Prehistoric Architecture

Tell-es-Sawwan, Samara

-settle on east bank of Tigris covered an area of 220m x 110m, showed to have been a farming village of several hundred people

Architectural Character of Paleolithic Period

-building technology began to develop, early humans created structures in wood and stone, worked in defined areas.

Architectural Character of Mesolithic Period

-villages arranged systematically
-houses were aligned into rows and more regular in plan
-location of artifacts were more regular

Architectural Character of Neolithic Period

Funerary Architecture
Ritual Structures of a non-funerary kind may be divided into:
-temples
-freestanding ceremonial sites

Molodova I

more sophisticated hut

Pavlov, Czech Republic

-discovered Teepe-like tent sizes

Molodova V, Ukraine

other similar sites in Mezin and Ahrensburg Germany

Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods

-man used existing caves for shelter & religious ceremonies
-hunter and food gatherer
constructed temporary shelters from perishable materials
-Oldest traces early man left us are tools made of stone (flint, chert, obsidian,etc.) - morethan 200,000 years ago
-majority of prehistoric buildings were constructed of perishable materials (postholes inthe ground)
-ritual spaces , built to last longer or maintained more scrupulously (Stonehenge)

ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
Two kinds of permanent buildings in pre-dynastic Egypt & Ancient Near East were derived from earlier temporary shelters

-Single -cell type , beehive-shaped round or oval in plan
-Multi-celled collections of rectangular rooms

Natufian period (early Mesolithic) early housing

-circular in plan where transition inhouses with rectangular rooms took place between 9000 and 7000 B.C.

In Near East (c.8000-6000BC) small communities were composed of:

-single-roomed houses with flat roof, built of mud and stone
-walls and floors buttressed and mud-plastered internally and painted in a variety of earth colors
-Most striking monument of Neolithic period in Near East were temples in Ubaid(rectangular mud-brick buildings) were erected on platforms of clay or imported stone.

In Egypt, transition to rectangular , mud-built town houses took place in Late Gerzean times

-constructed from wattle and daub houses were two-roomed, with walled open courts adjoining street elaborate graves

The Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic Periods examples

-Natufian dwellings
-Ain Mallaha, Lake Hulen, Israel (9000-8000BC)
-Wadi Fallah and Nahal Oren and at Beidha in Southern Jordan
-Imiris Gora
-Arpachiyah
-Beehive-shaped tholoi

Arpachiyah

(c. 5000bc) dwellings-keyhole shaped in plan had walls up to 2m thick.

Imiris Gora, Transcaucasia

houses were round or oval3m to 4.5 m and build of mudbrick and stone foundation

Levant

-Early pre-pottery Neolithic period was primarily domestic but shrines, workshop and storage buildings have also been found.

Architectural Character of Catal Huyuk

-The town plan was regularly built according to some preconceived plans.
-Peculiarity is its lack of streets, and houses adjoining each other and having access only through their roofs.
-Houses varying in size and standard plan are constructed of mud-brick walls strengthened by a sturdy timber frame.
-Walls & and floors were plastered & and painted and raised platforms along walls served for sleep, work, and eating.
-Shrines intermingled with the standard house
- richness of interior decoration (wall paintings, plaster reliefs, animal heads, bucrania) on themes connected with fertility and death
-Cult statuettes indicate that people believed their gods to have a human form (both male and female)

Temples of Early Mesopotamia

-Tell-es-Sawwan
-Eridu
-Tepe Gawra

Funerary Architecture

-large communal structures and most important were megalithic passage graves

Ritual and funerary Architecture limited to cult sites found throughout Europe comprising;

-ritual shafts
-temples
-sanctuaries

Paleolithic Period Europe Dwellings constructional types

1. hut
2. lean-to
3. tent
4. pit house

Pit houses in Paleolithic Europe

-Barca Czech Republic
-Kostienski

Types of Timber Framed Houses in Neolithic Europe

-small, square or rectangular single-family dwellings
-longhouses , expanded or multiple families
-small, single or multi-cellular drystone family houses

Bylany (Czech Republic )

-were of longhouse type grouped together and oriented in anorth-west, south-east direction - rectangular in plan , a constant width of 6m and lengthvaries from 8m to 45m

Natufian dwellings two types

flimsy brushwood shelter or windbreaks built in front of caves
-round or oval drystone built in open settlements near water sources

-Ain Mallaha, Lake Hulen, Israel (9000-8000BC)

-fifty drystone huts on an open site (2000sqm), circular, semi-subterrenean & rock-lined 3m to 9m constructed on reeds or matting

Choga Mami (c 5500 BC)

- enclosed by buttressed walls, house were rectangular and multi-cellular

Mesopotamia lowlands

Beehive-shaped tholoi were built upon

The early Neolithic Period (7500-6000 BC)

-round to rectangular buildings of mud and sometimes built on top or earlier round drystone buildings

End of Neolithic Period

-shrines have evolved, in Egypt, design of tombs become more elaborate and possessed feature of later monumental funerary architecture.

JERICHO (8350-7350BC)

-round and oval houses spread over 4 hectares. Each was 5m in diameter.

Beidha, Jordan (c. 700-6000 BC)

-were curvilinear in Natufian tradition
-semi-subterrenean (4m in diameter)

Cayonu, Syria (c7500-6800 BC)

-contained rectangular stone building

Tell Ramad,south west of Damascus (c. 6000 BC)

-round or oval semi-subterrenean houses

Neolithic Revolution's (7000 BC) Eastern Regions

-Jordan
-Iraq
-Anatolia (Present day Turkey)

Jericho

-earliest towns through excavation

Timeline of Jericho

8,000 B.C. The need for protection resulted in permanent stone fortification.
7,500 B.C. - population over 2000, had a wide, rock-cut moat and 1.5 meter thick walls surrounding it.
7,000 B.C. - the site was abandoned by original inhabitants and new settlers arrived
-Group of human skulls on which the features have been "reconstructed" in plaster
-Skulls were detached from the bodies before the ritual and displayed above ground
-No pottery was found at the Jericho site.

Catal Huyuk (6500-5700 BC)

-covers 32 acres , partly excavated between 1961-1963. The site may have been chosen for settlement because it was close to sources of obsidian

Ali Kosh (c.8000-6500 BC) Khuzistan

-plain, small-single storey, thin- walled houses ofrectangular plan were built from local red clay bricks

Tepe Guran (c.6500-5500 BC) Luristan

-began as a winter camp of wooden huts each with two or three small rooms

Gandjdareh (c.7289-7000 BC) western Iran

mud-brick village was built with walls of tauf

Jarmo (c.6000-5000BC) , Zagrps Mountains

had a population of 150 people and made of20-30 small, rectangular mud houses.

Tal-I-Iblis (c.4000BC) in Zagros

- houses were built with thick -walled , heavily buttressed storerooms grouped at the center

MESOPOTOMIA

-Mud-brick dwellings, large and rectangular , with several rooms
- Reed-built structures

Residential Buildings of Early Mesopotamia

- Umm Dabaghiya
- Tell Hassuna
- Tell-es-Sawwan, Samarran
-Choga Mami (c 5500 BC)
-Al- Ubaid (c 4500-4200 BC)

Tell Hasuna (c 5500-500BC), south west of Mosul

- mound 200m x 150m with many levels of building

Al-Ubaid (c. 4500-4200BC), euphrates valley

-dwellings with flat roofs and walls formed of reed mats

Tell-es-Sawwan (c.5300 BC)

a large T-shaped building with fourteen rooms overlying a cemetery

Eridu (c.5400 BC)

-oldest known settlement in Mesopotamian alluvium, seventeen temples survived and are superimposed one upon another

EGYPT

-dwellings are sparse while graves and cemeteries are main architectural remains

Residential buildings of Early Egypt

-El-badari
-Hierakonpolis

El-Badari and Hierakonpolis (c 3200 BC)

-had two rooms, facing open-walled courtyards and larger inner living rooms about 2 sq.m.

Iron Age

-housing throughout European continent is rectangular or oval timer and stone- built houses collected within fortified sites.

Huts of Paleolithic Europe

-Terra Amata
- Molodova I
-Grotte du Renne

Terra Amata

southern French city of Nice

Grotte du Renne,

Arce-sure-cure, yonne valley in France

Dolni Vestonice Moravian (Czech Republic)

huts are surrounded by a palisade of mammoth bones and tusks

Mezhirich, Ukraine

-Circular arrangement of mammoth bones

Le Lazaret

Nice,France

Lean-To of Paleolithic Europe

-Le Lazaret

Tents of Paleolithic Europe

Pavlov in Czech Republic
Plateau-Parrain, Dordogne, France
Molodova V in Ukraine, other similar sites in Mezin and Ahrensburg Hamburg, Germany

Plateau-Parrain,

Dordogne, France

Architectural Characteristics of Mesolithic Europe

-similar dwelling types to Paleolithic period and well-preserved, more durable pit-houses and huts built for winter purposes

Lepenski Vir, Danube (5410-4610 BC)

-houses were built on terraces in rows of twenty, trapezoidal in plan

Huts in Mesolithic Europe

Lepenski Vir

Pit houses in Mesolithic Europe

Soroki (5500-5400 BC)

Soroki (5500- 5400 BC) Dniester valley Ukraine,

-shallow oval pits 6m to 9m long and 2 to 5m wide roofed with light timber structure containing hearths and stone-working areas.

Neolithic Period in Europe Dwellings

-timber-framed houses;

Timber-framed house in Neolithic Europe

Nea- Nikimedia (c. 6220 BC) Macedonia Greece

Nea- Nikimedia (c, 6220BC) Macedonia northern Greece

-was one of the oldest Neolithic Settlement in Europe

Longhouses in Neolithic Europe

-Bylany (Czech Republic
-Similar houses excavated in Elsloo, Holland

DRYSTONE HOUSES in Neolithic Europe

Skara Brae (c.2500-1700 BC), Orkney Islands off north east of Scotland;

Characteristic of the Skara Brae (c.2500-1700 BC), Orkney Islands off north east of Scotland;

-substantial stone-built houses with double skin walls 3m thick
-rectangular in plan, rounded corners up to 7m diameter
-access by a tunnel-like passageway enclosed by doors
-roofed with turf or thatch with the smoke hole positioned over the central hearth
-stone interiors

Examples of Megalithic Gallery Graves in Europe

Mid, Shetland
La Halliade
West Kennet, south west England
Li Mizzani, island of Sardinia

Mid Howe, Shetland

consists of stalled chamber with twelve sections

La Halliade, France

full compartmented gallery-graves

West Kennet, south west of England

more complex gallery grave with transept lay under grassed

Li Mizzani (c 1900 BC) island of Sardinia

a small elaborate gallery grave

Example of Earthen Longbarrows

Fussel's Lodge

Fussel's Lodge (3230 BC) Wiltshire England

a trapezoid mound 40m long varies from 6m wide to 12m wide at the entrance end and have entrance porch supported by four posts

Temples and Ritual Structures i

Ggantija (2700 BC)
Hal Tarxien (2000BC)

Ggantija (2700 BC) and Hal Tarxien (2000BC) Malta

were trefoil plant temples constructed from megalithic elements backed by stone-face earthen walls

Temples were:

formally plan
concave monumental facades
trilithon entrance passages
pairs of lateral and terminal chambers

Windmill Hill (2960-2570 BC) Wiltshire

the largest enclosures with causeways type

Example of Henges

Avebury henge monument, Wiltshire

Avebury henge monument, Wiltshire

a circular area 11.50 ha enclosed by ditch 348m in internal diameter and an outer bank of 427m in diameter

Bronze Age

-Timber-framed houses
-Burial mounds
-Temples and Rituals
-Defensive Structures
-Forifications second millenium

Dwellings in Bronze Age

Wasserburg, Federsee
Biskupin, Poland

Wasserburg, Federsee (Southern Germany)

settlement containing substantial log-built houses

Biskupin, Poland (1660-500BC)

log built houses

Burial Mounds in Bronze Age

Leubingen, Germany

Leubingen, Germany

was 34m in diameter and stood 8.5m high

Temples and Rituals in Bronze Age

Turstup, Denmark, and at Salacea, Russia, small temple like structures
British Henge monuments

Stonehenge

Best known of British henge monuments

Defensive Structures

- the most remarkable type in Bronze Age Europe was the Fort or Stockade
-Evolution of Fortified buildings of sophistification; Torre, nuraghi

Fortifications second millenium

Los Millares, Spain

Los Millares, Spain

settlement was surrounded by a stone wall with semicircular bastions

Stone Towers

Torre
Filtosa

Torre

(circular tower) have been found in Corsica from early second millenium BC

Filtosa

the famous torre where standing stones in shape of warriors were incorporated into the building