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XIII. TOOLS AND BUILDING.

(Wall-Cases 45-48.)

Tools. These are exhibited in Cases 45-46. The objects for the most part speak for themselves, but attention may be called to one or two of the most interesting. Such is the Roman bronze set-square (No. 371; fig. 156), furnished with a base to enable it to stand. Its outer edges would be used by masons or carpenters to determine angles of 90° and 45° respectively. The inner angle of 90° would be useful for testing the true position of objects set at right angles to one another, such as the sides of a box, etc. The simplest type of set-square, that formed by two rods at right

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FIG. 156.-ROMAN SET-SQUARE AND PLUMMET (Nos. 371, 373). 1:4. angles to one another, is seen in No. 372. Notice the set of bronze plummets (No. 373), which were suspended from strings, and used to determine true perpendicularity. The one illustrated (fig. 156) has Bassi, "belonging to Bassus," inscribed on it in punctured letters. Two other inscribed tools are of interest. The one is the sickle-like iron blade from, perhaps, a gardener's knife, with the inscription "Durra made me" (No. 374), the other a finely made Greek bronze chisel, bearing the name of Apollodoros (No. 375).

Building materials.-Cases 47-48 contain objects illustrating the materials and methods of Greek and Roman builders. There are several Greek tiles dated by the impression of a magistrate's name, e.g. " Under Aeschyliskos," "Under Apollodoros," the latter (No. 375*) bearing traces of the feet of a dog which has run across the tile before it was dry. Parallel with these inscriptions

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are those on the Roman tiles or bricks. These stamps were a kind of trade-mark, intended to guarantee the quality of the clay. The beginning of the inscription is marked by a small raised circle, and the information given includes the date (name of the Emperor or consuls), the name of the estate from which the clay comes, the name of the potter and his kiln, though all these pieces of information do not necessarily occur on the same tile. As typical examples may be given: No. 376, here illustrated (fig. 157), bearing the device of a pine-cone between two branches, and the inscription ex fig(linis) M. Herenni Pollionis dol(iare) L. Sessi Successi, "From the pottery of M. Herennius Pollio; baked by

L. Sessus Successus"; and No. 377, with the device of a Victory, and the inscription: "Brick from the Publinian pottery, (made with clay from) the estate of Aemilia Severa." A large number of the estates from which the clay came were, it should be noted, owned by women. These tiles were used merely as facings to a main structure of concrete, and were generally covered with stucco.

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Ca. 1:3.

The bronze dowels (No. 378) were employed for fastening together stone sections, such as the drums of columns. They are often in the form of truncated cones placed base to base, the thickest part being thus in the position where the strain was greatest (fig. 158a). Other dowels from the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos are in the form of bronze cylinders in collars of bronze. The cylinders were intended to drop from the collars into the sockets of the stones seen in the lower part of Case 45.

A series of bronze coverings (No. 379) for the pivots of doors reminds us of the fact that in ancient times most of the doors worked on a different principle from our own. The bronzecovered pivots (fig. 158b) turned in bronze sockets (c) fitted into the

lintel or threshold.

This arrangement explains the allusions to the grating of doors met with in ancient writers.' Hinges of the modern type were, however, well known. Examples are to be seen in the bottom of Cases 47, 48, among them a hinge with the fragments of the wood, to which it was originally attached, still adhering (No 380).

Towards the end of the Republic and under the Empire the Romans devoted much attention to the adornment of their buildings, public and private. For this purpose marbles of every variety were imported from all parts of the world, while an elaborate system of wall-painting was also developed. Mamurra, an officer of Julius Caesar,

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is said to have been the first to veneer the walls of his house with marble. The columns in his house were all of solid Carystian or Lunensian marble.2 The orator Crassus, M. Lepidus, and L. Lucullus were all noted for the display of marbles in their houses. A few selected examples from the Tolley collection of modern specimens of the marbles used in ancient Rome are here exhibited (No. 381). The whole collection comprises some 700 specimens, so that we cannot be surprised that Pliny declines to enumerate the varieties known in his day, on account of the vastness of their number.3 The simpler building materials used at Rome were, besides the tiles or bricks already mentioned, the hard limestone rock known as travertine and the volcanic tufa and peperino. A specimen of the last is shown here.

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FIG. 158.-BRONZE DOWEL AND DOOR-
PIVOT (Nos. 378, 379). 1:2.

The place of hanging pictures in ancient houses was largely taken by fresco wall-paintings, several fragments of which are

1 Virgil, Ciris, 222:

Marmoreo aeratus stridens in limine cardo.

2 Plin., H.N. xxxvi. 48.

3 H.N. xxxvi. 54.

here shown. The floors of the houses were not covered with carpets, but were frequently decorated with mosaics, which might range from simple geometrical patterns in black and white (as in many of the specimens here seen) to elaborate pictorial designs. The construction of these pavements, out of small stone cubes (tesserae) set in cement, is clearly seen in the examples exhibited. Genuine mosaic was sometimes imitated in painted plaster. One or two such fragments can be seen in the Case.

(371) Cf. Mém. de la Soc. des Ant. de France, VII. série, III. (1902), p. 345, fig. 10; (373) Cf. Daremberg et Saglio, s.v. Perpendiculum; (376) C.I.L. XV. (1), 1180; (378) Newton, Disc. at Halicarnassus, II. (1), p. 97; (379) Cf. Ann. d. Inst., 1859, pl. E; (381) Cf. Pullen, Handbook of Ancient Roman Marbles.

On Roman buildings generally, cf. Middleton, The Remains of Ancient Rome; Lanciani, The Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome; MauKelsey, Pompeii.

XIV. DOMESTIC ARTS.

(Table-Case G.)

FIG. 159.-WOMAN SPINNING (No. 382).
Ht. of Vase 83 in.

Weaving, etc.-(a) Preparation of yarn.-The process of spinning is clearly seen in the accompanying drawing from a Greek vase of the fifth century exhibited in this Case (No. 382; fig. 159). A woman is holding up in her left hand the distaff, a rod which is thrust through a ball of wool. With the fingers of her right hand she is twisting fibres drawn from the wool. The yarn is attached below to the top of the spindle, a rod of wood or metal with a disc (whorl) near the bottom to assist the rotation. The top of the spindle generally had a hook (seen in fig. 160 and in the above illustration),

which facilitated the attachment of the fibres. When some quantity of yarn had been twisted, it was cut away and wound round the body of the spindle, after which the twisting process was recommenced. An impressive description of the ancient spindle is given by Plato in the vision of Er at the end

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of the Republic, where he likens the axis of the universe to the shaft of a spindle suspended by a hook of adamant, and the revolving starry heavens to a whorl made up of eight concentric rims, fitting one into the other like boxes. Two bronze spindles (No. 383) are seen in the Case and are illustrated on either side

1 616 c, D.

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