The ›Small Rosettes Sima‹ on the Athens Acropolis – an unusual Archaic marble roof

Abstract

Original title: Die ›Kleine Rosettensima‹ auf der Athener Akropolis – ein eigentümliches archaisches Marmordach

Fragments of the five ›Small Marble Simae‹ from the Athens Acropolis, most of which originate from the ›Persian debris‹, are known from their publication by Th. Wiegand in 1904. W.-H. Schuchhardt, assisted by the architects A. Tschira and F. Rakob, documented all the fragments of these simae that could be found at the time. This resulted in a preliminary report (1963) and a manuscript. The most complete sima, known as the Small Rosettes Sima, is presented here. The sima is made from Hymettian marble; the level faces are painted with red rosettes and different headbands. The sima shows some peculiarities. The flat tiles of the raking sima are trapezoid in plan. The flat tiles of the eaves sima, which is somewhat lower and had piped waterspouts, are triangular in plan. To both of them no rectangular stroters could join. Two other tiles, triangular in plan, made from the same marble and more or less complete, a flat tile and a cover tile, helped in reconstruction of the unusual tiling. On the basis of the material and the ornament, the roof is to be dated to the mid 6^th century B.C.