Issues in the Classification and Typology of Antique Masonry in the Writings of Foreign and Russian Scholars

Abstract

The article examines the problems in developing approaches for the description and stylistic interpretation of antique masonry, as well as the issues in their stylistic dating. The task of dating construction remains belonging to the 7th century B.C.E. to the turn of the era, has attracted the scholarly attention of the scientific community since the 1940s and has been considered by both foreign and Russian researchers. The article's research object is the construction remains of Greek civil and military architecture in the Mediterranean and the Northern Black Sea regions - territories considered to have been the center and periphery of the Greek Oikumena. The study applied the comparative-typological method, the synchronization of objects in time and space, and dating by analogy. Both in Russian and foreign studies a significant amount of data has been collected for the analysis and construction of appropriate conclusions regarding the distribution and popularity of certain masonry in particular periods of time. However, due to the presence of many factors affecting the ancient construction and stone-carving craft, a number of exceptions due to local natural, economic, raw material, and administrative factors can be distinguished in the observed patterns. Thus, the whole picture of the formation of the construction and stone-carving craft (with the allocation of the corresponding types of masonry in a certain historical period) can be reconstructed only with a comprehensive examination of all of them. As the most interesting objects in this regard, the article cites a number of architectural remains belonging to the monuments of the distant chora of Tauric Chersonesos dating to the second half of the 4th century B.C.E.