Cyclopean walls and the Cyclopes
- Oct 27, 2013
- 7 min read
The Shengavit Settlement is an archaeological site in present day Yerevan, Armenia located on a hill south-east of Lake Yerevan. It was inhabited during a series of settlement phases from approximately 3200 BC cal to 2500 BC cal in the Kura Araxes (Shengavitian) Period of the Early Bronze Age and irregularly re-used in the Middle Bronze Age until 2200 BC cal. The town occupied an area of six hectares.
It appears that Shengavit was a societal center for the areas surrounding the town due to its unusual size, evidence of surplus production of grains, and metallurgy, as well as its monumental 4 meter wide stone wall. Four smaller village sites of Moukhannat, Tepe, Khorumbulagh, and Tairov have been identified and were located outside the walls of Shengavit. Its pottery makes it a type site of the Kura-Araxes or Early Transcaucasian Period and the Shengavitian culture area.
Archaeologists so far have uncovered large cyclopean walls with towers that surrounded the settlement. Within these walls were circular and square multi-dwelling buildings constructed of stone and mud-brick. Inside some of the residential structures were ritual hearths and household pits, while large silos located nearby stored wheat and barley for the residents of the town. There was also an underground passage that led to the river from the town. Earlier excavations had uncovered burial mounds outside the settlement walls towards the south-east and south-west. More ancient graves still remain in the same vicinity.
Gegharot (also Romanized as Gekharot; until 1945, Keshishkend) is a town in the Aragatsotn Province of Armenia. The fortress of Gegharot lies on a spur of Mt. Tsilkar on the eastern outskirts of the village, 700 m northeast of the Kasak River. The site (as defined by the surface materials) covers an area of approximately 3.43 ha, but the fortification walls circumscribe only the 0.36 ha citadel.
The citadel is highly eroded, with weathered bedrock visible at a number of places. Only the top course of the fortification walls is visible from the surface, so little can be said regarding the masonry employed in their construction. The layout of the walls suggests the presence of a gateway on the northwest side of the site
The archaeological complex at Gegharot was first identified by Martirosyan who recorded scatters of Early Bronze Age surface materials, a cyclopean fortress, and a cemetery (Martirosyan 1964: 23). The surface remains recovered from Gegharot included a large corpus of fragmentary ceramics indicating occupations dating to the Early and Late Bronze Ages as well as to the Iron 3 period.
The growth of the Kura-Araxes horizon village suggests a late fourth and early third millennium occupation at the site of some duration, perhaps, as noted above, interrupted by at least one hiatus. It is clear from the stratigraphy of the site, the material assemblages, and the available radiocarbon determinations that the Early Bronze Age village at Gegharot was occupied during two phases of the Kura-Araxes horizon: an early occupation beginning in the latter half of the fourth millennium B.C. (ca. 3500/3350-2900 B.C.) defined by an Elar-Aragats material assemblage and a later occupation from the early third millennium B.C. (ca. 2900-2700 B.C.) marked by a Karnut-Shengavit assemblage.
Excavations began at Metsamor in 1965 and are still in progress, led by Professor Emma Khanzatian. The most recent excavation work occurred in the summer of 1996, along the inner cyclopic wall. Excavations have shown strata of occupancy going back to the Neolithic period (7,000-5,000 BC), but the most outstanding features of the site were constructed during the early, middle and late Bronze Ages (5000-2,000 BC). Inscriptions found within the excavation go back as far as the Neolithic period , and a sophisticated pictograph form of writing was developed as early as 2000-1800 BC.
The cyclopean walls date from the 2nd millennium BC, when the site was fortified during the Urartian Era. The stone blocks average 20 tons in weight, and are more than 3 meters thick in places. During the Middle Bronze Period (late 3rd to mid 2nd millennium BC) there was a surge of urban growth and a development of complex architectural forms which extended the boundaries of the settlement to the area below the hill. Basically, that area within the inner cyclopean walls are the older city, and that beyond represent newer areas. By the 11th c. BC the central city occupied the lowlands stretching to Lake Akna, and covered 100 hectares (247 acres).
A multi-phase prehistoric settlement in the Ararat Valley. Excavations since 1965 show the presence of superimposed Eneolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age occupation. In its early phases it was an urban-type settlement of 10.5 ha with a citadel surrounded by a sturdy Cyclopean wall and ziggurat observatory situated on a low ridge.
Firstly there are the extensive Cyclopean walls, made of huge stones, often weighing several tons each. They were originally erected at the height of the city’s success, in the late 2nd millennium BC, but the walls were re-used in the Urartian period, from the 9th to 6th centuries BC.
By the middle Bronze Age (late 3rd to middle 2nd millennia BC) the size and architectural sophistication of the site had increased considerably and by the 10th century BC it covered 100ha. About 500m southeast of the citadel was a cemetery with barrows and stone tombs. Finds suggest trading links with Egypt and Babylon in the mid 2nd millennium BC.
The Nuragic civilization was a civilization of Sardinia, lasting from the Bronze Age (18th century BC) to the 2nd century AD. The name derives from its most characteristic monuments, the nuraghe. They consist of tower-fortresses, built starting from about 1800 BC. Today some 7,000 nuraghi dot the Sardinian landscape.
The cyclopean nuraghes, the main type of ancient megalithic edifice found in Sardinia, developed during the Nuragic Age between 1900-730 BC., has come to be the symbol of Sardinia and its distinctive culture, the Nuragic civilization.
The cyclopean nuraghes has more or less related cousins like the Mycenaean tholoi, the Corsican Torre, the Talaiots of the Belaric Isles, the Sesi of Sicily, and more (the probably much later Brochs of Scotland are mentioned as well): All these architectural forms have their origins from a common cultural matrix widespread in the Mediterranean, but in Sardinia there was an original and grandiose development that has not be found elsewhere.
The characteristic of the Cyclopean Walls of Mycenae is that they are made of huge limestone boulders, which have been fitted together rather roughly. Notable is that the hammer was rarely used for the construction of these walls and thus they fit very roughly together. The cracks or gaps between the boulders were filled with smaller limestone. As these boulders are very big in size, the ancient people believed that it was the Cyclops who built these gates, as the thought it impossible for men to move such big rocks. That is why these walls were named Cyclopean Walls.
“The style of architecture used by the Mycenaeans in their cities developed during the Early Mycenaean period. As with the art of the Mycenaeans, their architecture owes a great deal to the influence of the Minoans of Crete. The plan and layout of the Bronze Age cities on the mainland resemble the “palaces” of Crete in many ways, however, the Mycenaeans did develop their own style over the following centuries.
After the “Dark Age”, when Hellenes looked with awe at the vast dressed blocks, known as Cyclopean structures, which had been used in Mycenaean masonry (at sites such as Mycenae and Tiryns or on Cyprus), they were so impressed by the walls built by the Mycenaeans, that they could not believe that humans constructed them, and concluded that only the giant Cyclopes had the combination of skill and strength to build in such a monumental manner. Thus, this type of architecture got its common name, Cyclopean architecture.
A cyclops, in Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, was a member of a primordial race of giants, each with a single eye in the middle of his forehead and a foul disposition. The name is widely thought to mean “round-eyed” or “circle-eyed”.
Various ancient Greek and Roman authors wrote about cyclopes. Hesiod described one group of cyclopes and the epic poet Homer described another; other accounts were written by the playwright Euripides, poet Theocritus and Roman epic poet Virgil.
Hesiod described them as three brothers who were primordial giants. All the other sources of literature about the cyclopes describe the cyclops Polyphemus, who lived upon an island (often identified by ancient authors with Sicilly) populated by the creatures.
In the Theogony by Hesiod, the Cyclopes – Brontes (“thunderer”), Steropes (“lightning”) and the “bright” Arges – were the primordial sons of Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth) from the dark pit of Tartarus, and brothers of the Hecatonchires. As such, they were blood-related to the Titan and Olympian gods and goddesses.
According to Hesiod, they were strong and stubborn. Collectively they eventually became synonyms for brute strength and power, and their name was invoked in connection with massive masonry. They were often pictured at their forge.
Uranus, fearing their strength, locked them in Tartarus. Cronus, another son of Uranus and Gaia, later freed the Cyclopes, along with the Hecatonchires, after he had overthrown Uranus. Cronus then placed them back in Tartarus, where they remained, guarded by the female dragon Campe, until freed by Zeus.
They fashioned thunderbolts for Zeus to use as weapons, and helped him overthrow Cronus and the other Titans. The lightning bolts, which became Zeus’ main weapons, were forged by all three Cyclopes, in that Arges added brightness, Brontes added thunder, and Steropes added lightning.
These Cyclopes also created Poseidon’s trident, Artemis’ bow and arrows of moonlight, Apollo’s bow and arrows of sun rays, and Hades’ helmet of darkness that was given to Perseus on his quest to kill Medusa.
In a famous episode of Homer’s Odyssey, the hero Odysseus encounters the cyclops Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon and Thoosa (a nereid), who lives with his fellow Cyclopes in a distant country. The connection between the two groups has been debated in antiquity and by modern scholars. It is upon Homer’s account that Euripides and Virgil based their accounts of the mythical creatures.
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