ERNEST NIEMCZYK

The idea that the shaping of architecture forms should involve emphatising with their functioning in order to satisfy the basic need of order, equilibrium and statics originated in prehistoric times. The analysis concerns the Minoan-Mycenaean column, whose form reflected its internal stresses and constructional functions. Initially, such columns were used as tent supports, therefore they tapered towards the bottom, where a constructional joint was formed. By contrast, the internal stresses of the Doric column were reflected by the entasis – the increase of the diameter of the shaft towards the bottom, analogical to human muscles, whose volume increases due to effort.

Those principles also influenced the shaping of the echinus – an element of the capital of both Minoan and Doric columns, which was a kind of elastic cushion, mediating between the load of the roof and the column.

The Minoan column provided support to a tent, which symbolised heaven, and probably for this reason it became a sign of deity. As it can be seen in the relief from the Lion Gate in Mycenae, the base of the Minoan column was incrusted with a Hittite hieroglyph signifying “god’ and ‘deity’.

Key words: Minoan-Mycenaean column, tent support