HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE & CULTURE I

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Learning outcome/Syllabus
Introducing concepts of culture and civilization
Paleolithic and Neolithic Culture
Art forms and evolution of shelter

Megaliths
Agricultural revolution and its impact on culture and civilization
THE BEGINNING
Relationship between Architecture & Human being:
The first human generation lacked confidence in their own standing within the
nature
As they moved about in search of tolerable climate and food, the special
environments they gave shape to were tentative and unobtrusive , an architecture
in the pleats of the earth
The shelter, for most part, was there ready to be used, in the caves that had to be
wrested from predators (wild animals)
But whether shelter was natural or manufactured, the inhabitants transformed it
into architecture through purposeful use
And here a chief invention, fire, proven to be a great place-maker
It drove the wild beasts form the caves and kept them at bay, it made the home of
the moment safe
The burning fire moulds an ambience of companionship
A station for the hunters to pause
Cook his game
Harden his tools
Communicate with his band of fellows

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MAP SHOWING THE SITES OF PREHISTORIC EUROPE

PERIOD
AND THE NEAR EAST
Occurred before invention of written records
Also called Stone Age period because of the absence of metal implements
Occurred from Human Habitation of earth to 9000 BC
Sub-Division of Period:
Period can be further subdivided into Early (or Paleolithic) Stone Age and
New (or Neolithic) Stone Age
Early Stone Age- Up to 9000 BC
New Stone Age 9000 BC to 3000 BC
HISTORY
Location:
Not restricted to any particular geographical region
Occurred in different localities,
Usually close to sources of food, near rivers
Sources of information:
No written record from the prehistoric period
Information is gathered from scientific studies of prehistoric objects
Many academic disciplines are interested in studying human civilizationarcheology, paleontology, anthropology etc
The disciplines study prehistoric objects
They provide information about civilizations based on studies
OLD STONE AGE :(before 9000BC)
Nomadic, always on the move
Move about in search of food, water, and good climate
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Got their food through food gathering, hunting and fishing

Usually move about in small bands of less than 15 persons

Their lifestyle made them barely able to survive

Not much is known about their beliefs
EARLY STONE AGE ARCHITECTURE
Introduction:
Nomadic people constantly on the move
Did not require permanent shelter or settlements
Dwellings consist of simple shelters
Examples:
Rock Shelter
Cave Dwelling
Temporary structures of plant and animal materials
Characteristics:
Stone tools noticeably improved(cutting knife, sharp and easy to grasp)
The frame of the huts was sealed against the draft by an exterior sheathing
of animal skins
At the same time, the hunters dealings with nature became formalized into
what can be seen as religious observances
It was not only surviving day after day that mattered, they thought that
death was mysterious and frightening and might not constitute the end. This
thought complicated the concept of architecture
The role of the shelter was pushed beyond mere housing
The cave became the sanctuary. At its mouth the hunter might still live, but
the dark inner recesses came to be reserved for ceremonies of life and death
and afterlife
The cave at Monte Circeo, a limestone hill south of Rome, contained a
unique chamber where a single battered skull was stood in a trench along
the farthest wall, with stone arranged around it in an oval ring
At La Chapelle-aux-saints in the Dordonge region od southwestern France, a
burial had taken place. The dead man had been laid out in a shallow grave
filled with tools and animal bones. On his chest a bison leg had been
deliberately placed, perhaps as provision for the world he had slipped into
Introduction of art
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The search for elemental beliefs led the hunters to use art as a tool of
expression
It appears likely that, for the communities that produced the splendid cave
murals, engravings and sculpture, the image did more than stand for what it
depicted
Ritual use had transformed caves into religious architecture, so art now made
tangible a range of meaning in these hidden sanctuaries of the earth
ROCK SHELTER
Rock shelters and caves provided natural protection
Reconstructed image to the right shows the use of rock formation as shelter

The surface underneath

CAVE DWELLINGS
the rock formation is used
Caves were, however, more popular as dwelling
as a form of shelter
Caves used by Stone Age people have been found in many regions of the world
A good example is the cave at Lascaux in France
THE CAVE AT LASCAUX, FRANCE
Introdution
Discovered on a September day in 1940 by five boys while rabbit hunting in the
woods
The extensive overlapping of images and the uncertain limits of the cave imply that
the cave was never conceived as a finished thing
There was many generations of hunters each adding its own imprints to the
existing design
The cave at Lascaux was a community project; and in community the present
fused with the past and the future
Used about ten to twenty thousand years ago
Used by several generation of people
Entered through one entry to a large hall
From the hall, cave braches out into other spaces
Interior has elaborate paintings of animals and hunting scenes
The artwork celebrates the hunting life of the early stone age people
Entrance
The cave can be entered through a hole that was the result of the collapse of a bit
of the limestone rock forming the roof of the cave
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The path is 20 meters wide and opens into the oval room, the so called hall of bulls
Hall of the Bulls
A dark ledge here and throughout the cave separates the lower level from the
upper level which includes the ceiling, and is covered by a thin coat of calcite on
which the painting was applied . There was no painting below the ledge
The far end of the wall is taken up by a
frieze of four immense bulls in thick
black outline.
The space, in fact, is not all together
empty
Here and all along the remaining walls of the rotunda there is a seemingly random
arrangement of smaller animals-horses, deer and bears
The composition avoids a single favored focus, and no strict picture frames
delineate groupings of images
But there are accents we can detect and visual correspondences even where
paintings have been superimposed on others of different date

No paintings below the

ledge

The space contained not only the

images of bulls but also other living
forms such as horses, deer's, bears
etc from various generations

Axial gallery/Painted Gallery

The line of the hall breaks at two points one leading to the Painted gallery/axial
gallery and the other leads to lateral passage
The first opening is more or less on axis with the entrance, leads into a long gallery
that ends in an undecorated tunnel
The floor of this so called axial gallery slopes sharply downwards
At one particularly narrow point, a cow of slender build straddles the curved ceiling
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At the farthest end just before entering the tunnel , a large painted panel shows
three horses, one of them stumbling backwards, all four legs in the air
The turn into the tunnel and the exaggerated height of the gallery at this point
heighten the effect of the fall

A cow of slender built

straddling at the
curved ceiling

Lateral passage & Nave

The second opening leads to the lateral passage. At its farthest end the cave forks
one branch opens out into a vast gallery, called the Nave or the main gallery, with
a high vault like ceiling and a floor that slopes sharply downward towards the back
The animals along the walls have darts depicted on their bodies, but there is no
sign of physical pain or collapse

Antlered heads lifted

against the current

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Narrow passageway leading to

the Chamber of felines

The Shaft of the dead man and Apse

The place of honor belongs to the shaft of the dead man.
It lies in the second branch of the lateral passage
We come in and out of the passage and into the pouch of the cave called the Apse
whose walls are worn through heavy use and marked in every direction
There is a smooth stone at the far end; it forms a lip over a yawning hole crowned
by a small dome
The bottom of the hole about 6m below the floor of the Apse
The shaft that leads down is too steep to negotiate un aided
Here, immediately at the base of the shaft is a small irregular room, there is a
painting, the strangest and most affecting of all
This classic confrontation of man and beast seems to sum up the world view of the
prehistoric nomadic hunter
The beast is a big wounded bison, the spear is lodged in its strong body; its entrails
are coming out.
The hunter responsible himself is fatally hurt, he has fallen backwards, gored by
the dread horns
He is a small stick figure with a birds head. Next to him on the ground, lie a bird
headed staff and a spear thrower
The hunter clearly is the loser in the confrontation. There is nothing pathetic about
the beast, which stands proud and triumphant over him at the point of death

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Big wounded

Small stick figure of the

Spear lodged in the strong body

INTERIORS

Question
Why did early Stone Age people adopt art as a tool of expression?
Explanation can be found in constant struggle between life and death for survival
Art provides a means to explore the struggle

TEMPORARY STRUCTURES
Hut at Terra Amanta, France
Early stone people constructed temporary shelters using available materials
One of earliest known example discovered in 1966 at Terra Amata in France
Dates back to 400,000 years
Oval in shape and constructed of tree branches
Terra amanta holds the oldest artificial structures of which we have evidence
The site was discovered in 1966 during construction at the cliff road to Monte carlo
It was a stone age camp, used for a number of years, it seems, always briefly
during the late spring
In a cove by the beach, traces of some 20 huts were found, often disposed on top
of one and other on a sandbar, on the beach itself, and on a dune
They were oval in shape and measured about 8 to 15 meters in length and 4 to 6
meters in width
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Small bands of about 15 persons built and occupied them for limited hunting
forays; the huts then were left to collapse and new huts put up over them or else
nearby, by next years party

Hearth

Space inside is organized for different uses

The hut was used by a band of people for limited hunting days
It is left to collapse after use and new huts built over by the next years hunting
season
The digging was done with fire-hardened wooden spears; the pruning and
trimming, with hand axes made of pieces of flint or limestone
The hearth was in the middle, protected from the prevailing northwest wind by a
screen of pebbles
The immediate area was free of litter, indicating that there the band must have
slept
Further out from this social focus of the hut there were workspaces and, in one
case, a kind of kitchen, to judge from the large smooth stone that was marked by
tiny scratches, most likely resulting from the cutting of meat
In another hut, fossilized human excrement indicates a toilet area
Other examples
Degradable materials means buildings cannot last long
Few have survived for us to study them
We can learn by looking at primitive societies of the modern age
Evidence show improvement in technology led to covering of buildings
Bambuti Hut

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The bambutti huts show evidence of use of leaves to cover hut

The Tongus Hut

The Tongus huts show evidence of use of grass to make huts

The Lapp Tent

The Lapp tenth shows the use of animal skins

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Mud Construction
Gradual improvement in technology led to mud construction and
architecture

NEW STONE AGE:(9000 to 3000BC)

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People stopped wandering and settled down in permanent settlements
Discovered art of farming and animal husbandry
Discovery result of population pressure
Neolithic people acquired confidence in ability to tame and control nature
Period saw interest in natural cycles such as of weather and heavenly bodies e.g.
that of the sun and moon
Learnt to domesticate animals, farm and grow crops, make pottery and weave cloth
Skills were developed, marking start of civilization
Villages were established and grew, protected by walls
Introduction of basic social organization of society
People learnt to differentiate between spaces and places- Sacred versus everyday
places
Architecture was born
Having fulfilled his basic need, Neolithic man sought to conquer fear of the
unknown
Needed to understand forces of nature that both nourishes and destroys
Sought to understand the heavenly bodies and weather cycles
Sought to control nature through rituals and magic
Gradually introduced the idea of religion
Confusion about death and life after death led to introduction of tombs
Tombs are evidence of social differences in the society
New stone age Architecture
Architecture evolved when early Stone Age man became settled
Once settled, he learned to build permanent structures
Early dwellings were round beehive huts
Mud was popular material, though construction system varied by location and
availability of construction materials
Round huts evolved to rectangular form around 9000 to 7000 BC
Early villages were simple with no palaces, rich houses or non-residential buildings
Once settled Neolithic man sought to satisfy his spiritual needs
This led to the construction of monuments
Examples
Neolithic Dwelling and Settlement- Catal Huyuk
Megalithic Monuments
Dolmen Tomb, Carnac France
Stone Alignment, Carnac France
Stonehenge, England
NEOLITHIC DWELLING & SETTLEMENT
Catal huyuk
Neolithic monument in present day Turkey
Occupied between 6300 BC to 5400 BC
Supported a population of up to 6000 people
It was the largest and most cosmopolitan city of its time

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It had an extensive economy based on specialized craft and commerce

The city was a trading center
The size of the city and its wealth are a product of its status as a trading center
ysically Catal Huyuk was highly organized with elaborate architectural features

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Houses were packed in one continuous block punctuated by courtyards

Houses were of one story mud construction

No streets in settlement and access to houses was through the roof
Movement from house to house through the roof
Houses had main rooms with in-built clay furniture, fire places and ladder to the
roof
Many houses have cult rooms decorated with bull heads
Some houses appear to be shrines for worship

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MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS
Introduction:
Monumental construction by Neolithic man particularly in Europe took the form of
megalithic monument
Megalithic means large stone
Megalithic construction involves setting up large stone blocks alone or leaning
against each other
Sometimes post and lintel construction is used
Method of megalithic construction:
Very similar to the Egyptian pyramids

Stone is quarried from rocks, transported by rollers pulled by people

Lever action is used to lift and place stone in position

The secret of the construction lies in abundance of labor, endurance of effort and
availability of unlimited time
Categorization of megalithic monument:
Tombs also called Dolmen
Non funereal structures
Single stones Menhirs
Stones composed in groups Henge Monuments
Menhirs:
Are single upright stones, known in Western France as " menhirs," (Maen, a stone,
hir, high)

Dolmens & Cromlechs:

(dol = table + maen = stone) and
Cromlechs (crom = bent + leac = flat stone) are often used as interchangeable
terms.

Dolmen is the name sometimes applied to two or more upright stones supporting
a horizontal slab.
These dolmens or cromlechs often stand within sacred circles of massive
monoliths, supporting horizontal slabs, as at Stonehenge.
It seems to be erected by primitive people for the worship of the sun.

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Horizontal cap

Upright stone

Dolmen tomb, Carnac, France:

Dolmen Tomb Carnac is a burial structure
Consist of two upright stones slabs supporting a horizontal cap stone
All are held together by their weight
The remains of a dead person is place in the chamber formed by the stone blocks
The entire structure is covered with a mound of earth
Stone age people built tombs because of the belief that dead people needed
shelter

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Horizontal cap

Upright stone

Stone Alignment, Carnac, France:

In Carnac is found a unique stone monument- the stone alignment
The structure consist of more than 3000 large stones of local granite lime lined up
for several kilometers
The structure runs east by north east in ten to thirteen rows towards a circle
As objects in space, the height and mass of the stones made them visible from a
distance and encourage movement towards them
The structure affords an intermediate experience between openness and enclosure,
between boundless space and a wall
The structure represents the first instance of a principle of organizing space

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Settlement wall, Jericho:

Neolithic Jericho was protected by 5-foot-thick walls and at least one stone tower
30 feet high and 33 feet in diameter. An outstanding achievement that marks the
beginning of monumental architecture.

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Great stone tower built into the

settlement wall, Jericho, ca. 80007000 BCE

Passage grave, Newgrange, Ireland:

The Newgrange passage grave is an early example of corbelled vaulting. The huge
stones (megaliths) of the dome of the main burial chamber beneath the tumulus
are held in place by their own weight.
Corbelled vault

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Corbeled vault of the main chamber

in the passage grave, Newgrange,
Ireland, ca. 3200-2500 BCE

Hagar Qim, Malta:

One of the earliest stone temples in the world is on the island of Malta. The 5,000-yearold structure is remarkably sophisticated for its date, especially in the combination of
rectilinear and curved forms.

Aerial view of ruins of Hagar Qim,

Malta, ca. 3200- 2500 BCE

Stonehenge, Salisbury, England:

Neolithic ritual monument located in Salisbury England
Most celebrated Monument in England
Most important prehistoric structure in Europe
Well preserved monument
Subject of a very lively controversy and theories about its function
The plan of Stonehenge is arranged in the form of concentric circles
At the center is an altar
Around it five trilithons
Beyond trilithons a circle of blue stones from Wales, 200km away
Beyond blue stones, an outer monumental circle of large rectangular blocks capped
by continuous lintel
Beyond the monumental circle are 56 movable marker stones in the Aubrey holes

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trilithons

The whole monument is isolated from the landscape by a trench

A long avenue cut through trench to trilithons
Trilithons

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Monumental circle

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The circles of trilithons at Stonehenge probably functioned as an astronomical

observatory and solar calendar. The sun rises over its heel stone at the summer
solstice. Some of the megaliths weigh 50 tons
Stonehenge-Function:
Cremation / burial site
Astrological observatory
Solar calendar
Sacred site
The Stonehenge appears to be a sacred place
The actual function of the structure is still not clear
There are two viable theories:
Structure mirrors cosmic eye of lunar goddess and outer circle is an elevated
walkway for rituals
An Astronomical computer for the prediction of the eclipse of the sun and
moon
Whatever the case, function is in some way connected with the cosmos
Why is the Stonehenge a remarkable monument?
Three possible reasons:
It was not constructed to meet any practical need of the people
The level of accuracy in its construction
The uniqueness of its geometry and form
Stonehenge, Construction:
Neolithic architecture
Post and lintel construction
Megaliths are 21 to 24 feet tall, including height of lintel, and buried four feet in the
ground
Cromlech
Solar and lunar orientation
Stones dragged from far away to this site
Circle of megaliths embrace structure, enclosing it
Inside circle of megaliths is a larger horseshoe-shaped group of megaliths which
frame an Altar Stone
Horseshoe-shaped stones face midsummer sunrise over Heel Stone
Altar Stone is a green sandstone taken from a mine in Wales, over 200 miles
away
Heaviest stones 50 tons apiece, hauled by sledges (sleds)
Tools for building: ropes, levers, rollers, axes
Built in several phases over hundreds of years on a sacred site on Salisbury Plain
The lintels (horizontal monoliths) were fitted to one another using a woodworking
method, the tongue-and-groove joint

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Who built it?

Various people have attributed the building of this great megalith to Neanderthals
(early man), the Danes, Romans, Saxons, Greeks, Atlanteans, Egyptians,
Phoenicians, Celts (druids), King Aurelius Ambrosious, Merlin (the wizard), and even
Aliens!
A giant helps Merlin build Stonehenge.
From a manuscript of the Roman de Brut by Wace in the British Library (Egerton
3028). This is one of the oldest known depictions of Stonehenge.

One of the most popular beliefs was that Stonehenge was built by the Druids.
These high priests of the Celts were said to have constructed it for sacrificial
ceremonies.
While there are still some who believe they were the ones who built it, carbondating research has proven that Stonehenge was built before the druids entered
this land.
The Celts came from Ireland, much later than the building of Stonehenge.

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The Art

The bluestones were thought for much of the 20th century to have been
transported by humans from the Preseli Hills, 250 kilometres (160 mi) away in
modern day Pembrokeshire in Wales.
A newer theory is that they were brought from glacial deposits much nearer the
site, which had been carried down from the northern side of the Preselis to
southern England by the Irish Sea Glacier.
Chemical tests on teeth from an ancient burial near Stonehenge indicate that
this person in this grave grew up around the Mediterranean Sea. The bones
belong to a teenager who died 3,550 years ago and was buried with a
distinctive amber necklace. While findings are preliminary, experts hope to find
out more
At least twenty-five of the Aubrey Holes are known to have contained later,
intrusive, cremation burials dating to the two centuries after the monument's
inception. It seems that whatever the holes' initial function, it changed to
become a funerary one during Phase 2. Thirty further cremations were placed
in the enclosure's ditch and at other points within the monument, mostly in the
eastern half.
Fragments of unburnt human bone have also been found in the ditch-fill.
Stonehenge is therefore interpreted as functioning as an enclosed cremation
cemetery at this time, the earliest known cremation cemetery in the British
Isles.
of Stonehenge:
Each stone had clearly been worked with the final visual effect in mind; the
pillars widen slightly towards the top, in order that their perspective remains
constant when viewed from the ground. The lintel stones curve slightly to
continue the circular appearance of the earlier monument. The inward-facing
surfaces of the stones are smoother and more finely worked than the outer
surfaces.

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Graffiti on the sarsen stones. Below the graffiti are ancient carvings of a dagger
and an axe.

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Several Phases of construction

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BUILDINGS AND OTHER ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS:
Prehistoric buildings can be categorized into three groups
Dwellings and settlements
Funereal and Religious buildings
Ritual structures
Dwellings and settlements:
Residential building and settlements varied between early and new Stone Age
periods
Early Stone Age:
Always on the move
Used temporary structures
Provided basic shelter and protection for short periods of time
New Stone Age
Established permanent dwellings and settlements- Catal Huyuk, Jericho
Improvement in house form including change to rectangular rooms
Introduction of multi-room houses
Introduction of non-residential buildings- for work, storage & rituals
Open village layouts with streets
Increase in number and size of villages
Funereal and religious building:
Funereal and religious buildings were introduced during new Stone Age
Funereal Buildings
Were structures such as tombs used for rituals and burial for the dead
Example we studied is the Dolmen Tomb
Religious Buildings
Evidence of the first practices of religion
buildings used for rituals related to worship and religion
Example is found in the shrines that we saw embedded within Catal Huyuk
Ritual building:
Buildings whose functions are not entirely certain
Usually associated with ritual ceremonial activities
Activities may be related to religion
Examples are the Stone alignment Carnac and the Stonehenge, England
MATERIAL, CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM AND TECHNIQUE:
Most popular construction materials were wood and tree saplings, leaves,
grasses, adobe, animal skins and stones
Availability of material and construction technology varied between locations
Materials and construction technology also varied between the early and new
stone age periods
Early Stone Age
Used simple easily available materials

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Usually of plant and animal materials such as wooden poles, grasses,
leaves, and animal skins
Construction system was also simple
Usually involves digging holes, putting wooden poles in holes and burying
them
The poles are tied together to create the shell of the building
The shell is covered with grasses, leaves or animal skins and there is no
evidence of the use of technologies to modify the interior of the hut
New Stone Age
More diversified construction materials
Adobe and Stone most popular materials for houses
Large stone was used for monuments
Construction method also improved over time
Significant improvement in Adobe construction with time
In Stonehenge is also evidence of ability to quarry, shape, transport and
join large stones to create monuments
No evidence of the technology to modify interior conditions
PRINCIPLES OF ARCHITECTURAL ORGANIZATION:
Possible to categorize principles that give form to architecture of period into two:
Principles and forces that determine form of dwellings and settlements
Principles and forces that determine the form of monuments
Dwellings & settlements:
Two forces shaped the form of Dwellings and settlements- functional need and
available construction materials and technology
Early Stone Age
Primary requirement is for temporary structure
No desire to invest in construction of dwellings
Constructed dwellings using available materials with form directly
reflecting natural objects
New Stone Age
Became settled requiring permanent dwellingswhich also required durable
construction
Desire to improve dwellings and settlements to meet needs
Desire resulted in change in form of house, introduction of furniture and
differentiation of space
Also account for improvement in village form including introduction of
streets and to improvement in construction technology
Monuments:
Function was not an important issue in monuments
Product of desire to achieve higher emotional and spiritual needs
Also a symbol of the achievement of society
Understanding monument requires understanding meaning to its creators
Monuments also display an understanding of architectural principles including:

Prepared by V.Manimegalai, AP,SOA,AMACE

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HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE & CULTURE I

UNIT-I-PREHISTORIC AGE

Role of geometry in organizing architectural form

The differentiation of space for different activities and uses
Principles of locating objects in space and of channeling movement
Principles of space enclosure, including difference between boundless space and
full enclosure
Monuments represent the first instance of a principle of organizing space

Prepared by V.Manimegalai, AP,SOA,AMACE

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