Editing Classical architecture (section)

==Petrification==
[[File:Croydon Airport-1415 01.JPG|thumb|[[Croydon Airport]] in England, opened in 1920 and built in a [[Neoclassical architecture|Neoclassical]] style.]]
In the grammar of architecture, the word ''petrification'' is often used when discussing the development of [[Sacral architecture|sacred structures]] such as temples, mainly with reference to developments in the Greek world. During the [[Archaic Greece|Archaic]] and early [[Classical Greece|Classical]] periods (about the 6th and early 5th centuries BC), the architectural forms of the earliest temples had solidified and the [[Doric order|Doric]] emerged as the predominant element. The most widely accepted theory in classical studies is that the earliest temple structures were of wood and the great forms, or elements of architectural style, were codified and rather permanent by the time the Archaic became emergent and established. It was during this period, at different times and places in the Greek world, that the use of dressed and polished stone replaced the wood in these early temples, but the forms and shapes of the old wooden styles were retained in a skeuomorphic fashion, just as if the wooden structures had turned to stone, thus the designation "petrification"<ref>Gagarin, Michael. The Oxford encyclopedia of ancient Greece and Rome. Vol. 1. Oxford [u.a.: Oxford University Press, 2010. p. 210. {{ISBN|0195170725}}</ref> or sometimes "petrified carpentry"<ref>Watkin, David. A history of Western architecture. 4th ed. London: Laurence King, 2005. p. 25. {{ISBN|1856694593}}</ref> for this process.

This careful preservation of the traditional wooden appearance in the stone fabric of the newer buildings was scrupulously observed and this suggests that it may have been dictated by religion rather than aesthetics, although the exact reasons are now lost in antiquity. Not everyone within the reach of Hellenic civilization made this transition. The [[Etruscans]] in Italy were, from their earliest period, greatly influenced by their contact with Greek culture and religion, but they retained their wooden temples (with some exceptions) until their culture was completely absorbed into the Roman world, with the great wooden [[Temple of Jupiter (Capitoline Hill)|Temple of Jupiter]] on the Capitol in Rome itself being a good example. Nor was it the lack of knowledge of stone working on their part that prevented them from making the transition from timber to dressed stone.{{cn|date=February 2023}}