The Architecture of Egypt, the Ancient Near East, Asia, Greece and the Hellenistic Kingdoms

Types of Permanent Buildings:
- Single-cell Type: Beehive-shaped, round, or oval plans.
- Multi-celled Collections: Rectangular rooms arranged in collections.
Origins of Building Styles:
- Derived from earlier temporary shelters.
Early Housing in the Natufian Period (Middle Mesolithic):
- Circular Plans: Widely distributed throughout south-west Asia (9000-7000 BC).
- Evolution from semi-subterranean drystone huts to apsidal houses (mud or stone), eventually leading to rectangular houses built from tauf (loaf-shaped bricks of mud and straw) or mud brick.
- Transition Timeline in Egypt: Much later transition (~3400 BC).
Neolithic Period and its Influence:
- Construction of houses derived from earlier houses superimposed in size, primarily built of mud, rebuilt by each generation.
- Earlier buildings absorbed into settlement mounds or tells.

Simple Villages Development: Changes occurred in four main ways:
1. Improvement in construction and planning, resulting in multi-roomed and thin-walled houses of mud brick.
2. Emergence of non-residential buildings for work, storage, and rituals, culminating in monumental temple architecture during the Ubaid period in Mesopotamia.
3. Open village layout forms, including streets.
4. Widespread construction of walls for defense.
Regional Diversity: Increase in the number of villages, leading to larger fortified townships.

Typical village components:
- Storage Buildings: Often rectangular rooms arranged along a central corridor.
- Shrines: Planned with rooms in sequence, occasionally following a megaron-like plan.
- Specialized buildings sometimes contiguous with houses, later becoming free-standing structures grouped around courtyards.

Temples of the Ubaid:
- Rectangular mud-brick buildings on platforms, predecessors of Sumerian ziggurats.
- Larger and more elaborately decorated than houses, including central chambers with flanking smaller cells, stairways leading to upper floors, and buttresses for light patterns.
Friezes: Early temples featured decorative friezes with colored ceramic cones and bitumen.

By late Gerzean times, construction consisted of rectangular, mud-built town houses with wattle and daub frameworks, with adjacent open courts.
Elaborate Graves: Increasingly elaborate burial sites evident from excavations in early Egypt.

Natufian Dwellings: Caves and settlement structures including circular huts at Ain Mallaha (9000-8000 BC) - 50 huts, 2000 m², with details such as stone-paved floors and lime plaster finishes.
Khirokitia Culture: Centralized village layout (c. 5650 BC) in Cyprus, rectangular mud-brick houses, workshops, and communal spaces.
Shulaveri Culture: Keyhole-shaped mud brick houses in Transcaucasia, typically 3 m to 4.5 m in diameter.
Faiyum Evidence: Storage pits present at c. 6000-5000 BC, with examples from Merimde (c. 4500 BC).
Badarian and Amratian Sites: Housing evidence from both periods showing similarities in construction styles.

Shift from circular to rectangular dwellings seen across different regions.
Cultural Areas: Regional distinctions influenced by local needs and available materials were significant, with examples from the Levant, Anatolia, Zagros, and others.

The Levant:
- Early pre-pottery Neolithic characterized by domestic architecture that was largely circular and later rectangular by the aceramic Neolithic period.
- Notable villages and remains at Jericho, with round houses under large settlements, evolved from earlier traditions.
Anatolia:
- Catal Hüyük village (6250-5400 BC) displayed complex, interconnected dwellings with shrines.
Zagros Region:
- Evidence of larger multi-roomed houses and villages developed through continuous habitation.
Transcaspian and Transcaucasian: Standardized constructions and various village layouts from communal joys to fortified settlements.
Mesopotamia: Sinjar and Eridu featured remarkable developments in temple and residential architecture, with considerable use of mud-brick and notable innovation.
Egypt: Sparse dwellings traced through graves, evidence of evolution from reed and timber structures towards mud-brick architecture.

Transition from temporary to permanent structures highlights the societal shift from nomadic lifestyles to settled agriculture and urban communities.
Construction techniques produced from cultural advancements and availability of materials demonstrate early human innovation in habitat permanence.

Typical mud brick size: 356 mm (14 in) by 178 mm (7 in) by 102 mm (4 in).
Mud-brick construction resulted in internally plastered walls that diminished course by course to enhance stability, reflective of changing environmental conditions post-inundation.

The architecture of ancient Egypt and the Near East reflects the interplay between cultural evolution, social complexity, and the adaptation of available resources.

Primitive Egyptian Architecture: Utilized readily available materials like reeds, papyrus, and palm branches; mud-plastered for resilience.
- Structures segments formed using bundles, lashing for stability, and simple dome and flat roof designs as housing solutions.
Use of Timber: Historical abundance allowed more robust construction methods for better homes and gathering places.

Limited use of stone in the context of walls and foundations during pre-dynastic times, evolving towards grand uses later with cut stone for religious structures.

Design and development of specific tomb types continue to reflect cultural beliefs in afterlife and practices, paralleling advancements in architectural techniques.

Houses constructed of crude brick and wooden frameworks indicate an early understanding of space utility and community planning.
The progression of societal structures leads to more complex building systems, which reflect both aesthetic values and environmental adaptations.
Recognition of how architecture served not only as shelter but also as a cultural and spiritual symbol for communities.