settlement. Though, considered less advanced than the houses of the Near East, it was still quite sophisticated. Many artifacts of high quality have been found within the ruin that indicated that he was a ruler of a complex society. This early mansion was within an enclosure of  a strong fortification and other monumental buildings. Lerna’s ruling chief had lived in one of the earliest forms of palaces.[6]

            The very first true palace in Greece was not the huge labyrinth at Knossos. The evidence is that the world-renowned Palace of Knossos that was rediscovered in the 1930’s had a smaller, yet similar predecessor. There was a cellular multi-cell building with the same L-shape along with the central courtyard.[7] Built in EMIIA, or the 18^th century BCE, the Palace at Valiliki had been in use throughout most of the Minoan period.[8] The labyrinth style of rooms adjacent to one another was used again, but in a larger scale at Knossos.[9]

            Knossos was begun ca. 1700 BCE and completed around 2000 BCE by King Minos, son of the gods Zeus and Europa. This was the central palace for the entire Minoan state.[10] The many level palatial complex held amazing columns and incredible painted/frescoed walls. There were common areas as well as the throne room, sanctuaries, the treasury and warehouses. The Royal villa included a Little Pavilion, which were the royal residences. And, a very important new feature was the open-air theater and entry courtyard. The capacity, of which, held at least five hundred spectators at one time.[11]

            Minos’ brother, Radamanthis had Phaistos as his kingship seat. Also the sight of the great wise man Epimenidis.[12] This Cretan city-state’s palace complex followed in the great Knossos and was started in 1900BCE,[13] Phaistos was the wealthiest city during the time of Minos and even assisted with the Trojan war.[14] The palace proper was extremely extensive. It covered an area approximately 8,000 square meters. The original burnt, but was then rebuilt as a much smaller, but more monumentally decorated building. Again, this site continued with the open-air theater, as well as a central courtyard and entry courtyard.[15]

            The third largest city-state, and thus palace in Crete at this time was Malia. It was also started ca. 1900 BCE. Following the same cycle of boom as Knossos and Phaistos, it collapsed in ca. 1650 BCE by unknown reasons. Also just as Phaistos, the palace was rebuilt was immediately rebuilt and then again was destroyed about two hundred years later. This palace, too, followed the same plan, labyrinth building styles with the warehouses and such, including the open-air theater, courtyard and entry courtyard.[16]

            Courtyard style palaces continued with the Greeks. Tiryns was built in the 14^th century BCE. Tiryns had an upper, middle and lower citadel following the earlier building rings of the earlier Greeks. There were public spaces and a private wall-painted palace.[17] The palace, and the surrounding town were both expanded in 1250 and then again 1225 BCE. The palace was abandoned in the 12^th century BCE, but then reoccupied as a temple in 498 BCE.[18] Indeed, the walls of Tiryns were considered by the Helens to have been so monumental that no human could have built them, it was the work of the Cyclopes race. It was here that the new entryways were developed into a well-structured span that many others emulated. There were three methods of spanning: Post and lintel, corbelled arch and arch.[19]

Mycenae was the next great evolution for the Greek palaces. Both Mycenae and Tiryns represented the époque of Mycenaean civilization.[20] Architectural sculptures here were phenomenal. The idea of the Lion Gate was said to have been of Near Eastern origin, the fact that other, later, Cretans used this same symbol as a relief, then followed by the Greeks indicate a Greek identity more than an oriental.[21] The walls of the entry courtyard, as well as the palace had reliefs of beautiful, colorful paintings that contradicted the severity of the stonework.[22] Mycenae, too, had been built in three stages of outer fortified circles.

Another Mycenaean palatial complex was Pylos. Called he Palace of Nestor, it was begun somewhere between 1300 and 1200 BCE. Pylos was the best preserved, out of all of the early palaces on, or near, Greece. This palace had absolutely amazing wall friezes. Interestingly, this palace had floor frescoes as well as those on the walls.[23] Pylos was the last of the Crete palaces, and Greece moved into palatial temples instead of domiciles.

With the changing into the large palace-temples, architectural styles matured. Ordered elevations included platforms, colonnades along with their superstructures. The first orders were the Doric and Ionic. Both order names were generated from the area of Greece from which they originated. The Doric order, from mainland Greece, remained the most popular. The Ionic was from the Aegean Islands. They were not isolated to the area from which they originated, but were both found throughout the area.[24]

The stylobate was the uppermost course of the platform for both the Ionic and Doric Orders. Fluting marked the columns, then having two or three parts in most cases, although there have been monolithic pieces found. The Doric Order had a plane capital while the Ionic had one that curled under itself, scroll like, on both sides. The Doric did not have a base, while the Ionic did. There were differences in the pediments and raking cornices. Again plane for Doric, the Ionic had square blocking throughout both the cornice and the raking pediments.[25]

There is an addition to the Orders by the newer Corinthian Capital. This was the capital of the columns, and it had a double row of acanthus leaves with tendrils and flowers wrapped around a bell shape echinus. Not a true order, the architects substituted the capital for the scrolled capital in the Ionic Order. It was created in the second half of the fifth century BCE by a sculptor named Kallimachos. Rarely used before the mid-fourth century by the Greeks. However, once the architects realized that this capital eliminated the problem of having more than one column at the corner of a buildings because of the four similar sides, it became a preferred style toward the end of later periods.

Blocking continued in the cornices in the Entablature of the Ionic Orders, and the Doric had a type of molded horizontal projection. Doric friezes had three vertical bands spaced by equal distances and the Ionic Friezes were left open for sculptures. The architrave was the weight-bearing element that distributed the weight of the roof equally.[26]

Large Egyptian architecture predated that of the Greeks, however there was at least one instance where the Egyptians emulated the Greeks. Tell el-Amarna was built by  Akhenaten ca. 1352-1336 BCE. This was obviously within the time of trade with the Greek cultures. Frescoed floors of the palace at Tell el- Amarna were the first for the Egyptians.[27] Akhenaten had changed the look and feeling of Egypt when he moved the capital from Thebes to his new city.[28] Obviously his architects were inspired by Greek paintings of Greek wildflowers when these are compared with the Egyptian Floor Fragment from the Egyptian palace that was placed in the Oriental Institute of Chicago. There similarities are huge. The style of the floor fragment was not the typical Egyptian, but was painted just like those of the Greek book Da Materia Medica of Dioskorides. While this book was written later, it was a copy earlier Greek paintings.[29] Egyptians also copied the forums of the Greek city-states.[30]

The obvious Greek influence on Egypt was the entire city of Alexandria. Alexander the Great founded the city with his architect, Dinocrates who was originally from Macedonia. Dinocrates gave Alexander a drawing of a temple that he had designed. Not being able to build such a structure at the location of gift, Alexander was on the lookout for a suitable location. When he came across and observed “a harbor safe by nature, an excellent center for trade, cornfields… and the great usefulness of the mighty river Nile, ordered him (Dinocrates) to build the city of Alexandria, named after the king.”[31]

The Assyrians also had paintings on their walls in the palace of Khorsabad. The Greeks did not inspire the painted walls of the palace, but the they did inspire the palace entrance itself. Khorsabad had an entry courtyard that resembled that of those of the labyrinth palaces. Khorsabad was built in 721 BCE, millennia after those of Mycenae.[32] Even though there were some differences, the fact remains that the earliest entry courtyards were from Greece, not from the Orient.

Oriental Persians also copied Greek architectural styles in one of their palaces. Again, just like the Egyptians, the Persians copied, and used, the Greek forums.[33] Deioces required a palace for himself that he considered to be suitable to his rank. Xerxes condescended this wish as he allowed Deioces to take his throne as ruler of Agbatana. The Medes, the people of the area, built the place with “walls of… great size and strength, rising in circles one within the other…. The royal palace and the treasuries standing within the last. The circuit of the outer wall is very nearly the same with that of Athens.”[34] And, with the ever-increasing circles of the Persian palace it also resembled the circling nature of the Greek Dimini village of 4000 BCE.

Temple palaces of the Etruscans were direct descendants of Grecian styles. They resembled the Greek stone-gabled roofed temples. They also had columns that were almost identical to the Doric Order. The differences were that they were mad of wood, unfluted and had no base. However, in appearance, the resemblance to the Greek temples was very similar.[35]

The very next in line for Greek palatial architectural decadency were the Romans. They took the basic Orders and made Romanized changes. Greek forums and theaters were enlarged to accommodate more people.[36] Roman changes also included the entry from the circumference of the building to only the front stairwell. The Romans also emulated Greek decoration of their housing. In both Pompeii and elsewhere, the “elite identity… combines the basics of Roman building forums with Greek subjects and decorative styles.”[37] Meaning that the painting frescoes within the houses of the Roman elite were of Greek palatial ornamentation design. In fact, almost all Roman designs originated from either Etruscan or Grecian designs. And, while the Etruscans emulated the Greeks, going further, that means that Roman designs were almost entirely of Greek origin.

Grecian designs went further throughout time. The heirs to the Greek dynasty included almost all of Europe. The Normans built keeps with encircling fortifications that bespoke of the early Greek Dimini. Europe, in the 18^th century, had a Greek fascination with the neo-classic palaces such as the Russian Gatchina Palace, Poland’s Pulawy Palac Marynki and Tabley House in Great Britain.[38] Even the United States of America had their connection with Grecian palatial temples. The White House, The U.S. Capital building and many different mansions such as Andalusia in Pennsylvania and Greenwood Plantation in Louisiana are the embodiment of the Greek palaces.[39]

There are two arguments to the idea that the palaces of other societies emulated the Greeks. The first was that there were palaces and temples elsewhere. The other was that the non-Greeks could have come up with these same ideas; frescoed walled houses, frescoed floors, painting styles, circular palace enclosures and entry courtyards. Both of these arguments would have been true. However, the people of Greece did come up with all of these ideas first. And, they were definitely in contact (either directly or indirectly) with people of the Orient, Rome, Europe and America. This clearly shows that even if these other individuals, or groups, would have come up with those very same factors, they did so afterwards. Which means that the conceptions were only original to those that created them, the Greeks.

Emulation was the highest form of flattery. People from all over the Near-East, Europe and America fell in love with different portions of Grecian temples. The fortification concept of encircled enclosures was part of many fortification designs. Grecian style entry courtyards were popular in the Orient. Frescoed walls were popular through the 18^th century, and beyond. The most coveted architectural element of all was the different Orders. These were popular from Ancient Greece all the way to today. Without a doubt, people around the globe, throughout time, duplicated the palaces of Greece.

Bibliography:

 

“Abstract”, Abstract of  “Bioarchaeological Inferences from a Neolithic Ossuary from

Alepotrypa Cave, Diros, Greece” by Anastasia Papathanasiou, Clark Spencer Larsen and Lynette Norr.  in International Journal of Osteoarchaeology,  Vol 10, Issue 3, (May/June 2000), 210-228.  2012. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/1099-1212(200005/06)10:3%3C210::AID-OA523%3E3.0.CO;2-2/abstract. (access May 19, 2012).

“Abstract”, Abstract of “Late Pleistocene Archaeological and Fossil Human Evidence from

Lakonis Cave, Southern Greece.” By Eleni Panagopoulou, et al. in Journal of Field Archaeology, Vol 29, No. 3-4 (January 2004), 323-349. 2012. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/maney/jfa/2004/00000029/f0020003/art00005. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/1099-1212(200005/06)10:3%3C210::AID-OA523%3E3.0.CO;2-2/abstract

Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns.” World Heritage. Dec. 1999.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/941. (accessed May 21, 2012).

Dishner, Jackie. “Greek Revival Architecture.” HGTV: Front Door. January 2008.

http://www.frontdoor.com/buy/greek-revival-architecture/1041. (accessed May 22, 2012).

“Greenwood Plantation.” 2004. http://www.greenwoodplantation.com/intro.html. (accessed

May 22, 2012).

Herodotus. “The History of Herodotus.” 440 BCE. Quoted in “Modern History Sourcebook”,

Fordham University. Last modified August 1998. http://www.fordham.edu/

Halsall/ancient/herodotus-history.txt. (accessed May 21, 2012).

Jenkins, Simon. England’s Thousand Best Houses. New York: Penguin Group, 2004.

Kleiner, Fred. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective, Volume 1, 13th 

Ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2010.

“Malia.” Ancient-Greece.org. 2012. http://www.ancient-greece.org/archaeology/malia.html.

(accessed May 21, 2012).

Levi, Peter. Atlas of the Greek World. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2000.

Don Nardo, ed. The Complete History of  Ancient Greece. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven

Press, 2001.

Papdimitriou, Alkistis. “History” Odysseus. 2007. http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/

3/eh351.jsp?obj_id=2382. (accessed May 21, 2012).

Pollio, Vitruvius. “The Ten Books on Architecture.” 15 BCE.

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=g74AMOQxvJ8C&oi=fnd&pg=PA16&dq=vitruvius+treatise+on+architecture&ots=WmlIYORhbW&sig=Xu51f93C8qR0psYufgC14v8V2Fc#v=onepage&q=etruscan&f=false. (accessed May 22, 2012).

“Pylos Project, The” MARWP. N.d.  http://marwp.cla.umn.edu/marwp/pylos.html. (accessed

May 21, 2012).

Speer-Sims, Taylor. “Fragment Fever” (Research paper for class, American Military

University, March 2012.)

---- “Khorsabad Palace: Not So Bad, Actually Fantastic.” (Research paper for class,

American Military University, March 2012.)

“Time Periods”. Ancient Greece. 2012. http://www.ancientgreece.com/s/Neolithic/. (accessed

May 21, 2012).

Vanorsow. “Roman Houses as Greek Palaces.” Teaching Company. May 31, 2010.

http://teachingcompany.12.forumer.com/a/7-roman-houses-as-greek-palaces_post2743.html. (accessed May 22, 2012).

Originally written for class at American Military University.

---

[1] “Abstract”, Abstract of “Late Pleistocene Archaeological and Fossil Human Evidence from Lakonis Cave, Southern Greece.” By Eleni Panagopoulou, et al. in Journal of Field Archaeology, Vol 29, No. 3-4 (January 2004), 323-349. 2012. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/maney/jfa/2004/00000029/f0020003/art00005. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/1099-1212(200005/06)10:3%3C210::AID-OA523%3E3.0.CO;2-2/abstract

[2] “Abstract”, Abstract of  “Bioarchaeological Inferences from a Neolithic Ossuary from Alepotrypa Cave, Diros, Greece” by Anastasia Papathanasiou, Clark Spencer Larsen and Lynette Norr.  in International Journal of Osteoarchaeology,  Vol 10, Issue 3, (May/June 2000), 210-228.  2012. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com

/doi/10.1002/1099-1212(200005/06)10:3%3C210::AID-OA523%3E3.0.CO;2-2/abstract. (access May 19, 2012).

[3] “Time Periods”. Ancient Greece. 2012. http://www.ancientgreece.com/s/Neolithic/. (accessed May 21, 2012).

[4] Don Nardo, ed. The Complete History of  Ancient Greece. (San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 2001.), 35.

[5] Ibid, 36.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid, 39.

[8] “Valiliki” Minoan Crete: Bronze Age Civilization. N.d. http://www.uk.digiserve.com/mentor/

minoan/vasiliki.htm. (accessed May 21, 2012).

[9] Sarah Pomeroy, et al. Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History, 3^rd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.), 27.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Jiri Burian, et al. The Grand Tour: Homes of Kings. ( New York: HBJ Press, 1978.), 152.

[12] “Phaistos: Palace and Archaeological Site. .” Interkriti. 2012. http://www.interkriti.org/

crete/iraklion/phaistos.html. (accessed May 21, 2012).

[13] Pomeroy, 27.

[14] “Phaistos”.

[15] Ibid.

[16] “Malia.” Ancient-Greece.org. 2012. http://www.ancient-greece.org/archaeology/malia.html. (accessed May 21, 2012).

[17] Alkistis Papdimitriou. “History” Odysseus. 2007. http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/3/eh351.jsp?obj_id=2382. (accessed May 21, 2012).

[18] “Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns.” World Heritage. Dec. 1999. http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/941. (accessed May 21, 2012).

[19] Fred Kleiner. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective, Volume 1, 13th Ed. (Boston: Wadsworth, 2010.), 77.

[20] “Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns.”

[21] Kleiner, 79.

[22] Ibid, 77.

[23] “The Pylos Project” MARWP. N.d.  http://marwp.cla.umn.edu/marwp/pylos.html. (accessed May 21, 2012).

[24] Kleiner, 96.

[25] Ibid.

[26] Ibid.

[27] Mark Hirsh. Personal interview with author March, 2012.

[28] Taylor Speer-Sims. “Fragment Fever” (Research paper for class, American Military University, March 2012.)

[29] “Fragment of a Painted Floor.” Plaster, pigment. New Kingdom Dynasty 18, Reign of Akenaten, ca. 1352-1336 BCE. Tell el-Amarna, Maru Aten, 22 ½ x 27” Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL – Personal visit by author.; Peter Levi. Atlas of the Greek World. (New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2000.), 191.

[30] Vanorsow. “Roman Houses as Greek Palaces.” Teaching Company. May 31, 2010. http://teachingcompany.12.forumer.com/a/7-roman-houses-as-greek-palaces_post2743.html. (accessed May 22, 2012).

[31] Vitruvius Pollio. “The Ten Books on Architecture.” 15 BCE. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=g74AMOQxvJ8C&oi=fnd&pg=PA16&dq=vitruvius+treatise+on+architecture&ots=WmlIYORhbW&sig=Xu51f93C8qR0psYufgC14v8V2Fc#v=onepage&q=etruscan&f=false. (accessed May 22, 2012).

[32] Taylor Speer-Sims. “Khorsabad Palace: Not So Bad, Actually Fantastic.” (Research paper for class, American Military University, March 2012.)

[33] Vanorsow.

[34] Herodotus. “The History of Herodotus.” 440 BCE. Quoted in “Modern History Sourcebook”, Fordham University. Last modified August 1998. http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/ancient/herodotus-history.txt. (accessed May 21, 2012).

[35] Kleiner, 145.

[36] Vanorsow.

[37] Ibid.

[38] Simon Jenkins. England’s Thousand Best Houses. (New York: Penguin Group, 2004.), 89.

[39] Jackie Dishner. “Greek Revival Architecture.” HGTV: Front Door. January 2008. http://www.frontdoor.com/buy/greek-revival-architecture/1041. (accessed May 22, 2012).; “Greenwood Plantation.” 2004. http://www.greenwoodplantation.com/intro.html. (accessed May 22, 2012).

Originally written for research paper for class at American Military University.