House of the Tiles

House of the Tiles
Photograph of a ruined stone stairway
Remains of the house's stairway
House of the Tiles is located in Peloponnese
House of the Tiles
House of the Tiles
Shown within the Peloponnese
LocationLerna, Peloponnese, Greece
Coordinates37°33′04″N 22°43′06″E / 37.5512°N 22.7183°E / 37.5512; 22.7183
TypeCorridor house
Area12 m × 25 m (39 ft × 82 ft)
History
FoundedEarly Helladic II (c. 2500 – c. 2300 BC)
AbandonedEarly Helladic III (c. 2200 – c. 2100 BC)
CulturesKorakou culture
Site notes
Excavation dates1950s
ArchaeologistsJohn Langdon Caskey

The House of the Tiles is a monumental Early Bronze Age building (two stories, approximately 12 x 25 m) located at the archaeological site of Lerna in southern Greece.[1] It is notable for several architectural features that were advanced for its time during the Helladic period, notably its roof covered by baked tiles, which gave the building its name.[1][2] The building belongs to the "corridor house" type.[3][4]

  1. ^ a b Cline 2012, p. 202: "The House of the Tiles was named for the enormous quantity of fired clay roof tiles associated with the building. It was built of mud brick over a substantial stone foundation course (ca. 12 x 25 m), with traces of wood-sheathed doorjambs and stucco-plastered walls in some rooms. It was two stories high, as indicated by traces of stairways, and may have had several verandas upstairs, partially covered by a pitched roof, as suggested by Shaw (1990). The House of the Tiles was preceded by an earlier structure of similar type, House BG. Those buildings sometimes also incorporated elaborate clay hearths that are decorated with stamped-seal impressions."
  2. ^ Overbeck 1969, p. 5.
  3. ^ Shaw 1987, pp. 59–79.
  4. ^ Pullen 2008, pp. 36, 43 (Endnote #22): "A corridor house is a large, two-story building consisting of two or more large rooms flanked by narrow corridors on the sides. Some of those corridors held staircases, others were used for storage."