Швидковский Д.О., Есаулов Г.В., Карелин Д.А., Ревзина Ю.Е.; отв. ред. Куликова И.Б. Прошлое и будущее классической архитектуры. Монография. — М.: «Архитектура:С», 2017. — 528 с., ил., 2017
The book is deducated to the study of past, present and the future of classical architectural tra... more The book is deducated to the study of past, present and the future of classical architectural tradition. It consist of 7th chapters, which subjects include topics from the origins of classical architecture to the connections between the principles of classical architecture and sustainable one.
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The paper includes the authors' 3D reconstructions of several fortresses (or their structures) of different types: Luxor, Babylon, Nag el-Hagar, Dionysias and some smaller late forts at Kharga oasis. We think that these examples give the opportunity to discuss several important problems concerning their architecture and construction methods. One of them is a supposition about the walls height in the fortresses for comitates. The question is why some of them could have lower walls (Luxor, Nag el-Hagar) than others (Babylon) and than several smaller forts for auxiliary troops (for example Umm el-Dabadib). Another point is the search of analogies for some architectural elements (arrow slits, parapets) and fortress structures (walls, towers, barracks etc). Next interesting question concerns the gates construction and using the special courts and portcullis in them. Traces of such courts were found in many fortresses in Egypt, while portcullis for sure was used at Babylon fortress and possibly at the Nag el-Hagar western gate. The traces of different building stages with their own architectural peculiarities in some forts are also of particular interest. The discussion on these points and problems gives opportunity to understand the Roman military architecture in Egypt better.
Babylon was a typical Diocletianic fortress for Field Army, however it displayed a number of unique features:
• it was constructed over the earlier Trajanic-era stone harbour at Babylon where the Amnis Trajanus joined the Nile. The entrance to the canal was flanked by the massive round towers of the Diocletianic fortress.
• archaeological and historical evidence indicates that a bridge over the Nile led to the western gate of the fortress.
• the massive size and strength of the fortifications were much more solid than those of any other Diocletianic fortresses in Egypt.
The recent archaeological work has shown that much of the southern part of fortress survives today below ground. Above ground the southern gatehouse is preserved largely intact, with the Coptic ‘Hanging Church’ (Al-Mu’allaqa) built over it. The two round towers also survive, one of them within the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George (Mari Girgis).
The aim of the reconstruction is to show the architectural and constructional peculiarities of the southern gatehouse and of the round towers flanking the Amnis Trajanus, and also to present the possible view of the fortress from the Nile. Another special aim is both to classify the corpus of the sources and to show the connection between each source and the reconstruction’s argumentation is visually shown.
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criteria for each type.
elements crypt and upper chamber. The sources, mainly depictions of the monuments made from 16-th to 18-th centuries, let us imagine how did their interiors look and to understand attitude of Renaissance and classic architects to the scheme of a building. This scheme was based on connection of underground crypt with annular vaulting and upper chamber with the cupola.
This process is examined on the basis of examples from Ancient Egypt to the early Middle Ages, which are well-known due to archaeological and numismatic materials as well as masterpieces of art.
lot of peculiarities typical of the tetrarchy architecture. Furthermore, the architects who built the monumental Luxor fortress with the imperial cult temple inside borrowed some of its features from the civil temples of this cult. The so called “Kalybe structures” could be the prototypes for the late Roman principia temples and chapels, because they probably were very famous in the late antique Near East. Both had similar architectural features, including the monumentality of their architecture, and both were very important for the urban environment. On the other hand, Roman architects could use some principles of the Egyptian architecture to connect the Roman
imperial cult with the ancient cult of divine kingship in Luxor. Moreover, this monument could be the architectural dominant for Roman Thebes which aim was the glorification of Roman emperors as the heirs of pharaohs. The main result of the project is the 3D-reconstruction of the temple.
The paper includes the authors' 3D reconstructions of several fortresses (or their structures) of different types: Luxor, Babylon, Nag el-Hagar, Dionysias and some smaller late forts at Kharga oasis. We think that these examples give the opportunity to discuss several important problems concerning their architecture and construction methods. One of them is a supposition about the walls height in the fortresses for comitates. The question is why some of them could have lower walls (Luxor, Nag el-Hagar) than others (Babylon) and than several smaller forts for auxiliary troops (for example Umm el-Dabadib). Another point is the search of analogies for some architectural elements (arrow slits, parapets) and fortress structures (walls, towers, barracks etc). Next interesting question concerns the gates construction and using the special courts and portcullis in them. Traces of such courts were found in many fortresses in Egypt, while portcullis for sure was used at Babylon fortress and possibly at the Nag el-Hagar western gate. The traces of different building stages with their own architectural peculiarities in some forts are also of particular interest. The discussion on these points and problems gives opportunity to understand the Roman military architecture in Egypt better.
Babylon was a typical Diocletianic fortress for Field Army, however it displayed a number of unique features:
• it was constructed over the earlier Trajanic-era stone harbour at Babylon where the Amnis Trajanus joined the Nile. The entrance to the canal was flanked by the massive round towers of the Diocletianic fortress.
• archaeological and historical evidence indicates that a bridge over the Nile led to the western gate of the fortress.
• the massive size and strength of the fortifications were much more solid than those of any other Diocletianic fortresses in Egypt.
The recent archaeological work has shown that much of the southern part of fortress survives today below ground. Above ground the southern gatehouse is preserved largely intact, with the Coptic ‘Hanging Church’ (Al-Mu’allaqa) built over it. The two round towers also survive, one of them within the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George (Mari Girgis).
The aim of the reconstruction is to show the architectural and constructional peculiarities of the southern gatehouse and of the round towers flanking the Amnis Trajanus, and also to present the possible view of the fortress from the Nile. Another special aim is both to classify the corpus of the sources and to show the connection between each source and the reconstruction’s argumentation is visually shown.
criteria for each type.
elements crypt and upper chamber. The sources, mainly depictions of the monuments made from 16-th to 18-th centuries, let us imagine how did their interiors look and to understand attitude of Renaissance and classic architects to the scheme of a building. This scheme was based on connection of underground crypt with annular vaulting and upper chamber with the cupola.
This process is examined on the basis of examples from Ancient Egypt to the early Middle Ages, which are well-known due to archaeological and numismatic materials as well as masterpieces of art.
lot of peculiarities typical of the tetrarchy architecture. Furthermore, the architects who built the monumental Luxor fortress with the imperial cult temple inside borrowed some of its features from the civil temples of this cult. The so called “Kalybe structures” could be the prototypes for the late Roman principia temples and chapels, because they probably were very famous in the late antique Near East. Both had similar architectural features, including the monumentality of their architecture, and both were very important for the urban environment. On the other hand, Roman architects could use some principles of the Egyptian architecture to connect the Roman
imperial cult with the ancient cult of divine kingship in Luxor. Moreover, this monument could be the architectural dominant for Roman Thebes which aim was the glorification of Roman emperors as the heirs of pharaohs. The main result of the project is the 3D-reconstruction of the temple.
architecture. However, modern architectural history is rested on the progress of archaeology which provides new information about badly preserved antique architectural masterpieces. 3D-reconstructions of such monuments, based on the modern computer technologies, let us
broaden our conception of ancient architecture and discover the new stratum of Greek and Roman architectural monuments both for architects and for general public. In the Moscow Institute of Architecture the creation of such reconstructions is a part of educational process and
scientific research. The article illustrated with the author’s reconstructions and also with several examples of 3D-reconstructions made by foreign scholars.
One could suppose that main part of principia in Egypt have more common features with civil Imperial cult temples of the 2nd — 3rd centuries A.D. and their Hellenistic prototypes than earlier examples of these monuments. This fact can be explained by the general tendency of monumentalization of these edifices in the Roman Empire on the whole during the period of the 2nd – 3rd centuries A.D. The architecture of the principia became more luxurious because of increase of the Imperial cult’s significance.
On the one hand, these principia were influenced by the Roman military culture which was connected with creating camps and fortresses. On the other hand they were impacted by the Orient and hellenistic cults of the kings. The architecture of the Roman Imperial cult temple in Luxor was connected with some aspects of the ancient Egyptian cult of divine kingship. The architectural peculiarities of these monuments and iconography of their visual art which appeared in the case of these influences gave some effect on the Christian culture. Such elements as apse, ciborium or baldachin and nimbus got a wide expansion in the Christian art and architecture. Some of these features came to Rome from the culture of the ancient Orient. Therefore temples of the Imperial cult and Genius castrorum in Egypt are examples of the connection between art of the ancient Orient and Byzantine, early Christian and Medieval art and architecture."
caused by climatic, economic and functional factors. Egypt had a significant role in the economy of the Roman Empire. Thus, the Romans built a powerful military system in Egypt for the defense and control of this important province.
Roman military architecture in the Western Oases of Egypt (Siwa, Fayyum, Baharia, Farafra, Dakhla, Kharga) is of special interest. The most significant of the Roman military installations in the Western Oases were established in Kharga, because this oasis was the most southerly and situated on the border of Roman Egypt. The aim of this article is an attempt to compile a typology of Roman fortresses and other fortifications in the Western Oases of Egypt by means of comparative analysis. Consideration of the collected material makes it possible to state that the Romans created in Western Oases of Egypt a complex and well balanced military system which had a clear expression in military architecture. Though all fortresses
have similar planning structures they differ, due different environment conditions and historical background, in several specific features. This gives us the possibility to distinguish
four types of the fortification constructions.
The first type includes standard rectangular fortresses which were situated in important administrative centers of the oases. For example: fort el-Deir (Kharga) and fort in Dionysias
(Fayyum). These forts were, as a rule, the central military installations of the oases. They were built in the reign of Diocletian to defense against Blemmyes and to control the oases.
To the second type belonged temples-fortresses erected on route from center of Kharga to Qasr Douch. Temples-fortresses were a unique occurrence only found in Kharga. The third type incorporates small forts, which were also often built on trade routes, or near state borders (Qasr Labeka, Umm el-Dabadib). To the forth type belong small watch-towers, which preserved at Kharga.
Today no special justification is required for the fact that any work with the monument must be carried out in accordance with the principles of the Venice Charter and modern restoration and archaeology. In this context, we consider a variety of techniques for reconstruction of the monument’s unfinished parts and for reconstruction of its three-dimensional characteristics, ranging from the widely known and used anastylosis to modern unique solutions, which are peculiar "scientific installations". Such techniques can, on the one hand, demonstrate the nature of the monument’s exterior image or interior space to the viewer without claiming historical authenticity, and, on the other hand, form an exposure’s route when it is possible to enter the interior of a preserved archaeological dig.
However, the most interesting aspect of the topic under consideration is what the image of architectural space (against which an archaeological monument will be perceived) should be. We analyzed about 70 archaeological and historical museums built in the 19th-21st centuries and concluded that the main trends in the formation of their architectural patterns are not very different from those of the architecture of this period in general, but there are some peculiarities related to their historical specificities.
The stylistics of the examined museums can be divided into four main directions:
- Development of the heritage, when the archaeological museums’ architecture contains quotes from the cultures that are mainly exhibited inside.
- Creation of neoclassical spaces unrelated to the national color of objects that are displayed in the museum.
- Very simple and functional modernist architecture, which is essentially a neutral background for exhibits.
- Images of the building, formed from postmodernist metaphors, which, in this case, are closely related to the informal redefinition of the museum’s specificities and cultural features.
The main purpose of the report is to consider all the "pros" and "cons" of the approaches described above to the architectural solutions of archaeological museums. It seems that all directions are valid and the choice is always relatively subjective and depends on a variety of factors, including the specifics of the museum exposition, the volumetric-spatial characteristics of the monument, the context surrounding the museum building, etc.
First of all, we single out the depictions on models and medals. Usually they are frontal images of gates or simplified axonometric views of whole cities. The depictions of cites from codices are very similar to the latter ones.
Secondly, we review some models in form of Roman forts: ceramic incense burner from Egyptian museum in Turin and clay model of watch-tower from History museum in Regensburg. Furthermore there are several examples of rectangular bronze braziers. One of them looks like small square castellum with open courtyard, the other one is similar to round tower or Roman mausoleum.
Thirdly, we examine many preserved examples of depictions on frescoes or mosaics. Mainly they are depictions of cities or gates close to those we can see on coins and in codices. However, there are peculiar floor mosaics with images of square wall enclosure. Often they are connected with labyrinth's depictions.
In the fourth place there are rare examples of belts' buckles in form of the gates. One of them, which was found close to Abritus and had been produced in the middle of III century, is of particular interest.
At last we know a lot of sculptural examples of fortifications' depictions. They are reliefs from the Trajan's Column and Column of Marcus Aurelius, so-called City-Gate Sarcophagi as well as early Christian ivory reliefs with depictions of cities' walls as architectural backgrounds.
All the studied groups of architectural backgrounds depictions were examined in detail. For example they are studies on coins (T. Donaldson и N. Elkins) and reliefs from triumphal columns (I. Richmond, J. Coulston и E. Thill). However these studies mainly examines masterpieces of art in сomparison with the similar ones.
The depiction of an city in Roman art and the fact that this motive in what follows came into Christian art were particularly studied in historiography (A. Grabar, E. Smith, S. Casartelli Novelli, F. Bisconti, M. David и M.C. Carile).
Archaeological material on the numerous Roman military fortifications was classified and studied in detail. However we don't use all the presented above depictions in connection with archaeological data for the understanding how the fortresses could look like.
One could suppose than both connection of these depictions with wide cultural context, and their general peculiarities, which connected all the groups of architectural backgrounds studied in this paper, demand further research. Furthermore several new monuments of particular interest were discovered last decades, for example we mean belts' buckle from Abritus.
The examined examples give us more than a little considerable information about design of the Roman military architecture, including some elements and details of particular interest. We can see flat roofs that are comfortable for mounting of artillery in the main part of the Roman fortresses' hypothetical reconstruction, while antique depictions show considerable variations of towers' roofs form, for example, cone-shaped, small domes and the others, there are even rotundas on the towers' tops. In addition we know some depictions of galleries on the walls’ and gate's tops.
One could suggest, that understanding of sacral importance of both city's border (pomerium) and city's territory on the whole can shed light on meanings of the depictions examined in this paper.
Babylon was a typical Diocletianic fortress for comitates; Legio tertiadecima gemina may have been quartered here. However, it displayed a number of unique features:
• it was constructed over the earlier Trajanic-era stone harbour at Babylon where the Amnis Trajanus joined the Nile. The entrance to the canal was flanked by the massive round towers of the Diocletianic fortress.
• archaeological and historical evidence indicates that a bridge over the Nile led to the western gate of the fortress.
• the massive size and strength of the fortifications were much more solid than those of any other Diocletianic fortresses in Egypt, which might be explained by the strategically important position of Babylon at the apex of the Nile Delta.
The recent archaeological work has shown that much of the southern part of fortress survives today below ground. Above ground the southern gatehouse is preserved largely intact, with the Coptic ‘Hanging Church’ (Al-Mu’allaqa) built over it. The two round towers also survive, one of them within the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George (Mari Girgis).
The aim of the reconstruction is to show the architectural and constructional peculiarities of the southern gatehouse and of the round towers flanking the Amnis Trajanus, and also to present the possible view of the fortress from the Nile.
The paper includes the authors' 3D reconstructions of several fortresses (or their structures) of different types: Luxor, Babylon, Nag el-Hagar, Dionysias and some smaller late forts at Kharga oasis. We think that these examples give the opportunity to discuss several important problems concerning their architecture and construction methods. One of them is a supposition about the walls height in the fortresses for comitates. The question is why some of them could have lower walls (Luxor, Nag el-Hagar) than others (Babylon) and than several smaller forts for auxiliary troops (for example Umm el-Dabadib). Another point is the search of analogies for some architectural elements (arrow slits, parapets) and fortress structures (walls, towers, barracks etc). Next interesting question concerns the gates construction and using the special courts and portcullis in them. Traces of such courts were found in many fortresses in Egypt, while portcullis for sure was used at Babylon fortress and possibly at the Nag el-Hagar western gate. The traces of different building stages with their own architectural peculiarities in some forts are also of particular interest. The discussion on these points and problems gives opportunity to understand the Roman military architecture in Egypt better.
On the other hand, the Roman architects could use some principles of the Egyptian architecture to connect the Roman imperial cult with the ancient cult of the divine kingship in Luxor. Furthermore this monument could be the architectural dominant for Roman Thebes for the glorification of the Roman emperors as heirs of pharaohs. These architectural features agree with several theories about the connection of the Roman imperial cult and the ancient Egyptian cult of the divine kingship in the Luxor temple of the Imperial cult.
The main result of the project is the 3D reconstruction of the temple. Despite hypothetical character of some suppositions of the reconstruction it seems that in whole the reconstruction allows to imagine how the Roman temple looked like.