Prehistoric Architecture: History and Influences

• Architecture tracks humanity's pursuit of constructing beautiful structures
• It follows the progression and downfall of architectural styles across different regions and eras
• Historic architectural styles are defined by the distinctive methods, characteristics, and design approaches prevalent in specific locations and time periods

Influences on Architecture

• Geographical factors
• Geological conditions
• Climatic influences
• Religious beliefs
• Social considerations
• Historical context

Pre-Historic Architecture

• Prehistoric architecture is defined as the time period before the invention of written language
• It primarily encompasses architecture from the Late New Stone Age
• Prehistory is divided into the Old Stone Age (Paleolithic), Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic), and New Stone Age (Neolithic) based on the materials used for toolmaking
• During this era, people lived and built in caves and temporary dwellings before the Old Stone Age (100,000-50,000 years ago)

Basic Architecture for Shelter

• Protection from extreme weather
• Protection from predators

History of Human Migration and Development

• Direct human ancestors evolved in Africa approximately 2.3 million years ago and include Homo habilis, Homo erectus and Homo sapiens
• Tool development for stone, wood, and bone was key to their progress
• Humans migrated from Africa into Southern Europe and Asia
• Population remained largely in areas with warmer climate
• Migration from Siberia to North America was done by foot
• They migrated from Southeast Asia by boat into Australia
• Before 9000 BC, humans were nomadic hunter-gatherers
• By 9000 BC, agriculture was starting
• Fertile soil and abundant food were key
• Animal domestication for work, milk, and wool
• People began settling down in communities
• First villages appeared in the Middle East, South America, Central America, India, and China

Religion and Architectural Expression

• No organized religion existed at this time
• Respect was shown for the dead - including burial rituals and monuments

Architectural Characteristics

• Animal skins, wooden frames, and animal bones were the main materials
• Structures included existing or excavated caves
• Megalithic structures appeared in France, England, and Ireland
• Cave paintings appeared in Africa, France, and Spain
• Sculptures occurred

"Invention" of Architecture

• Prehistoric architecture is difficult to reconstruct due to the use of degradable materials
• The earliest settlements with architecture date back to 40,000 BCE, with limited evidence
• A Paleolithic village excavated in Mezhirich, Ukraine, dating back to approximately 15,000 BCE, included huts of woolly mammoth bones
• Prehistoric housing materials like timber was used with a post-and-lintel system during the Mesolithic and Neolithic eras
• As human settlements grew, cooperation led to more durable structures
• Stone ceremonial structures from about 3700 BCE in Europe served as permanent tombs
• Newgrange in Ireland includes passage graves dating back to 3000 BCE with burial chambers made of large stones covered with smaller rocks and dirt and geometric engravings
• Early design elements include simple geometric forms found in engravings 5,000 years ago and in megalithic structures like Stonehenge
• Neolithic structures like Stonehenge may reflect the cyclical nature of life or religious beliefs

Architecture during the Paleolithic Period (30,000 BCE-10,000 BCE)

• The Paleolithic Age represents the first human creative achievements
• Knowledge of Paleolithic culture and lifestyle comes from archaeological and ethnographic comparisons to modern hunter-gatherer cultures
• The Paleolithic lasted until the retreat of the ice, when farming and use of metals were adopted

Paleolithic Dwellings

• Structures were created in wood and stone
• Fire was used on paved hearths
• Buildings served only as dwellings, not for special purposes

Paleolithic Societies

• Typical Paleolithic societies were hunter-gatherer economies
• Humans hunted wild animals for meat and gathered food, firewood, and tool-making materials
• Shelter use was key to human progress

Dwellings and Shelters

• Early people chose defensible locations sheltered from weather near water sources
• Campsites have often been destroyed by water erosion
• By 380,000 BCE, humans built temporary wood huts
• Other types of houses include campsites in caves or open air with minimal formal structure, and houses built from wood, straw, and rock, following shelters within caves
• A few examples of houses were constructed out of bones
• Caves were a famous type of shelter, but were not commonly used by hominids
• Remains of hominid settlements show that caves became places for ritual and religious gatherings in the Upper Paleolithic period
• Shelters included houses or tents framed with mammoth bones, where tusks supported the roof and skulls and thighbones formed the walls
• These could house several families and had three small hearths for warmth
• Huts were also located in southern French cities
• They were oval in shape, built close to seashores, and constructed using stakes with stone supports and stout posts along the axis, with floors made of organic matter and ash
• Molodova was built with a wood framework covered with skins
• It was held in place by rough oval mammoth bones and enclosed 15 hearths
• Dolni Vestonice consisted of a palisade of mammoth bones and tusks set into the ground filled with brush wood and turf
• It had an oval shape and used limestone for walls
• It contained a central hearth capped with an earthen dome
• It was a summer structure open to the sky
• Mezhirich had a foundation wall of mammoth jaws and long bones, capped with skulls and roofed with tree branches overlaid by tusks
• Lean-tos were erected against cave walls, defined at the base by stones, and featured a skin curtain and roof draped over posts, with two compartments each having an entrance on the longer side
• Tents had skirts weighed down with pebbles, paved interiors, open air hearths, and wooden posts driven into the earth covered with skins, later secured by reindeer antlers
• Pit houses were more common in eastern Europe with a very low temperature and were oval, trapezoidal, or pear shaped in size
• Central post holes indicated a roof made by making shallow depressions in the ground, which were surrounded by a ring of mammoth bones and tusks

Mesolithic Period (10,000-8,000 B.C.)

• The Mesolithic period served as a bridge between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic Age
• Art had no representation compared to previous times, but humans paintings, engravings, and ceramics to reflect daily life
• After the Ice Age, humans adapted to the new ecosystem, developing architecture for homes, creating new stone, bone, and wood tools to feed on new animals, and developing fishing skills.
• Transportation advances included sleds pulled by dogs and canoes
• The microlith industry led to hunting and fishing tools like hooks
• Advances in architecture, technology, economics, and society are framed in the Mesolithic revolution that peaked in the Neolithic or New Stone period

Characteristics of the Mesolithic Period

• Marks the end of the ice age and the start of a temperate climate.
• Change in lifestyles and the appearance of sedentary societies.
• Colonies and race differences began to appear.
• Development of Fishing
• Creation of tools for hunting and fishing, such as hooks, nets, and small boats.
• Division into the Epipaleolithic which means above the Paleolithic, the Protoneolithic, and the period preceding the Neolithic.
• The first cemeteries were created during this period.
• Architecture during the Mesolithic Period
• Open-air huts were founded, and the first villages appeared.
• Houses with trunks and branches had a single room and were semi-dug in the ground. Dead were buried under the floor of houses.
• The first Mesolithic populations in the initial phase include Azilian in France, Cantabria, and Austria
• Maglemosian was located in the north of Europe
• Ertebølle was located in the south of the Scandinavian Peninsula
• Characteristics of the Architecture
• Villages are arranged systematically
• Houses aligned in rows
• More regular plans
• Art
• Settlements around water bodies
• Fishing, cultivation
• Animal domestication, farming tools developed. More durable dwellings

Structures

• Huts are mainly comprised of bamboos
• Trapezoid plans were wide and faced bodies of water
• Water bodies were plastered with lime and posts were reinforced with stones
• Pit houses have shallow oval pits
• 6m-9m long and 25 m wide. The roofs were made of timber. Stone hearths were used as working slabs

Neolithic Period (8,000-3,000 B.C.)

• The Neolithic had its beginning from 8,000 B.C. to 3,000 B.C.
• After the Ice Age, man developed another lifestyle linked to the use of land and animals for food and clothing
• Development occurred in the eastern Mediterranean, the Nile valley, Syria, and Iraq and also, some populations in northern Europe
• Investigations confirmed that the Neolithic was present in America and Eastern Asia due to evidence of agriculture and the use of domesticated animals for food and clothing

Neolithic

• Means new or polished stone
• Man to polish the stone to work better agriculture and livestock
• The age of domestic animals because at this time, man was able to dominate the dog, ox, horse and other animals for his own use
• Consequences of climate change
• Man modified his life habits and learned how to harvest. People were great builders that utilized mud-brick to construct houses and villages
• Square or rectangular plans with sections divided by animal skins

Neolithic Architecture

• Timber framed houses had square plans with mud walls on deep footing and pitched and thatched roofs with caves. Interiors were raised, plastered ,and sunken hearths
• Long houses had rectangular plans and oak posts made the frame, covered with clay on a base of logs
  • Tripartite - entrance living with separate storage
  • Bipartite - entrance living with combined storage
  • Single bay - living only
• Dry stone houses were built with inner, outer caves in stone with domestic refuse
  • Thatched roofs
• Settlements built monumental stone architecture and collective tombs
• Including the Passage Graves and Gallery Graves like Menhirs monoliths

Gallery Graves

• 23m long chamber divided into twelve sections.
• Covered with a rectangular mound
• Aegean type stone graves
• Small round entrances lined rock carvings and depictions
• Menhir of Brittany with standing stones transferred from other ground
• The Carnac ones have 3000 between 5000 and 1000 BC with landmarks and memorials

Stones

• Could exist as monoliths for burial
• They originated from taol maen meaning “stone table” and supported the horizontal top usually
• They served as graves with stones at the top
• Consisted of concentric circles with an open alter at the centre, five of surrounding pairs
• The transition was 6000 and 2500BCE to the smelting ending start of metal era