CST SABE A.A. 2018/19 HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE_I ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA. Dr. Manlio MICHIELETTO ARCH1162_HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE I

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1 CST SABE A.A. 2018/19 HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE_I Dr. Manlio MICHIELETTO 1

2 Column base, Basilique Notre-Dame de la Paix,

3 INDEX 1. Geography

4 1. Geography 4

5 1. Geography 5

6 2. (Pre)History Architecture is an ancient and necessary art, for people have always sought shelter from the elements, and thus the beginnings of architecture are part of prehistory, the period before the development of written language. Prehistory begins as early as 35,000BCE and extends to about 3000 BCE in the lands of the eastern Mediterranean and until well after 2000 BCE in parts of western Europe. 6

7 2. (Pre)History PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENTS AND MEGALITH CONSTRUCTIONS Human settlement seems to have originated at the small clan or family level, with a sufficient number of people living together to provide mutual assistance in hunting an food gathering and joint protection against enemies. Among the earliest huts to be discovered are those at site in the central Russian Plain, dated to about 14,000 BCE. 7

8 2. (Pre)History PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENTS AND MEGALITH CONSTRUCTIONS Excavations of town sites suggest that larger communities were a much later development. The existence of urban settlements depends on an agricultural surplus that enables some people to assume specialized roles (priest, ruler, merchant, craftworker) not directly tied to the production of food. 8

9 2. (Pre)History PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENTS AND MEGALITH CONSTRUCTIONS The inhabitants were farmers and hunters who buried their dead below the hut floors. Residents gained access to the dwellings across roofs, while high openings in the walls were for ventilations. Mud-brick walls and a post-and-lintel timber framework enclosed rectangulas spaces that abutted the neighboring houses so that together they established a perimeter town wall. 9

10 2. (Pre)History PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENTS AND MEGALITH CONSTRUCTIONS 10

11 2. (Pre)History PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENTS AND MEGALITH CONSTRUCTIONS The significant prehistoric architectural achivements of western Europe were magalith constructions, composed of large stones or boulders (megalith literally means «great stone»), many of which were erected for astronomical abservatories or communal tombs for the privileged classes. 11

12 2. (Pre)History PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENTS AND MEGALITH CONSTRUCTIONS 12

13 2. (Pre)History PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENTS AND MEGALITH CONSTRUCTIONS The ability to work large stones and to observe fundamental astronomical phenomena merges in the most celebrated of megalith contructions, Stonehenge, located on Salisbury Plain in Southwestern England. 2900BCE 13

14 2. (Pre)History PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENTS AND MEGALITH CONSTRUCTIONS 14

15 The distinction between the prehistoric world and historic times involves the development of written language, which was achieved by about 3500 BCE by the Sumerians in the Middle Eastern lands of present-day Iraq and Iran. There, in the fertile lands between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (named Mesopotamia or «between the rivers» by the ancient Greeks; ancient Assyria and Babylonia), the earliest literate civilizations developd in independent urban communities called city-states. 15

16 16

17 Writing first developed as a means of documenting governmental transactions and was only later employed for what might be called literary purposes, reflecting the legends, glorious deeds, hopes, and fears of the people. In about 3000 BCE, perhaps as a result of contacts with Mesopotamia, another center of civilization emerged in northeast Africa, along the banks of the Nile river in Egypt. These two regions, Egypt and Mesopotamia, are considered the cradles of Western history and architecture. 17

18 18

19 SUMERIANS Sometime around 4000 BCE, a nomadic people called the Al Ubaid, Indo-Europeans from the steppes of central Asia, migrated into southern Mesopotamia from the regioan east of the Caspian Sea. They settled in the fertile valley, mastered the arts of agriculture, and developed systems of irragation to use the flood waters of the Euphrates. 19

20 SUMERIANS 20

21 SUMERIANS Their civilization, which lasted until about 2350 BCE, is known as Sumerian, and the typical form of their settlements was the city-state, a political and religious center devoted to serving gods based on natural elements. Urban communities developed around religious shrines, the dwelling places of the gods and the repositories for surplus food stores, and thus there were monumental temple complexes at the heart of Sumerian cities. 21

22 SUMERIANS 22

23 SUMERIANS Most Sumerian buildings were executed in sun-baked brick, a material easily obtained by shaping mud in molds and leaving it to dry for several weeks in the sun, but the resulting brick is not particularly resistant to weathering. As a result, much of Sumerian architecture is known only from foundations and lower sections of walls. Roofs were fabricated from lightweight wooden members orreedsthatcouldnotspangreatdistances,sotherewere no large interior spaces. 23

24 SUMERIANS 24

25 SUMERIANS In both Sumerian and later Mesopotamian architecture, important buildings were given additional durability by having weather-resistant casing for the brick, and greater dignity by being raised on a platform. 25

SUMERIANS Such was the case at Uruk, were the so-called White Temple was built (ca. 3500-3000 BCE) on a forty-foot high (ca.

26 SUMERIANS Such was the case at Uruk, were the so-called White Temple was built (ca BCE) on a forty-foot high (ca.13m) base of rubble from earlier buildings and provided with a protective coat of whitewash over its sun-dried brick which was laid in panels between sloping buttresses. 26

27 SUMERIANS 27

28 SUMERIANS Entrance to the temple was through a chamber in the long side, so that a «bent axis» led from the ouside into the courtyard and sanctuary. 28

29 NEO-SUMERIANS (ca BCE) This period witnessed the development of urban temple forms, particularly the temple elevated on an artificial mound, or ziggurat. Commonly constructed of sundried brick bonded with bitumen, reed matting, or rope, ziggurats were finished with a weather-resistant exterior layer of kiln-fired brick. 29

30 NEO-SUMERIANS (ca BCE) From a rectangular base, the ziggurat rose with battered or inward-sloping walls in a series of stepped platforms, culminating in a high temple at the top. 30

31 NEO-SUMERIANS (ca BCE) A flight of stairs set in the center of one side connected the temple to the ground. 31

32 NEO-SUMERIANS (ca BCE) Ziggurats were essentially stepped platfomrs designed to elevate the temples to the gods so that the latter might descend from the heavens and ensure the prosperity of the community. 32

33 NEO-SUMERIANS (ca BCE) Symbolically, the ziggurat may have represented the mountains whence the Sumerians came. To make their gods feel at home in the lowlands of the river valley, the Sumerians and their seccessors in Mesopotamia may have aspired to re-create their highland dwelling place. 33

34 NEO-SUMERIANS (ca BCE) Raising the temple well above the elevation of the valley may also have reflected a desire to protect the sacred precint from flood waters; it certainly gave it visual prominence in the city. 34

35 NEO-SUMERIANS (ca BCE) Little remains of the ziggurats constructed during the brief Neo-Sumerian interlude. Sun-dried brick is not sufficiently durable to withstand the weather, and once this outer casing was removed by scavengers, the earthen core of ziggurats eroded considerably. 35

36 NEO-SUMERIANS (ca BCE) Of those lofty artificial mountains that towered over Mesopotamian cities, only the ziggurat at Ur (ca BCE) remains with some of its features intact. 36

37 NEO-SUMERIANS (ca BCE) In contrast to the grand temple complexes, the houses of the ordinary population were set in densely packed neighborhoods. Plan were roughly orthogonal, and houses were constructed around open courtyards that provided light and fresh air to all rooms. To the street, the houses presented a blank wall, thereby ensuring privacy. Courtyard houses continue to the present day to be typical of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern communities. 37

38 NEO-SUMERIANS (ca BCE) 38

39 BABILONIANS Babylon developed as a major city, with a great temple to Marduk, who was considered the king of the gods. 39

40 NEO-BABILONIANS 40

41 ? 41

Urban Design History. Mesopotamia Egypt. Grigor Doytchinov. Institute of Urbanism

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