| Summary: | In this study, which discusses the anta, plaster and pier capitals found in Doric buildings in Anatolia, the capitals have been grouped according to the form of the profiles, and each profile has been evaluated in itself. As a result of this grouping, it was determined that various profiles such as Doric cyma, cyma reversa, ovolo and Pergamene type of ovolo were used in Doric buildings. These profiles are described in detail with emphasis on their style developments. In addition to this, buildings whose dates are controversial, were evaluated and re-examined in terms of the style features of the Doric architectural blocks, and new dates were suggested for some of them.
The canonical form of Doric anta capitals consists of Doric cyma (hakwsbeak). This capital type was worked in Anatolia from 4th century BC to the end of the 2nd century BC. An ovolo-type hawksbeak was used in the 4th century BC, while a cyma reversa-type hawksbeak was used in the majority examples of the 3rd century BC and all examples of the 2nd century BC. On the hawksbeak, the style development can be followed on the shape of the lower end of the beak and on the cyma reversa profiles. On the Doric anta capitals, the hawksbeak is crowned with a cavetto. However, as in the early examples, capitals crowned with a vertical fascia were also identified. The exception is the presence of the crown profile consisting of cyma recta, seen in two examples only. In the capitals, the concave curvature of the cavetto profile is well shaped and, in early examples, this profile ends with a fascia that is not too high. The height of the fascia starts to increase in the 2nd century BC examples.
The capitals consisting of the cyma reversa profile, which is thought to have been inspired by Doric anta capitals, were used in the Temple of Athena at Assos in the Archaic Period. L.T. Shoe stated that the Hellenistic examples of these types of capitals belonging to the Doric order in Anatolia are limited to Priene buildings alone. However, in this study, in addition to the examples from Priene, examples were also identified from Mamurt Kale, Latmos Heracleia, Assos and Pergamon in the Hellenistic Period, as well as from Aphrodisias, Mylasa, Bargylia and Knidos in the Late Hellenistic-Augustus Period. In the anta capitals, the depth of the cyma reversa profile is generally equal to its width, and the upper curve is smaller than the lower curve. The capitals in this group are mostly crowned with cavetto, like the capitals consisting of Doric cyma. There are very few examples in which vertical fascia have been preferred.
In the other type of anta capital, the ovolo is the chief moulding and has a crowning cavetto and a base apophyge, sometimes also an astragal. The earliest example is from Epidaurus in the late 4th century BC and were used in the Stoa of Attalos at Delphi in the second half of the 3rd century BC. The Hellenistic examples of these types of capitals, which are widely used in Hellenistic houses in Delos, are few in Anatolia. The capitals consisting of ovolo have become the most preferred capital type in Doric buildings since the beginning of the Early Imperial Period. While all Hellenistic examples were crowned with cavettos, Roman examples have abacus. In these examples, the use of ovolo combined with cavetto shows that the cavetto, which was a crown profile in the early examples, was moved to the capital’s main profile scheme. The capitals consisting of the Pergamene type of ovolo were especially widespread in the second half of the 1st century AD, and were used in this period together with capitals consisting of ovolo and cavetto.
Different arrangements have been identified on the necking of the Doric and Ionic anta capitals used in the buildings built in the Doric order. Below the hawksbeak, the double fillet of the 5th century is revived. In a few cases, the fillets are narrow and deep and set close together, but usually they are broad and shallow and widely separated, the lower one generally cut at the bottom of the block, which forms the capital. The fact that these fillets are seen in both Doric and Ionic capitals is evidence of interaction. Some examples had a plain vertical fascia below the hawksbeak, cyma reversa or ovolo, sometimes large and sometimes small. This fascia sets the capital a little forward from the face of anta. The rosette frieze seen in a few examples shows that they were influenced by Attic-Ionic type anta capitals.
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