ITU A|Z • Vol 12 No 3 • November 2015 • 227-247 Continuity of architectural traditions in the megaroid buildings of rural Anatolia: Te case of Highlands of Phrygia Alev ERARSLAN [email protected] • Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, Istanbul Aydın University, Istanbul, Turkey Received: May 2015 Final Acceptance: October 2015 Abstract Rural architecture has grown over time, exhibiting continuities as well as ad- aptations to the diferent social and economic conditions of each period. Conti- nuity in rural architecture is related to time, tradition and materiality, involving structural, typological, functional and social issues that are subject to multiple interpretations. Tis feldwork was conducted in an area encompassing the villages of the dis- tricts of today’s Eskişehir Seyitgazi and Afyon İhsaniye districts, the part of the landscape known as the Highlands of Phrygia. Te purpose of the feldwork was to explore the traces of the tradition of “megaron type” buildings in the villages of this part of the Phrygian Valley with an eye to pointing out the “architectural con- tinuity” that can be identifed in the rural architecture of the region. Te meth- odology employed was to document the structures found in the villages using architectural measuring techniques and photography. Te buildings were exam- ined in terms of plan type, spatial organization, construction technique, materials and records evidencing the age of the structure. Te study will attempt to produce evidence of our postulation of architectural continuity in the historical megara of the region in an efort to shed some light on the region’s rural architecture. Te study results revealed megaroid structures that bear similarity to the plan archetypes, construction systems and building materials of historical megarons in the region of the Phrygian Highlands. Tese structures were classifed in a ty- pology that evidenced the existence of an architectural continuity of megaroid building tradition, which this study seeks to present. Keywords Megaron, Megariod buildings, Architectural continuity, Rural architecture. 228 1. Introduction Rural architecture is a type of archi- tecture that is based on local needs and construction materials, and it refects local traditions at the same time. Te general characteristics of rural archi- tecture are traditionality, functionality, adaptation to environmental condi- tions and local materials. Rural houses are important ele- ments of heritage that have historical and cultural continuity. Tey are less liable to be afected by rapid cultural changes and has grown over time, ex- hibiting continuities as well as adap- tations to the diferent social and eco- nomic conditions of each period. Some part of Turkish communities preserved their nomadic lifestyle until the end of the 19th century when they began to abandon their yörük tents to build per- manent houses during their transition from a nomadic existence into a settled lifestyle. It is believed that it was in this period that they must have adopted the housing plans used by the local popu- lations in the places in which they set- tled. Figure 1. Eskişehir Seyitgazi. Researched villages (drawn by Uğur Süleymanoğlu). 2. Te aim and the methodology of the research Te process of exploring Anatolia’s rural settlements is still in its beginning stages. Tere is still controversy over which parameters were infuential in the choice of the house plans, materials and building systems used in the tran- sition of the Turks into permanent set- tlements. Te general belief is that the nomads adapted to the housing culture of indigenous societies in that period. It is for this reason that research on Anatolian rural architecture is of great importance. Tis feldwork was conducted in the area encompassing all villages of Figure 2. Afyon Ihsaniye. Researched villages (drawn by Uğur the districts of Eskişehir Seyitgazi and Süleymanoğlu). Afyon İhsaniye, referred to in history as the “Highlands of Phrygia” (Figures. of whether there is in fact cultural and 1, 2). Te main goal of this research is architectural continuity in Anatolian to reveal the similarities between the rural architecture. megaroid structures in the Highlands To reach our goals, we investigated of Phrygia and the plan, spatial organi- all of the villages in the region. All the zation, building systems and materials houses were examined in terms of the used in the historical megara, and to plan type, spatial organization, materi- uncover any architectural continuity als, construction systems and records as is believed to exist in the area. Tis evidencing the age of the buildings. will shed some light on the question Te samples chosen were documented ITU A|Z • Vol 12 No 3 • November 2015 • A. Erarslan 229 using architectural measuring meth- Other early examples can be seen in ods and photography. In addition, in- Sesklo and Dhimini in Eastern Tessa- terviews were held with the members ly in the late Neolithic (Bintlif, 2012). of the households living in the houses Sesklo has in fact been named the ear- and with village elders to learn about liest “megaroid-style building” in the the age of the buildings, the history of middle of the acropolis. Te structure the villages, the daily lifestyle and the is made up of a porch, a main chamber use of space. and a back room. In the same way, the acropolis at Dhimini boasts a megaron 3. Te historical background of the larger than others that stands in the megaron middle of the circular walls. Tese are Megaron (plural megara) refers to centrally-located structures and pro- an elongated rectangular building with tected by fortifcation walls. Tey have an entrance on one of the short sides, been interpreted as the rulers’s resi- provided with a porch. In Homer, the dences or the temples (Bintlif, 2012). megaron refers to the great halls of the Poliochni and Termi had row-hous- Mycenean palaces (Knox, 1973). Ho- es of megaroid character during EBI. mer regards the function of the mega- Tese long and narrow buildings are ron as “the hall of the men”. Heredotus composed of a closed antechamber and holds it equal to the sacred room of of a main chamber. Tese structures the adyton of the temple dedicated to have been placed on the street per- Helen (Işık, 1998). According to Deroy, pendicularly. Tey were constructed “megaron” is a word in Sanskrit that as row houses with common side walls means “a room with a hearth” (Deroy, (Warner, 1994). Mellink presumes that 1948). these long houses are the ancestors of Dörpfeld, Schliemann and Blegen the megaron (Mellink, 1986). were the frst to apply the term “mega- Lerna IV (Early Helladic II) is a ron” to prehistoric remains, in the pal- small one-room megaron of classical ace at Tiryns in 1885 and later for the form facing east onto a large courtyard large buildings of Troy II (Dörpfeld, (Warner, 1994). In the Middle and Late 1902); Schliemann, 1885). Tey used Helladic, the megaron plan continued the term “megaron” in the Homeric to develop and a number of new types sense of a large hall or a main hall in a emerged, particularly in houses. In the palace (Ivanova, 2013). In his 1953 ex- Peloponesus, the Mycenaean palaces cavation report, Blegen described the of ruler forts of Late Helladic III, My- megaron as “a room of great size, the cenae, Tiryns and Pylos exhibit struc- principal apartment of the palace”. It is tures of the megaron type. Te most referred to as a megaron of the classic well-known is Nestor’s palace at Pylos, mainland type, consisting of a great of which we hear much in Homer’s hall, a vestibule, and a two-columned Odyssey. It consists of a hall, a forehall, portico fronting a court, in most re- and a porch with two columns in antis spects similar to corresponding suites to support the roof. Te main hall con- at Mycenae and Tiryns (Blegen, 1953). tains a large circular hearth at center, Te term has subsequently been used surrounded by four columns (Blegen, to refer to other buildings in Greece Rawson, 1966). and elsewhere that contain a long hall Looking at Anatolian examples of fronted by a porch, as well as freestand- megaron-type, Hacilar IIA from the ing buildings with this alignment of Early Chalcolithic presents buildings rooms (Warner, 1994). of megaroid character. Tese contig- Tere are diferent views about the uous buildings of one or two stories roots of the megaron. Te simplest have features similar to megaron type type, namely an isolated rectangle, is because they display a forecourt of attested for Trace, Macedonia and a sort. Te houses are arranged with Tessaly in Neolithic (Müller, 1944). their backs to the defensive wall. Each Buildings of this type consist of a sin- consists of a main room with a hearth gle room without porch or anteroom. set in the middle of the foor and an an- Tey have pitched roofs, fat roof or the teroom (Mellart, 1970). barrel roof. Another precurser of the mega- Continuity of architectural traditions in the megaroid buildings of rural Anatolia: Te case of Highlands of Phrygia 230 ron-like structure in Anatolia can be the main room. Te roofng sytem is seen in Yümüktepe XVI. Here stand a the gabled roof. series of houses of megaroid charac- In all of the occupation levels dat- ter adjoining the city walls, all with a ed to the EB at Beycesultan, megaroid closed porch and a main room in back houses and shrines are quite prevalent. (Garstang, 1953). Tey have main rooms with hearths, At the start of 4000 BC in the Late sometimes with small rooms in the Chalcolithic, in Beycesultan XXIV, back and with a porch. Tis continued appeared a structure that may be said to be a feature of megaron-type build- to be a precursor to the megaron type ings right up to the end of the LB at site in Anatolia.