Edited by Matthew A.

McIntosh
Brewminate Editor-in-Chief

The term prehistory references the period before history was written
down, prior to any kind of written explanation of culture
and civilization. This discussion covers architecture during the period we call the Late New Stone
Age. This is a very small segment or cross-section of prehistory. Prehistory basically covers the
Old Stone Age, Middle Stone Age, and New Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic )
periods, as well as portions of the Bronze and Iron Ages. These ages refer to the materials with
which tools were made during those periods. So the earliest tools were made of stone and then
people developed bronze and iron metal tools. The Three-Age System was developed by Danish
antiquarian Christian Jürgensen Thomsen, who was able to use the Danish national collection
of antiquities and the records of their finds as well as reports from contemporaneous excavations
to provide a solid empirical basis for the system. He showed that artifacts could be classified into
types and that these types varied over time in ways that correlated with the predominance of
stone, bronze or iron implements and weapons.1
How did people live and build before this period? An architectural typology references a
building type is usually an architectural form related to a function, such as train stations,
airports, churches, schools, etc. It involves the same type of architectural form repeated for a
specific use. Before the Old Stone Age (100,000-50,000 years ago), there were two basic
typologies – caves and temporary dwellings.
Caves were natural rock-cut shelters. They were not man-made. They were natural forms
usually created by the erosion of water in natural bedrock. These are the earliest examples of
human dwellings. They had irregular forms as a result instead of any kind of regular or
especially purposeful geometry.

Lascaux Cave Paintings, c.40,000 BCE / Wikimedia Commons

The most famous caves – the Lascaux Caves – are in southwestern France. We know these
caves were inhabited by humans because of the paintings within them of the animals that were
part of their daily life, which are prominently displayed in the paintings. Images of themselves
and their hands are also on the walls. So they recorded their lives on the inside of these caves.

An artist’s rendering of a temporary wood

house, based on evidence found at Terra
Amata (in Nice, France) and dated to the
Lower Paleolithic3
The second type of prehistoric building
was a more temporary dwelling. These
were wood, tent-link structures made of
wooden poles and branches covered with
grass or animal hides. These were light
and easily constructed and
dismantled. They were used by people on
the move, by nomads (hunters-gatherers
and early pastoral people).
So what happened roughly about 10000-9000 BCE as people entered the Neolithic Period, or
New Stone Age? There were important climate changes – a considerable general warming of
the Western European climate. This is one of the things that led to people changing the way
they lived. As the climate got warmer, they were able to start farming. These environmental
changes led to social changes as well. They had to stay in place to farm instead of being
nomadic so that they could grow seasonally in cycles. This led to stability and community
development. Also important was the domestication of animals to become part of the
workforce. These two things (climate change and animal domestication) led to a communal
life. This is when we see new types of buildings and construction. The most basic was human
shelter, and also just as important were sanctuaries (places of religious reference or
commemoration). Sanctuaries were temples or tombs (remembering the dead). So the three
different types of buildings at the time were houses, tombs, and temples.
Buildings were constructed markers of human dominance over nature. Important to remember
is that architecture reflected a change in the social environment in the form of
communities. Architecture is an expression of social change and position. Nothing is created in
a vacuum – we rely on, draw from, and become a part of our history. The most famous cave
structure in southwestern France, as previously noted, is Lascaux. The interior is now closed to
the public to prevent ruining the paintings.
 Carnac Menhirs / Wikimedia Commons
The earliest examples we have of menhirs
(enormous vertical stones) are in Carnac in
Northwest France, which we see here in
rows. Menhir is the local word for “long
stone.” They are monolithic stones, meaning
each stone is only one stone and not
constructed of several in layers. They are
usually 16-30 feet high, the highest being 67
feet from the ground. They date to 1500-1000
BCE and were erected with human and animal
strength.

Mehirs are often placed into the landscape in rows such as seen above, though we don’t know
why this was done. We can only draw inferences as best as possible. They may have been used
for agriculture or to define boundaries in the natural landscape. We only know that they did
not naturally appear in this manner and required human intervention. They still exist on
farmland and are now protected. Sometimes they are constructed in circles, such as these in
Attlebury, England, or Stonehenge in Salisbury. These are important markers of scale.

Dolmen in Ireland (left) and Dolmen Barrow in Portugal (right) / Wikimedia Commons
Menhirs were also manipulated by taking two vertical menhirs and placing another horizontally
atop them – often repeated in a circle or line. This created a dolmen – two vertical menhirs
supporting another laid horizontally over them. These usually indicated tomb locations. They
would often be covered with a mound of Earth, known as a barrow. These created a kind of
sanctuary, a form of commemoration of the dead. This is very interesting architecture because
it reflects a sense of community as well as a sense of the unknown – what happens after
death. Hidden under these barrows were “houses for the dead.” There was a very important
structural system used here – the post-and-lintelsystem. We use the same words today for the
sides of the door (jambs) and the piece or structure over the top (lintels). This remains the
most common structural system today.

Stonehenge Close View (left, Wikimedia Commons) and Wide View with Ditch (right)4
Stonehenge is still one of the most mysterious structures in the world. It is still being
excavated, and we do not know what its function truly was. It probably had numerous
functions. It is a monument in ruin today in southern England near the town of Salisbury, about
30-40 miles west of London in a relatively flat plain. It was built over the course of many years,
from 2750 to 1500 BCE, in different phases. There is a large circle, and the circle is defined by a
ditch. The entire circle is approximately 320 feet in diameter.

Stonehenge Plan5
The circle was dissected by an axis. This is a
combination of circular and axial (linear)
planning. The circle is broken by a street
originally lined by
menhirs. The heelstone was a single menhir
that stood alone, also surrounded by a small
ditch. This is oriented specifically to the
sun. On the summer solstice (the longest
day of the year), the sun rises over the
heelstone. The most basic organization of
such structures was based upon what people
saw happening in the sky. Things on the
ground are related to the cosmos – the sun,
moon, and positions of stars. There are also four holes marked by four stones in a rectangle
that represent the rising and setting of the moon.
 Stonehenge “Altar” / Wikimedia Commons
At the very center was an altar (as we
reference it) with the altar stone that must
have had some kind of spiritual significance,
surrounded by a circle of stones and five
dolmen menhir structures. The outer circle
was a series of post-and-lintel structures,
and the inner altar area contained the same
structure types in a horseshoe shape
around the altar and opening to the sun
around the summer solstice as the axis goes
through the center. These are 25-30 feet
tall, and there are many theories as to how the stones were moved to this location after being
quarried in Western England near Wales. The menhirs were likely erected with animal power
and rope-and-pulley systems. Scaffolding was likely built around each stone so that the lintel
stones could be raised above them. These stones were relatively crudely quarried and carved,
but they have also been weathered with age and exposure to the elements.

Mortise-and-Tenon Joint / Wikimedia

Commons
Optical refinement was used to account for
the human eye and how people see
scale. Each lintel is slightly angled in, wider
at the top and angled at the bottom. At
certain distances it gives the impression of
being vertical instead of angular. The vertical
menhirs were also angled so that they were
wider at the bottom and smaller at the
top. The lintels were not simply placed on
top of the menhirs but were attached using
mortise-and-tenon joints. Each of the vertical
menhirs has a tenon and each of the lentils has two mortise holes to fit atop the tenon to
provide stability. This shows sophistication in the construction.

The site is off-limits today and people must walk around it. It open once per year on the
summer solstice. It will likely not be restored but simply preserved for protection. It was an
open-air observatory with no evidence that it ever had any type of roof or covering. Burials
have been uncovered within the circle and cremations were known to occur, indicating that it
was also a funerary site. It is also thought to have been a place of healing, which was very
common in early historic structures. It was useful for predicting seasonal changes as well. It
may also have been part of a ritualistic celebration of nature and the circle of life. These
multiple uses indicate both practical and spiritual/religious functions.

Stonehenge Painting by John Constable (left) and Engraving by Robert Turner (right) /
Wikimedia Commons
As the name implies, this is a henge monument, and there are many others (though this is the
most well-known today). Others exist as well in various locations. There are many remnants on
agricultural land all over Southwestern England still today. The henge was a construction
typology as well. It has inspired many artists and there are many renditions, particularly in the
19th century such as from John Constable and Robert Turner who were inspired by the romantic
nature of the ruins (particularly the sky as seen dramatized above). The painting and engraving
present a mysterious quality that reflect the unknown construction and the folklore of it.

Village des Bories, France / Wikimedia Commons

In southern France is a complete reconstruction of what a village might have looked like in
roughly 2000 BCE based upon fragments collected and studied by archaeologists and
historians. The village is known as the Village des Bories, from Latin boarium (a stable for
oxen). However, these types of structures were used for everything. They were used for both
human and animal shelters as well as for storing grain and food. They have a beehive shape in
the same form as their ovens at the time. Each of the structures was made of local stone
(relatively thin and small, quarried locally). They are roughly laid in
horizontal courses (a course being a horizontal layer of stone). They were not perfectly laid
because they were not perfectly cut and had to be laid and fit together as best as possible.

Bories Stone Hut Interior (left) and Corbeled Arch (right) / Wikimedia Commons
To get this beehive shape, they corbeled the stone. A corbel is a stone that projects out slightly
from the wall. They corbeled each layer slightly inward to create a fault vault. In architecture,
a vault is a curving masonry surface. Masonry would comprise a curving stone or brick
ceiling. The stones were corbeled, and there was a large stone placed at the top to close it
(a capping stone). No mortar was used as there was no cement. This was dry construction and
the walls stand because of their own weight (gravity). This was done for all domestic
structures, some as high as fifteen feet wide and twenty feet high. Shelves, as well as
fireplaces, were made by cutting into the thickness of the wall. Everything necessary to live in a
village communally used this technique.

A Malta Temple Complex / Wikimedia

Commons
Also of note are the prehistoric temple
complexes in Malta. The one shown here
used a combination of corbeled and post-
and-lintel construction, two types of
structural systems previously
mentioned. This is a large complex of
numerous rooms arranged around an
axis. There were spaces outside of each
structure that curved in a space called
an apse: a curving space most commonly
seen in later church architecture. It was where the altar was placed in the church at the end of
the aisle.
 Malta Temple Complex Post-and-Lintel
Threshold / Wikimedia Commons
This series of curving spaces (apses) had
thresholds leading from one space to the
next. Each apse contained an altar, and
there were niches in the wall for offerings
where rituals took place to celebrate nature,
fertility, the dead, healing from the power of
the temple, etc. These were not homes or
tombs but instead were structures used as
temples and dedicated to their gods and
goddesses – the supernatural, those things
outside of Earth that they felt controlled
their lives. These were constructed by exterior and interior walls of large irregular blocks with
rubble filling between them. There was no exterior decoration as the focus of their temples
was on the inside, not the outside. These temples are marked by a post-and-lintel system and
the walls were created by using corbeling to create corbeled vaults for each space.

Malta Temple Complex Stone Decoration /

Wikimedia Commons
Stones in the thresholds were decorated in
celebration of moving from one space to the
next. Sometimes to the posts-and-lintels
were pitted or with floor-level stones
decorated, as seen above. Decoration was
centered on thresholds to mark one space
from another on the inside as opposed to the
outside. Think of these as constructed caves
– architecturally built caves. They were
constructed and planned cave-like spaces,
likely taken from the idea of caves with
hidden interior spaces. Natural formations (caves) were designed and shaped here by humans
into a regularized, repeated pattern generated by a series of lines (axes).

Prehistoric architecture consisted of three primary building types that were and still are
fundamental to architecture: 1) Houses (residences of the living); 2) tombs (residences of the
dead and the world beyond, the unknown); and 3) temples or sanctuaries (residences of the
gods/goddesses or divinities, those unknown entities that seem to control the world around
us).