Early Artillery Towers: Messenia, Boiotia, Attica, Megarid

Josiah Ober

doi:10.2307/505291

Early Artillery Towers

Messenia, Boiotia, Attica, Megarid

Bibliographic Data

ID	5147965
Authors	Josiah Ober (0000-0001-8638-4428, corresponding author)
Year	1987
Volume	91
Issue	4
Pages	569-604
Publication date	1987-10-01
Peer Reviewed	Yes
Open Access	No
Type	ARTICLE
Venue	American Journal of Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiers	ISSN: 0002-9114 • E-ISSN: 1939-828X
Publisher	University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI	10.2307/505291
OpenAlex	W2315574544
Language	EN
Citations received	23

The invention of the catapult in 399 B. C. precipitated revolutionary changes in Greek military architecture. Towers were built higher and were provided with upper chambers characterized by the presence of windows often flanked by chases to hold hinged shutters. Comparative study of tower architecture yields more accurate restorations and revised chronologies for fortified sites and helps to define the function of isolated towers. Architectural features of relatively well-preserved and securely dated Theban towers at Messene (369 B.C.) and Siphai (370–362 B.C.) provide models for restoring and dating Athenian-built towers in Attica and the Megarid. The Athenian and Theban towers reflect a developing architectural tradition; they were designed to house relatively small, anti-personnel catapults, probably of nontorsion design. They predate towers which housed large, torsion, stone-throwing catapults (e.g., at Latmian Herakleia, ca. 297 B.C.). Analysis of shuttering systems of preserved artillery towers suggests that the shutters (thyrides kataraktoi) used on windows in the parapet of the Athenian city wall of 307/306 (IG II2, 463), like those used at several Athenian and Theban sites, were bottomhung

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Artillery · Tower · Visual arts · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Architecture · Classical Antiquity Studies · Engineering · Historical and Architectural Studies · History

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Unique citing works	23
Citations per year	0,22
Citation span	1920 - 2022 (103)
Citation velocity	historical
Highly cited	No
Citation types	Neutral: 22