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It has recently been thought that a fragmentary architectural block, long considered as the drum of a column of the Argive Heraion, might bear marks from a stone lathe. Although the first peripteros of Hera in Argos is not unanimously dated (in the course of the seventh century BC), it would still be the first monument to bear such marks, older than the many marks observed on the bases of the two successive peripteroi on Samos, if we agree with Pliny the Elder who credited Theodoros of Samos with the invention of the tornos. However, careful re-examination of the Argive block reveals that there are no lathe traces on its surface. In fact, the block must be a conical base which probably supported a wooden shaft which protected it from humidity. Brief comparisons are made with Cycladic architecture and other peripteral temples of the seventh century in the early years of Doric architecture in continental Greece, which all bear signs of the phenomenon of "petrification."