Page:Greek Buildings Represented by Fragments in the British Museum (1908).djvu/186

 I70 THESEUM, ERECHTHEUM, AND OTHER WORKS. further referred to. The prostasis of the maidens was and is covered by large thick marble slabs, lightened with deep coffers excavated in the lower side, the upper surface being slightly sloped all round, and finished at the edge with a raised moulding with large egg and tongue, a small part of which is shown as remaining in the early drawings. The water escaped through a series of holes about II inches apart, as shown by Inwood (plate 15), which were pierced, I suppose, between the "eggs." The slabs are described in the accounts of 408, the discs on the architrave are also mentioned as unfinished — they are unfinished to-day. The roofs and ceilings were of wood (cypress). According to Choisy's analysis of the building accounts the roof was in part open, and moulded and painted ; in other parts there were coffered ceilings, the panels being covered with terra-cotta slabs. The carved band which sur- mounts the cella walls in con- tinuation of the anta; capitals has been more than once men- tioned. (Fig. 166.) Not only at the Erechtheum, but at the temples of Nike and the Ilissus, this capping of the cella wall directly under the entablature was used. The base moulding of the antEE also ran round continuously, and on it rested the course of big blocks — the orthostatae. Detailed building accounts of the Erechtheum have been preserved on some slabs, one of which is in the Inscription Hall of the Museum by the door to the library. They have been published and analysed by Choisy and others. Other small fragments were found in 1901. They form the records of a Building Board in the year 408. The architect was at this time Philocles. What was done, and what remained to finish, are noted, also wages and prices, all curiously like a mediaeval fabric Fig. i6g.— Fragment of Capital in the British Museum, restored by comparison with a capital pub- hshed by Puchstein.