PREHISTORIC

ARCHITECTURE
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HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE 1 –
ARCHITECTURE IN PREHISTORY 1
 Background
 Theterm "prehistory" was coined by French scholars, referring to the
time before people recorded history in writing. This is the longest
period in the past of modern man (homo sapiens) that lasted about
400,000 years. Prehistory is not associated with a particular place or
time. 

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 Background
     
The buildings that survived from prehistoric times and are
considered architectural works were cult structures. Homes were built
with less durable materials, such as mud bricks and wood. Religious
motives led to significant achievements throughout the history of
architecture beginning with prehistory.

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 Prehistoric buildings
 3,500  years BCE , man has developed a form of architecture based on
megaliths (megalith - a big rock; literally in Greek: lithos - stone,
megas - big) - structures made of rough huge stone blocks, probably
intended for burial ritual.

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 Prehistoric buildings
 During prehistoric times, as well as throughout history, stones and
rocks were associated with divinity. Examples to this can be found in
different cultures: Persian god Mithras was considered as having been
born from a rock, marrying a rock and whose father was a rock, Moses
struck the rock to get water, the meaning of the word "Petra" in Greek
is a stone, hence the name of St. Peter's (Petrus).

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  Prehistory saw three main types of using megalith stones
known to us:  menhir, dolmen, and stones arranged in a
circle.
Here they are:

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Menhirs
 Menhir (literally in Brittany French: a long stone;
men-stone, hir-long) is a huge stone standing
vertically in the ground. Such stones are usually
standing in the middle of a field or arranged in rows,
which shows that they were transferred to where they
are. The piece of stone stuck in the ground is often a
fifth to a quarter of its overall height. The average
height of these stones is 9 meters. The highest menhir
in Europe is 20 meters tall above the ground, and four
meters under the ground. 
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Menhir in Carnak

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    One fascinating fact regarding megalithic monuments is their
orientation. Menhirs fields are arranged in parallel lines from east to
west ending in CROMLECH - a circle of stones. The menhirs seem as
if arranged according to astronomical map. They are laid out on the
axis connecting the points of sunrise and sunset on the longest or the
shortest day of the year.

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 Dolmens
        
The word dolmen originates from the expression taol maen, which
means "stone table" in Brittany. The first builders used stones that were
within their reach. They built dolmens - sort of structures in a form of a
"table", consisting of two huge standing stones supporting a horizontal
giant stone. Each of the stones weighs several tons, but those huge
stone blocks are laid one upon the other without mortar. There were
also low dolmens only about 1.5 meters tall. Originally, the dolmens
were covered with more stones and earth, but as time went on, only the
megalithic structures  remained.

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Lanyon Quoit a dolmen on moorland near Penzance in
Cornwall

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  When dolmens are standing in a long line, they are
probably associated with the cult of death. Some of
the "corridor" type dolmens served as collective
graves, which is why some interpret them as
tombstones.

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 Corridor-type Dolmen
 Unlike the menhirs, around which many people gathered, the corridor
type of dolmens allowed access only to a limited number of people,
being structures with limited space. Findings from recent years indicate
the overlap between the time of menhirs lines, menhirs circles and
grave structures. These three elements were probably part of one
religious system.

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Corridor-type Dolmen

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Corridor-type Dolmen

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Tumuli or burial mounds
 A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and
stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli also are
known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgräber, or
kurgans, and may be found throughout much of the
world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones built for
various purposes, also originally might be a tumulus.
A long barrow is a long tumulus, usually for numbers
of burials.

 The word tumulus is Latin for 'mound' or 'small hill',

which is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root
*teuh2- with extended zero grade *tum-, 'to bulge,
swell' also found in tumor, thumb, thigh, and
thousand.[1]

BEEHIVE HUT
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Tumuli

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Cross – sections of tumuli

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Corbelled vault

 Corbeled vault of
the main chamber
in the passage
grave,
Newgrange,
Ireland, ca. 3200-
2500 BCE

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Corbel

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 Hagar Qim, Malta, ca. 3200-2500 BCE

 One of the earliest stone temples in the world is on the

island of Malta. The 5,000-year-old structure is
remarkably sophisticated for its date, especially in the
combination of rectilinear and curved forms.

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Stonehenge (3100-2000 BC)
Wiltshire,
England

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 Aerial view (looking northwest) of Stonehenge, Salisbury
Plain, England, ca. 2550-1600 BCE. Circle is 97’ in diameter;
trilithons 24’ high.

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.
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 Prehistoric Architecture: Stonehenge
 Neolithic architecture
 Post and lintel construction
 Megaliths are 21 to 24 feet tall, including height of lintel, and buried
four feet in the ground
 Solar and lunar orientation
 Stones dragged from far away to this site
 Circle of megaliths embrace structure, enclosing it

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 Prehistoric Architecture: Stonehenge
 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
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STONEHENGE plan & aireal view

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Several Phases (stages) of Construction

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 The lintels (horizontal monoliths) were fitted
to one another using a woodworking method,
the “tongue-and-groove joint”

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 THE ART 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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bluestones Open end
Facing East
trilithons
Sarsen
stones
Lintels

Stonehenge
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HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE 1 – ARCHITECTURE IN PREHISTORY 36
Again, the Stonehenge

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Get ½ sheet of paper and
answer this question.
WHAT DO YOU THINK CAUSED
EARLY MEN TO BUILD USING
GIGANTIC STONES (WHICH
ARE QUITE TEDIOUS JOBS)?
MINIMUM OF 100 WORDS. COUNTS THE WORDS AND
WRITE THE COUNT AFTER THE ESSAY.

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See you in seven
Prepare for a quiz

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ARCHITECTURE IN PREHISTORY 39