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THE HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF THE DOME IN PERSIA,
BY K. A. C. CRESWELL. IT is my intention in this article to trace the history and evolution of the dome in 1 Persia from the earliest times to the present day, and I hope to show at the same time the very important part played by Persia in the evolution of domed construction, which I believe has never been pointed out before. Before I can do this, however, I must first briefly review the dome in antiquity.
There was a time when it was thought that the dome was not of really great antiquity, but this opinion can no longer be held. In ancient Egypt the dome was known at a very early date. This may sound strange, since we are accustomed to think of Egyptian architecture as a style of columns and architraves and walls of finely wrought masonry; yet side by side with this monumental form of construction there existed vaults and domes in small and unimportant buildings. At Hieraconpolis several domed shuna or store pits of about 6 feet in diameter have been found, which seemed to have belonged to houses of the pre-pyramid age. Some foundations of isolated circular buildings, probably granaries, were also discovered. In the 12th Dynasty, domes were fornied over the circular chamber within the pyramids of that age; built, however, in horizontal pourses,
Fig. 1. like the beehive tomb at Mycenae.
A model of a house of the 10th Dynasty found at Rifeh, (Fig. 1) shows a terrace roof with three little rounded cupolas just emerging through it, exactly like a style of house found at the present day in many parts of the East.1
The use of little domes for granaries was quite general. According to Porrot and Chipiez, "the granaries, barns and storehouses were almost always dome-shaped. Thos which had flat roofs seem to have been very fow indeed,"2
In Chaldaea and Assyria, also, the dome was known from very early times. Figure 2 shows a basrelief found by Layard in the palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh, (705-681 B. C.) Here we see building, some with hemispherical cupolas, and somo with tall domes approximating to cones in shape. These undoubtadly represent peasants' houses which are constructed in the same way at the present day in many villages of Upper Syria and Mesopotamia. Note the eye left in the centre of the dome to admit light; we shall notice this feature again.
Fig. 2. 1 Lathaby (W. R.), Architecture, London, (1912). p. 58, fig. 13. • Perrot (Georges, And Chipier (Charles), History of Art in Ancioni Egypt, London, 1883, Vol. II, p. 37.
3 Soo Ewald Bange: Die Gubdb Hutten Nordoyriens und Nordon-Mesopotamiens : Orientalisches Archio, Jahrg. II. pp. 173-179
