ARCH 210 Midterm Vocab

Menhir

Large, upright standing stone (free-standing); French term

Megalith

Very large stones (free-standing or in construction), term with Greek roots

Dolmen

A prehistoric structure made up of two or more large upright stones (megaliths) supporting a large, flat, horizontal slab(s)

Cairn

A pile of stones or earth and stones that served both as a prehistoric burial enclosure and as a marker of underground tombs. Cairns are often built around dolmen at one side.

Passage Grave

Burial site consisting of a post-and-lintel constructed a passage (using megaliths) that tunnels through a cairn, with a dolmen-like structure at the center as a burial chamber

Carbeled arch/vault

Arch or vault made up of inwardly projecting courses of stone

Henge

A prehistoric earthwork consisting of a circular or oval bank with an inner ditch.

Post-and-Lintel Construction

Two uprights (posts) support a horizontal element (lintel), with countless variations

Bucrania

Skull of an ox/bull, used to decorate architecture, or forms that mimic such animal skulls

Temenos

Sacred enclosure, typically raised on an artificial mound or platform

Ziggurat

A built, raised platform with four sloping sides made of mud bricks with a stone cladding. These sqaut, truncated pyramids were conceived as a holy mountain that brought Sumerian priests closer to the gods; a white-washed temple was typically sited atop it.

Axis Mundi

A vertical axis indicating a local culture’s perceived center of the world, connecting earthly and other-worldly realms

Orthogonal

Using straight lines set at right angles

Mastaba

Superstructure of an Egyptian tomb; massive brick or stone rectangular tumulus or platform with inwardly sloping walls; typically covered a lengthy shaft leading to a burial vault below

Serdab

Sealed (tomb) chamber, containing a statue of the deceased

Ka

“Spiritual double”; an aspect of the soul that resides in the tomb after death; life-force of the universe that accompanies the body and that pursued the functions of life in the afterworld; each person also had a ba, a unique personality/force that resided solely in the mummified body

Stela (plural: stelae)

Vertical stone carved with an inscription or images marking space

Ashlar masonry

Blocks of equally measured, well-cut, smooth stone, laid in even courses

Hypostyle Hall

space supported and divided by rows of equally spaced columns

Apotropaic

Serving a protective function; the Sphinx stands as a gaurdian of the pharaoh’s tomb and the broader landscape

Obelisk

A tall, usually monolithic, monumnet with a needle-like form, topped by a pyramidal point; carved with hieroglyphs to celebrate the ruler who erected it. Typically placed near a sun temple in their original locations (most extant ones are freestanding today); they are materialized rays of sunlight, and are associated with the powerful sun god, Ra.

What spaces of Persepolis are particularly important?

Apadana, Throne Hall, and the Gate of Xerxes/All Nations

Lamassu (shedu)

Human-headed, winged bull figure that guarded entryways; a type of Genii

Genii

A good spirit (usually winged) that warded off evil/evil spirits. They are apotropaic (protective)

Apotropaic

Protective

Apadana

A large hypostyle hall; can be used as an audience hall, throne room, etc.

Nawruz

Peersian new year celebration, observed at the time of the spring equinox

Colonnade

A row of columns supporting a beam or entablature

Cyclopean Masonry

Construction technique using very large, irregularly shaped stones (as if made by giants)

Shaft Grave

A deep, narrow pit, often cut into natural rock, used for burial

Relieving Arcvh

An arch above a lintel that lessens the weight of the masonry above a doorway or other susceptible feature

Megaron

From the Greek “Large room”; square/rectangular room with circular, central hearth and four columns, used for administrative and ritual purposes; accessed through a porch with two columns at entry

Tholos tomb

a round burial structure of ston, cut into a hillside, with a corbelled, ‘false dome’ roof; sometimes called a beehive tomb’

Dromos

The stone lined passage leading up to the tholos chamber

Orthogonal Planning

Urban design based on rectilinear forms, usually with perpendicular intersections (including grid plans, Hippodamian planning, per strigas, etc.)

Per Strigas

(‘By bands:) a gridding system of land division using a small number of east-west avenues to divide a site into long bands, which were then subdivided using narrow north-south streets

Hippodamian Planning

Urban development schema using orthogonals devised by Hippodamus of Miletus (fifth century BCE). Such planning formally employed a grid, but also social theory, in which society was divided into religious, public, private zones.

Agora

In ancient Greece, a public, open gathering space used for assemblies and participatory government. In Athens, also site of the bouleterion, the main communal governmental building, as well as courts, temples and fountains, and stoas

Stoa

Covered walkway or colonnade that was usually designed for public use; used as a framing device, too, for the agora’s open public space

Entasis

Slight convex swell from about the center of the column shaft upwards to offset the optical illusion that, when see at distance, it gets thinner at its middle

Peripteral

Having a screen of freestanding columns/colonnade at all sides

Panathenaia

The city’s main, yearly religious festival, celebrating Athena as the patron of the polis (city-state); all citizens (free men) participated; athletic games and other competitions drew people from all over the Hellenic world

Panathenaic Procession

Started outside the city, entered at the Diplyon Gate, across to Agora, and the Acropolis hill to offer votives (ritual gifts) to Athena on her altar

Voussoir

Wedge-shaped brick or stone forming a unit of an arch

Archivolt

the whole line of voussoirs that comprise an arch or one facet of it

Keystone

The central stone of an arch or rib (acts as a ‘lock’ to secure other voussoirs against downward and outward forces)

Barrel vault

masonry ceiling of a continuous semi-circular section, based on the arch; unbroken by any cross-vaults

Groin Vault

Masonry ceiling composed of two barrel vaults intersecting a right angles

Bay

architectural unit made up of a set of columns and their vault that defines a repeated space

Engaged column

Column joined into the fabric of the surrounding wall, half protrudes from wall

Castrum

Typical Roman military camp, c1st centure BCE; Typical features: rectangular plan, walled area with cardo (north-south axis) and decumanus (main E-W street; these met at the center)

Pomerium

A furrowed line marking the boundary around the sacred and civic zone at the heart of Rome, encompassing its great civic spaces and religious shrines; this became the boundary of the city proper and was gradually expanded

Caput Mundi

“Head of the world”

Roman Kit

Forum, Basilica, Commemorative monument, Temple/Religious space, Bath, Market, Entertainment venue

Rostrum

(Overlooking the forum space) speaker’s platform, from which leaders addressed people

Basilica

A colonnaded hall with a longitudinal axis, usually with an apse one at least one side.

Apse

Semi-circular termination of a building

Nave

Central, wide space in a basilica

Hypocaust

Under-floor heating system

Varietas

Latin for “variety”; Roman affection for varied textures, colors, and forms in one building or interior design

Oculus

A circular opening in a dome/wall

Coffer

Recessed panel in a ceiling, for decorative and/or structural purposes (lightening the weight of a ceiling)

Peristyle House

Residence organized around an open courtyard or garden surrounded by a colonnade, with rooms off of this; can have several such interior courtyards

Insula

A Roman, multi-family tenement/apartment block

Spolia

Reused architectural materials, sometimes used as trophies, sometimes for economic reasons

Mausoleum

Large Tomb Structure

Pendentive

Concave sections of a sphere, used to transition from a rectilinear base to a rounded form (a dome)

Squinch

Structural transition from square base to round drum/dome using an arch over a corner; over all four corners, these create an octagonal support for a circular dome

Iconostasis

The icon-filled barrier between the nave and the bema

Monastery

community of men or women (monks or nuns) who choose to follow a religious rule of life away from worldly affairs

Pilgrimage

A journey undertaken for spiritual purposes or salvation or a penance

Chevet

The hemispherical east area of a Gothic church comprised of the apse, ambulatory, and apsidal chapels surrounding it