http://game-of-you.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] game-of-you.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] fandomhigh2005-12-21 09:01 am
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Language Classes, 12/21

Written on the blackboard:

LAST CLASS -- Please hand in your final projects


There is a basket on Dream's desk to collect the papers; next to it sits another basket, full of red-and-green wrapped candy canes and Christmas chocolates. Dream is not visible, but a large raven is perched on his desk, watching over the students. When a paper is turned in, he inspects it with shiny eyes and seems to caw his approval.

Re: Classics, 12/21

[identity profile] carter-i-am.livejournal.com 2005-12-21 03:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Sam handed in her final paper. She'd gone over the word count, but hopefully that wouldn't count against her.

The term “Cyclopean Masonry” is used in architecture, in conjunction with “Pelasgic,” to define the rude polygonal construction employed by the Greeks and the Etruscans in the walls of their cities. In the earliest examples they consist only of huge masses of rock, of irregular shape, piled one on the other and held together by their great size and weight. Sometimes smaller pieces of rock were used to fill up the interstices. The walls and gates of Tiryns and the Acropolis at Mycenae (”http://ah.phpwebhosting.com/a/OUTofBFLO/greece/mycen/acrop/source/6.html”) were constructed in this way.

Such walls are found on Crete and in Italy and Greece. Ancient fable attributed them to a Thracian race of giants, the Cyclopes (”http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://members.tripod.com/~Poseidon64/cyclops.jpg&imgrefurl=http://members.tripod.com/~Poseidon64/pics.html&h=267&w=177&sz=29&tbnid=NvsfYT67eokJ:&tbnh=108&tbnw=71&hl=en&start=17&prev=/images%3Fq%3DCyclops%2BPicture%26imgsz%3Dsmall%257Cmedium%257Clarge%257Cxlarge%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN”), named after their one-eyed king, Cyclops. Similar walls, though not called cyclopean, are found at Machu Picchu, Peru, and at several other pre-Columbian sites in the New World.

Later, these blocks were rudely shaped to fit one another. It is not always possible to decide the period by the type of construction. This depended on the material. Where stratified rocks could be obtained, horizontal coursing might be adopted, in fact, there are instances in Greece, where a later wall of cyclopean construction has been built over one with horizontal courses.

The Citadel of Tiryns (”http://www.grisel.net/tiryns.htm”) in Greece features walls (”http://harpy.uccs.edu/greek/mycenae/tiryns3.jpg”) that range in thickness from approximately 24 feet to as much as 57 feet where chambers are incorporated within them. Though formed without mortar, clay may have been used for bedding.

Cyclopean concrete derives its name from this ancient method. It is a form of massed concrete in which stones are placed as the concrete is poured. These are called plums or pudding stones and are 100 pounds or more in weight. They are generally set at least 6 inches apart and no closer than 8 inches from any exposed surfaces.