COLUMN, in architecture, a vertical support, round or polyg onal in plan, in contradistinction to a pier (q.v.), usually rec tangular in plan. Occasionally the word is used for any vertical support. The earliest columns were undoubtedly simple tree trunks ; large wooden columns, tapered, with the small end down, were a characteristic feature of the Aegean architecture (see WESTERN ASIATIC ARCHITECTURE: § Knossos, vol. 23, p. 526), as in the palace at Knossos (c. 1500 B.c.) ; contemporary frescoes show that such columns were common and were used, not only structurally but as cult objects (the Lion Gate at Mycenae, c. 1200 B.C., shows two lions flanking such a column). The Hit tites, the Assyrians and the Egyptians in their smaller works also used wooden columns for which many stone bases exist. In modern times wooden columns play an important part in the monumental architecture of China and Japan, when they are usually covered with brilliantly coloured lacquer. Stone bases are almost universally used with wooden columns in order to preserve the wood from damp. Those of Assyria and the Hittites are richly decorated. Stone capitals are also sometimes found.
Stone columns furnish the greatest architectural opportunities, however, and they have been favourite architectural motives in many styles. Primitive types of stone columns, probably derived by cutting the corners off square, rock-cut piers, a form which may have resulted in the invention of the flute (q.v.), are to be found in the polygonal shafts of the temple at Deir-el-Bahri, and the tombs of Beni Hassan, in Egypt, both from the third millennium B.c. The Greeks evidently developed their columns from two sources; one a modification of Aegean prototypes, which, chang ing material from wood to stone, reversed the direction of the taper so that the smaller end was up in a growth which gave rise to the Doric order (see ORDER). The other a development from Asiatic sources, is more slender, and has a high, decorated base and a much enriched capital (q.v.). This development produced the Ionic and Corinthian orders. Almost all Greek columns are fluted.
Etruscan structural columns were largely wooden. The decora tive representations remaining in stone tombs show types both Greek and Oriental. Under the Roman empire the Greek orders were much used and further developed, but owing to the fact that the shafts were frequently marble monoliths, fluting was often omitted. Renaissance columns generally follow classic precedent, but additional decoration, in the form of ornamental banding and heavy rustication, occasionally appears. The taper of all classic and Renaissance columns is produced with a curved profile known as the entasis (q.v.).
Although most columns thus far noted are monolithic, or built with drums (horizontal stones the entire width of the column, set one above the other), columns were often built of small stones or brick, and in the mediaeval period this type became almost uni versal. Small columns, however, remained monolithic. Mediaeval columns are generally without taper or entasis.
In Mohammedan countries columns follow either Byzantine or classic tradition, with, however, many changes in the capitals. But in India there is a separate and characteristic type of column de sign. Indian columns are extremely varied and complex, and much broken up horizontally and vertically by many small mould ings and sinkages, occasionally further enriched with fantastic sculpture. (See BASE, CAPITAL, ENTASIS, ORDER and the articles on Architectural History.) (T. F. H.)