Identifier: byzantineromanes131jack (find matches)
Title: Byzantine and Romanesque architecture
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Jackson, Thomas Graham, Sir, 1835-1924
Subjects: Architecture, Byzantine Architecture, Romanesque
Publisher: Cambridge (Eng.) University press

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om a centre (Fig. 8 a). This of course involves acentering of timber on the back of which the arch stonesare laid, and without this support an arch so constructedcould not stand till it was joined and keyed together atthe crown. The problem was to find some way ofkeeping the bricks or stones from falling during construc-tion if there were no centering. It was solved in early 3—2 36 DOMES AND VAULTS (CH. Ill Vaults without centering times both in Egypt and Assyria in a very curiousmanner (Fig. 8 b), by laying the courses of bricksvertically instead of horizontally, so that the vault con-sisted of a series of rings or arches side by side, of whichthe joints and not the beds radiated from the centre.More than this, the rings were not exactly vertical, butinclined backwards, so that each partly rested on the onebehind it. Each brick therefore as it was placed andbedded in clay against the hinder ring had adhesionenough to stick in its place till the new ring was finished Sassanianvaults
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Fig. 8. and so by being keyed became secure. It is in this waythat the granaries of Rameses II at Thebes are con-structed, and also the galleries at Khorsabad. The samemethod is adopted in the Palace of Ctesiphon, built byChosroes II about a.d. 550, where the enormous barrelvault of the central hall, with a span of 86 ft. and aheight of 105, is constructed of brickwork laid in thisfashion, but in this case set in excellent mortar\ Itshould be added that this method requires an end wall * Spiers, op. cit. p. T). The lower part of the arch for about halfway upis laid with horizontal courses, and the section of the vault is elliptical, withthe long diameter upwards, which of course reduced the inclination of thecourses and made them less likely to fall before the ring was keyed. I CH. Ill) DOMES AND VAULTS 37 from which to start. I have observed the same methodof vaulting in the remains of the Carian portico ofA.D. 587, in the harbour walls of Constantinople, and inthe Yedi-Kuleh built a

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