Pre-historic Architecture

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 Pre-historic Architecture
• Before history comes prehistory
• Prehistoric-of the ancient period, before written
records of events were made
• 2,500,000 to 5000 years before

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 Pre-historic Architecture
• STONE AGE (2,500,000-3500 B.C.)

• BRONZE AGE (3500-1500 B.C.)

• IRON AGE ( 1500-___ B.C.)

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 STONE AGE
• 2,500,000 to 5,000 b.c.
• Pleistocene and Holocene Epoch
• Most recent Ice Age is from 1,800,000 to 11,000 years
ago – Pleistocene Epoch
• Holocene Epoch is the post glacial period
• In America, Pleistocene Epoch is called Paleo-Indian and
Holocene Epoch is called Archaic

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 STONE AGE DIVISION

• Old Stone Age

(Paleolithic) – chipped
or flaked stone tools –
hunter gatherers - 2,500,000
to 8,000 b.c
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 STONE AGE DIVISION

• Middle Stone Age

(Mesolithic) – 10,000 years
ago (from the end of the
Pleistocene Ice Age) till
farming became popular

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 STONE AGE DIVISION

• New Stone Age

(Neolithic) – ground or
polished stone axes –
farmers

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 PALEOLITHIC

• Lower Paleolithic – 2,500,000 to 200,000 years ago

• Middle Paleolithic – 200,000 to 40,000 years ago
• Upper Paleolithic – 30,000 to 10,000 years ago

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 UPPER PALEOLITHIC
• Trade of exotic materials – shells, semi precious stones for
ornaments/ ivory beads
• Burial became common
• Painting, sculpture, engraving
• Cave art
• Musical instruments – flutes (long bones), whistles (deer foot
bones)
• Instruments were crudely chipped
• Men lived by hunting and fishing
• They dwelt in caves or tents of poles and hides
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 MESOLITHIC (Epi-paleolithic)

• From the end of the Pleistocene Ice Age (10,000

years ago) to the period when farming became
important
• Lot of environmental changes
• Inundated the coastal areas
• Animals became extinct
• Artistic traditions declined
• Unpredictable availability of food and resources
• Exploitation of wider range of food stuff

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 NEOLITHIC (around 5000 b.c.)
• Farming originated at different times in different places - Raise
cattle and till the soil
• Permanent settlements - Huts were built of poles and reeds
plastered with clay, with thatched roof
• Larger and denser population
• Accumulation of surpluses and wealth
• Devpt. of status and rank differences
• Polished stone implements
• Rise of specialized crafts
• Large scale trade
• Construction of granaries/use of pottery
• Use of domesticated plant fibres for textiles
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 NEOLITHIC settlements

• Large Neolithic settlements show a wide variety of

new architectural developments
• Near East
• West Europe
• China

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 NEOLITHIC settlements – near East
• Conical bee hive shaped houses
• Rambling connected apartment style housing
• Constructed with mud bricks

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 NEOLITHIC settlements – E.Europe
• Houses with wattle and daub walls
– Wattle
• stakes interwoven with branches:
• stakes or poles interwoven with branches and twigs, used
for walls, fences, and roofs
– wattle and daub walls
• clay-covered wattle: building material consisting of wattle
covered with mud or clay, often containing lime, dung, or
straw
• Later, long houses constructed with massive timber

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 NEOLITHIC settlements – China
• Subterranean houses dug into clay
• Walls/roof made of thatch and supported by poles

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 NEOLITHIC graves

• Contain rich stores of goods/ exotic materials

revealing differentiations in terms of wealth, rank
and power

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 Megalithic monuments from the NEOLITHIC

• Skara Brae, Orkney islands, Britain

• Avebury Stone Circle, Britain
• Stone Henge, England
• Monuments of Carnac, France

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 Skara Brae
• Skara Brae, a Stone Age
settlement in the Orkney
Islands of Britain,
• lay hidden beneath a sand
dune for 5000 years until a
severe storm revealed the
ruins in 1850.
• Although originally built well
away from the shore, coastal
erosion now threatens the
ruins.

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 Skara Brae
• Skara Brae, Orkney islands
• A Stone Age village of stone
houses connected by passageways
• Built entirely of stone, stone
shelving, tables and beds
• Ten houses in all, connected by
passageways
• Roofs –hides or thatch supported
by whale bone rafters
• Their walls corbelled inwards

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 Avebury Stone Circle - Britain
• Avebury circle, shown from the
air, is a Neolithic monument built
from about 2800 to 2700 bc,
during the Bronze Age in Britain.
• An embankment and a ditch
enclose a large ceremonial area
in which there are several
circles of stones and a village.
• Stones related to the early
observations of the sun and the
moon
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 Stone Henge - England
• Stonehenge, the circular arrangement of
large stones near Salisbury, England,
• was probably built in three stages
between about 3000 and 1000 bc.
• The function of the monument remains
unknown: once believed to be a temple
for Druids or Romans,
• Stonehenge is now often thought to
have been either a temple for sun
worshipers or a type of astronomical
clock or calendar.

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 Stone Henge - England
• Cromlechs –
– a group of prehistoric standing stones
arranged in a circle
– burial chamber: an ancient stone
burial chamber
• It had two concentric circles of tall
standing stones, with lintels resting
on them,
• minor circles of smaller stones just
inside of each and
• a great “Altar stone”within.
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 Other Works: Cromlechs
• Altar stone

• 6m high and 26 m diameter

• Served as:
• Astronomical or Astrological
Observatory
• A tribal expression of identity and a
symbol of communal purpose

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 Other Works: Dolmens

• Tombs of the dead and

religious monuments
• A burial tomb consisting of
three or more upright stones
and one or more capstones

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 Other Works : Tumuli

• ancient burial mound

• a large mound of earth above a
prehistoric tomb

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 Other Works: Menhirs

• Single standing stone:

• a large single upright stone,
erected by prehistoric people and
thought to have been used for
astronomical observations, found
in the British Isles and northern
France

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 Carnac’s megaliths - France
• granite megaliths
• one of many Bronze Age
monuments in Carnac, France.
• generally considered to be the
work of Druids, members of a
Celtic religious group that was
prevalent from the 2nd century
bc until the 2nd century ad.

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 Bronze Age
• Alloy of tin and Copper
• 5000 b.c. to 1500 b.c.
• Made possible more advanced
works of carpentry and
masonry

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 Iron Age
• Iron used to make tools and weapons
• Chronologically, iron age is of local value
• Iron takes the place of bronze at different times in
different cultures

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 Ways of Building

• Throughout the whole of history there have been

only two basic ways of building
• 1.Putting one block upon another
• 2.making a frame or skeleton and cover it with a
skin

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 Ways of Building

• Blocks –dried mud or clay bricks, stone, ice (as in

the Eskimo (eaters of raw flesh) Igloos (house) of
Arctic regions)

• Skeleton/Skin -Wood (later iron and steel) and

animal hides, canvas, mud and straw

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 Some Structural Principles Known before 1000 BC

1. Suspension–Post, ropes
and pegs (the Tent), not
developed fully until 1900
AD when steel chains and
ropes became available

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 Some structural principles known before 1000 BC

2. Post and Lintel (in

stone or timber)

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 Some structural principles known before 1000 BC
3. The Arch
• The round arch
– A hole knocked in a wall
• The corbelled arch
– Projecting small portion
• The arch of vossoirs (the true
arch)
– Wedge shaped stones which lock
together. Stability depends upon
lateral trust being resisted by
abutments.
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