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A Roman Corinthian Building at Knossos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Sara Paton
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Abstract

Tomb 244 of the KMF excavation at Knossos was built in the early 5th century A.D., largely of marble blocks from a dismantled Roman Corinthian building. These came from the portico of a tetrastyle prostyle building which probably stood on a foundation discovered nearby. Seven blocks of Pentelic marble survive from the raking cornice and four more from the entablature, together with one capital, a column base and two backing blocks. The reconstruction proposed uses builders' inscriptions on several blocks and illustrates the hitherto unsuspected quality of Imperial building materials and techniques at Knossos. The carved ornament is of the finest and dates to the mid 2nd century A.D.

Type
Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 86 , November 1991 , pp. 297 - 318
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1991

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References

Acknowledgements: I am very grateful to the Committee of the British School at Athens and to Dr H.W. Catling for permission to study this material. I would also like to thank Dr Ch. Kritsas, Director of the Heraklion Museum, and Dr Susan Walker for their advice, and David Parfitt who took all the photographs except plate 73c. I am grateful to many people who have kindly helped me, especially Dr J. Carington-Smith, Professor J.N. Coldstream Vronwy Hankey, A.H.S. Megaw, Dr C.E. Morris, Graham Norrie, Rose Parfitt, Mervyn Popham, Dr A.A.D. Peatfield, Guy Sanders, David Smyth and Dr K.A. Wardle.

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3 I am very grateful to Dr Ch. Kritsas for his help in reading these inscriptions.

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7 5.32 ÷ cos 18.

8 5.32 × tan 18, plus 0.19 m for the height of the sima.

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13 I am not an epigraphist and do not know of any close parallels for these inscriptions, but since they clearly relate to the construction of the building it seems best to publish them here as they stand.

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17 A.H.S. Megaw: A Cemetery Church with Trefoil Sanctuary in Crete.

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26 Heilmeyer, Taf. 33, no. 2. Proconnesian capitals with similar ornament on the abacus come from the Severan Forum at Lepcis Magna (Heilmeyer, Taf. 33. No. 4), and the Agora at Smyrna (Ward-Perkins, J.B., Nicomedia and the Marble Trade, BSR, 35 1980, Plate XVII).Google Scholar

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