ORIGINS OF THE DORIC ORDER

The Mycenaean megaron. This was a big room in the palaces of the Bronze Age Greeks. It had a large circular hearth surrounded by 4 columns, which perhaps influenced the later Doric Order. A 10th Century B.C. building at Lefkandi in Euboea looks like a forerunner of Doric temples. It was wooden, but it is long and narrow and seems to have been surrounded with posts. A number of terracotta models of what may have been houses or temples date from the 8th Century B.C. They have the shape of a basic Greek temple with two columns in front. By the 7th Century B.C., pottery tells us that there were many trade links between Egypt and Greece. The Egyptians had a very old tradition of stone buildings. As the Egyptian temples look very similar to the Greek ones,(eg. Luxor), it is likely that it is from the Egyptians that the Greeks learned stone-building techniques. It is clear from the study of the Doric Order that it had its origins in wooden structures. So the very early Doric temples would have been wooden with terracotta and thatch. If you look at the Doric guttae, mutules and triglyphs, it is clear that the origins of these designs lies in wooden elements.