History of Architecture – Prehistoric & Ancient Architecture
MODULE 1
Prehistoric and Ancient Architecture
PREHISTORIC ARCHITECTURE
EARLY DWELLINGS
 Shift from nomadic, hunter-gatherer
system to a combination of farming
and hunting
 Domestication of animals and
plants
 Created societies of villages near
caves or along shores and
streams.
ROCK CAVES – earliest form of
human settlement.
 Lascaux Cave – a cave in France
containing wall paintings and
engravings of Paleolithic humans
thought to date from c. 13,000 –
8,500 BCE.
BUILT SHELTER
 Primitive lifestyle was nomadic.
 Temporary Shelter were designed
in direct response to climate, local
materials, and hunting patterns.
 Built with limited investment in time
and energy.
1. TIPI/TEEPEE – a portable Indian
shelter.
2. BEEHIVE HUT – a clochan is a
stone beehive-shaped hut with a
corbelled roof, commonly associated
with the Irish coastline.
3. TRULLO – a traditional rendered
stone dwelling in Apulia, southern Italy,
in which square chambers are roofed
with conical vaulted roofs.
4. WIGWAM – an American Indian
dwelling, usually of round or oval
shape, formed of poles overlaid with
bark, rush mats, or animal skins.
5. HOGAN – a Navaho Indian dwelling
constructed usually of earth and logs
and covered with mud and sod.
6. IGLOO – an Eskimo house, usually
built of blocks of hard snow or ice in
the shape of a dome, or when
permanent, of sod, wood, or stone.
RELIGIOUS STRUCTURES
1. MEGALITHS – ancient stone
monuments.
2. MENHIR (Monolith) – a prehistoric
monument consisting of an upright
stone, usually standing alone but
sometimes aligned with others in
parallel rows.
3. DOLMEN – a prehistoric monument
consisting of two or more large upright
stones supporting a horizontal slab or
capstone, and usually regarded as a
tomb.
 Cove – three standing stones, two
on the sides and one at the back.
 Trilithon – a structure consisting of
two upright stones supporting a
horizontal lintel.
4. CROMLECH – a circular
arrangement of megaliths enclosing a
dolmen or burial mound.
 Stone Circle, Avebury, England –
these stone circles were associated
with burials, others with cremation.
They also worked as celestial
observatories that were meant to
follow the movements of the moon
and stars, as would have been
typical for early agrarian-based
societies.
 Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain in
Wiltshire, England – a megalithic
monument consisting of four
concentric rings of trilithons and
menhirs centered around an altar
stone. It is believed to have been
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History of Architecture – Prehistoric & Ancient Architecture
used by a sun cult or
astronomical obervations.
5. TUMULUS – an artificial mound of
earth or stone, especially over an
ancient grave. Also called barrow.
EARLY CITIES
 Ice Age to the Neolithic Age; the
earth’s climate warmed up.
 As settlements became more
permanent, hunters started farming
communities.
 New architecture was also
developed to represent communal
and spiritual values.
1. JERICHO
 One of the world’s oldest
continually-inhabited cit.
 A hilltop city; citizens lived in stone
houses with plaster floors,
surrounded by high walls and
towers.
2. KHIROKITIA (Cyprus)
 One of the earliest Neolithic village.
 Utilized a complex architectural
system built according to a
preconceived plan, suggesting a
structured social organization.
3. CATAL HUYUK
 Largest and most well-preserved
Neolithic village.
 Consisted of rectangular flat-roofed
houses packed together into a
single architectural mass.
 No streets or passageways.
MESOPOTAMIAN ARCHITECTURE
MESOPOTAMIA
 Fertile Crescent; present day Iraq;
 From the Greek words mesos and
potamas, meaning “middle river”.
 Refers to the fertile plain between
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
for
SUMERIAN (5000 – 2000 BC)
 Architecture developed by the
Sumerians.
 Characterized by monumental
temples of sun-dried brick faced
with burnt or glazed brick, often
built upon the ruins of their
predecessors.
ZIGGURAT – stepped structures
constructed with outside staircases
and a temple or shrine at the top for
worshipping the gods of nature.
 Ziggurats were built of mud bricks
made of dirt mixed with water and
straw.
 Its four corners were oriented
towards the cardinal points.
 Priests conduct ceremonies at the
fire altar on top.
ZIGGURAT OF UR, Tell el-Muqayyar,
Iraq – a temple dedicated to the moon
god built by the Sumerian ruler, Ur
Nammu, and his successors around
2125 BC.
BABYLONIAN (2000 – 1600 BC)
 The last great Mesopotamian city-
empire of the ancient age.
 Architecture characterized by mud-
brick construction, had walls
articulated by pilasters and
recesses, sometimes faced with
burnt and glazed brick.
 Palaces and temples were
decorated with enameled brick
friezes of bulls and lions.
TOWER OF BABEL – as described in
the Bible, this structure may have been
built in Babylon around 600 BC by
King Nebuchadnezzar II to “rival
heaven”.
Herodotus recorded that the ziggurat
had 7 tiers covered in glazed tiles. The
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tower may have been risen to a height
of 300 feet and may have been used
as a temple for worshipping Marduk,
the god of the city of Babylon.
HANGING GARDENS – a royal
palace constructed of mud brick walls
were covered with glazed, colored tiles
decorated with animal reliefs. Legend
says that the sumptuous palace was
terraced with lush gardens that were
irrigated by water pumped from the
Euphrates.
ISHTAR GATE – large, four-storey
portal dominating the processional
avenue through the city. It was
covered in glazed bricks, colorful tiles,
and decorative figures of bulls and
dragons.
ASSYRIAN (900 – 700 BC)
 Palaces took precedence over
religious buildings.
 Architecture was characterized by
mud-brick buildings. Stone was
used for carved monumental
decorative sculptures.
 External walls were plainly treated,
but ornamented with carved relief
sculpture or with polychrome
bricks.
 Interior courts were all large, and
filled with columns.
DUR-SHARRUKIN (Palace of Sargon,
Khorsabad, Iraq) – squarish
parallelogram city, with the palace
temples, and government buildings
compressed within the walls.
SERAGLIO – palace proper
HARAM – private chamber
KHAN – service chamber
PERSIAN (500 – 331 BC)
 Characterized by a synthesis of
architectural elements of
surrounding countries such as
Assyria, Egypt, and Ionian Greece.
PERSEPOLIS – “the city of the
Persians”, designed by Darius as his
own capital city.
EGYPTIAN (3000 BC – 200 AD)
 Characterized by the axial planning
of massive masonry tombs and
temples, the use of trabeated
construction with precise
stonework, and the decoration of
battered walls with pictographic
carvings in relief.
 A preoccupation with eternity and
the afterlife dominated the building
of these funerary monuments and
temples.
CHARACTER – simplicity,
massiveness, monumentality
MATERIAL – stone and brick
SYSTEM – columnar and trabeated
NILE RIVER – world’s longest river.
RELIGIOUS STRUCTURES
1. MASTABA – a tomb for the nobility
or members of the royal family. Made
of mud brick, rectangular in plan with a
flat roof and sloping sides, from which
a shaft leads to underground burial
and offering chambers.
2. TEMPLES – an edifice or place
dedicated to the worship or presence
of a deity.
 Cult Temple – an ancient Egyptian
temple for the worship of a deity.
 Mortuary Temple – an ancient
Egyptian temple for offerings and
worship of a deceased person,
usually a deified king.
KARNAK TEMPLE COMPLEX – one
of the main components of the
political/religious landscape built in
honor to Amun-Re, the god of the sun
and the heaven.
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AVENUE OF SPHINXES – leads to a
tall portal guarded by a towering pylon.
SPHINX – a figure of an imaginary
creature having the body of a lion and
the head of a man, ram, or hawk.
 Androsphinx – human-headed
sphinx
 Criosphinx – ram-headed sphinx
 Hieracosphinx – falcon-headed
sphinx
OBELISK – an Egyptian monolithic
four-sided standing stone tapering to a
pyramidical cap (a pyramidion), often
inscribed with hieroglyphs and erected
as a monument.
PYLON – a gateway guarding a
sacred precinct consisting of either a
pair of tall truncated pyramids and a
doorway between them, often
decorated with painted reliefs.
HYPOSTYLE HALL – a large hall
having many columns in rows
supporting a flat roof, and sometimes a
clerestory.
PYLON TEMPLE – an Egyptian
temple with monumental gateways,
formed by twined pylons.
KIOSK – a freestanding stone canopy
structure supported by columns in
Egyptian architecture.
MAMMISI – birth-house; a small
Egyptian side temple, kiosk or tent
shrine to celebrate the place where the
god of the main temple was born, or
where the goddess bore her children.
BARQUE TEMPLE – a room or
building in which the image of the
Pharaoh or deity was revered.
MORTUARY TEMPLE OF
HATSHEPSUT – Queen Hatshepsut’s
mortuary temple played a key role in
the processional events as the
temporary resting place for the barque
during the Beautiful Feast of the
Valley.
ROCK-CUT TOMB – a tomb hewn out
of native rock, presenting only an
architectural front with dark interior
chambers, of which the sections are
supported by masses of stone left in
the form of solid pillars.
ABU SIMBEL – the façade, carved
directly into the sandstone cliff, takes
the form of a pylon and is dominated
by four colossal seated figures, 22
meters tall, all portrayals of Ramesses.
PRAMID – a massive masonry
structure having a rectangular base
and four smooth, steeply sloping sides
facing the cardinal points and meeting
at an apex.
Used in ancient Egypt as a tomb to
contain the burial chamber and the
mummy of the pharaoh.
 Step Pyramid – sides are stepped
with tiers rather than smooth (e.g.
Pyramid of King Djoser, Saqqara).
 Bent Pyramid – each triangular
planar surface changes direction as
it approaches the top, as in a
mansard roof; sometimes called as
blunt or false pyramid (e.g. Pyramid
of Sneferu).
 Sloped Pyramid – four sloping
triangular sides, with a fixed angle,
culminate at an apex; also called
as true pyramid (e.g. North
Pyramid of Dahshur – first true
pyramid, built by Sneferu).
IMHOTEP – the first architect recorded
in history. He designed the Saqqara
complex and the Stepped Pyramid of
Djoser.
PYRAMIDS OF GIZA – erected on the
west bank of Nile River; built of local
stone on a core of rock with casing
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History of Architecture – Prehistoric & Ancient Architecture
blocks of limestone; 480 feet tall with a
square base measuring 756 feet on a
side.
PYRAMID COMPLEX – the
ceremonial area of buildings and
structures surrounding an ancient
Egyptian pyramid.
Parts:
 Mortuary temple – a place of
worship of a deceased king or
queen, especially one adjoining a
pyramid or rock-cut tomb, in which
offerings of food and objects were
made; also called funerary temple.
 Valley temple – a temple pavilion
in an ancient Egyptian pyramid
complex, connected via a covered
causeway to a mortuary temple at
the foot of a pyramid; used for
preparing the Pharaoh for his final
journey.
 Pyramid temple – a mortuary
temple connected specifically to a
pyramid, or part of an Egyptian
pyramid complex.
 Pyramid causeway – a covered
ceremonial route or corridor leading
from a valley temple to a mortuary
temple at the foot of a pyramid,
notably at sites of the Nile valley
pyramids.
STELA – a slab stela shows a royal
personage at a funerary repast sitting
next to an offering table covered with
the loaves of bread that have been
brought to him. Next to him on the
floor, on small platforms, are
containers holding incense, ointments,
figs, and wine.
CAPITALS – bud & bell, palm,
foliated, Hatthor head, Osiris,
polygonal
MOULDINGS – torus and gorge
EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTS
1. SENUSRETS – built the earliest
known obelisk at Heliopolis.
2. AMENEMHAT I – founded the great
temple at Karnak.
3. THOTHMES I – began the additions
to the temple of Ammon Karnak.
4. AMENOPHIS III – built the famous
Colossi of Memnon.
5. RAMESES I – began the Hypostyle
Hall at Karnak.
6. SETI I – built the temple at Abu
Simbel.
7. PTOLEMY II – built the Pharos at
Alexandria.
8. PTOLEMY III – founded the Great
Seradeum at Alexandria.
MINOAN (1800 – 1300 BC)
 A Bronze Age civilization flourished
in Crete.
 Named after King Minos of
Knossos.
 Gate buildings with multi-columnar
porches provided access to
unfortified compounds.
 Foundation walls, piers and lintels
were stone with the upper walls in
timber framework.
PALACE AT KNOSSOS – the palace
contained residences, kitchens,
storage rooms, bathrooms, ceremonial
rooms, workshops, and sanctuaries.