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False-Façade Tombs at Cyrene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2013

R. A. Tomlinson
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Extract

My drawing (Fig. 1) shows a tentative restoration of tomb S 201 at Cyrene, and Fig. 2 its plan. In Cassels's catalogue of the Cyrene tombs, which recognizes its importance, it is described simply as a built rectangular tomb and marked as such on his map. My investigations suggest that it is rather more complicated, and belongs to a specialized class of tomb of considerable architectural interest.

The present condition of the tomb can be seen in Plate 44, a. Part of the walling is still upright, but most of the superstructure has collapsed, encumbering the ruins. This, together with the very short time at my disposal, made it impossible to carry out a complete investigation, which would require clearing the tomb and arranging the various fallen blocks accessibly. Nevertheless the tomb is important enough to deserve a study based on the information available, even though, inevitably, some of the details will have to remain conjectural.

The tomb comprises a rectangular forecourt excavated into the rock, which here forms a virtually level ground surface, and a rock-cut chamber opening off its north-west side. This is the normal practice at Cyrene when rock-cut tombs are constructed on the level parts of the plateau. I could not take full measurements of the court; its width is a little under 12 metres, other details being obscured by fallen masonry and silt.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 62 , November 1967 , pp. 241 - 256
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1967

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References

This article is based on research into the architecture of Hellenistic tombs which I carried out as holder of the Walston Studentship. For this particular aspect of my research I am deeply indebted to Pro essor R. Goodchild, then Controller of Antiquities of Cyrenaica, who did everything possible to help me during my visit to Cyrene.

1 All tomb references, except for new tombs, are to Cassels, J. S.'s catalogue BSR xxiii (1955) 1 f.Google Scholar, which is fundamental to any study of the Cyrene tombs.

2 e.g.: ramp or stair: E 49, E 207; dromos: E 14, E 65.

3 The best-known example is probably the Treasury of Cyrene at Delphi.

4 It should be remembered that in a building of this nature we cannot expect to find the accuracy of measurements of normal Greek architecture.

5 This agrees with the definite figures for N 171, which has a lower diameter of 0·65 m. and an axial spacing of about 2·00 m.

6 e.g. in N 171 (see below).

7 e.g. N 65.

8 See Plommer, , Simpson's History of Architectural Development i. 242, fig. 76.Google Scholar

9 e.g. N 178.

10 For these see Jeppesen, K., Paradeigmata 91.Google Scholar

11 For the figures see Chamoux, , Cyrène sous la monarchie des Battiades 293 ff.Google Scholar Photographs, Cassels op. cit. pl. VIII d, IX a–d. For the pedestals, tombs N 65, N 183 (Cassels, pl. VII d).

12 The chief exceptions are in the west necropolis, e.g. W 8, W 18.

13 Ultimately they derive from the four-volute Ionic capitals over shafts with only twenty flutes, which Roux has shown to be normal in Peloponnesian architecture (Roux, , L'Architecture de l'Argolide aux IVe et IIIe siècles avant J. C. 333 ff.).Google Scholar He also suggests, significantly, that this type of Ionic was influential in Alexandria (ibid. 352).

14 Goodchild, R., Cyrene and Apollonia, An Historical Guide 48.Google Scholar

15 Cassels, op. cit. 21.

16 Cf. the Hephaisteion in Athens: stylobate width 13·708 m.

17 These are much cruder in construction, and seem to be earlier in date. They are found nearest the city, in the north and west cemeteries, where the first tombs were presumably cut, and are the only tombs to bear the slightest resemblance to those of Cyrene's mother city, Thera.

18 A possible explanation of this is that the stone normally used in the construction of the tombs is too friable for free-standing columns with a weight to support, and that a harder stone, more worth stealing, had to be used. This also would explain the preference for purely decorative half-columns in the other tombs.

19 I found a base of a full column amongst the debris of N 171, which must clearly belong to another tomb in the vicinity, perhaps N 174. This would then be a second tomb with a full colonnade. It is similar to N 171.

20 Cassels, op. cit. 20, implies that half-columns are restricted to the tombs without antechambers.