Prehistoric Architecture PDF

ARCH 233 - History & Theory of Architecture 1 CHAPTER 1 The Beginnings of Architecture From Caves to Cities P P R E PA R E D B Y M AYA K A M A R E D D I N E TO PI C H I G H L I GHTS CHAPTER OUTLINE Introduction Paleo...

ARCH 233 - History & Theory of Architecture 1 CHAPTER 1 The Beginnings of Architecture From Caves to Cities P P R E PA R E D B Y M AYA K A M A R E D D I N E TO PI C H I G H L I GHTS CHAPTER OUTLINE Introduction Paleolithic Architecture First human settlements Neolithic Architecture Architecture for the dead and the cosmos Stonehenge  Introduction Architecture is the crystallization of Humans learned how to build, to create artificial environments that ideas, a physical representation of made lives safer, more enjoyable, and more psychologically rewarding. human thought and aspiration, a record The exact time that we humans learned to build may never be of the beliefs and values of the culture known with certainty, for our earliest constructions were probably fashioned from organic materials—branches, brush, hides, and that produces it. such—that quickly returned to the earth without a trace. 1.2 million years Old STONEAGE New STONEAGE PALEOLITHIC NEOLITHIC TEMPORARY SHELTERS PERMANENT SETTLMENTS HOMO ERECTUS HOMO SAPIENS SKILLED TOOL MAKERS NEW TOOLS EARLIEST FORM OF MAN_MADE EARLY POTTERY/CLAY SHELTER ART/SCULPTURE THEY COLORED THEIR SKIN EARLY FORM OF DWELLINGS USED FIRE  Pre-historic lifestyle These ancestors were called primitives and referred to as hunter- For a million years, humans lived off gatherers, as if all they do is obsess about food acquisition. But the !Kung for example, who have lived in the Kalahari Desert in hunting, food gathering, and fishing. Botswana for hundreds of thousands of years, spend only about 40 percent of their time hunting and gathering. From the perspective of our advanced The rest of the time, they do what most of us might do: they world today we tend to look back at this socialize, dance, cook, and rest. and wonder how they could even have survived given all the difficulties. Paleolithic (HOMO ERECTUS) Time: Before 9000 BC Occupation: Man was a hunter and a food gatherer Lifestyle: Nomadic, always on the move Move about in search of food, water, and good climate Usually move about in small bands of less than 15 person Temporary structures Shelters: Constructed temporary shelters from perishable materials such as tree trunks and leaves. Early man also made use of natural and man-made caves both below and above ground as shelter Material and Construction Techniques: Used simple, easily available materials Usually of plant and animal materials such as wooden poles, grasses, leaves, and animal skins Construction system was also simple Usually involves digging holes, putting wooden poles in holes and burying them The poles are tied together to create the shell of the building The shell is covered with grasses, leaves or animal skins. Paleolithic (HOMO SAPIENS) Time: Before 9000 BC Occupation: Man was a hunter and a food gatherer Lifestyle: Nomadic, always on the move Move about in search of food, water, and good climate Usually move about in small bands of less than 15 person Temporary structures Shelters: Advanced forms of shelters Round, domed or conical in shape Internal frames of wood covered presumably with hides Innovation: Knew how to create fire quickly and at will fired clay, bearing the fingerprints of the primitive pottery Art: Paintings and Sculptures Various colors  This is a replica of one of the many paintings in the Chauvet Cave, located south of France, dated back to c. 30,000 years ago, during the late stage of the Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age). https://www.ancient.eu/image/2800/cave-paintings-in-the- chauvet-cave/ Lascaux Cave, France 1. Wounded Bull, Man & Bird 2. Painting of a horse Watch: https://www.ancient.eu/Lascaux_Cave/  Prehistoric Settlements The shift to village-world farming took place in the Levant around 9000 BCE: the traditions that had sustained human life for so long began to change. Instead of hunting animals, humans began to herd them, and instead of gathering plants, they began to domesticate a few chosen plants and grow them in organized fields. The emergence of pastoral and agropastoral cultures produced village societies arranged to meet the needs of the animals, to deal with the calendar of planting and harvesting, and to produce the necessary equipment for life, such as the bowls and containers that stored grain and water and that allowed fermentation and cooking to take place. These activities were all governed by ritual practices and unwritten rules of behavior that shaped the destiny of all. But village society could not spread just anywhere. It needed the right combination of good soil for farms, grasslands for cattle, forests for firewood, and upland areas for hunting—and, of course, water.  Jericho – Oldest Urban Community Date: 8000 BCE Location: Palestine (occupied land) Properties: Fortified settlement with a very thick stone wall enclosing an area of about 10 acres. Houses: Mud huts with conical roofs (maybe) Occupation: Farming and hunting. Cultural Habits: They buried their dead under the huts floor. Map source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho Dwelling foundations unearthed at Tell es-Sultan in Jericho https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho#/media/File:Jerycho8.jpg The 8000 BCE Tower of Jericho at the site of Tell es-Sultan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho#/media/File:Ziko.jpg Çatalhöyük (Southwest Turkey) Date: 7500 BCE Location: Konya Plain of south-central Turkey The city was located in the center of a large, wellwatered valley and next to a river that fed into a nearby lake. The lake and river have long since dried up. What has been recovered archaeologically is a small part of the city that followed the slopes of the hill. Population: Around eight thousand residents Houses: rectangular flatroofed houses packed together into a single architectural mass with no streets or passageways. walls made of mud bricks reinforced by massive wood posts. Inhabitants moved across rooftops and descended into their homes through the roofs via ladders. Light came through small windows high in the walls. Occupation: farming community but also a vital link in the trade network throughout the Fertile Crescent of Palestine and Mesopotamia.  Çatalhöyük House Design: The typical residence contained one large room connected to smaller storage rooms. The main room was equipped with raised benches, ovens, and bins, and its average size was a generous 5 by 6 meters. Walls were plastered, and many were decorated with hunting scenes, textile patterns, or landscapes. The horns of animals, especially cattle, were mounted on walls. Cultural Habits/Rituals: There was no central, communal sacred space. Each house had its own shrine consisting of a wall decorated with bulls’ horns. The dead of the family were buried in this room and their bones incorporated into the shrine. On-site restoration of a typical interior https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%87atalh%C3%B6y%C3%BCk #/media/File:Catal_H%C3%BCy%C3%BCk_EL.JPG  Ritual Centers and Megaliths Construction In the agropastoral environment, humans began to think and act differently than their First Society ancestors had. A new level of cohesiveness, social ranking, decision making, along with the creation of a new set of powerful gods resulted in new rituals and structures. One of the significant prehistoric architectural achievement in were megalith (great stone) construction, composed of large stones or boulders, many of which were astronomical observatories or communal tombs for the privileged. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnac_stones megalithic construction was the freestanding stone columns called In northern Europe, the roofed tomb structures are known as dolmens menhirs (a Celtic word meaning “long stone”), cut in large numbers and (Celtic for “table stones”) and consisted of at least three vertical stone erected vertically in circular patterns or parallel rows, marking a spot for slabs supporting a massive horizontal roof slab or boulder. some ritual purpose whose precise meaning is now lost to us.  Connecting with the Dead and the Cosmos One of the first sites where we see the transformation is Nabta Playa in what is today southern Egypt, some 80 kilometers west of Abu Simbel. It is now an inhospitable desert, but in 9000 BCE it was next to a large lake with pastured shores. The site featured a circle of slender upright stones, the main stones being four pairs set close together. Its purpose was to organize time according to the seasons. Two of the stone pairs are aligned north–south, the other two pairs northeast– southwest. They aided in the observation of the motion of the sun and the stars.  Connecting with the Dead and the Cosmos Another ritual site was on top of a hill near the village of Urfa in southeastern Turkey. Here, too, the now arid site was once a lush forest. The oldest layer of the site appears to date back to around 9000 BCE. The structures, called Göbekli Tepe, consist of large stone piers set in rings, positioned radially like spokes, each carved with various animal images including foxes, lions, cattle, etc. Since there is no indication of any roof covering, it seems that the circles were open-air ritual chambers. What went on in these spaces is not known, but they most certainly had links to ancestor cults and might have been used in conjunction with mortuary rituals.  New Grange Europeans magnified death around clan lineages, building a variety of stone and mound structures in places that preserved clan memories and served as places for ceremony, gathering, and trade. Of the various constructions that were made in Europe at the time, Newgrange, dating to about 4000 BCE, was similar to European passage tombs, but it was no tomb. Basically it was a clock designed to mark the winter solstice at the end of December, indicating the passage of the season and the promise of a new beginning, while also serving as a particularly powerful moment to access the spirit of the ancestors. Thousands of people from the various clans met at the site to participate in dances, and other rituals. The structure was not isolated but set in a sacred landscape with various mounds in the vicinity.  New Grange The large mound is approximately 80 meters in diameter and is surrounded at its base by a kerb of 97 stones. The most impressive of these stones is the highly decorated Entrance Stone. The mound’s entrance leads to a 19-meter-long passage constructed of large stones leading to a small, crossshaped chamber. A corbelled roof covers the chamber. The massive stone structure was mounded over with tons of clay. At dawn on the winter solstice, a shaft of sunlight enters the inner chamber through a concealed opening in the roof of the entrance corridor. It is a remarkable piece of engineering that served as a powerful symbol of the victory of life over death, perhaps promising new life to the spirits of the dead. Watch: https://www.newgrange.com/  Stonehenge Of all the prehistoric megalithic constructions, certainly the best known is Stonehenge, in Salisbury, England. This complex served as an astronomical observatory, for the alignment of the heelstone with the stones in the center of the circle is such that at the summer solstice, about 4,000 years ago, the sun would have risen directly over the heelstone, as viewed from the center of the trilithons. Other alignments within the complex suggest that Stonehenge might have been used to mark phases and eclipses of the moon and other astronomical phenomena. CHAPTE R REF ER EN CE What’s next? & READINGS All the information listed in this chapter along MESOPOTA M IA with images, unless listed differently , are based on the book: Roth, L.M. & Clark, A.C.R. 2014, Understanding architecture: its elements, history, and meaning, Third edn, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado. Chapter 9 p165-186 Fazio, M., Moffett, M., & Wodehouse, L. (2009). A world history of architecture Chapter 1 p 9 - 14