Arch UD 10A Midterm Key Terms

Paleolithic Era

Period marked by the predominance of stone tools, approximately 2.6 million years ago to 10,000 BCE.

Hunter-Gatherer

A lifestyle marked by the reliance on hunting, fishing, and foraging for subsistence.

Tensile Structure

A construction of elements carrying only tension and no compression or bending.

Stone Age

Period of prehistory lasting approximately 3.4 million years in which humans used stone tools, ending around 3000 BCE with metalworking.

Neolithic Era

Final division of the stone age characterized by farming, domestication, and settling, as opposed to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

Dolmen

A type of single-chamber megalithic tomb usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat 'table'.

Post and Lintel

A building system where strong horizontal elements (lintel) are held up by strong vertical elements with large spaces in between.

City State

An independent sovereign city that serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory.

Cuneiform

A logo-syllabic writing system used from the early Bronze Age to the beginning of the common era, characterized by wedge-shaped impressions.

Polytheism

The belief or worship of more than one god.

Ziggurat

An ancient Mesopotamian temple tower consisting of a lofty, stepped pyramidal structure with outside staircases and a shrine at the top.

Axis Mundi

Mythological concept of 'the connection between the heavens and the earth'.

Necropolis

A large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments.

Mastaba

A type of ancient Egyptian tomb in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular structure with inward sloping sides.

Stepped Pyramid

An architectural structure that uses flat platforms, or steps, to achieve a completed shape similar to a geometric pyramid.

Pyramid

A structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single point at the top, resembling a geometric pyramid.

Benben

A representation of the sacred stone in the Temple of Ra at Heliopolis, where the first rays of the sun fell.

Bronze Age

Approximate period from 3300 to 1200 BC when certain weapons and tools began to be made of bronze.

Cyclopean Architecture

A type of stonework in Mycenaean architecture built with massive, unworked limestone boulders.

Megaron

The great hall in early Mycenaean Greek palace complexes, featuring a rectangular hall surrounded by four columns.

Tholos/Beehive Tomb

A round, beehive-shaped tomb structure built by the late Bronze Age Mycenaeans.

Rock-cut tomb

A burial chamber cut into an existing, naturally occurring rock formation.

Citadel

The fortified area of a town or city, which may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center.

Shedu/Iamassu

An Assyrian protective deity with a human head’s (intelligence), a bull’s body (strength), and wings of an eagle (freedom).

Apadana

A large hypostyle hall in Persian architecture, specifically in Persepolis.

Hypostyle hall

A hall with a roof supported by columns. From the Greek word meaning under columns.

Protomes

Adornments in the form of the head and upper torso of animals or humans.

Stambha

A pillar or column in Indian architecture, sometimes bearing inscriptions and religious emblems.

Stupa

A mound-like structure containing relics, used as a place of meditation and prayer, associated with Buddhism

Relief sculpture

A sculptural method where the pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material.

Polis

Greek term for 'city', ‘urban place’, ‘state’, or ‘community’.

Frieze

The wide, central section of an entablature in classical architecture.

Triglyph

Vertically channeled tablets that alternate with metopes on the Doric frieze.

Metope

A rectangular architectural element that fills the space between two triglyphs in a Doric frieze.

Pediment

A triangular form of gable in classical architecture, placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice.

Cornice

The topmost element of the entablature in classical architecture.

Entablature

The superstructure of moldings above the columns, commonly divided into architrave, frieze, and cornice.

Peristyle

A continuous porch formed by a row of columns surrounding a building or courtyard.

Acropolis

A citadel or fortified part of an ancient Greek city, typically built on a hill.

Karyatid

A sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support, taking the place of a column.

Agora

The central public space in Ancient Greek society, serving various social, political, and economic functions.

Stoa

A column-lined, covered walkway or portico for public use.

Roman Concrete

Concrete used in ancient Rome, based on hydraulic-setting cement.

Barrel vault

An architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve along a given distance.

Groin vault

A vault produced by the intersection of two barrel vaults at right angles.

Forum

A public square in a Roman city, primarily for the vending of goods.

Aqueduct

Part of Roman infrastructure designed to carry water from outside sources into cities and towns.

Triumphal Arch

A free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways.