History

Fired roof tiles are found as early as the 3rd millennium BC in the Early Helladic House of the tiles in Lerna, Greece.^{[2] [3]} Debris found at the site contained thousands of terracotta tiles having fallen from the roof.^[4] In the Mycenaean period, roofs tiles are documented for Gla and Midea.^[5]
The earliest finds of roof tiles in archaic Greece are documented from a very restricted area around Corinth (Greece), where fired tiles began to replace thatched roofs at two temples of Apollo and Poseidon between 700-650 BC.^[6] Spreading rapidly, roof tiles were within fifty years in evidence for a large number of sites around the Eastern Mediterranean, including Mainland Greece, Western Asia Minor, Southern and Central Italy.^[7] Early roof tiles showed an S-shape, with the pan and cover tile forming one piece. They were rather bulky affairs, weighing around 30 kg apiece.^[8] Being more expensive and labour-intensive to produce than thatch, their introduction has been explained by their greatly enhanced fire resistance which gave desired protection to the costly temples.^[9]
The spread of the roof tile technique has to be viewed in connection with the simultaneous rise of monumental architecture in ancient Greece. Only the appearing stone walls, which were replacing the earlier mudbrick and wood walls, were strong enough to support the weight of a tiled roof.^[10] As a side-effect, it has been assumed that the new stone and tile construction also ushered in the end of 'Chinese roof' (Knickdach) construction in Greek architecture, as they made the need for an extended roof as rain protection for the mudbrick walls obsolete.^[11]
Tiling was extensively used by the Sinhalese kings of ancient Sri Lanka. Mostly they used smoothed and polished stones, which were laid on floors and in swimming pools. Historians suggest that they used advanced techniques and tools for tiling, because each tile fits perfectly to the other, with no gaps. They can still be seen at Ruwanwelisaya and Kuttam Pokuna in the city of Anuradhapura.
One of the great 20th century Italian tile masters was Giuseppe Damato, an immigrant from Barletta, Italy, who set many masterpieces in the San Francisco Bay Area.