ARCHITECTURE - OVERVIEW, PREHISTORIC

INTRODUCTION: OVERVIEW OF ARCHITECTURE

Architecture is one of human’s most visible and long-term forms of expression. Since the time of the Pyramids in Egypt, to the Pantheon of ancient Greece, buildings have been an expression of our culture. In the last 150 years, a unique form of artistry has developed, changing the way we view the urban environments around us. Today’s people have tried to blend ancient and modern architecture, creating something that inspires people every day. While modern designs energize people, few know the history of architecture & where it started.

The Beginning of Architecture:

Architecture started in Nile valley for the very first time, while second centre of architecture was discovered in valley of Euphrates and Tigris. Ancient architecture had two main functions to consolidate power and security and to amuse the Gods. The wealthier the society, the more essential these functions became.

The Greeks and the Romans:

The art of Euphrates and Tigris blended in art of Greek, though Greek architecture has a very strong origin itself. The Greeks evolve cement in about 200 BC as a building material, in place of such weaker mortars as gypsum plaster or bitumen. The main secret of the newly acquired material was the lime which binds clay, sand and water. A series of aesthetically pleasing architectures came up in the early 15th century in Italy. In the 16th century the Romans developed a base for construction and decoration and from them it spread to the rest of the world.

The Romans used finely ground volcanic lava instead of clay, deriving it mostly from Pozzuoli region. Their cement, popularly known as pozzolanic, was the strongest mortar at that time. When it was blended with small fragments of volcanic rubble, the result was extremely concrete. The Romans set out the principles of their crafts in ten volumes that dealt with all aspects, from the general principles to materials, to stucco work, aqueducts, painting, and machinery. This treatise is one of the most, if not the most influential material in the history of architecture.

The Roman’s Greatest Achievements:

The greatest accomplishments of the Roman architecture lie in the development of the dome, the arch, and the vault. The dome has for years been a familiar concept, but it has not been widely used. The arch has greater capabilities as compared to the lintel, because it can combine a number of smaller units to make a greater whole. The vault is only a remarkably deep arch. The dome is actually a collection of arches all sharing one centre. The Roman achievement in all the forms was aided by their improvement of concrete.

The scale of Romans smartness is superbly seen in the aqueduct at Nîmes, popularly called the bridge of the Gard. Built in AD 20, this bridge is 100% practical. One section of this colossal structure supplies water from Eure River to the Roman town of Nîmes. Water flows smoothly downhill for about 50 km. After the Romans discovered a base for decoration and construction, it spread to the rest of the world. The influence of many of the Roman’s designs spread throughout Europe in 16th century, before losing their taste two centuries later.

The Chinese, Japanese and Indian Achievements:

In 19th century, architecture flourished greatly thanks to the development of resources. Designs influenced by Chinese, Japanese and Indian art and architecture were popular in the early 19th century. The Chinese architecture emphasized more on decorative aspect as compared to the constructive aspect. The Chinese introduced a new art of mosques and palaces of India, Turkey, Persia and Spain to the world. There architecture was based on three fundamental structural principles: lintel, vault, and truss. The adoption of these construction principles actually affected the styles and decoration of structures.

Modern Designs:

The Combination of early and modern architecture took place as years went by. People started incorporating the ancient architecture with the modern architecture to create eye catching buildings. As a result, architecture became a mixture of past and present. In different high profile structures, earlier and modern architecture are well blended. For instance, The Royal Pavilion in Brighton, designed by Henry Holland, is based on a combination of both ancient and modern designs to give it attraction. The Roman and the Indian architecture are superbly seen in this structure. Any building today, regardless of whether it’s a commercial building, temple or a palace, you will observe that ancient architecture in it.


PREHISTORIC ARCHITECTURE


Background of Prehistoric Architecture
        The term "prehistory" was coined by French scholars, referring to the time before people recorded history in writing. This is the longest period in the past of modern man (homo sapiens) that lasted about 400,000 years. Prehistory is not associated with a particular place or time. In some areas in the Near East it continued until the 4th millennium BCE, while in Central America it lasted until 500 BCE. In Hawaii, it lasted until January 17, 1779, when Captain James Cook arrived to the coast of Hawaii. Due to lack of written documentation, prehistoric research is based on remains, which are used as evidence.
        Today it is customary to present prehistoric timetables based on division into regions - Africa, South America, Central America, North America, Southwest Asia, Central and Eastern Asia, Australia and surroundings, and Europe.
        The timetables presented here relate to prehistoric Southwest Asia and Europe, which are relevant to discussing Western architecture. The dates are approximate.

Southwest Asia
10,000 BCE - Man began to grow grain. Agricultural development greatly changed his life. Instead of wandering from place to place, seeking food, he settled in one place, and learnt how to domesticate animals and grow crops. The change of seasons created a routine of sowing and harvesting.
6500  BCE - A permanent settlement has provided man with time to paint vessels that he prepared, make baskets, use copper and obsidian for his needs, and grow olives and vines. Man began to be an active partner with nature, rather than being satisfied with finished products provided by nature.
5000  BCE - Houses divided into rooms were built, and the earth was plowed.
4000 BCE – In pottery making, the use of potter wheel was widely adopted.
3500  BCE - Agricultural villages became cities.  Man discovered that copper can be strengthened by melting it with tin, to create bronze, which replaced stone as the main tool for producing vessels. Man developed the plow, and began to specialize in his work. Sailing and trade practice began, along with the development of mathematics and writing.


Europe
10,000  BCE – Man used cereals, fruits and marine    resources, found in nature.
6500  BCE - Villages appeared in the southeastern Europe. Man began to grow cereal and domesticate animals.
4500  BCE – Man began to use copper.
4000  BCE – Man began to practice agriculture. In northwestern Europe megaliths appeared for the first time.
3500  BCE - Began the use of plow and carts.
3000  BCE - Began wool production and the domestication of horses.
2300 BCE - Began the use of writing by the Minoans .
2000  BCE - Began the use of bronze.
100     BCE - Urban settlement began in northern Europe.
       
    The buildings that survived from prehistoric times and are considered architectural works were cult structures. Homes were built with less durable materials, such as mud bricks and wood. Religious motives led to significant achievements throughout the history of architecture beginning with prehistory.
Prehistoric buildings
3,500  years BCE , man has developed a form of architecture based on megaliths (megalith - a big rock; literally in Greek: lithos - stone, megas - big) - structures made of rough huge stone blocks, probably intended for burial ritual.
        During prehistoric times, as well as throughout history, stones and rocks were associated with divinity. Examples to this can be found in different cultures: Persian god Mithras was considered as having been born from a rock, marrying a rock and whose father was a rock, Moses struck the rock to get water, the meaning of the word "Petra" in Greek is a stone, hence the name of St. Peter's (Petrus).
        Prehistory saw three main types of using megalith stones known to us:  menhir, dolmen, and stones arranged in a circle.

Menhirs
        Menhir (literally in Brittany French: a long stone; men-stone, hir-long) is a huge stone standing vertically in the ground. Such stones are usually standing in the middle of a field or arranged in rows, which shows that they were transferred to where they are. The piece of stone stuck in the ground is often a fifth to a quarter of its overall height. The average height of these stones is nine meters. The highest menhir in Europe is 20 meters tall above the ground, and four meters under the ground. Despite its enormous weight (350 tons), it was transported several kilometers to its place of use. Today it is composed of four fragments lying on the ground where it was found in Carnac (Brittany, France). Researchers believe that it broke shortly after being brought to its place so that its parts would serve as lintels in dolmens (structures with two vertical stones supporting a third stone), a plan which eventually failed. This hypothesis is based on the dolmens in the area, whose lintels were made of similar blocks of stones.
        The number of megaliths in Carnac is the largest in the world. More than 3,000 are found there, dating to the period between about 5000 to 1000 BCE. The word Carnac probably originates in the word Cairn or Carn - a medieval English term, meaning a pile of stones used as a landmark or as a memorial site.
    In some menhirs, there is a natural opening, which was probably why they were selected and brought to their place. Some are decorated with decorative patterns - the most common are spiral patterns, concentric circles, and U-shaped and zigzag forms. According to researchers' hypothesis, these patterns are associated with worship of the sun and other heavenly elements.
        There are researchers who find a connection between the spiral and concentric circles patterns, and the cult of the Great Goddess - the Universal Mother worshiped in the Mediterranean region as life giver. The researchers interpret the patterns as abstract description of woman's belly, from which life emerges, and as a symbol of the earth's navel. This hypothesis is inspired by the meaning ascribed to the spiral as symbol of Mother Earth among the Indians in North America.
Apart from menhirs engraved with abstract forms, there were menhirs with low reliefs of human figures. Such menhirs were found in Italy, Corsica, and France. In Haut Languedoc region (France) the most common motifs incised on them are a face with two eyes, two arms and two legs. Nose, mouth and ears are absent from most of the reliefs. The height of these stones, dating to 2600-1800 BCE, ranges from 0.80 meters to 4.5 meters, and their weight ranges from hundreds of kilograms to 14 tons.
         The best preserved anthropomorphic menhirs are found in museums in France, including: Museum of Natural History in Nîmes, Montpellier Archaeological Society Museum, and Musée Fenaille in Rodez. Scholars believe that these menhirs represent gods or goddesses whose duty was to protect the living or the dead.
        One fascinating fact regarding megalithic monuments is their orientation. Menhirs fields are arranged in parallel lines from east to west ending in cromlech - a circle of stones. The menhirs seem as if arranged according to astronomical map. They are laid out on the axis connecting the points of sunrise and sunset on the longest or the shortest day of the year.
        The longest day, the shortest day, the spring equinox, and the autumn equinox, divide the year into four seasons. On each of these days were held celebrations to mark the event. Emphasis on orientation may reflect the way God makes his way and the direction from which he is expected to appear. Sun and moon eclipses provided an opportunity for irregular ceremonies marking the return of the sun or the moon, expressing death and resurrection in nature.
        The phenomenon of menhirs is not unique to the area of Carnac. Across Europe, there are different types of rows of stones whose number and size vary from place to place, but because most of the stones were damaged during the Middle Ages by builders who reused them, it is difficult to assess how they originally looked. Most of the rows of stones are made of menhirs, which are approximately one meter tall. The number of rows in such a site ranges from two to six, and they run along about 50 meters. In Carnac the stones' height ranges from half a meter to four meters. In each of the rows of stones, the largest stone is located at the western end. Each such row must have ended with a circle of stones.
        The rows of stones and stone circles were used as a place of gathering and ceremonies. Some researchers are trying to decipher the menhirs phenomenon. The phallic appearance of most of them brings some researchers to the conclusion that they are associated with fertility cult. Some associate them with sun or moon worship. Others speculate that the menhirs were designated to specify special events or to serve as a sundial. The motive for carrying them was probably religious, because this kind of motive is strong enough to bring people to make such an effort.

Dolmens
        The word dolmen originates from the expression taol maen, which means "stone table" in Brittany. The first builders used stones that were within their reach. They built dolmens - sort of structures in a form of a "table", consisting of two huge standing stones supporting a horizontal giant stone. Each of the stones weighs several tons, but those huge stone blocks are laid one upon the other without mortar. There were also low dolmens only about 1.5 meters tall. Originally, the dolmens were covered with more stones and earth, but as time went on, only the megalithic structures  remained.
        We find dolmens throughout Western Europe, from Italy to the northwest of Ireland, from southern Spain and Portugal to Denmark and southern Sweden. In Israel, hundreds of them are found in the Golan Heights and many others near Kibbutz Shamir.
        The dolmen probably served as a grave or as an altar, a table of the gods who were conceived of as giants. There were also found dolmens laid out one after another, in sequence in a form reminiscent of a corridor. "Corridor" type dolmens appeared in western France in the 5th millennium BCE.
        When dolmens are standing in a long line (like those in Carnac), they are probably associated with the cult of death. Some of the "corridor" type dolmens served as collective graves, which is why some interpret them as tombstones.
        Unlike the menhirs, around which many people gathered, the corridor type of dolmens allowed access only to a limited number of people, being structures with limited space. Findings from recent years indicate the overlap between the time of menhirs lines, menhirs circles and grave structures. These three elements were probably part of one religious system.
        Apart from the corridor type of dolmens there was another form of structure - a room with a corbel vault created by a series of horizontal rows of stones, each placed above the other. There are also structures that integrate these two forms of construction, such as a corbel vault over a corridor type of dolmen. 
         Construction method depended on the type of stones found nearby. Often reliefs adorned the burial chambers with patterns such as zigzag, curved line, axe, and more.
        Megalithic monuments have always ignited man's imagination. They provided plenty of legends and superstitions. The French phrase Grotte de Fée (literally in French: Tomb of the goddess of fate) is used in France as the name of many dolmens. The word Fée is the French form of the Latin Fata, meaning goddess of fate. One of the beliefs associated with dolmens was that the fate goddesses carried the huge stones on their heads and in their aprons as they were weaving. Other legends connected dolmens with giants, among them Gargantua, the hero of the book by Rabelais from the 16th century, which was a legendary hero known for a long time before Rabelais wrote his story. Some dolmens are associated by name with him, including: " Gargantua's Bed", " Gargantua's Chair"  and " the Giant's Bed".
Stonehenge
        Stonehenge is a site in southern England, composed of a group of stones arranged in concentric circles. This array of stones is not a single structure, but a series of structures built and rebuilt over a period of about 1,500 years. Researches distinguish three phases of construction in Stonehenge. The first was completed in c.2900 BCE, the second took place during the years c.2900 – c.2500 BCE and the third - from c.2550 to c.1600 BCE.
        This is the best preserved megalithic site in Europe. It included a large external circle of triliths (only in Stonehenge the dolmens are called triliths; trilith, literally in Greek: three stones), two internal circles built in a similar manner, and altar-shaped stone in the center.
        Today it is hard to distinguish between the circles because some of the stones were gone and some have fallen out of position. In the heart of the inner circle stood a group of stones arranged in a horseshoe shape. The open side of the horseshoe was exactly directing to the point where the sun rises on the longest day of the year. During sunrise, the rays of the sun shine for several minutes exactly into the central axis of the horseshoe.
                 The round shapes repeated in Stonehenge are an example of a universal reference to celestial events in prehistoric architecture. Bodies that are visible in the sky are round, and according to many cosmological theories, from earlier times, the sun and the stars emerge from earth and return to earth every day.
    According to a hypothesis of archaeologists, Stonehenge was a kind of temple where rituals were held on the dates of the longest and shortest days of the year.  The relationship between the form of the structure and the "movement" of the sun in the sky made it easier for priests to identify the times when rituals associated with change of seasons would be held. These dates had a special meaning for the primitive man, who practiced agriculture and depended on climate conditions for his living.
        The layout of stones in Stonehenge in its architectural structure anticipates later temples and cathedrals, whose orientation was planned according to the sun's daily east to west "movement"     
    About 80 stones called "bluestones", were brought from Preseli Mountains in southwest Wales to Stonehenge. The question is how the huge stones were brought into place and how the triliths were built. Researchers speculate that they were brought on barges along the southern coast of England, carried by the river, and finally dragged on the ground in sleds.
Apart from bluestones, there was another kind of huge stones in Stonehenge. These are sandstone rocks called sarsen, which were brought from a distance of 40 kilometers north of Stonehenge. These stones, much larger than the bluestones, were placed in a circle about 33 meters in diameter. Today this circle is called the "sarsen Circle". Over 30 stone pillars were placed with lintels (stone beams) above them forming a continuous ring of sarsen stones. Before being erected, they were fashioned with mortise and tenon joints.
        The sarsen circle, due to its planning and design, is considered one of the greatest achievements of Stonehenge. The sophisticated engineering of the structure shows that its builders were experienced in building large wood structures.
         Out of the 30 original sarsen pillars, 17 are still standing today, bearing six lintels. The horseshoe-shaped structure is also built from sarsen stones. Five pairs of these huge stones hold the lintels above them.
        In February 2003 were published research results, according to which in the construction of Stonehenge was involved a person from the Alps (today Switzerland or Germany) whose tomb dating to c.2000 BCE, is found five kilometers from Stonehenge. The many items found in the tomb, including precious objects such as gold earrings, arrowheads, copper knives, and pottery, indicate that the dead man was a royal family member. Checking the skeleton of the man, known by the researchers as "King of Stonehenge ", identified him as a man from the Alps region.
        During medieval times, the Stonehenge stone circle was wrapped with mystery and legends. In England and France, it was called "Hanging Stones". Some ascribe it to the fact that the stones seem suspended. Others assume that the stones were used for hanging criminals. Another possibility is that the source of the name is Hengist, the name of one of two brothers who led the first Saxons' invasion to England in the 5th century CE. Hengist's brother was killed, and Hengist and his son conquered the Kingdom of Kent.
        In one of King Arthur's tales, Merlin, Arthur's assistant, tells him that these stones were mysterious and could cure many diseases. According to the same story, ancient giants carried the stones from across Africa, brought them to Ireland, and Merlin moved them to Stonehenge by the power of his word.


EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE

Built during a time when Egypt was one of the richest and most powerful civilizations in the world, the pyramids—especially the Great Pyramids of Giza—are some of the most magnificent man-made structures in history. Their massive scale reflects the unique role that the pharaoh, or king, played in ancient Egyptian society. Though pyramids were built from the beginning of the Old Kingdom to the close of the Ptolemaic period in the fourth century A.D., the peak of pyramid building began with the late third dynasty and continued until roughly the sixth (c. 2325 B.C.). More than 4,000 years later, the Egyptian pyramids still retain much of their majesty, providing a glimpse into the country’s rich and glorious past.

The Pharaoh in Egyptian Society

During the third and fourth dynasties of the Old Kingdom, Egypt enjoyed tremendous economic prosperity and stability. Kings held a unique position in Egyptian society. Somewhere in between human and divine, they were believed to have been chosen by the gods to serve as mediators between them and the people on earth. Because of this, it was in everyone’s interest to keep the king’s majesty intact even after his death, when he was believed to become Osiris, god of the dead. The new pharaoh, in turn, became Horus, the falcon-god who served as protector of the sun-god, Ra.
Did You Know?

The pyramid's smooth, angled sides symbolized the rays of the sun and were designed to help the king's soul ascend to heaven and join the gods, particularly the sun god Ra.

Ancient Egyptians believed that when the king died, part of his spirit (known as “ka”) remained with his body. To properly care for his spirit, the corpse was mummified, and everything the king would need in the afterlife was buried with him, including gold vessels, food, furniture and other offerings. The pyramids became the focus of a cult of the dead king that was supposed to continue well after his death. Their riches would provide not only for him, but also for the relatives, officials and priests who were buried near him.
The Early Pyramids

From the beginning of the Dynastic Era (2950 B.C.), royal tombs were carved into rock and covered with flat-roofed rectangular structures known as “mastabas,” which were precursors to the pyramids. The oldest known pyramid in Egypt was built around 2630 B.C. at Saqqara, for the third dynasty’s King Djoser. Known as the Step Pyramid, it began as a traditional mastaba but grew into something much more ambitious. As the story goes, the pyramid’s architect was Imhotep, a priest and healer who some 1,400 years later would be deified as the patron saint of scribes and physicians. Over the course of Djoser’s nearly 20-year reign, pyramid builders assembled six stepped layers of stone (as opposed to mud-brick, like most earlier tombs) that eventually reached a height of 204 feet (62 meters); it was the tallest building of its time. The Step Pyramid was surrounded by a complex of courtyards, temples and shrines, where Djoser would enjoy his afterlife.

After Djoser, the stepped pyramid became the norm for royal burials, although none of those planned by his dynastic successors were completed (probably due to their relatively short reigns). The earliest tomb constructed as a “true” (smooth-sided, not stepped) pyramid was the Red Pyramid at Dahshur, one of three burial structures built for the first king of the fourth dynasty, Sneferu (2613-2589 B.C.) It was named for the color of the limestone blocks used to construct the pyramid’s core.
The Great Pyramids of Giza

No pyramids are more celebrated than the Great Pyramids of Giza, located on a plateau on the west bank of the Nile River, on the outskirts of modern-day Cairo. The oldest and largest of the three pyramids at Giza, known as the Great Pyramid, is the only surviving structure out of the famed seven wonders of the ancient world. It was built for Khufu (Cheops, in Greek), Sneferu’s successor and the second of the eight kings of the fourth dynasty. Though Khufu reigned for 23 years (2589-2566 B.C.), relatively little is known of his reign beyond the grandeur of his pyramid. The sides of the pyramid’s base average 755.75 feet (230 meters), and its original height was 481.4 feet (147 meters), making it the largest pyramid in the world. Three small pyramids built for Khufu’s queens are lined up next to the Great Pyramid, and a tomb was found nearby containing the empty sarcophagus of his mother, Queen Hetepheres. Like other pyramids, Khufu’s is surrounded by rows of mastabas, where relatives or officials of the king were buried to accompany and support him in the afterlife.

The middle pyramid at Giza was built for Khufu’s son Khafre (2558-2532 B.C). A unique feature built inside Khafre’s pyramid complex was the Great Sphinx, a guardian statue carved in limestone with the head of a man and the body of a lion. It was the largest statue in the ancient world, measuring 240 feet long and 66 feet high. In the 18th dynasty (c. 1500 B.C.) the Great Sphinx would come to be worshiped itself, as the image of a local form of the god Horus. The southernmost pyramid at Giza was built for Khafre’s son Menkaure (2532-2503 B.C.). It is the shortest of the three pyramids (218 feet) and is a precursor of the smaller pyramids that would be constructed during the fifth and sixth dynasties.

Approximately 2.3 million blocks of stone (averaging about 2.5 tons each) had to be cut, transported and assembled to build Khufu’s Great Pyramid. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote that it took 20 years to build and required the labor of 100,000 men, but later archaeological evidence suggests that the workforce might actually have been around 20,000. Though some popular versions of history held that the pyramids were built by slaves or foreigners forced into labor, skeletons excavated from the area show that the workers were probably native Egyptian agricultural laborers who worked on the pyramids during the time of year when the Nile River flooded much of the land nearby.
The End of the Pyramid Era

Pyramids continued to be built throughout the fifth and sixth dynasties, but the general quality and scale of their construction declined over this period, along with the power and wealth of the kings themselves. In the later Old Kingdom pyramids, beginning with that of King Unas (2375-2345 B.C), pyramid builders began to inscribe written accounts of events in the king’s reign on the walls of the burial chamber and the rest of the pyramid’s interior. Known as pyramid texts, these are the earliest significant religious compositions known from ancient Egypt.

The last of the great pyramid builders was Pepy II (2278-2184 B.C.), the second king of the sixth dynasty, who came to power as a young boy and ruled for 94 years. By the time of his rule, Old Kingdom prosperity was dwindling, and the pharaoh had lost some of his quasi-divine status as the power of non-royal administrative officials grew. Pepy II’s pyramid, built at Saqqara and completed some 30 years into his reign, was much shorter (172 feet) than others of the Old Kingdom. With Pepy’s death, the kingdom and strong central government virtually collapsed, and Egypt entered a turbulent phase known as the First Intermediate Period. Later kings, of the 12th dynasty, would return to pyramid building during the so-called Middle Kingdom phase, but it was never on the same scale as the Great Pyramids.
The Pyramids Today

Tomb robbers and other vandals in both ancient and modern times removed most of the bodies and funeral goods from Egypt’s pyramids and plundered their exteriors as well. Stripped of most of their smooth white limestone coverings, the Great Pyramids no longer reach their original heights; Khufu’s, for example, measures only 451 feet high. Nonetheless, millions of people continue to visit the pyramids each year, drawn by their towering grandeur and the enduring allure of Egypt’s rich and glorious past.