Posedonia/Paestum, 5th C. BC

[captpete]

Here's some preliminary work on a new map. It's of Paestum in Campania, Italy which was settled by Greek colonists c.600 BC from Sybaris (Modern name Sibari) in Calabria, Italy founded in the 8th C. BC - a part of the Achaeans tribe in the northern Peloponnese area of Greece. It was called Poseidoniahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paestum by the Greeks who settled there after their patron God, Poseidon, God of the Seas. The area of southern Italy and Scicily was called Magna Graecia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Graecia by the later Romans due to the many Greek colonies in the area.

As in my Athenian Map I'm modeling the transition from the Archaic to the Classical period's of Greek civilization. The well-preserved temples and Bouleuterion are great starting pints though most of the polis (City-State) was captured by the Italian tribe of the Lucanianshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucani_(ancient_people) , renamed Paistos and then added to Rome in 273 BC. The Romans extensively changed a lot of the City adding a Forum and building over the Agora of the Greek city so there will be a lot of guesswork on my part modelling the city as a whole in my map. There was also a lot of Medieval construction before abandonment of the City in the Early Middle Ages.

--- Paestum ---


--- Paestum, City Plan. ---


-- Paestum - The Agora ---

Paestum.jpg

Paestum

(689.27 KiB) Not downloaded yet

Paestum, plan de la ville.png

Paestum, City Plan.

(212.49 KiB) Not downloaded yet

Agora - Paestum.png

Paestum - The Agora

(358.48 KiB) Not downloaded yet

[captpete]

The Walls, Gates and Towers


First to be built by the Greeks were the walls, gates and towers to protect the colonists from the local Italian tribe. In my research of Greek Colonies I found that walls were mostly of local cut stone, if available. As can be seen in the photo below the lower 5 courses or so were the original Greek construction up to the level of the parapets. They were normally from 2.4-3m wide and if we assume the Greek measure of a cubit (pēchys) the stones would be about 0.5m high so a wall height of about 2.4-3m would seem right with another 1.5-2m for the parapets. I chose a width of 3m and a total height of 5m on the city wall for both and crenelated them. These were not the Cyclopean walls of the Mycenaean's. A river or ditch with a Glacis (I know the Egyptians used them - why not the Greeks who studied them) with a cliff on the sea side would complete the wall's defenses

The gates were an interesting problem. I have no definitive research on them so I chose to follow the visible foundations and took it from there. I assumed the gates themselves would be wide enough for a cart or chariot side-by-side. I also assumed the roman standard of 4' 8" wheels and axles so 10 feet with a foot of clearance between and on the sides. That gave me 4m width for the gates and I assumed the height of the walls (3m) for them to allow a horse and rider to pass under. There would be two gates with a courtyard between them to trap invaders. Walls along the sides of the courtyard and gate towers would be the defensive complement.

There were quite a lot of towers along the walls, especially the areas not protected by cliffs on the sea side. I proposed 3 basic types: large square towers at major point which could garrison troops; large round towers (not really sure if the Greeks built round towers) the same; and smaller square towers integrated with the walls between the larger towers to pass signals between them. The minimum size or the smaller towers (and tower gates) would be 5m square and 2 stories plus parapets (8m?) high. The larger towers would be 9-10m square (or round) and could house garrison troops and supplies. All the towers would have braziers on top to signal from (smoke by day, fire by night) The gates would have one or two towers each to reinforce them in addition to the tower gates.

-- Walls, Gates and Towers ---

[captpete]

Temple of Hera I (Basilica)



The first Temple of Hera was built around 550 BC and is the oldest. There was no local marble so all the public buildings in the city were constructed from local golden-yellow travertine and given a white lime plaster. Since this limestone is not as carve-able as marble there are no friezes. The details were painted instead in colors of Egyptian blue, red cinnabar and red ocher. I can't really do it justice.

This is a dual-temple with an unusual design and a colonnade down the middle of the naos and an odd number of columns(9) on the ends to revel two entrances to the naos.

[captpete]

Temple of Athena (Ceres)



The Temple of Athena was the second great temple and was built in 500 BC. It's traditional with the relationships as expected for a hexastyle Greek temple with no Opisthodomos as was sometimes seen.

[captpete]

Temple of Hera II



The second Temple of Hera was built around 460-450 BC and has a wider column size and smaller intervals between columns than the norm.

[captpete]

The Bouleuterion



Next is a circular council hall (bouleuterion) or assembly space (ekklesiasterion) and was located on the East side of the Agora. It didn't have a roof but did have a small alter. The Romans filled it with dirt and built over it so the above ground parts are speculation.

[voxelproof]

The Bouleuterion

Next is a circular council hall (bouleuterion) or assembly space (ekklesiasterion) and was located on the East side of the Agora. It didn't have a roof but did have a small alter. The Romans filled it with dirt and built over it so the above ground parts are speculation.

By Jove, this looks fully professional. I guess you have some architecture background. It seems to me that you also use custom nodes/textures, am I right?

[captpete]

The Bouleuterion

Next is a circular council hall (bouleuterion) or assembly space (ekklesiasterion) and was located on the East side of the Agora. It didn't have a roof but did have a small alter. The Romans filled it with dirt and built over it so the above ground parts are speculation.

By Jove, this looks fully professional. I guess you have some architecture background. It seems to me that you also use custom nodes/textures, am I right?

Althoug I don't have a professional architecture background I do have an Associates degree in (Electrical) Engineering and the principles of Engineering apply to all it's disciplines. I have studied architecture, especially ancient architecture, indepentdently.

I do use customized/modified mods. I am not a LUA programmer but my methods were discussed in my Athenian map topic at https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=19969. The texture packs used in this map are a customized hdx-32 and John Smith in the (heavily modified) [mccompat] mod. Here's a list of mods in my "worldmods" directory:

3d_armor
artdeco
bakedclay
carpet
carpet3d
castle - customized castle_masonry submod
concrete
cottages
darkage - customized
facade - customized
hardenedclay
heads
homedecor_modpack
lapis
listdir.txt
mccompat - heavily modified
mcimport
medieval
moreblocks - customized
mydoors
nether
pkarcs
quartz
stoneplus - a heavily modified fork of [stone] by yours truly
xconnected - customized
xdecor
xtraarmor

All my worlds are hosted on my private server (for family and close friends ONLY) and any schematics or maps would certainly NOT work/display properly anywhere else. That said I would share my schematics/mods with anyone who PM's me and would answer questions on how I created something. Do note that these images of my builds are preliminary and are constantly changing. I will share more detail as I continue to update the builds.

[captpete]

Small Urban Greek Villa



This a typical small single_story villa, perhaps a small trader's.

--- Floor Plan ---

Bedrooms on upper left, (d-e) bath and kitchen, (f) courtyard, (g) slave quarters, (j) hall, (k) Andron (Men's area for dining and entertaining guests), Storeroom/Workshop to the left.

-- Entrance Courtyard ---

Washing basin, Hestia's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hestia hearthfire and alter on the right

[captpete]

Small Urban Greek Villa, cont.

--- Hall --

Note the bench for the serving slave to wait for his master's orders.

--- Andron ---

Diners reclined and the food was placed on low benches.

--- Slave Quarters ---

Slaves slept on low pallets and the chest held their clothes/tools, etc.

[captpete]

Small Urban Greek Villa, cont.

--- Interior Courtyard - Woman's Area ---

Women would do their work here, like weaving, etc.

--- Bedroom ---

Bedrooms were simple - A bed and a chest to hold clothing and personal possessions.

[captpete]

Small Urban Greek Villa, cont.

--- Kitchen ---


--- Bath ---


--- Storeroom/Workshop ---

Normally it had a separate entrance for customers/clients, etc. from the house's main entrance.

[voxelproof]

I think that Minetest is a powerful artistic tool in hands of able builder, not less than Minecraft. Your works are a proof for that and these images can be viewed with true pleasure. Thanks for sharing them.

I'm nearing the completion of a large architectural project and I hope it won't fall short of the new building standard you've set on this forum :) Cheers and good luck with your constructions.

[twoelk]

ooh, most interesting!

[dawgdoc]

Glad to see things are improved for you captpete.

[captpete]

Glad to see things are improved for you captpete.

They really haven't improved - these postings are of a preliminary build done quite a while ago just to see if I could get the major buildings mocked up. The real build is awaiting my next eye doctors appt.

[dawgdoc]

I saw your mention of another appt in a different topic. I hope you receive good news of considerable improvement.