Early Artillery Towers: Messenia, Boiotia, Attica, Megarid
1987; Archaeological Institute of America; Volume: 91; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/505291
ISSN1939-828X
Autores Tópico(s)Historical and Architectural Studies
ResumoThe invention of the catapult in 399 B. C. precipitated revolutionary changes in Greek military architecture. Towers were built higher and were provided with upper chambers characterized by the presence of windows often flanked by chases to hold hinged shutters. Comparative study of tower architecture yields more accurate restorations and revised chronologies for fortified sites and helps to define the function of isolated towers. Architectural features of relatively well-preserved and securely dated Theban towers at Messene (369 B.C.) and Siphai (370–362 B.C.) provide models for restoring and dating Athenian-built towers in Attica and the Megarid. The Athenian and Theban towers reflect a developing architectural tradition; they were designed to house relatively small, anti-personnel catapults, probably of nontorsion design. They predate towers which housed large, torsion, stone-throwing catapults (e.g., at Latmian Herakleia, ca. 297 B.C.). Analysis of shuttering systems of preserved artillery towers suggests that the shutters (thyrides kataraktoi) used on windows in the parapet of the Athenian city wall of 307/306 (IG II2, 463), like those used at several Athenian and Theban sites, were bottomhung.
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