The Palenque arch is made by the gradual overlapping of the
strata of the building, as shown in the accompanying cut from Baldwin's
"Ancient America," page 100. It was the custom of these ancient
architects to fill in the arch itself with masonry, as shown in the
picture
ARCH OF LAS MONJAS, PALENQUE, CENTRAL AMERICA
on page 355 of the Arch of Las Monjas, Palenque. If now we took at the
representation of the "Treasure-house of Atreus" at Mycenae, on page
354-one of the oldest structures in Greece--we find precisely the same
form of arch, filled in in the same way.
Rosengarten ("Architectural Styles," p. 59) says:
"The base of these treasure-houses is circular, and the covering of a
dome shape; it does not, however, form an arch, but courses of stone are
laid horizontally over one another in such a way that each course
projects beyond the one below it, till the space at the highest course
becomes so narrow that a single stone covers it. Of all those that have
survived to the present day the treasure-house at Atreus is the most
venerable."
The same form of arch is found among the ruins of that interesting
people, the Etruscans.
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