True voussoir arch and barrel vault
Arco de dovelas y bóveda de cañón como sistema estructural
- Date
- c. 300 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Etruria (Volterra, Perugia) and Rome, Italy
- Credited to
- Etruscans and early Romans; Mesopotamian precedents
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A voussoir arch locked by compression, extended lengthwise as a barrel vault, allowing large spans of stone or concrete to be roofed without lintels. The Romans made it the basic module of their engineering.
The voussoir arch was known in Mesopotamia and Egypt from the 2nd millennium, but only the Etruscans and Romans used it systematically in monumental architecture.
What it led to
- Aqueducts, bridges and sewers with large spans
- Multi-storey public buildings (amphitheatres, basilicas) for urban masses
- Domes and monumental interior architecture
- Roman, Byzantine and Romanesque architectural language
Built on
- Roman concrete (opus caementicium)c. 200 BCE
- Mesopotamian brick arch
- Ashlar masonry with centring