the stoa poikile - The American School of Classical Studies at Athens

248 LUCY SHOE MERITT
it appears to have been a pier on line with columns, the wall, only 0.372 m. thick,29
serving probably as a screen wall between the pier and some other support, most
likely a side wall of the building. The pier was 0.465 m. wide, 0.78 m. front to back.
The main element of the capital is its hawksbeak with ovolo-crowned fascia
above and terminated below with an astragal, a band, and a fillet over a high fascia
(Fig. 1, d). The painted decoration on the numerous pieces which fit together to make
this capital is especially rich (P1. 64, c). No trace remains on the tiny ovolo but it
may have carried the usual egg and dart. On the fascia there are clear indications
that a meander pattern was painted, and on the hawksbeak remain bits of color from
the Doric leaf, of about 0.07 m. unit spacing, which ornamented it. The band between
the astragal and fillet was painted solid green, of which much remains, and on the high
fascia below against a well preserved blue ground is an elaborate lotus and palmette
pattern with the main design repeated below inverted and the connecting spirals filled
with pointed drops (see above, p. 237).
WALL BLOCKS
Both materials, the Aeginetan and the Peiraeus stone, are represented among
the fragments which carry no distinguishing characteristics by which to identify
them as columns or members of the entablature.
Three pieces of Peiraeus stone are severely weathered in a manner strongly
suggesting that they served as stylobate or stereobate. It is reasonable to find the
stronger material used for these courses.
Two pieces have a band of anathyrosis at the front only of the joint, the face
and the top (where preserved) severely weathered, the bottom finished with a broad
chisel. On one (A 1735, P1. 63) the anathyrosis is 0.07 m. wide and on the face the
top 0.115 m. is more weathered than below and an irregular ground line is indicated
by stain. On the other (A 1743) the anathyrosis is only 0.04 m. wide and 0.155
below the battered top on the badly weathered face a line of demarcation is visible.
The third piece (A 1740) is apparently from the stylobate; both the face of the step
and a narrow space at the front of the top are heavily weathered. In some lights
the weathering on the top appears to show the dripping down along column flutes onto
the stylobate behind which a smoother portion might once have been covered by a
column, but it seems more probable that the weathering of the top of the fragment,
although of varying severity, is all that of the open top of the stylobate.
Three other fragments of Peiraeus stone (A 1736-A 1738) are the only ones
from the building which preserve their complete width, 0.31 m. (P1. 65). The backs
are roughly finished with a broad chisel; they were not visible and other blocks may
have been set against them. If these blocks, the tallest of which is preserved to a
29 It will be noted below that fragments of the regular wall blocks have a preserved thickness
of at least 0.40 m.; the wall thickness must have exceeded that figure.