History of Architecture: Pre-historic Architecture

Post and lintel

A horizontal member, supported on its two ends by columns.

Stone Row

A linear arrangement of upright, parallel megalithic standing stones set at intervals along a common axis or series of axes.

Tumulus

A prehistoric burial mound

History of Architecture

A record of man's effort to build beautifully

Aubrey Hole

A ring of fifty-six Chalk pits at Stonehenge, named after John Aubrey.

Menhir

A simple, large, upright monolith that serves a religious purpose

Heel Stone

A single large block of sarsen stone standing within the Avenue outside the entrance of the Stonehenge earthwork.

Paleolithic Period

c. 35,000-9000/8000 BCE -Small hunter-gatherer societies -clans/family groups -small, organic, seasonal structures -Use of stone tools

Neolithic Period

c. 9000/8000-3000 BCE -agriculture, domestication of animals, settled village life -Used ground stone tools, like millstones, indicating that they ate grains. -Domesticated animals, developed agriculture -Permanent Dwellings

Wigwan

An American Indian dwelling usually of round or oval shape. Formed of poles overlaid with bark, rush mats, or animal skins

Newgrange passage grave, County Meath, Ireland - 3100 BCE

An earthen mound and passage grave. Had decorative boulders that surrounded the perimeter. Aligned with the solstices.

Mortise-&-Tenon Joint

Knob and socket system used to join pieces of wood or stone together.

Mesolithic Period

Known as the Middle Stone Age

Neolithic Period

Known as the New Stone Age

Paleolithic Period

Known as the Old Stone Age

Passage grave, British Isles

Neolithic Era. Burial grave for people of prestige. Had a passage way to the burial chamber and created a series of dolmens in the passage way. At the end of the passage way there is a domed vault.

Fresco

Painting painted into the plaster as it was wet.

Sympathetic Magic

Paleolithic Era. Idea that you could go into a sacred space and recreate the image of the animal and recreate its spirit. Prehistoric people would also throw rocks and arrowheads at the animal paintings to recreate the hunt.

Hall of the Bulls, Caves at Lascaux, France, c. 15000 - 13000 BCE

Paleolithic cave paintings. Paintings inside of the cave was made from minerals that were cut out of rock and then crushed into a powder and then was mixed with animal fat.

Tent

Pre-historic dwelling made of animal hides

Alignment, Carnac, France, c. 4250 - 3750 BCE

Several rows of stone alignments. 2 miles long and made up of menhirs.

Mastaba

Single-storey trapezoidal structures considered to be the precursor to the pyramids

Skara Brae, Orkney Islands, Scotland, c. 3100 - 2500 BCE

This site used to contain a series of Paleolithic camp sites before the village. Shelters were made of midden and thatch.

Twine

Twisted dried grass that is then braided and was used to tie things together.

Jericho and Catal Huyuk

Two earliest known urban communities

Bucrania

Bulls head made from plaster, horns, and skulls.

Intramural Burial

Graves within a settlement, ie, under the floors of houses.

Cliff Dwelling

Homes built into cliff sides, such as those built by the Ancient Puebloans of the Southwest.

Purlins

Horizontal beams (tree branches) that were used with twine to form roofs.

Tipi

Identify the picture

Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain, England c. 2900 - 1400 BCE

Is a Cromlech. Made in 4 stages, and has a round ditch around it. The ditch was a perfect circle. 100 feet in diameter. Has a post and lintel system. Between the two cromlechs of post and lintels there was a circle of blue stones.

Megaliths

Large stone, often used in Neolithic Monuments.

Midden

Layers of domestic debris that forms into hills that can be used to be built into as shelter.

Mudbrick

Made from sun-dried clay, or clay-like earth

Paleolithic Hut

Were built with landscape materials. They were bind by tree branches with braided grass on top. They would also have stones surrounding the outside of the hut and the hut would have a circular or oval shape.

Dolmen (trilithon)

2 upright posts capped by a single lintel.

Thatch

Bundles of dry grass.

Cromlech

Circular pattern of stones.

Cromlech

Megalithic construction enclosures formed by huge stones planted on the ground in circular form

Longhouse

Multifamily buildings during the Neolithic Era, usually made out of timber wood. As early as 6000-5000 BCE. 20-30 people could live in them. Hearth was outside, and there is only one door. House divided in 3 sections - work, sleep/eat, and grain.

Catal Huyuk, Turkey c. 6500 - 5700 BCE

Neolithic City. Unfortified, dense with dwellings without streets. Entries into buildings were on the roof tops and there was high openings in the walls for ventilation. Dwellings were made of mud-brick walls and a post-&-lintel timber framework.

Palisade

Row of timber columns that are sharpened on the top and then used to fence in a Neolithic village to protect the residents.

Stone Alignment

Several rows of stones.

Menhir

Stone put in the landscape, vertically by humans. Ex: Carnac France

Tipi

Term used to describe a portable Indian Shelter

Rock Cave

The earliest form of dwelling developed by man

Cromlech

The famous Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England is a megalithic monument consisting of four concentric rings centered around and altar stone. It is also,arguably, the most famous example of:

Prehistoric Architecture

The roots of architecture. Refers to cultures who didn't record their own story. The ways in which prehistoric peoples used earth carving (ditches and circles) and stones to mark the land. These constructions required extraordinary work to make, and so although we don't know their use, we know that they were important, possibly sacred, constructions. Stone construction: Carnac, France and Stonehenge

Dolmen

Tomb of standing stones usually capped with a large horizontal slab

Trullo

Trapezoidal rendered stone dwelling in Apulia, Italy, square chambers that are roofed with conical vaulted roofs