How the Corinthians Manufactured Their First Roof Tiles

by Philip Sapirstein

Hesperia, Volume 78, Issue 2
Page(s): 195-229
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25622692
Year: 2009
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ABSTRACT:

The earliest known terracotta roof postdating the Bronze Age belongs to the 7th-century B.C. Old Temple at Corinth. Analysis of the surface markings preserved on its tiles suggests a hypothesis for the forming and finishing stages of tile manufacture. Individual tiles were built right side up on a mold, with a pair of profiled templates guiding the shape of the top. Replication experiments reveal that the template design for these tiles is much simpler than formerly believed. Nonetheless, it is likely that the Corinthians created their first tiles in imitation of an earlier terracotta roofing system with separate cover and pan tiles, perhaps developed outside the Corinthia.