Introduction to Prehistoric Architecture and Early Human Settlements

History is defined as a systematic, chronological narrative of significant events relating to a particular people, country, or period, including explanations of their causes.
History of Architecture records humanity's effort to build beautifully, tracing the origin, growth, and decline of architectural styles.
Key factors influencing architectural character include:
- Geographical: Pinpoints site location (near the sea, on an island, in mountains, or in deserts).
- Geological: Available local building materials.
- Climatic: Prevailing weather conditions.
- Religion: Spiritual tendencies and emotional temperament of the population.
- Historical: Collective historical background of the people.
- Social and Political: Governance and daily living conditions.
Settlement determinants consist of Natural factors (topography, climate, resources, technology) and Man-made factors (trade, political power, religion, defense, mobility).

Paleolithic Age (Savage Stage, up to $9000\text{ BC}$ ): Early humans were nomadic hunters and food gatherers utilizing crude stone tools, natural caves, and temporary perishable shelters.
Mesolithic Age (Middle Stone Age): Transitional period focused on hunting, collecting, and fishing using lakeside, seashore, and forest environments.
Neolithic Age (Barbarian Stage, $9000\text{ BC}$ to $3000\text{ BC}$ ): Characterized by agriculture, polished stone tools, permanent multi-room rectangular dwellings, and non-residential structures for storage, work, and rituals.
Bronze Age ( $3000\text{ BC}$ to $1200\text{ BC}$ ): Marked by copper and bronze tools, large-scale irrigation systems, food storage, writing, and navigation.
Iron Age: Period when iron working replaced bronze, featuring post-built hall houses, roundhouses, and early market towns (oppida).

Natural Caves and Rock Shelters: Provided natural protection (e.g., Lascaux Cave in France, $13,000\text{ BCE}$ – $8,500\text{ BCE}$ , featuring wall paintings created with ochre clay, animal fats, and water).
Temporary Built Shelters:
- Terra Amata (France, $400,000$ years ago): Oval-shaped huts constructed from tree branches.
- Mammoth-bone houses (Ukraine, $16,000\text{ BCE}$ – $10,000\text{ BCE}$ ): Tents made of animal skins stretched over wood or mammoth tusk frames.
- Vegetation huts: Huts constructed from leaves or grass (e.g., Bambuti Hut, Tongus Hut).
Permanent Dwelling Variations: Evolved through mud construction, stone-walled round houses (e.g., Mallaha in Israel), stilt houses, and dry-stone trulli.

Monoliths (Menhirs): Single upright stones set on end for religious purposes (e.g., Kerloas Menhir in Brittany, France).
Dolmens: Prehistoric tombs utilizing trabeation—two or more vertical posts supporting a horizontal capstone slab (e.g., Kilclooney in Ireland, Gochang in South Korea).
Structural Types and Variations:
- Cove: Three standing stones (two sides and one back).
- Trilithon: Two upright stones holding up a horizontal lintel.
- Cromlech: Circular arrangement of megaliths enclosing a dolmen or burial mound.
Stonehenge (England): Constructed in six stages between $3000\text{ BCE}$ and $1520\text{ BCE}$ (site used from $8000\text{ BCE}$ – $7000\text{ BCE}$ ). Features an outer ring of sarsen stones capped by lintels, Aubrey Holes, a bluestone arc, and inner sarsen trilithons aligned with the midsummer sunrise.
Stone Circles: Used for burials, cremations, and celestial observation (e.g., Avebury, England).
Tumuli (Passage Graves / Barrows): Mounds of earth or stone protecting tomb chambers, often with corbelled vaults accessed via corridors (e.g., Etruscan necropolis of Banditaccia at Cerveteri).

Jericho (Tell es-Sultan, Jordan): One of the oldest continuously inhabited hilltop cities, featuring stone houses with plaster floors surrounded by high defensive walls and towers.
Khirokitia (Cyprus): Early planned Neolithic village consisting of circular limestone houses ranging from $2\text{ m}$ to $9\text{ m}$ in diameter.
Çatal Hüyük (Turkey, $6300\text{ BC}$ to $5400\text{ BC}$ ): Largest Neolithic trading city supporting up to $6,000$ inhabitants. Consisted of flat-roofed rectangular houses packed together without streets, accessed via roof ladders serving as entryways and smoke vents.