Dolmen, gabled  Roofs  and  Protodorcic Columns

If it is assumed that an ancient sunreligin had been common in Europe and
in Near East, then it seems likely that burial rites should be in common too,
with references in the European North, Egypt and in Greece.

                                  Northern Germany                      Mound    Deng Hoog, Sylt, ca. 2600-2200  BC.                                                                                                                      Coincide with Egyptian mastaba and pyramids.

As a  rule humans  would like to be  buried in God´s  proximity, on a sacred
place. The Egyptians in proximity of a pyramid, the Christians in proximity of
a relic and the Megalithican in a house built of stones fallen down from the sky.
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This  neolithic stone-house hypothesis in mind a discussion between Cicero
and Caesar.The reason, Ceasar had built his house with a gabled roof. (Kaehler)
Obviously the gabled roof was at that  time in Rom a status symbol. A status
Ceasar pretended to, provoking Cicero to contradict.
After murder of Ceasar the senate dicussed whether Ceasar´s grave should be
decorated by a gabled roof.( Neuberger 1919, zit.?)
                   Obviously in Rom gabled roofs were not common architectur.
                            Etymology may give a resuming reference.

  1.) In German the word " der FIRST"  means the roofridge of a gabled roof.
       The  roofridge bar is carried on props.   ( der Firstbalken)

                                          

2.) The word "first"is Indogerman in its origin and meant in old Indian  
                                 >>  ridge,summit <<  (KLUGE)
3.) The German word FÜRST corresponds to the English FIRST - PRINCE

The Frankish Lex Salica (520) is a legislation  of the Franconia kingChlodwig I…
5.)“If someone destroyed by force a house and it is proven that this had a prop,    
who dares this pays 45 Schilling” ( Killing of a farm servant: 15 Schilling)

Facit: The gabled roof was a status symbol. A house of an upperclass.

                                Acheology may support this hypothesis.
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In the neolithic North plentifull long-wood had been a culture shaping material
If using long timber in a ´rainy´ woodland  ´consequently´ a  rectangular  house
will develop . Thus.in the North the  typical rectangular house with a gabled roof
is technically and climacally justified.

In contrast, gabled roofs are not * native* in the Near East. The reason is simple
Relative dry weather caused  an ´optimal´ Mediterranean construction. Flat roofs
made of  bar wood  covered with a layer  of 30-50 cm strong loam.  (The earliest
houses more or less rounded.)

This  in mind, in Palestine  ( Byblos, Ghassul and Beersheba ) houses  and
house-urns with gabled roofs are proven. How to explain these gabled roofs if
it is correct to assume that gable roofs are not native in thr Near East ?

Gabled-roofed house-urne (Palestine,Germany)

               a  b

  a) Ghassul.(Dead Sea)  b,c,) Beersheba (Perrot,J. Syrien-Palaestina, I,1978)
 Megalithic tombes for the upper class, a house-urn for the middle class?
 b) Houseurn  7.-6. century B.C. Tocheim.(Middle Germany)

Urns for storing the ashes of a cremated person are proven in Germany,
Holland,Denmark  Sweden, Southslavia, Greece, Italy, Egypt and Japan.
(Not necessarily houses)

Since the first millennium B.C. dolmen became replaced by more
                                 prominent  *Houses*
                                                           

       a  b c

                   a) Jordania. It is told being " The bed of "GOG", king of the Philistine.(Dtn 3.11)
                   b)  Cyrus II the Great  (559-529 BC .Persia)
                   c)  Bahram II  ( 276-293,  Persia ) Tomb´s   entrance  0,7 x.0.9 m.  Was  the
                  remarkably  small ' door ' in  the mythic meaning  a post  megalithic soul hole´?
                  (About 800 years between !)

Assumed the Megalithic burial monuments in Palestina were built by Norther-
ners comming from the North-West Eurpean coasts in the 4th millennium BC.
These northern tribes are said to built up to 20 000  ´strange´ dolmen in Pales-
tine .and  rectangular houses with a  gabled  roof as used.  The inhabitants of
Byblos could afford it, because in their neighbourhood grew the Lebanon -cedar.
Thus no  need to change traditional technics.

Conceivable that the gable roof became in this region a status symbol. Gable
roofed houses inhabited by upper class members only? (s.Ceasar)

As  mentioned in the North  the development of a typical  rectangular  house
with a gabled roof is technically and climatically justified, a house in a ´rainy´
woodland.
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Problem:                What about burial chambers with
                    star- covered gabled roofs in Egyptian pyramids?   

                           a b c

a) Sakkara, Pyramid of Merente. 6.Dyn.(2400 BC) A burial in a *stone - house*
with a gabled roof covered with stars. In the pediment behind depicted columns (?)
b) Unas  Pyramid of Unas ca. 2350 BC. A gabled roof with golden, pentagram-like
stars  carved in  relief on a sky-blue  background . The sidewalls  with depicted
columns ?  (So far the oldest Pyramid Texts)
c) Gotik  Paris 1240 Sainte Chapelle. 

A gabled star covered roof within a pyramide supposed to be a symbol of                                  a stony sky covered with stars.
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In   Egypt  (2800 BC)  gable   roofs were  supported by  fluted   columns. Fluted
because the shaft is not  smooth  but  channeled  with  about  20 shallow  flutes.
Champollion  named  this channeld columns.
                                    Proto Doric Columns in Egypt

He was  the firs t to accomplish  the complete  decipherment   of  the  Eygyptian
hieroglyphic  writings (1790-1832 ). Proto- Doric  because  about  2000 years
later  Dorian  immigrating  Greece  built  their  temple  with  fluted  columns.
It is still believed that the Doriian took over the  fluted columns from  the Eygyptian.

                          a    b

                    a) Egypt. King Djoser. Sakkara. fluted columns 3.Dyn.( 2770 BC)
                        In the background the stepped pyramid of Djoser.I  The oldest proven stony
                         columns of he world.
                     b) The entrance colonnade (reconstructed)

                                a b   c

a,b) Beni Hasan.12.Dyn.(1900 BC)  Rock-cut tomb.            
c.)  Deir El-Bahari; Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut (18th Dinasty, 1490-1468 BC)

  Sacrificial room.Tombs  excavated  in the rock have been made as to leave pillars
 of the living rock  standing both at the intrance and in the  chapel. The columns support  the ridge of a gabled ceiling covered with stars.  In a medium-sized rock-carved room  there is no technical need to  support the ridge of a gabled  stone ceiling with columns ´Spirals´and .Rosette´ depicted  on the wall.

In  the pyramid of Pepi II  (VI Dyn.)  the walls are adorned with  pyramid  texts.
The ceilings of the antechamber and burial chamber are gabled, and decorated
with an astronomical theme of stars on a dark background.
   
                             The mythical meaning of ´proto-doric´columns
                            A world axle supporting the star-covered sky?

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                        Problem in Greece about 2000 years later
                                  Doric Columns  (600 BC)
The Doric and Ionic orders originated nearly simultaneously on opposite shores
 of the Aegean Sea; the Doric on the Greek mainland and the Ionic in the Greek
 cities of  Asia Minor. The Doric shaft is channeled  with  20 shallow flutes. Both
 orders originated in temples constructed out of wood.

  a b 

a-b) Greece. Hera-Temple, the oldest Doric  temple at Olympia, c.600 BC
 (Hera,wife of Zeus) The fluted columns show a great variety of styles because
 they were originally of wood  and were gradually replaced in stone. In the 2th
century AD there was still one wooden column in the rear porch of the temple .
(It is said) The meaning of the vertical channels (flutes) in the shafts of columns
is not known. (The bark of a tree ?)
 (The animal especially sacred to Hera was the cow)  (Encyclo. Britannica)

Problem:
                         What could had been the cultural link between
                         Egyptian Proto-Doric and Greek Doric?

                         How to explain 2000 years space between?

1.) The immigrating more primitve northern warlike Dorian/Spartan being deeply
impressed  by  the  persuasive  old  Egyptian  high culture  adapted  or  even
changed their own religion when arriving in Greece c.1200 BC .I.e. the archaic
´Greek´ took over the religion and the corresponding symbols from the Egyptian.
(The common view)
2.) Or
                    The early Egyptian upper class and the later  
    Dorian/Sea-People/Philistine/Spartan had religious roots in common

Kaehler, H. Der griechische Tempel, 1964
Menghin,W. Hallstattzeit. Die Altertümer im Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte
Bd.2 ,1999  Berlin,
Perrot,J.  Syrien-Palaestina, I, 1978

1-protodoric-columns
01.05.04  update, 07.06*

Index

next Greek temples and Gothic cathedrals
Roofs supported by columns with floral capitals. A symbol of the tree of life ? 

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