The Making of the Doric Temple
Architecture, Religion, and Social Change in Archaic Greece

The author argues that Doric architecture originated in a disruptive shift in urbanism, land use, and colonization in Archaic Greece.

Gabriel Zuchtriegel (Author)

9781009260107, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 20 April 2023

350 pages
26 x 18.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.7 kg

In this volume, Gabriel Zuchtriegel revisits the idea of Doric architecture as the paradigm of architectural and artistic evolutionism. Bringing together old and new archaeological data, some for the first time, he posits that Doric architecture has little to do with a wood-to-stone evolution. Rather, he argues, it originated in tandem with a disruptive shift in urbanism, land use, and colonization in Archaic Greece. Zuchtriegel presents momentous architectural change as part of a broader transformation that involved religion, politics, economics, and philosophy. As Greek elites colonized, explored, and mapped the Mediterranean, they sought a new home for the gods in the changing landscapes of the sixth-century BC Greek world. Doric architecture provided an answer to this challenge, as becomes evident from parallel developments in architecture, art, land division, urban planning, athletics, warfare, and cosmology. Building on recent developments in geography, gender, and postcolonial studies, this volume offers a radically new interpretation of architecture and society in Archaic Greece.

1. Introduction: explaining architectural change
2. Korkyra: contextualizing early Doric architecture
3. Foce del Sele: mythical and colonial landscapes
4. Selinous: urbanizations and temple building
5. Delphi: architecture and panhellenism.

Subject Areas: Cultural studies [JFC], History of Western philosophy [HPC], Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], History of architecture [AMX], History of art: ancient & classical art,BCE to c 500 CE [ACG]