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What: Terra Amata
Where: France
When: c. 400,000 BCE
Who: Paleolithic Hunter-Gatherers
Why: This building is one of the early examples of roofed housing. It is also an early example of a permanent residence. It was probably not used all year long but just when the weather was bad. It could house several families and had spatial differentiation (work space, hearth, sleeping area). |
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What: Lascaux Cave
Where: France
When: c. 10,000 BCE
Who: Paleolithic Hunter-Gatherers, discovered by French boys out to play
Why: The interior artwork shows that art was important to them and that they had the tools to paint intricately. The depictions are often suggested to be the beginnings of human art and are shockingly accurate. Most pictures are of animals showing their dominance over human. This gives us a clue as to their religious beliefs. |
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What: Lepenski Vir
Where: Yugoslavia
When: c. 5000 BCE
Who: Paleolithic fishers
Why: This is one of the first evidence of a group of people living together in a village, rather than one home or a cave. The buildings were advanced in that the profile was minimized in the back (always faced north) to reduce wind and maximized in the front (facing east—sunrise). The village shows an early example of social differentiation and represents the end of the Paleolithic era. The size of the village shows a solid food supply. |
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What: Skara Brae
Where: Scotland
When: c. 2000 BCE
Who: Neolithic pottery village (makers and users of grooved ware)
Why: This is an early example of a stone-built settlement. The houses were built into mounds. The dwellings contain stone-built furniture (cupboards, dressers, seats, storage boxes). The dwellings had doors that could be closed. It was also an early example of a sophisticated drainage system and each dwelling had a primative form of toilet. |
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Definition
What: Carnac
Where: France
When: c. 2000 BCE
Who: Paleolithic Stone Age builders
Why: Carnac marks the beginning of architecture as a planned operation. The menhirs are placed in rows, similar to a graveyard. It shows that the people were well nutritioned, organized, and that there were many of them working on the project. |
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What: New Grange
Where: Ireland
When: c. 2500 BCE
Who: Neolithic cultures
Why: This is an early example of a passage grave (contains a very long hallway and a single chamber at the end). The tomb space had a corbelled vault. The purpose was probably for social gathering and worship. The entrance had lots of carvings. Originally, it had a forecourt with a mote and a bridge across. |
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What: Stonehenge
Where: England
When: c. 2750-1500 BCE
Who: Neolithic cultures
Why: Stonehenge shows an early use of mortise and tenon construction on stone, which was mastered in wood before this. Stonehenge seems to be a calendar machine. It tells you when the winter solstice and summer solstice are. The timber circle was orientated towards the rising sun on the midwinter solstice, opposing the solar alignments at Stonehenge, whilst the avenue was aligned with the setting sun on the summer solstice and led from the river to the timber circle. |
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What: Mortuary Complex of Zoser
Where: Saqqara
When: c. 2680 BCE
Who: Egypt (Imhotep- first architect we know by name!)
Why: It was the first large-scale example of stone architecture with finely shaped stones. Zoser was the first king to unite lower and upper Egypt. The entrance to the courtyard had the first instance of columns (fluted and attached to spur walls). The main structure was the stepped pyramid at the center of the complex. |
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Definition
What: Khirokitia
Where: Cyprus
When: c. 5500 BCE
Who: A collection of a few houses in Paleolithic Asia Minor
Why: The houses were round and built in stone. They were set into the ground, which kept them cool in the summer. The buildings show the first evidence of windows. The houses had a real door rather than entry through the roof. Khirokitia also had the first evidence of streets.
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Definition
What: Çatalhöyük
Where: Turkey
When: c. 6000 BCE
Who: Home to several thousand obsidian traders in Asia Minor
Why: The buildings show differentiation for the first time. There were places for trade, living, storage, worship, etc. The walls had cob construction. The houses had chimneys. Ladders were used to get on to the roofs, which is how people got around. The buildings inside had paintings (evidence of a bull cult). Trade advances the city beyond farming. The city was not walled. |
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Definition
What: Jericho
Where: Israel/Palestine
When: c. 7000 BCE
Who: Paleolithic Asia Minor
Why: Jericho is an early example of a city and used mud bricks. The city was walled. The town also had a watchtower. The buildings were densely packed and people traveled on roofs. The buildings were not differentiated. |
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Term
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Definition
What: Ziggurat of Ur-Nammu
Where: Ur, Iraq
When: c. 2113-2096 BCE
Who: Sumerians (Mesopotamia)
Why: The Ziggurat is an early example of a religious structure. This is one of the first evidence of extravagant architecture to prove piety. The walls had writing on them, showing that the society was literate. The staircase creates an aura of power for the priest speaking. The building was mostly mass, very little volume. |
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Term
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Definition
What: Ishtar Gate
Where: Babylon, Iraq
When: 575 BCE
Who: Babylonians (Mesopotamia)
Why: The gate used baked bricks—difficult and expensive process in the ancient world. It was painted and written on. |
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Definition
What: Pyramids of Giza (Khufu, Khafra, and Mekaura)
Where: Giza, Egypt
When: c. 2570-2500 BCE
Who: Egyptians: Mekaura was built by Sneferu’s son Khufu, others built by Sneferu
Why: Mekaura was the tallest building in the world until the Eifel tower. They used a canal to flood the site in order to level it. They probably also used the canal to sail the stones right to the building site. They had a limestone outer layer and a capstone made of gold (both stolen). |
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What: Great Sphinx
Where: Giza, Egypt
When: c. 2550 BCE
Who: Egyptians, Old Kingdom, Pharaoh Khafra
Why: Most of the body was one big piece of rock that they excavated. They stuck the head of the pharaoh on later. |
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What: Mortuary Temple of Metuhotep
Where: Deir el-Bahri
When: c. 2050 BCE
Who: Middle Kingdom Egypt
Why: This was the first attempt to make something new and original in Egypt since the pyramids at Giza. It is on the side of the setting sun (temple of the dead). It has an early example of a peristyle court. From the top, Thebes (the capital) is visible. |
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What: Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut
Where: Deir el-Bahri
When: c. 1500 BCE
Who: New Kingdom Egypt, Architect is Senmut (chief advisor of Hatshepsut)
Why: This is the first mortuary complex dedicated to a female pharaoh. The metal tools of the New Kingdom era allow people to work harder stones. The temple featured sophisticated columns, multiple levels, and colonnades to give a light/dark contrast that increases the size of the building visually. |
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What: Temple of Ramses II
Where: Abu Simbel
When: c. 1250 BCE
Who: New Kingdom Egypt
Why: The temple of Ramses is one of the first temples of the living, located on the east side of the Nile. The front of the temple has pylons with huge images of him. There is a hypostyle hall constructed into the cliffs. People came here to pray. |
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What: Temple of Amon
Where: Karnak
When: c. 1525-1350 BCE
Who: New Kingdom Egypt
Why: The temple has perfected architectural features such as obelisks, peristyle courts, hypostyle halls, pylons, and painted/carved lintels. This temple is also intended for the living and on the east side of the Nile. The temple contains the most famous hypostyle hall, a result of more than 2 centuries of building. There is an exterior wall that creates an inside/outside aura. |
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Term
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Definition
What: Troy (Hisarlik)
Where: Turkey
When: 3000-1300 BCE:
Who: First a Roman city, then Greek
Why: The city is also known as Troy VI or Homeric Troy. They constructed a building type with a long rectangular chamber, mostly mud brick walls, looks a lot like adobe buildings in New Mexico, the front part is open, there’s a wall just inside that creates a covered opening. Troy is far more impressive in Homer’s stories. |
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Term
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Definition
What: Palace of Minos
Where: Knossos, Crete
When: c. 1600 BCE
Who: Minoans
Why: Arthur Evans uncovered the area. The walls were made of rubble masonry. The palace had multiple stories, wood lintels, bright painted decoration, storage rooms, ceremonial rooms, rooms for government assembly, and height to catch the breeze. The principle living space is called the piano nobile. The columns are tapered downward and painted red. The complex also had the beginnings of an amphitheater! The Toreador Fresco is also famous (paint on wet plaster). It depicted their bull-gymnastics sport. |
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Definition
What: Treasury of Atreus (Tomb of Agamemnon)
Where: Mycenae, Greece
When: c. 1400 BCE
Who: Mycenaeans
Why: Heinrich Schliemann found the Treasury and called it the tomb of Agamemnon to secure his fame. He planted jewels, but ended up getting caught. The tomb features ashlar masonry in the form of a beehive chamber. This is done by laying out the original stones in a circle and continuously piling upward. |
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Definition
What: Lion Gate
Where: Mycenae, Greece
When: c. 1250 BCE
Who: Mycenaeans
Why: Lions Gate is the principle gate into Mycenae. It has an enormous stone lintel, which they accounted for by putting a less weighted stone on top of the lintel and corbelling around the rest of the wall to take weight off of it. |
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What: Temple of Artemis
Where: Ephesos, Turkey
When: c. 560-550 BCE
Who: Greeks (Ionic Order)
Why: This is one of the first examples of Ionic order. The columns were much taller than Doric ones. There are two rows of columns around the whole temple (dipteral) and the entire pronaos is filled with columns. |
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What: Temple of Apollo
Where: Delphi, Greece
When: 3rd-4th Century BCE
Who: Greeks (Doric Order)
Why: This is the most famous Doric temple. It is a walled complex surrounded by lots of smaller buildings. Visiting the temple would be an all day event called a pilgrimage. The entrance was placed at the corner to maximize the view of the whole temple as one entered. |
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Definition
What: Persepolis (Palace of Darius and Hypostyle Hall of Xerxes)
Where: Iran
When: 518-460 BCE
Who: Persian Achaemenid Empire
Why: The Hypostyle Hall of Xerxes (son of Darius I) served as a throne room or hall of audience. It was open air and surrounded by detached colonnades. Xerxes completed the Palace of Darius after his father’s death. It had bas-reliefs. |
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Definition
What: Theater
Where: Epidaurus
When: c. 300 BCE
Who: Greeks
Why: This is an important example of an amphitheater. Plays were important to Greek culture. Hillsides were used in the interest of acoustics. |
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Term
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Definition
What: Propylaia, Akropolis
Where: Athens
When: 437-432 BCE
Who: Greeks (Architect: Mnesikles)
Why: The Akropolis set the standard for building in the classical period. It was located at the far end of the Akropolis. The Propylaia functioned as a kind of museum of art. It was of Doric order and hexastyle. |
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What: Temple of Athena Nike, Akropolis
Where: Athens
When: 427-424 BCE
Who: Greeks (Architect: Kallikrates)
Why: It was at the front of the complex. It’s a little tetrastyle temple of Ionic order. It is amphiprostyle, with columns in the front and back. It is “little and sweet.” It has an architrave with a very developed frieze, which is unusual for an Ionic temple. It is completely constructed of marble, as are all of the buildings in the Akropolis |
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Definition
What: Parthenon, Akropolis
Where: Athens
When: 447-432 BCE
Who: Greeks (Architects: Iktinos and Kallikrates, Sculptor: Phidias)
Why: There is not one part of the Parthenon that is perfectly straight. It slightly bulges and the columns bulge in the middle. This method is called entasis, so it appears perfectly straight to the human eye. It is a octastyle, Doric temple. It faced east so that it was illuminated in the morning light. |
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What: Erechteion, Akropolis
Where: Athens
When: 421-405 BCE
Who: Greeks (Architect: Kallikrates)
Why: It is important for two reasons: it survived very largely intact, it could be viewed already in the 18th and 19th centuries by travelers who could copy it, and it became the model for buildings in the classical period forever and secondly it showed that you can take all these old classical rules and adapt them for other purposes or functions; that classicism could be an instrument applied to different situations and different problems. This is why classicism survived, because it was applicable to so many different buildings. A few columns were caryatids, representations of women who had done something wrong and had to forever hold up a building on their head. This also becomes a model for western architecture. It commemorated a fight between Athena and Poseidon. |
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What: Temple of Apollo
Where: Bassae, Greece
When: Late 5th Century BCE
Who: Greece (Architect: Iktinos?)
Why: The temple has a few unusual features: it was built in basalt, the columns were attached to spur walls (like mortuary complex of Zoser), the entry faces north rather than east, it had a door in the spur wall to illuminate the statue, the sides have two extra columns (hexastyle should only have 13), the inside has one Corinthian column and Ionic columns on the side and Doric on the outside, the frieze is inside the temple, and the frieze was made of module sculptures. |
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What: Monument of Lysicrates
Where: Athens
When: 335 BCE
Who: Greeks
Why: It is a round temple filled in. It was erected by Lysicrates, a wealthy patron of musical performances in the Theater of Dionysus, to commemorate the award of first prize to one of the performances he had sponsored. It is the first Greek monument built in the Corinthian order on its exterior. |
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What: Altar of Zeus
Where: Pergamon, Turkey
When: 197-159 BCE
Who: Greeks
Why: It was a stone table to make offerings on or to leave something for the gods. You enter from the back and walk around to the front. The frieze was moved to the lower level so it was visible. It extended all the way around the building and up the stairs. The frieze celebrates the warlike male. They are the most lifelike structure made in the west. An individual statue of a person is called a kouros. The features over time become more lifelike and dynamic. |
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