LECTURE – 2

RAR-207 HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE

MODULE-2 BIRTH OF CIVILIZATION

L E C T U R E B Y- A R . S WAT I A G R AWA L
 LECTURE – 2

BIRTH OF CIVILIZATION
IN REFERENCE TO THE ASIA-MINOR REGION WITH NASCENT CITIES LIKE JERICHO, CATALHOYUK, AND HATTASUS ETC.

q PREHISTORIC CULTURE TIMELINE

q HISTORIC TIMELINE OF ARCHITECTURE
q PRIMITIVE SETTLEMENTS
q PRINCIPLES OF ARCHITECTURAL ORGANIZATION
q NEOLITHIC SETTLEMENT DEVELOPMENT
q EXAMPLES: CATAL HUYUK
JERICHO
TELL RAMAD
JARAQ
PREHISTORIC CULTURE-TIMELINE
HISTORICAL TIMELINE OF ARCHITECTURE
 HISTORICAL TIMELINE OF ARCHITECTURE

Natural determinants
¡ topography (location)
¡ Climate
¡ natural resources, building materials and
technology

Man-made determinants
¡ trade
¡ political power
¡ religion
¡ defence
¡ mobility
¡ ethnical issues Etc
PRIMITIVE SETTLEMENTS

Non - organized settlements Organized settlements

GLOBAL CLIMATE, HUMAN EVOLUTION AND CIVILIZATION
PRINCIPLES OF ARCHITECTURAL ORGANIZATION
Two forces shaped the form of dwellings and settlements:
¡ Functional need
¡ Available construction materials and technology

¡ Different regions developed

with different environmental
and social factors
¡ Architecture differed –
Buildings for the dead,
buildings for the living,
temples, granaries, etc.
 STONEHENGE (3100-2000 BC) WILTSHIRE, ENGLAND

¡ 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.
¡ 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
 STONEHENGE (3100-2000 BC) WILTSHIRE, ENGLAND

¡ Circle of megaliths embrace structure, enclosing it

¡ 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
 SETTLEMENT DEVELOPMENT

¡ Natufian dwellings were two types flimsy brush wood shelters or

windbreaks built in front of caves on stone pavements or more
frequently circular or oval dry stone huts built in open settlements
near water sources in the limestone uplands.

¡ The transition to rectangular mud bricks began in this period and

continued into the Neolithic period.
SETTLEMENT DEVELOPMENT
SETTLEMENT DEVELOPMENT

¡ At Ain Mallaha near Lake Hulen, Israel (9000-8000

BC) there were about 50 dry-stone huts on an open site of
2000 Sqm.
¡ They are circular, semi subterranean (half underground small,
rectangular, single-unit, semisubterranean houses of pole, brush and
adobe) and rock-lined, from 3m to 9m Dia.
¡ The beehive forms were constructed of reeds or matting
and were probably supported on posts.
¡ The huts were dug into the bank on the upper side to a
depth of 1.3m, and the entrance were located on the lower
side.
¡ The huts had stone paved floors, and wall finished with lime
plaster painted with red orche.
¡ Similar kind of huts were found at Wadi Fallah, Nahal Oren
& Beidha.
SETTLEMENT DEVELOPMENT

¡ The Khirokitia culture of the aceramic, Neolithic period in

Cyprus (c. 5650 BC)
¡ This comprised about a thousand houses and approached
by stone paved road.
¡ The houses are Circular 3m to 8m in diameter, lower parts
of the walls were made of local lime stone and dome
superstructure of pise (building material of stiff clay or earth,
forced between boards which are removed as it hardens.) or mud
brick.
¡ Some houses had double walls the outer leaf acts as a
retaining wall.
¡ Lofts supported on stone pillars and number of
outbuildings used for grinding corn, storage, cooking and
workshops.
 SETTLEMENT DEVELOPMENT
¡ Beehive shaped tholoi were built in Mesopotamian lowlands during the Neolithic period at Arpachiyah (is a prehistoric archaeological
site in Nineveh Province (Iraq) (c.5000 BC)
¡ Dwellings which are keyhole shaped plan had walls up to 2m thick.
¡ Rectangular anteroom (waiting room) were up to 19m long and dome chamber up to 10m across.
¡ The walls were of plastered tauf occasionally painted red and roof were thatched
NEOLITHIC DWELLING & SETTLEMENT:
CATAL HUYUK
 CATAL HOYUK
LOCATION-
¡ (Catal "fork" + huyuk/hoyuk "tumulus-an ancient burial mound") was a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic proto-city settlement in
southern Anatolia, which existed from approximately 7500 BC to 6400 BC, and flourished around 7000 BC. In July 2012, it was
inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
¡ Neolithic monument in present day Turkey.
¡ 32 acre Neolithic site in South-Central Turkey near modern city of Konya.

Position of catal hoyuk in Turkey

CATAL HOYUK

¡ Supported a population of upto 6000 people.

¡ It was the largest & most cosmopolitan city of its
time.
¡ It had an extensive economy based on
specialized craft & commerce.
¡ The city was a trading center.
¡ The size of the city & its wealth are a product of
its status as a trading center.
¡ Physically it was highly organized with elaborate
architectural features. Settlement in Catal Hoyuk
CATAL HOYUK

¡ 32-acre Neolithic site in south-central Turkey, dated 6500–5500 b.c., one of the
first true cities, characterized by a fully developed agriculture and extensive
trading and having temples, mud- brick fortifications and houses, and mother-
goddess figures.
¡ The Neolithic site of Catal Hoyuk was first discovered in the late 1950s and
excavated by James Mellartin 4 excavation seasons between 1961 and 1965.
¡ The site rapidly became famous internationally due to the large size and dense
occupation of the settlement, as well as the spectacular wall paintings and other
art that was uncovered inside the houses.
 CATAL HOYUK
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES-
¡ In Catal Hoyuk the houses were made of mud brick.
¡ Houses were built touching against each other.
¡ They did not have doors and houses were entered through
hatches in roofs.
¡ Presumably having entrances in the roofs was safer than
having them in the walls.
¡ Since houses were built touching each other the roofs must
have acted as streets.
¡ People must have walked across them.
CATAL HOYUK
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES-
 CATAL HOYUK
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES-

¡ Instead there were only holes in the roofs to let out

smoke.
¡ Inside houses were plastered and often had painted
murals of people and animals on the walls.
¡ In Catal Huyuk there were no panes of glass in
windows and houses did not have chimneys.
¡ In Catal Huyuk the dead were buried inside houses.
(Although they may have been exposed outside to be
eaten by vultures first).
¡ People slept on platforms
 CATAL HUYUK
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES-

¡ Although Catal Huyuk was a true town (defined as a

community not self-sufficient in food) as least some of
its people lived by farming.
¡ They grew wheat and barley and they raised flocks of
sheep and herds of goats.
¡ They also kept dogs. As well as farming the inhabitants
of Catal Huyuk also hunted animals like aurochs (wild
cattle), wolves, foxes and leopards.
 CATAL HUYUK
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES-
¡ Houses were packed in one continuous block punctuated by courtyards.
¡ Houses were of one story mud construction.
¡ No streets in settlement and access to houses was through the roof.
 CATAL HUYUK
SHRINES & DWELLINGS -

¡ Many Houses have

cult rooms decorated
with bull heads
¡ Some Houses appear
to be shrines for
worship.
¡ Houses had main
rooms with in built
clay furniture, fire
places and ladder to
the roof.
 CATAL HUYUK
SHRINES & DWELLINGS -
¡ Houses of Imiris Gora (c. 4660 – 3955 BC) in Transcaucasia were round or oval, 3m to 4.5m in diameter and were
built of mud brick on stone foundation
¡ As in Natufian dwellings many were semi subterranean.
¡ Several of the houses had keyhole shaped plan, with internal buttresses to take the thrust where the domes abutted,
and others had out houses arranged round courtyards.
¡ Latterly two roomed houses evolved with buttressed walls and flat roofs supported on timber posts.
¡ The village had a population estimated at 200-250
NEOLITHIC DWELLING & SETTLEMENT:
JERICHO
JERICHO (C. 8350 – 7350 BC)

¡ In Jericho (c. 8350 – 7350 BC) of lowest Neolithic levels many

round and oval shaped houses spreading over 4 ha (10 acres) were
found.
¡ Each house of about 5m in diameter have evolved from Natufian
drystone tradition, but they were built of loaf-shaped mud bricks
with indentation on the convex face to give a key to the clay mortar.
¡ The bricks supported domed superstructure of branches covered
with clay.
JERICHO (C. 8350 – 7350 BC)

¡ The houses are pre pottery Neolithic township encircled by a stone

wall 3m thick, 4m high and over 700m in circumference.
¡ The houses with solid walls and wide doorways with rounded
jambs.
¡ Closely packed but seem to have intercommunication through
screen walls and courtyards.
¡ They had highly burnished lime plaster floors laid on gravel and
stained red, pink and orange, and plastered walls with red painted
dados.
¡ Some of the walls were also decorated with geometric designs
 TELL RAMAD AT SYRIA(C. 6000 BC)

¡ Tell Ramad at Syria(c. 6000 BC) south west of Damascus, round or oval semi subterranean house were
superseded late in Neolithic period.
¡ Rectangular one roomed houses of mud brick on stone foundation which were separated by narrow alleys.
 TELL RAMAD AT SYRIA(C. 6000 BC)

¡ In the aceramic Neolithic period at Hacilar (c. 7500 – 6000 BC) in Anatolia, rectangular dwelling were built of mud brick
on stone foundation .
¡ No complete house plans have survived, but they appear to have been multi roomed, plastered internally and painted in
cream and red bands.
¡ Later in the period at Hacilar (c. 5400 BC) more substantial rectangular mud brick houses 10 m x 4 m were built with
walls over a meter thick.
 TELL RAMAD AT SYRIA(C. 6000 BC)

¡ In its final stage (c. 5400 – 5000 BC) Hacilar was fortified with a stone wall, which enclosed an area 70 m x 35 m.
¡ Its central courtyard was ringed by blocks of two storey houses, with roof access and separated from each other
by small fenced yards.
JARMO (IRAQ)(C. 7090 - 5000 BC)

¡ Jarmo (IRAQ)(c. 7090 - 5000 BC) in the Zagros

Mountains had a population about 150 people and
was made up of 20-30 small, rectangular mud houses.
¡ The lower levels of 0ccupation dating from 6500 –
6000 BC were built of tauf with mud floor laid on
reeds.
¡ Each house had an open courtyard measuring roughly
3 m x 4m and comprised several small rectangular
rooms, packed into a space about 5 m x 6 m.