An historical survey of the astronomy of the ancients / by Sir George Cornewall Lewis.
- George Cornewall Lewis
- Date:
- 1862
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An historical survey of the astronomy of the ancients / by Sir George Cornewall Lewis. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
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![ages; and that some of them belong to comparatively recent periods, and to nations of a purely historical character. It has been proved that some of the Cyclopean walls of Italy are of Roman origin ;(174) and some of the Cyclopean walls of Asia Minor are subsequent to the Peloponnesian War;(175) while those of Tiryns are anterior to Homer. (176) The occurrence of the arch in some of the Cyclopean remains of Asia Minor and Greece is also a conclusive proof of a comparatively late date.(177) The date of the Nuraghi of Sardinia is in like manner quite in- determinate. (]78) As an additional proof that the mere style of masonry affords no decisive indication of the date of construction, we may men- tion the remarkable fact that many of the remains of ecclesias- tical edifices in Ireland, subsequent to the fifth century, closely resemble the Cyclopean remains of Greece and Italy. (179) The attribute common to all three ideas is that of gigantic size and strength. The attribute of skill in workmanship is common to the last two : compare the verse of Hesiod, lfr\vs r r)8e ftir) xai fMrj^avat rjaav eV epyois, Theog. 146. (174) See the excellent paper of Mr. Bunbury, in the Classical Museum, vol. ii. p. 147. The Cyclopean remains of Greece and Italy are faithfully portrayed in the splendid posthumous work of Mr. Dodwell. (175) Mr. Charles Newton, in a communication which he has had the kin ness to make to me on this subject, remarks : ' The walls of Halicar- n?.S8us can hardly be earlier than the time of Mausolus, for he greatly en- larged the city. These walls present polygonal masonry in the parts built of limestone, and isodomous masonry in the parts built of freestone. The adoption of polygonal masonry in cases where limestone is the building material, is obviously caused by the convenience of shaping the stone by the law of cleavage. At Cnidus the city walls are also partly of poly- gonal and partly of isodomous masonry. Now Cnidus, according to Thuc. viii. 35, was as yet unwalled towards the close of the Peloponnesian War. The polygonal masonry in these walls must therefore be of a later period. To the east of Cnidus is a necropolis full of tombs chiefly built of polygonal blocks. There can hardly be a doubt that all these tombs are of the Homan period.' Concerning the walls of Cnidus, see Dr. Smith's Diet, of Anc. Geogr. in v. (176) Iliad ii. 557. (177) See Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, vol. ii. p. 275. (178) See Miiller's Etrusker, vol. ii. p. 227. (179) See Petrie's Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland (Dublin, 1845), vol. i. p. 166—7, 170—1, 184, 250, 316, 396, 398, 409. With respect to the doorway of the Church of St. Fechin, at Fore, in the county of Westmeath, probably erected in the 7th century, Mr. Petrie states that 1 the late eminent antiquarian traveller, Mr. Edward Dodwell, declared to](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21015855_0457.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
