Chapter 1: Prehistory - Architecture

Flashcards covering key architectural concepts, prehistoric sites, building techniques, and famous monuments from the provided lecture on Chapter 1: Prehistory.

Architecture

Encompasses buildings, interior spaces, and the art that decorates them, often serving as a canvas for relief sculptures and wall paintings.

Emergence of Architecture

Between 5,000 BCE and 3,000 BCE, architecture emerged through the awareness of two recurring themes: shelter and symbol.

Primitive Hut

A theoretical concept by Laugier, representing architecture at its barest, focusing on form derived directly from basic function and nature, like four trees as posts and a gabled roof of sticks.

Tensile Architecture

A construction method where tension holds the structure up, using flexible materials like bent sticks or poles interwoven together, exemplified by early huts and modern geodesic domes.

Lascaux Caves

Famous prehistoric cave paintings, like the 'Hall of the Bulls,' known for their artistic quality, deliberate placement in difficult-to-access locations, and scale, suggesting spiritual significance.

Permanent Settlements

Developed after the Ice Age (around 16,000 BCE) due to grain agriculture and animal domestication, leading to enhanced architecture beyond domestic spaces to include defensive elements and religious structures, often near freshwater sources.

Gobekli Tepe

An early ritualistic space (not a home) consisting of circular enclosures with T-shaped piers, built with rubble walls and large stones, showcasing early dedication of more durable materials to religious monuments.

Catalhoyuk

An early city built with mud brick and wood (materials that don't preserve well) in a square form, characterized by adjoining homes with no roads, using roofs for transportation, and having defensive entry points from the top.

Vernacular Architecture

A style of building that uses local materials, local design, and local construction techniques, specific to a culture or society, rather than being universal (e.g., Touareg huts, Tipis, Hakka Tulou, Yemenite mudbrick houses).

Corbelling

A construction technique used for roofs, especially beehive-shaped domes, where each successive layer of flat stone projects slightly inward beyond the one below, eventually capped by a single stone.

Megaliths / Stone Circles

Large stone structures from Neolithic Europe, built with significant resources and engineering prowess, clearly intended as 'building as memory' or communication for future generations, often serving religious, funerary, or astronomical purposes.

Dolmen

A simple type of tomb constructed using post-and-lintel architecture, consisting of two upright stone posts supporting a flat stone lintel on top, typically covering a burial space.

Newgrange

An immense burial mound in Ireland featuring a corbelled dome and a precise alignment with the summer solstice, allowing sunlight to illuminate the interior during this celestial event.

Ggantija

Rounded stone temples in Malta, built with massive stone blocks weighing up to 50 tons, dedicated to religious rituals, highlighting the dedication of monumental architecture to sacred spaces.

Stonehenge

The most famous prehistoric monument in Europe, well-known for its sophisticated refinement of practice, geometry, and astronomical knowledge. It showcases advanced tenon and mortise joinery and aligns with the summer solstice.