Part of Archaic Temple with Terracotta Roof, Civita Lavinia, as Restored
in the British Museum.
But the Treasury of Gela is by a Sicilian architect, and it seems highly probable that the method of decoration employed was not one usually practised in Greece, but was introduced from the Western Mediterranean. Though rare in Greece, it is exceedingly common in Sicily and Southern Italy. The middle temple (known as C) on the acropolis of Selinus, and buildings at Gela and Syracuse, may be cited as examples. The principle is also well illustrated in the terracotta remains of the temple at Civita Lavinia, excavated by Lord Savile in 1890–94, which are now in the British Museum. They have, as far as possible, been incorporated in a conjectural restoration in the Etruscan Saloon (Plate [III].).[[348]] It will be noted that most of the slabs are pierced with holes, by means of which they were attached to the walls or surface of the entablature; they are mostly decorated with lotos-and-honeysuckle and other patterns, in relief and coloured, the same being repeated in colour only on the back of the overhanging edges of the cornice. These remains belong to two periods, the end of the sixth century and the fourth century B.C.; they may be easily distinguished by the differences in the treatment of the ornamental patterns, while there is a marked absence of colouring in the later remains. Similar architectural remains in terracotta have been found in Etruria, and are described in Chapter XVIII. It should be noted that the Civita Lavinia slabs are flat, whereas those used at Olympia, and many others in Southern Italy and Sicily, are three-sided.
Specimens of ordinary Greek tiles have been found in many parts of the ancient world, besides those for special architectural purposes already discussed. Avolio[[349]] mentions many examples from Acrae and elsewhere in Sicily, stamped with emblems or names of officials and of makers. At Olbia, in Southern Russia, tiles were found stamped with names of Greek aediles (ἀστυνόμοι), like the amphora-handles described below (p. [158]),[[350]] and in Corfu tiles and bricks with names of magistrates (πρυτάνεις), indicating in each case the existence of public regulations concerning the potteries.[[351]] At Kertch (Panticapaeum) Dr. Macpherson discovered large numbers of tiles with labels on which was stamped the word
, “Royal,” together with other inscriptions.[[352]] These tiles showed the manner of their attachment one upon the other, and their dimensions answered to the Lydian variety mentioned above. Other tiles discovered by Mr. Burgon at Athens, by Sir Charles Newton in Kalymnos, and by Mr. Colnaghi at Kandyla (Alyzia) in Acarnania, bore labels with inscriptions and designs in relief.[[353]] On one of the latter series in the British Museum is the inscription
, “of the people of Alyzia” (Fig. [11]); on another was inscribed in the manner of the Athenian vases (see Chapters [X]. and [XVII].)
