Column

A doric column rests directly on the steps (or platform) of the temple, and has no separate base, as an Ionic column does. The capital is plain, and the shaft of the column has flutes, or shallow vertical grooves that run from the bottom of the column to just below the capital. Some scholars think that the flutes are evidence that the columns of the earliest Greek temples were made of wood: If the log were trimmed and shaped neatly with a woodworking tool called an adz, the result would be fluting.

If you compare a doric column with Minoan one--also used by the Mycenaeans--the shape of the capitals are similar, suggesting that the doric column may have had its origins in Mycenaean architecture.