House of the Tiles

The House of the Tiles is a large Early Bronze Age building with two stories located at Lerna in southern Greece. It is known for its advanced architecture, especially its roof covered by baked tiles giving the building its name. The building is a type of house called a "corridor house". History Excavation The House of the Tiles was discovered during excavations made in the early 1950s by the American School of Classical Studies led by John Langdon Caskey of the University of Cincinnati. Structure The building dates back to 2500–2300 BCE and is either the dwelling of a high member of the community, an early palace, or an administrative center. It may also have been a communal structure meaning the property of all the townspeople. The building's function remains unknown. The house had a stairway leading to a second story and was protected by a tiled roof. The building also had areas for storage. Debris found at the site of the building had many terracotta tiles that fell from the roof. Such roofs were also found in the Early Bronze Age site of Akovitika, as well as in the Mycenaean towns of Gla and Midea. But roofs with baked tiles only became common in Greek architecture in the 7th century BC. The walls of the House of the Tiles were made with bricks on stone. Destruction Carbon-14 dating shows that the House of the Tiles was destroyed by fire in the 22nd century BC. Not long after the destruction, the place was cleared in a way as to leave a low tumulus over the site. The cause of the destruction was first attributed by John Langdon Caskey to an invasion of Greeks and/or Indo-Europeans during the Early Bronze Age. But the complexity of the tumulus built over the house's ruins by Bronze Age people shows instead a "showing of respect for their predecessors that one would not expect of invaders of a different culture." References Citations Sources