History of Interiors First Civilzations

Civilization

Implies an organized state of existence. The beginning of human dwellings.

Materials were:

Vegetation

Furnishings were:

Sparse

Structures were:

Caves, wind breaks

Roofs were:

Flat, curved, slanted, and pitched

Windows were:

Few to none

Ceilings were:

Storage for food items

Beds were:

Mats, animal hides

Textiles were:

Plaited natural grasses

Cro-Magnon Man

Lived in caves, had heat, light, clothing, tools, religion, eating utensils, but no domesticated animals or games

External Influences

Local available materials and climate conditions, general geographic, social, and economic conditions of the people, religion of the people, trade and Commercial opportunities, historical and political events, and scientific inventions, and discoveries

Three types of support

Beam, arch, truss construction

Beam

Stonehenge, Egypt

Arch

Roman

Truss

Greek

Types of patterns

Incised and relief ornamentation

Classification of ornament

Realistic/naturalistic, idealized, abstract

Motifs

A recurring narrative element with symbolic significance

Greek order of architecture

Doric, ionic, Corinthian

Egypt

One of the earliest civilizations

Antiquity

Refers to the times following the development of the written records to the beginning of the Middle ages, when Christianity becomes the official religion in Rome

Ancient Kingdom (4500-2445 BC)

Capital Memphis, Great pyramid of Gizeh

Middle Kingdom (2445-1580 BC)

Capital Thebes

New Kingdom (1580-663 BC)

The most prolific period of Egyptian history, “The Age of Conquests”, Ramses I & II, Nefertiti, Tut-Ankn Amen

Persian Period (663-332 BC)

The decline of art and invasions

Greco-Roman Period (663-332 BC)

Alexander the Great, age of Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Constantine

The Nile

Worlds longest river

What was the Nile used for?

Transportation, communication and trade, land replenishment, mud became sun-dried bricks

Other facts of Egypt

Achievements and medicine, astronomy, geometry, philosophy, religion, polytheism

Religion

Polytheistic, believed in Osiris, Horus, and Ra

Osiris

God of the dead depicted as human form

Horus

Sky God, Hawks head and human body

Ra

The sun, God, appears as a beetle or cobra

Imhotep

First known architect, designed stepped pyramid complex in Zoser, oldest pyramid (2670 BC)

Temples of Dwellings

Granite, sandstone, diorite, basalt, limestone