Tyre 332 BC

[Kostis Ornerakis]

From Greece with many olive trees... my compliments!

[Cryns]

Thank you BB, ADM, Renikart and Kostis for your nice replies.



King Ozmilk, written: 'Zmlk' in Phoenician and called Azemilcus by Roman writers, was King of the city state of Tyre from 347 until 332 BC. He was away with the Persian fleet at the time Alexander arrived at the city.





Prominent among the city’s landmarks was the royal palace compound with its kingly residence, archives, and treasuries. According to Arrian, it was located in the south-western sector of the city, like the temples.



Ozmilks son and the city governors tried to evacuate the Royal family together with the Tyrian woman, children and old men in ships, all the way to Carthago which was originally a colony of Tyre. This mass scale evacuation did not succeed completely when Alexander started his siege.



Two of Ozmilks wives are transported to the harbour together with their most precious belongings.



Camels were not a common thing to see in the fortified town because being a small island. Common transport was by donkeys or sedan chair.



Phoenician clothing of the 4th c.BC keeps hidden in mist. The Hellenizing Greek influence of fashion already started before the Macedonian conquest but on the other hand: the Alexander Sarcofagus shows the Sidonian King from the neighboring Phoenician city state of Sidon, together with Alexander both dressed up in typical Persian fashion.



So both Greek and Persian dress are options for the upper class Tyrians.



There are no traces left of Tyres palace, nor of any other royal Phoenician residence. I based my design on those of Israelian palaces of Kings David and Salomo.



These palaces were designed and build by Phoenicians. King Hiram 1 who was king of Tyre from 980 to 947 BC was a contemporary of David and Salomo and gave construction assistance by building Biblical Jerusalem. These Israelian palaces are much better recorded than the Phoenician ones so give the best indication to us today for what it may have looked like.



My palace is, for gaming reasons, a simplification of such buildings.



There is a huge gap between the 10th and 4th century BC. But Phoenician architecture did not change much in that time. I know about two standing Phoenician/Punic structures of which one is at Malta, called the Zurrieq Tower and is probably part of an early 6th century temple or tomb.



The other one is a Phoenician temple in Tyre dating back to the 5th century BC.



All of these buildings, temples and palaces alike, show the typical Egyptian influenced gorge cornice of roll and hollow moulding crowning the walls.









The design of the balustraded windows is based on Phoenician ivorycuttings showing a woman with Egyptian influenced hairstyle in a window.





The central court is just big enough for placing one or two gaming elements.



Entrance to the royal dwellings:



Entrance for the servants:



Since all upper- and middelclass buildings in almost all ancient and medieval periods were painted and colorfully decorated from both the inside and the outside, I have no reason to think this was any different with the Phoenicians. For chosing a color palette I studied some reconstructions of Salomo's palace again:



I transponated these colors to the exterior of the building and added some Assyrian and Babylonian motives to it which were the nearest references I could find.









The original doors were cut out of styrodur like the rest of the building.



Influenced by our member Kostis I replaced it by wooden doors.



Finally I decided to present the building surrounded by trees and plants since the Phoenicians were influenced by the Babylonians and Persians who preferred gardens all around and even on top of their dwellings.

[Ben90]

Looks great!

[Kostis Ornerakis]

Absolutely wonderful

[C M Dodson]

Tremendous modelling Mr C.

The photography makes your scenes come to life.

Best wishes,

Chris

[stenfalk]

Someone who presents his works as such scenes, of course has every right about my photos (with a computer table in the background) to blaspheme. Very, very wonderful! It looks very real and stimulates the imagination. A journey through the time - better than any hour of history teaching in the school...

[Phersu]

Absolutely fantastic my friend!
These town sceneries are absolutely amazing, and every add on make the scenery more stunning!
It gives me the temptation to give up the production of figures for quite a long while, to make a big diorama.
I dream to make something somehow similar from many years, despite not so great... and I never find the time!

[Kekso]

May I join with my compliments? I see you haven't been lazy this summer.

[Peter]

Wonderfull and colorfull building!

I guess your home will shortly be to small for all these models! Maybe you must start thinking to move to a bigger home!

[Cryns]

Thank you all so much Gentlemen for your replies!

It gives me the temptation to give up the production of figures for quite a long while, to make a big diorama.

Phersu I am happy to inspire you to do exactly what you want and when. So let us switch activities now: I still have some more buildings to shoot and show but those are finished already and when you are building huge scale diorama's or fotoshoot settings, meanwhile I am working on a range of male dollies for my ancient fleets inspired by your great female dollies range.

blaspheme

Stenfalk? What a choice of word! Blaspheme means insulting god, holy persons or holy things, right?
So what do you think is the most sacred, holy thing in this case: your computer, your animals or yourself?

I see you haven't been lazy this summer.

Kekso, to be honest I only did re-paint the palace and gave it new doors this summer, while it was build some years ago but like most of my collection nobody has ever seen it because it was hidden under my bed.

I guess your home will shortly be to small for all these models! Maybe you must start thinking to move to a bigger home!

.

Ai, ai Peter you are touching a very painful subject here. The historical centre of Amsterdam has the most expensive housing situation in my country. So a two-room apartment is all we can afford.
So what is under the bed?
What is on top of the washer&dryer?
What is piled up on top of the bookshelves?
What is under the cabinets?
What is under our dining table?
And under the sofa?
What is occupying most of our storage room?

So how are housing prices in Neerpelt these days? Is that an option for me?

[Peter]

So how are housing prices in Neerpelt these days? Is that an option for me?

I don't think so! The Dutch have driven the prices to high here around! Even I wouldn't be able to buy a house here these days! I bought it thirty years ago and I'm still working on it! And only when my back allows it!

[sansovino]

You have done a huge amount of impressive research. There are so little and difficult to find informations about the phoenicens that you have collected. Your models and colours are wonderful - only the material styrodur seems me with its porosities too artificial, especially some of your doors are looking more to be made from sandstone than wood. It´s my only critic on your wonderful scenery of imagination.

[sberry]

Impressive work! I like the painting scheme, which is colorful, but not too bright – just the right balance. And I like all these details like the windows, which you carved based on the ivory you’ve mentioned.
BTW: “The goddess at the window” is a classical motif in ancient Near Eastern art. It seems that the female figure showing herself at the window actually can represent, depending on circumstances, either a goddess or a prostitute. (So it was a wise decision to use the window from your template but not the woman, keeping your work family-friendly …)

[Cryns]

only the material styrodur seems me with its porosities too artificial, especially some of your doors are looking more to be made from sandstone than wood

Sansovino I must tell you in all truth I am excited to get a real critic from somebody after receiving compliments only all the time. What material would you advice me to use instead?

“The goddess at the window” is a classical motif in ancient Near Eastern art. It seems that the female figure showing herself at the window actually can represent, depending on circumstances, either a goddess or a prostitute. (

Sberry thanks for this additional information. I appreciate that very much! I knew about the goddes. I did not know about the prostitute.

(So it was a wise decision to use the window from your template but not the woman, keeping your work family-friendly …)

Hmmmm.... You should not worry about the children that much. I think fire arms nowadays do much more harm than prostitutes. From that perspective you better delete most of Benno's forum.
In fact last week when I posted these pictures I regretted I did not have any Phoenician woman to postion in a window like that.

The Dutch have driven the prices to high here around!

I am sorry there are too many of us crammed together in this tiny country. You are only half that number of people in the same size country.

[Beano Boy]

Well the work is as always very impressive indeed,and the use of differing camera angles works well for my over imagination,as i look down and then up to those colourful buildings.

i prefure to comment upon the artistic level of the work,and not historical correctness.
No that is an avenue i know very little about.

Well done on the work and this presentation.

i keep stuff under the bed too,mainly so large Diorama`s can stay level,and not turn up like a pair of Winkle Picker Shoes. BB

[Cryns]

Thank you so much for your kind reply Beano Boy.

In the past years I build a series of Ancient Levant houses for our Alexander the Great campaign. Since I could find almost no information on Tyrian or Phoenician houses at all, I will use these Levant houses as part of my Phoenician city.



The first of them is a well documented type of Canaanite house referred to in archeological literature as a 'four room house', 'Israelite house' or 'pillared courtyard house', in use from the 13th to the 6th century BC in rural Canaan.



Different books show different interpretations.



As usual I cut all of this building out of one massive styrodur block, including the 5mm thin base plate and the front wall. So there are NO UGLY JOINTS that are difficult to hide and there is no glue required.







Only the single pillar is a separate styrodur element.





For wood I used real wood.



The top beam above the door is styrodur covered in acrylic paste.



This door is made of prefab plastic woodsheet.





The big jug is made of a round bead and a copper ring, like all other jugs and jars in the courtyard.



I did not add separate plastering. Natural stone, mud brick and plaster are all the same carved and pressed down styrodur surface.

[huib]

Wonderful work on the city of Tyre, Mr. Cryns. Everything is so beautifully made. Really excellent and a big pleasure to look at and discover all the details.

[Beano Boy]

That`s beautiful work, and `It Looks a Picture', as us Brits often say when we mean it . BB

[Cryns]

Thanks huib and BB for your compliments.

Next are two neolithic farmhouses from southwest Turkish Catal Hoyuk or Catal Huyuk, in Turkish called Çatalhöyük or Çatal Hüyük.



I know these are really out of place and date for Tyre but I could not resist the lovely drawing I found on the internet.













Hemp drying on the roofs

[Siegfried]

Soemhow I missed this thread before and now I'm lost for words: you work work is so beautiful!