Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/490

Mode of Construction. 463 case of a doorway pierced in the rubble wall, and the wood beams laid against the' wall at irregular intervals, are well seen. Our next engraving (Fig. 177) represents a garden fence at Edremit {ancient Adramytlion), which still more resembles the walls at Hissarlik. It consists of a stone base below, and above it a course of timber-ties, on which rests the upper part of the wall, which is entirely made of dessicated brick ; its coping is protected by a row of wood logs horizontally placed, a practice which must go back to remote antiquity. In all these examples the ties are parallel to the wall ; but Babin saw a house in process of construction at Magnesia of Sipylus, where the timber beams cross each other at right angles, precisely as at Troy (Fig. 178). This house has a foundation of rubble, and a door pierced in its front. If above this we put a mud wall — which is sure to have followed — we shall obtain a style of building which is imaged forth in Durm's restoration of the Trojan wall (Fig. 181). The prepossessions that governed the constructor in his choice of cross-ties are to be accounted for from the fact that his buildings were composed of unbaked clay, which set unevenly, according to the quality, the position, and make of the squares, little or no foundation interposing between the crude brick and the elastic ground. The cross joists served to distribute even pressure along great surfaces ; they regulated the setting of the clay mass, and prevented sinkings and consequent accidents on the weak points of the building. In stone masonry, the employment of cross-ties was useful in another way. Granting a wall composed of small unsquared