Monumental Gates Research Articles

Archaeometric research on decorated bricks of Tol-e Ajori monumental gate (6th century BC), Fars, Iran: New insight into the glazes

Archaeometric research on decorated bricks of Tol-e Ajori monumental gate (6th century BC), Fars, Iran: New insight into the glazes

SOCIO-CULTURAL CONTEXT AND SPATIAL EVOLUTION OF KALKANDELEN HARABATI BABA LODGE

The Harabati Baba Lodge settlement, significant religious center, is located in the province of Tetovo, west of Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia. The settlement has recognized as the considerable place in the field of culture, arts and crafts thanks to its dervishes as well. Therefore, not only it essentially consists of public spaces with socio-cultural functions but also there are places of worship and for accommodation that require privacy. The Lodge settlement, with high courtyard walls and four monumental gates, emerges as a sample that representing an extensive and fragmented site planning existing in the Bektashi Lodges in the late period in Balkans. In this context, the Shadirvan, as a rarely seen sample in Balkans with a fascinating timber ceiling with its ornaments, the Soup kitchen with a semi-open summer place, the Guesthouse, a mansion with an open sofa on the upper floor, the two-storeyed Hotel building (former Military Hall), and (former Barn) Restaurant can be mentioned as the public spaces of Lodge Settlement. On the other hand, ‘Meydan’ as worship space with a low dome inside, a preparation space, the Fatma House with a hand-drawn decoration similar to Skopje Alaca Mosque, the Dervish House, constructed of rubble stone and mudbrick, and Harabati Baba and Sersem Ali Baba Shrines, similar to Seljuk and Ottoman examples in terms of architectural tradition can be considered as the places that have been privatized. Within the scope of this article, the spatial pattern of the Harabati Baba Lodge settlement and structures has been discussed in the historical context. Periodic socio-cultural divergencies and spatial transformations have been revealed on the basis of information obtained from written records, historical sources and archives, visual materials, old photographs, and traces from the buildings, through applying comparative study and architectural necessity criteria. The Tekke settlement with its landscape was scrutinized in four leading periods based on comparative studies on similar period features, building typologies, and architectural requirements. Harabati Baba Lodge might have been built in 958/1551 by Sersem Ali Baba, who is known to be the Bektashi father. In this period, the population of Tetovo, which was a small town in the second half of the 15th century, and the Muslim population in the town increased with the activities of Bektashi dervishes. This foundation period was continued until the arrival of Harabati Baba, known as the second founder, in the second half of the 18th century. The second period can be considered as the period of Recep Pasha, the administrator in Tetovo, due to renovation and restoration of the structures in the lodge. In the 19th century, it is stated that the dervishes, who were exiled and escaped after the Janissary Corps and the Bektashi convents had been closed, came to Balkans and that the Lodge was used as a military base. The third period covers the period between the death of Recep Pasha in 1822 and the extensive restoration/repair interventions in 1967. The fourth period (1967-present day) comprises the late interventions and the first official restoration.

A New Monumental Gate from the Roman Imperial Period on the Attaleia City Walls

After the Late Antique period, the city of Attaleia assured its continued safety against threats coming from the east by renewing and strengthening its defenses. As a result, the appearance and character of the city walls changed considerably from what they had been in Roman Imperial times. These changes affected city gates the most, as they constituted the weakest points both structurally and strategically, and many of the Roman Imperial era gates were closed. The pulling down or partial or complete destruction of these city entrances already in the Early Byzantine period, changed the fabric of those parts of the city near the walls until the end of the Ottoman period. The most extensive destruction of the city walls, the remains of which can be seen on several towers and curtain walls today, came about during the systematic demolitions of the early 20th century. This study deals with a monumental Roman city gate that has been recently revealed. An arched entrance which was built very close to and possibly at the same time as Hadrian’s Arch, this gate was completely closed during consolidation of the fortification walls in the Early Byzantine period in a manner that concealed it from the exterior. Due to the weakness of the Roman Imperial era curtain wall in which it is located, this gate, which was decorated with pilasters and capitals on both sides, was given the form of a small arch rather than a simple city entrance.

LOW-COST TECHNOLOGICAL IMPLEMENTATIONS RELATED TO INTEGRATED APPLICATION EXPERIMENTS

Abstract. Thanks to the development of new Cuda technologies applied to graphics cards and to a more accessible and growing use by professionals in various commercial, artistic and research sectors, the latest generation digital instruments have implemented new methods of photogrammetric surveying and remote sensing, progressively reducing the cost of the instruments and that related to the application development of the different SfM algorithms, now widely used also in numerous open source software. The research presented in the article compares two of the most recently used free programs with the most satisfactory results in the field of 3D photogrammetric survey and photomodelling: Meshroom, developed by AliceVision and Regard3D, an open source software, compiled in 2015 by the Swiss IT engineer freelance Roman Hiestand. The test case study will concern the photo-modelling, through the free tools previously discussed, of medium size complex decorative details, one of the monumental gates of the ancient Roman city of Sepino, an archaeological site in Molise (IT) located at the foot of the Matese and extending over the Tammaro valley, so as to be able to fully test the capture characteristics and the trend and structure of the pipeline of the two software examined.

Alireza Askari Chaverdi, Pierfrancesco Callieri, Emad Matin. “The Monumental Gate at Tol-e Ajori, Persepolis (Fars): New Archaeological Data. Two New Fragments of Cuneiform Inscriptions on Glazed Bricks from the Iranian-It

Alireza Askari Chaverdi, Pierfrancesco Callieri, Emad Matin. “The Monumental Gate at Tol-e Ajori, Persepolis (Fars): New Archaeological Data. Two New Fragments of Cuneiform Inscriptions on Glazed Bricks from the Iranian-It

Identification of the semideciduous and deciduous Oak species of the Salento Peninsula and their relevance to archaeological contexts: A metric approach

Oak charcoals recovered from archaeological sites can yield information of fundamental importance to our understanding of human economic and cultural development over time and the ecological setting in which this took place. To this end, the present paper describes the anatomical patterns of modern semideciduous and deciduous oaks and those of charcoals of semideciduous and deciduous oaks found in archaeological contexts in the Salento Peninsula. The preliminary results indicate that the oak species of the past could be different from those of today, and that different species seem to have been used for different purposes. For example, a post in the fortification walls probably is of a different species from the wood used to build the monumental gate in the same fortifications (Roca, Middle Bronze Age).

Edward rex: il contesto architettonico nella prima scena del ricamo di Bayeux

The embroidery of the Bayeux, which is continued to be called “tapestry” even though it was not made in this technique, illustrates the story of the conquest of England by the Normans in 1066, providing valuable information about daily and military life of the time. The date of its manufacture is still uncertain, but the 1066 is the terminus post quem it was fabricate. The embroidery depicts, in seventy-two episodes, the rivalry for the succession of throne of King Edward of England between his cousin Harold and Duke William of Normandy. The narrative begins with the sending of Harold in France by Edward and ends with the Battle of Hastings which will allow William to ascend the throne of England with the title “Conqueror”. The first scene introduces Edward the Confessor, English king from 1042 to 1066. The inscription “Edward rex” surmounts the image depicting Edward in his palace with a large scepter in his hand, while giving instructions to two Anglo-Saxons, one of whom is Harold, to who the king is entrusted the mission. Edward appears “in majesty”, seated on a throne in almost frontal position, slightly turned and inclined toward the other characters. All the figures are situated below a sort of an arch, within architectural context, with the king placed in the central axis of the structure. The architecture in question is certainly to be identified as that of Edward’s palace of Westminster, represented both outside and inside, dominated by a robust entry, almost a two-storey Westwerk, flanked by circular towers, following the model of city gates. We can see a monumental entrance at the ground floor and a balcony at the upper floor with a “solarium” from which the ruler could dominate the open space in front of the palace and give speeches to assembly, according to the royal religious models such as the Palatine Chapel in Aachen, in front of which, above the entrance, the first storey, corresponding to the imperial tribune, opens with a porch to the atrium of the church. At the other end of the structure, the three-storey tower is used to accentuate the importance of the open gate, depicted with all its details and with its metal parts in plain view. The format of the gate, oversized in relation to the proportions of the tower, reflects the desire to refer to the departure of the delegation of Harold and his soldiers for Normandy, a way of representation already seen on the columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius. At ground floor level, the polychrome decoration depicting a grid could be interpreted both as a wall decoration of the façade or as the graphic of the coffered ceiling that could cover the compartment behind the arch of the entrance, namely the vestibule behind the monumental gate of the palace. This gate, among other, is represented as a solemn entrance, without embrasures, as a simple monumental arch supported by columns with the corresponding capitals, but preceded by a series of steps. As for the structure above the figures, a roof or ceiling is represented in an unusual design not to be found in other scenes of the embroidery of Bayeux or, more generally, in medieval representations of architectural interiors or architecture framing different aulic episodes. In this case we are not dealing with a flat ceiling or even the external view of the tiles on a roof, but we seem to see a fabric folded and tied in its center, as is demonstrated by the zenith element, the strips that adorn the textile and even the progressive narrowing towards the top. To situate this scene in the courtyard of the palace and to recognize in this particular textile a monumental structure resembling a canopy, which emphasizes the solemnity of the scene, correspond well to the protocol of the time. The author also analyzes the gestures of the characters, and proposes hypotheses about the significance of the different postures of the figures in the scenes with Edward.

Photo Scanner 3D Survey for Monitoring Historical Monuments. the Case History of Porta Praetoria in Aosta

Accessibility to cultural heritage is one of the most important factors in cultural heritage preservation, as it assures knowledge, monitoring, Public Administration management and a wide interest on cultural heritage sites. Nowdays 3D surveys give the geometric basis for an effective artefact reconstruction but most of the times 3D data are not completely and deeply investigated to extract other useful information on historical monuments for their conservation and safeguard. The Cultural Heritage Superintendence of Aosta decided to run a time continual project of monitoring of the Praetorian Roman Gate with the collaboration of the ITABC, CNR of Italy. The Praetorian Roman Gate in Aosta, Italy, of Augustus ages, is one of the most well-known roman monumental gates, it is a double gate with three arches each side, 12 meters high, 20 meters wide, made of pudding stone ashlars, Badoglio, travertine, marble blocks and other stone insertion due to restorations between 1600 and 1950. In years 2000 a final restoration intervention brought the gate at the present state of art, within the frame of a restoration and conservation building site with the purpose of treat the different decay pathologies and conditions. A complete 3D geometric survey campaign has been the first step for the monitoring of the gate morphologic changes and decay progress in time. The main purpose is to collect both quantitative data, related to the geometry of the gate, and the qualitative data, related to the chromatic change on the surface due to the stone decay. The geometric data with colour information permits to associate materials and stone pathologies to chemical or mechanical actions and to understand and analyse superficial decay kinetics. The colours survey will also permit to directly locate on the 3D model areas of different stratigraphic units. The project aims to build a rigorous quantitative-qualitative database so to be uploaded into a GIS. The GIS will become the monitoring main means. Considering the huge dimension of the gate and its urban location a multi-scale approach has been considered. Controlled and free images have been taken from the ground and the top of the gate so to reconstruct all the walls and the upper cover. A topographic survey has been done so to be able to control and relate all the different acquisitions. It has been chosen a Photo Scanner 3D system. It is a photogrammetry-based survey technology for point clouds acquisition and 3D models configuration, from digital images processing. This technology allows to obtain point clouds (xyz coordinates) with RGB information and geometries at different levels of complexity by processing a number of images taken with a limited set of constraints, with the use of a simple acquisition equipment and through an image matching algorithm (ZScan, by Menci Software). Due to the high walls of the arch gates, the higher part has been surveyed with a remote controlled drone (UAV Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) with a digital camera on it, so to take pictures up to the maximum altitude and with different shooting angles ( 90 and 45 degree). This is a new technology which permits to survey inaccessible parts of a high monument with ease and accuracy, by collecting redundant pictures later bound together by an image block algorithm. This paper aims to present the survey experience architectural monuments trough the application of a trifocal quick photogrammetric system, in surveying at different scales and for different purposes.

'En Haseva: On the Gate of the Iron Age II Fortress

The paper discusses the Stratum 5 fortress at 'En Haseva, excavated by Cohen and Yisrael. It argues that the casemate wall of the fortress and its monumental gate form the substructure of the complex and not the superstructure as presented by the excavators. The floor levels extended roughly at the top of the preserved stone walls, while the superstructure, which was not preserved, was probably built of mudbrick.

Insight into the conservation problems of the stone building “Bab Agnaou”, a XII cent. monumental gate in Marrakech (Morocco)

Abstract Bab Agnaou is one of the most beautiful gates of the 12th century town walls of Marrakech (Morocco). It is faced with poorly preserved stone, which has recently been subjected to preliminary laboratory studies for the purpose of collecting data useful for its restoration. The results of such studies indicate the presence of two macroscopically similar grey stones, classified as slates, which were probably sourced from quarries situated not far from the city of Marrakech. The schistosity of such stones, namely their laminated fabric, has much influenced the morphology of deterioration. The causes and mechanisms of decay have been investigated and connected to the presence of soluble salts, mainly chlorides and sulphates deriving from the mortar used to fix the stone blocks to the wall, and to local air pollution. Their concentration in the bottom 3 m of the gate due to rising damp has produced strong exfoliation and flaking phenomena through rapidly repeating crystallization/dissolution cycles. A minor contribution to the overall deterioration is due to hydrolytic phenomena partly responsible for the formation of natural brown patinas on the stone surface. Another brown patina formed of Ca-oxalates and with residual proteinaceous matter was also detected and is probably due to partly mineralized protection-treatments made with natural products such as animal glue. General indications for the restoration of the gate, based on these results, are proposed.

Diaspora and coincidence

The glories of ancient Sparta were inscribed in blood, not in poetry or art. The ruins that still exist are scanty, uninspiring, overgrown and little visited. The modern city too is a drab place, laid out on a grid. If you have travelled to Sparta in the hope of recapturing the magical experience of seeing Delphi, Olympia or Athens for the first time, you will be bitterly disappointed. But do not despair yet. A short bus journey will bring you to one of Europe's absolute marvels: the Byzantine city of Mystra. A thousand years after Sparta declined, Mystra was the jewel in the crown of Byzantine civilization. Eventually it became its capital, with a population that exceeded 40 000. When Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453, Mystra held out for a further seven years. Its philosophers, scholars and monks then fled to Italy, where they formed an important part of that great wave of exiles who contributed to the renaissance of Western civilization. We owe Mystra more than we may ever know. Mystra possesses all the colour and drama that Sparta lacks. As one guidebook describes it: ‘Winding alleys lead through monumental gates, past mediaeval houses and palaces, and above all into a sequence of churches, several of which yield superb and radiant frescoes. The effect is of straying into a massive museum of architecture, painting and sculpture.’ The site, too, is breathtaking. In contrast with the dusty Laconian plain just below, Mystra rises steeply up the wooded hillside. …

The construction phases of Khor Rori's monumental gate

The construction phases of Khor Rori's monumental gate

GATES AS SIGNS OF AUTONOMY IN MUSLIM TOWNS

sion with Oleg Grabar about the Muslim built environment. He advised me to investigate the word khatta and its exact meaning and implication for Muslim towns. That advice gave me a key for future essays, among them this study. Most of the works that have dealt with gates have concentrated on monumental portals such as those to cities and mosques; they range in theme from semiotic interpretations to the geometric innovations of their builders. Gates to shared residential spaces such as dead-end streets have been neglected by historians, mainly because they are not attracted to gates that are neither as elaborately nor as elegantly built as monumental gates are. Here I will argue that residential gates play a role as symbols of control in society and deserve attention because they can contribute to the understanding of the sociocultural structure of societies where they are found. Contemporary scholars have been misled in their observations of the morphology of streets in Muslim towns; they describe them as either a labyrinth of thoroughfares and alleys, or as they exist today a network of linear streets organically arranged. But in the past there were gates all over the city that divided this labyrinthine space into many smaller spaces for the exclusive use of particular groups. These places closed in by gates had a function that has been lost today and that affected many aspects of city life. The same traditional physical organization had a totally different quality than that we see

セルリオの建築書第1書における「ポルタの確定法」について

Sebastiano Serlio, an architect and architectural theoretician in the period of Renaissance, wrote nine books on architecture. These books give us valuable acknowlegde on architecture in that age. His First Book deals with geometry and has a geometrical scheme in the last page of it. He explains it a method of constructing a "porta" in front of architecture in his text. R. Wittkower pointed out it a method of making ratios of 1:2, 1:3 schematically in his famous book on Renaissance architecture. It has been regarded as a method how to decide position of doorway in the facades of architecture. This paper clarifies that Serlio's scheme is not simply a method of constructing a doorway but also a method how to make a city-gate, castle gate and monumental gate and so on (as porta meant primarilly). It is also clarified that it is a fundamental diagram to make ratios that derive from ratios of 1:2, 1:3 and it presumed to be a method how to design facades of Serlio's architecture in this paper.

The Historical Sack of Troy

The site of Troy was first occupied by men at some time not long before or after 3000 B.C. Whatthey built on the bedrock was the fortress of a chieftain, a few large wellfurnished houses within an oval of stout walls. After some 500 years the stronghold was consumed by a great fire; and the same people rebuilt a far bigger and stronger Troy, the Second City, with massive walls and monumental gates, and a great palace or temple on the summit of the enclosed hill. Some 300 years elapsed before this fortress, like the first, was totally destroyed by fire. The next settlement, Troy III, was relatively insignificant; Troy IV was not much more progressive; but Troy V rose to a higher level, performing much and promising more.

Art. IV.—Inscriptions at Cairo and the Burju-ẓ Ẓafar

A Former number of this Journal (Vol. XIX. Part 2) contained a short account of the three monumental gates of Cairo, the chief, indeed almost the only, remaining memorials of the celebrated Fatimite Khalifate of Egypt. It included a copy of the Cufic inscription sculptured on the frieze of the gate, known by the name of Bab en Nasr, as far as I had then succeeded in reading it.