Ancient Greek Roof Tiles

Greek temples are remembered for their stone columns, but their roofs were just as important technically. Greek builders developed sophisticated systems of moulded terracotta tiles, and later marble tiles, that set the pattern for Roman and much later European roofing.

Earlier flat tiles

Flat, rectangular ceramic tiles without interfitting parts were already used on corridor houses of the Greek mainland in the Early Bronze Age, around 2650-2200 BCE. These were simple coverings rather than a coordinated system.

The Protocorinthian system

The earliest interfitting tiled roof yet identified in the archaeological record belongs to the Old Temple at Corinth, a 7th-century BCE building that preceded the later Temple of Apollo there. Archaeologists call its tiling the Protocorinthian system. Research by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens has compared how tiles were made for buildings at Corinth, Isthmia, Perachora and Delphi. Some scholars also discuss early tiled roofs at Argos; the precise sequence of first use in the Peloponnese is still being studied.

Making the tiles

Greek tile makers pressed wet clay into four-sided moulds, trimmed it, often with a wire, and fired it in a kiln. Moulds grew more sophisticated over time. Flat pan tiles (later called tegulae in Latin) were overlapped by curved or angled cover tiles (imbrices).

Marble and metal

From around 620 BCE marble tiles were used on the most prestigious buildings. Marble could be cut much larger than clay, and marble roofs covered the Temple of Zeus at Olympia and the Parthenon in Athens. Bronze and gilded tiles were rarer still.

Ornament and drainage

Rows of decorated antefixes closed the open ends of the cover tiles along the eaves. Gutters along the sides of formal buildings often had spouts in the shape of lions' heads. Much of the painted terracotta ornament from Corinth survives and helps archaeologists date buildings.

Legacy

The Greek split between pan and cover tile passed to Rome, and from Rome to Mediterranean and Latin American tile traditions. The word imbrication, meaning overlapping layers, comes from the same root as imbrex.