24. Lakonian-type roof tiles Figure D
Thousands of fragments of red- and black-glazed Lakonian-type roof tiles were recovered. There were no complete tiles, and none were restored to their full lengths. The most complete restored example of a pan tile has a width of 0.50 m, a max. pres. length of 0.735 m, and a max. thickness of 0.016 m. The best-preserved example of a cover tile has a width of 0.23 m behind the thickened lower rim, a max. pres. length of 0.28 m, a max. thickness of the lower rim of 0.034 m, and an average thickness of
Figure D
0.015 m. Thickness of fabric and details of rim profiles are variable, but the figures cited here and the pieces illustrated in figure D are representative of the whole lot, with the exception of the unusual, asymmetrical curve of the rim of the illustrated pan tile; typical examples have a symmetrical profile following the curve of the right rim of this tile.
These are typical examples of Lakonian-type roof tiles, the dimensions and profiles of which are fairly uniform through the classical, Hellenistic, and early Roman periods. Attention to details of glaze, fabric, and profile might allow more precise dating of roof tiles of this type. DEMA 185 n. 120 cites the opinion of Mrs. Carl Roebuck that the files of the type found at the Dema tower are datable to the fourth century B.C. See the examples cited by Orlandos 1955, 103; Martin 1965, 68-70; Olynthus VIII, 232, and figure 17, A and B; Stevens 1950, 174-88; "Dema House" 84-85, with notes 9-11. On the basis of the measurements cited in these works, the restored length of both cover and pan files from the Dema tower should be an average of 0.95 m, and it is probable that the cover files had one end, the upper, narrower than the other, tapering from 0.23 m to about 0.19 m. There are in fact cover tile fragments with both lighter rims and sharper curves than that of the illustrated example, and these would have been the upper rims of the cover tiles. Pan tiles may also have had a taper from 0.50 to about 0.45 m in width, but no measurements could be made from the joined fragments to confirm this possibility.