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1898 illustration of abacuses of many capitals in various styles. In architecture, an abacus (from the Ancient Greek ἄβαξ (ábax), ' slab '; or French abaque, tailloir; pl.: abacuses or abaci) [1] is a flat slab forming the uppermost member or division of the capital of a column, above the bell.
The motif then spread to Persia, Egypt and the Hellenistic world, and as far as India, where it can be found on the abacus part of some of the Pillars of Ashoka or the Pataliputra capital. [4] Bead and reel motifs can be found abundantly in Greek and Hellenistic sculpture and on the border of Hellenistic coins.
(Greek: Περίστασις) A four-sided porch or hall of columns surrounding the cella in an ancient Greek peripteros temple (see also Peristyle). In ecclesial architecture, it is also used of the area between the baluster of a Catholic church and the high altar (what is usually called the sanctuary or chancel). Peristyle
The Greek abacus was a table of wood or marble, pre-set with small counters in wood or metal for mathematical calculations. [22] This Greek abacus was used in Achaemenid Persia, the Etruscan civilization , Ancient Rome, and the Western Christian world until the French Revolution .
The capital, projecting on each side as it rises to support the abacus, joins the usually square abacus and the usually circular shaft of the column. The capital may be convex, as in the Doric order ; concave, as in the inverted bell of the Corinthian order ; or scrolling out, as in the Ionic order .
In their original Greek version, Doric columns stood directly on the flat pavement (the stylobate) of a temple without a base. With a height only four to eight times their diameter, the columns were the most squat of all the classical orders; their vertical shafts were fluted with 20 parallel concave grooves, each rising to a sharp edge called an arris.
Ancient Greek architecture came from the Greeks, or Hellenes, whose culture flourished on the Greek mainland, the Peloponnese, the Aegean Islands, and in colonies in Anatolia and Italy for a period from about 900 BC until the 1st century AD, with the earliest remaining architectural works dating from around 600 BC.
The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακὸς ῥυθμός, Korinthiakós rythmós; Latin: Ordo Corinthius) is the last developed and most ornate of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order, which was the earliest, followed by the Ionic order. In Ancient ...