Timber in Minoan and Mycenaean Architecture – TiMMA

The multidisciplinary approach combines the analysis of published and unpublished archaeological data, compiled in an interactive database, the anthracological study of charcoal found in old excavations at the selected sites, and structural calculations and 3D reconstructions for a number of buildings, chosen for their relevance to the history of Aegean protohistoric construction. An experimental work package will enable us to put into practice our hypotheses about construction and the use of timber in walls, the construction of doors and windows, of a polythyron (multi-bay door) or mixed pillars (with timber and stone). Some of the devices will be tested on a seismic table.

The uses of timber in Mycenaean architecture and in the palatial architecture of the Neopalatial period in Crete were identified very early on and have been summarised in works devoted to the architecture of these periods: however, it has never been the subject of an overall study or of a comparative approach. The TiMMA project proposes to fill this gap. The objective is to gather in an interactive database all the current data on the presence of wood in the architecture of the Aegean Bronze Age (Greece and Crete) by concentrating the study on a series of selected sites (Pylos, Mycenae and Tirynthe, but also Malia, Phaestos, Zakros and Knossos, as well as Akrotiri on the island of Thera). Directors of each excavation are member of the team. In order to reconstruct as much as possible the wood supply, we will also compile the archaeo-environmental data of these sites, as well as the results of the palynological research in order to approximate the forest cover of the surroundings and the available trees. This work will make it possible to evaluate the structural role of timber (load-bearing system, reinforcement, seismic function or not of the device), thanks to structural calculations and 3D restitutions, reinforced by the use of experimental archaeology on a few buildings chosen among the sites selected for their exemplary nature and the data collected. It will be possible to evaluate the use of wood, to distinguish the borrowings and the specificities of each architecture and to make progress in the comprehension of the relations between Minoans and Mycenaeans. The TiMMA project therefore concerns the history of buildings, the history of techniques and architecture as well as cultural history. The techniques and uses of wood, particularly in Neopalatial Minoan architecture, also provide food for thought regarding the new uses of this material in current eco-construction and particularly the reuse of traditional techniques.