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CYCLOPEAN MASONRY (from the Cyclopes,...

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 686 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CYCLOPEAN See also:

MASONRY (from the See also:Cyclopes, the supposed builders of the walls of See also:Mycenae) , a See also:term in See also:architecture, used, in See also:conjunction with Pelasgic, to define the See also:rude See also:polygon& construction employed by the Greeks and the Etruscans in the walls of their cities. In the earliest examples they consist only of huge masses of See also:rock, of irregular shape, piled one on the other and trusting to their See also:great See also:size and See also:weight for cohesion; some-times smaller pieces of rock filled up the interstices. The walls and See also:gates of See also:Tiryns and Mycenae were thus constructed. Later, these blocks were rudely shaped to See also:fit one another. It is not always possible to decide the See also:period by the type of construction, as this depended on the material; where stratified rocks could be obtained, See also:horizontal See also:coursing might be adopted; in fact, there are instances in See also:Greece, where a later See also:wall of cyclopean construction has been built over one with horizontal courses.

End of Article: CYCLOPEAN MASONRY (from the Cyclopes, the supposed builders of the walls of Mycenae)

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