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Introduction and Definitions
Neither ancient nor modern sources have clarified the history and manufacturing techniques of the architectural, stone-carved, spiral fluted column in the ancient Mediterranean world. Archaeological records, literary sources, and my field survey at ancient sites in North Africa, Greece, and the eastern Mediterranean indicate greatly increased interest in the architectural and mechanical uses of the helical spiral in the first through fourth centuries CE. This article shows that the method of manufacturing a water screw, invented by the Greek scientist Archimedes in the third century BCE and written down by Vitruvius, the late first-century BCE Roman architect and military engineer, led directly to the standardization of techniques for the designing, marking, and carving of the spiral fluted column and facilitated its consequent popularity in the Roman world.
The following definitions apply in this study of the theoretical and technological development of spiral fluted columns. A two-dimensional spiral is a flat curve whose twists continuously increase in regular increments around a point.1 A section through a nautilus shell shows an example of this type of spiral in nature. Painters from Neolithic times to the present have used it for decorating pottery, and Archimedes presented the mathematical equations for this spiral.2 In a three-dimensional spiral, as used in machines and spiral fluted architectural columns, the spiral does not continuously increase in distance from a single point but winds around a fixed linear axis (in three dimensions). The water screw and screw-driven presses illustrate this type of spiral, and the "cylindrical helix" thus formed is the focus of this discussion of the monumental and practical use of spirals in architecture and technology. As for spiral directions, there are two types, defined as "S" or "Z": S spirals twist downward from left to right and Z spirals twist downward from right to left, like the crossbars of the respective letters.
This study updates previous studies of the spiral fluted column and presents new ideas on its development and production. Archaeological or art historical studies of the spiral fluted column are few, as typically these columns are simply noted in excavation reports, accounts of site restoration, or descriptions of monuments. The only studies date from 1907, 1956, 1959, 2004, and 2013.3 As for...