The House of the Tiles is a monumental Early

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

building (two stories, approximately 12 x 25 m) located at the archaeological site of

Lerna In classical Greece, Lerna () was a region of springs and a former lake located in the municipality of the same name, near the east coast of the Peloponnesus, south of Argos. Even though much of the area is marshy, Lerna is located on a geogra ...

in southern

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. It is notable for several

architectural Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

features that were advanced for its time during the

Helladic period Helladic chronology is a relative dating system used in archaeology and art history. It complements the Minoan chronology scheme devised by Sir Arthur Evans for the categorisation of Bronze Age artefacts from the Minoan civilization within a his ...

, notably its roof covered by baked

tile Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, Rock (geology), stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, wal ...

s, which gave the building its name.. The building belongs to the "corridor house" type..

History

Excavation

The site was excavated during the early 1950s by the American School of Classical Studies under the direction of John Langdon Caskey of the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati, informally Cincy) is a public university, public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1819 and had an enrollment of over 53,000 students in 2024, making it the ...

Structure

The structure dates to the

Korakou culture The Korakou culture or Early Helladic II (in some schemes Early Helladic IIA) was an early phase of Bronze Age Greece, in the Early Helladic period, lasting from around 2650 to BC. In the Helladic chronology it was preceded by the Eutresis cul ...

, also known as the Early Helladic II period (2500–2300 BC) and is sometimes interpreted as the dwelling of an elite member of the community, a proto-palace, or an administrative center. Alternatively, it has also been considered to be a communal structure, i.e., the common property of the townspeople.. The exact function remains unknown due to a lack of small finds indicating the specific uses of the building. The house had a stairway leading to a second story and was protected by a tiled roof; it also contained storage areas. Debris found at the site contained thousands of terracotta tiles having fallen from the roof.. Although such roofs were also found in the Early Helladic site of Akovitika. and later in the Mycenaean towns of Gla and Midea, they only became common in

Greek architecture Ancient Greek architecture came from the Greeks, or Hellenes, whose culture flourished on the Greek mainland, the Peloponnese, the Aegean Islands, and in colonies in Anatolia and Italy for a period from about 900 BC until the 1st century AD, w ...

in the 7th century BC. The walls of the "House of the Tiles" were constructed with sun-dried bricks on stone socles.

Destruction

Carbon-14 dating indicates that the House of the Tiles was finally destroyed by fire in the 22nd century BC. Not long after the destruction, the place was cleared in such a way as to leave a low

tumulus A tumulus (: tumuli) is a mound of Soil, earth and Rock (geology), stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, mounds, howes, or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''kurgans'', and may be found through ...

over the site. The destruction of both the building and the building site was first attributed by John Langdon Caskey to an invasion of

Greeks Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, southern Albania, Greeks in Turkey#History, Anatolia, parts of Greeks in Italy, Italy and Egyptian Greeks, Egypt, and to a l ...

and/or Indo-Europeans during the Early Helladic III period. John Coleman, however, argued in 2000 that the elaborate structure of the tumulus built during the Early Helladic III period over the ruins of the House of the Tiles indicates a "showing of respect for their predecessors that one would not expect of invaders of a different culture."

References

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * {{Authority control Ancient houses in Greece Bronze Age sites in Greece Buildings and structures in Argolis Roof tiles Helladic civilization