History of architecture | WORLD Architecture

• Before 9000 BC, nomadic life of hunting &

PREHISTORIC ARCHITECTURE
The time before people recorded history in
writing
• Refers to the time period before people
could write, the time before written records.
• Objects are the documents of record
• Challenge is to "read" the non-verbal info
found in objects.
INFLUENCES OF THE DEVELOPMENT
OF ARCHITECTURE
food gathering
• By 9000 BC, farming and agriculture was
practiced
• Fertile soil and plentiful food
• Animal domestication for work, milk, wool
• People wanted to settle down, live in
communities
• First villages in the Middle East, South
America, Central America, India and China
STONE AGE

Fig 1. The Evolution of Man

• Direct human ancestors evolved in Africa

from 2.3 million years ago - Homo Habilis,
Homo Erectus, Homo Sapiens
• The success of the human race was largely
due to the development of tools – made of
stone, wood, bone
• Humans spread from Africa into Southern Fig 3. Stone age tools
Europe, Asia
• Paleolithic
• Could not settle far north due to the cold (Old Stone Age, c40000-8000 BC) – mostly
climate nomadic hunter
• From Siberia by foot into North America • Mesolithic
• From Southeast Asia by boat into Australia (Middle Stone Age, c8000-7000 BC)
• Neolithic
(New Stone Age, c7000-2300 BC) – began
to settle year-round

- PALEO – “old”
- MESO – “middle / between”
- NEO – “new”
- LITH – “stone”
- MEGA – “large or great”
Fig 2. Prehistoric Hunting

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 History of architecture | WORLD Architecture

BRONZE AGE into smaller ones for eating, sleeping,

socializing.
• In places where no industrial revolution
has occurred to transform building
methods and increase population density,
houses show little difference from primitive
ones

• Rock Cave – Earliest form of dwellings

- Natural Cave
- Artificial Cave

Fig 4. The Bronze Age

• Covered the Minoan Period of the Crete &

Greek period

IRON AGE

Fig 4. Lascaux Cave

Lascaux Cave – is the setting of a

Fig 4. The Iron Age
• 25 to 50 years before Julius Ceasar
complex of caves in southwestern
France famous for its Paleolithic cave
paintings. They contain some of the
best-known Upper Paleolithic art.
These paintings are estimated to be
17,300 years old. They primarily
consist of images of large animals, most
of which are known from fossil
evidence to have lived in the area at the
time.

• Tents – made from tree barks, animal skins

3 Classifications Of Early Known Types Of
Architecture & plant leaves
• Huts – usually made up of reeds, brushes
• Dwellings and wattles Beehive Hut
• Religious Monuments • Trullo - dry walled rough stone shelter with
• Burial Grounds corbelled roof
• Wigwam or Tepee – conical tent with
Early Dwellings wooden poles as framework. Sometimes
covered with rush mats and an animal skin
• The development of more complex
door Hogan - primitive Indian structure of
civilizations led to division of the room
joined logs

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 History of architecture | WORLD Architecture

• Igloo (Eskimo) house - constructed of Religion

hard-packed snow blocks built up spirally
• No organized religion
• The dead are treated with respect - burial
rituals and monuments

2 Classifications of Religious Structures

• MONOLITH – isolated single upright stone

also known as “menhir”

Fig 5. Igloo

• Nigerian hut - with mud walls and roof of

palm leaves
• Iraqi Mudhif – covered with split reed mats,
built on a reed platform to prevent
settlement

Fig 8. Menhir

- Menhir - memorial of victory over one

tribe. Serves a religious purpose.
Sometimes arranged in parallel rows,
reaching several miles and consisting of
thousands of stones
Fig 6. Iraqi Mudhiff
• MEGALITHIC– Several number of stones
• Sumatran house – for several families, built
of timber and palm leaves, the fenced pen
underneath is for livestock

Fig 9. Dolmen
- Dolmen - two or more upright stones
supporting a horizontal slab. Tomb of
Fig 7. Sumatran House standing stones usually capped with a
large horizontal slab

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 History of architecture | WORLD Architecture

- Cromlech/Stone Circles – three or • Tumuli or “Barrows” – earthen mounds

more upright stones capped by unchain use for burials of several to couple hundred
flat stone. Enclosure formed by huge of ordinary persons. It has a corridor inside
stones planted on the ground in circular leading to an underground chamber
form.

Fig 11. Section of a Tumulus

Fig 9. Stonehenge, England Architectural Character

Stonehenge, England (2800 – 1500 BC) • Materials – Animal skins, wooden frames,
- Most spectacular and imposing of animal bones
monolithic monuments • Construction System – Existing or
- Outer ring, inner ring, innermost excavated caves
horseshoe-shaped ring with open end • Decoration – Caves paintings in Africa,
facing east France and Spain
- Largest stones weigh 45 to 50 tons,
came from Wales 200 km away
- Stones transported by sea or river then -End of Section-
hauled on land with sledges and rollers
by hundreds of people, raised upright
into pits, capped with lintels
- A solar observatory – designed to mark
the sun's path during sunrise on
Midsummer Day

Burial Mounds

Fig 10. Burial Mounds

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 History of architecture | WORLD Architecture

BRANCHES OF TREE5
COVERED WITH TURF-

THE HUT MOMOLITO,' (ft SHIELMGS

^^LQCMARIAKER. 5WTTAHY. ^^
(g) JuRA,5coTLm
JuRA,
^

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BEEHIVE HUTS LIWIS,SCOTU\ND, BEEHIVE HUT, IRELAND.

ASSTORED w W/WIRE
THE DlAMLTER OF LARGE 5TONE CIRCLE IS 106 F

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