Dentil

The earliest example is found carved into the rock of the tomb of Darius, c. 500 BC, reproducing the portico of his palace.

When subsequently introduced into the bed-mould of the cornice of the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates it is much smaller in its dimensions.

[2] The dentil was the chief feature employed in the bedmould by the Romans and in the Italian Renaissance architecture.

As a general rule, the projection of the dentil is equal to its width, thus appearing square, and the intervals between are half this measure.

In some cases, the projecting band has never had the sinkings cut into it to divide up the dentils, as in the Pantheon at Rome, and it is then called a dentil-band.