Definition: Axones and kyrbeis are names given to structures that contained the law codes of Draco and Solon in ancient Athens during the Archaic Age.
We don't know much about these structures. Plutarch says the laws of Solon were put on axones that had survived to his day in the pyrtaneum. Aristotle said the laws were put on kyrbeis in the Royal Stoa.
Robertson says axones and kyrbeis were not names for the same thing: the axones were revolving wooden beams, while kyrbeis were standing pillars in the Royal Stoa.
Sources:
- "Axones"
Leicester B. Holland
American Journal of Archaeology (Jul. - Sep., 1941), pp. 346-362. - "Solon's Axones and Kyrbeis, and the Sixth-Century Background (Figs. 1-2)"
Noel Robertson
Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte (2nd Qtr., 1986), pp. 147-176 - "Literacy, Documents, and Archives in the Ancient Athenian Democracy"
James Sickinger
The American Archivist (Fall, 1999), pp. 229-246
Examples:
Sickinger says, "These beams were called axones, a word meaning 'axles,' because the ends of each beam were pivoted and placed within a frame in such a way that they could be rotated."
