A Tympanum Fragment at Perachora

Abstract

In a useful study, M. C. Llinas has made some important contributions to our knowledge of the stoa at Perachora, and has devoted further attention to the problems of that interesting but sometimes enigmatic building. In the last section of his paper, however, he attributes to one of the stoa pediments a fragmentary tympanum block, and on the strength of the cutting in it he has proposed a roof structure quite abnormal in a stoa. It is his restoration of the roof which provokes these few remarks, for although the Greeks were sometimes lavish in their use of roofing timbers, their structures were not as a rule illogical.M. Llinas proposes a Gaggera roof with three or four heavy purlins, c. 0·20 × 0·30 m. in section and centred c. 0·67 m. apart on either side of a ridge beam (cf. Fig. 1, a). Support for these beams was presumably provided from a cross-beam at every pier of the upper colonnade (intercolumniation 2·30 m.); for since all the piers were of uniform strength, there would be no advantage in cross-beams spaced further apart. Now purlins 0·30 m. high seem unreasonably large to be supported every 2·30 m.