AEGEAN ARCHITECTURE
Ancient Aegean World (3000 BCE-1100
BCE)
Dates and Places:
•Aegean=term used to describe the Bronze
Age that occurred in the land in and around
the Aegean Sea
Three basic periods: Aegean Cultures &
Periods:
• CYCLADIC (Cyclades Islands) 3000-
1600 BCE
 (Cycladic islands in the Aegean
Sea) *Produced stylized
statuettes of nude standing
females and nude males playing
musical instruments
• MINOAN (Crete) 3000- 1400 BCE
 (Island of Crete) *Built mixed-use
palaces with complex ground
plans
• MYCENEAN (Mainland Greece) 1400-
1100 BCE
 *Built massive citadels marked by
cyclopean masonry and corbelled
vaulting Aegean art’s three main
civilizations:
 Fresco Secco - Dry (Egypt)
 Buon Fresco - Wet (Aegean)
History
•Ancient Greek Civilization is known through
3 sources:
o Monuments themselves
o Roman copies
o Literary sources (these often conflict)
 Greek civilization started out as tribal
groups:
o the Dorians, who settled mostly on
the mainland
o the Ionians who inhabited the Aegean
islands and Asia Minor
 Greeks remained divided into small city-
states (the polis) but united themselves
for all-Greek festivals
 Rivalry between states stimulated the
growth of ideas Ancient Aegean World
Figurine of a Cycladic idol, from
Amorgos, ca. 2600- 2400 BCE. Marble,
People:
• Precursors to Ancient Greek civilization
– Cycladic
– Minoan
– Mycenaean
• Kings, priests, warriors
• Described in Homer’s Iliad
Themes:
• Human figures (Gods and humans)
• Nature
• Funerary offerings
• Palaces and citadels
Forms of construction:
• Formal conventions vary
• Post-and-lintel and masonry
Ancient Aegean: Cycladic
Dates and Places:
• 2500-1700BCE
• Cyclades Islands

People:
• Little known
• Cycladic civilization probably based on
herding, agriculture, and trade
• Not much known about religion or politics-
no written records survive
• No evidence of the glorification of rulers,
like found in Egypt
– Old Kingdom Egypt and Cycladic very
different
Example:
• Schematic figures
• Painted funerary offerings
Figurine of a Cycladic idol, from Amorgos,
ca. 2600-2400 BCE. Marble, 24 ¾.”
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
Prehistoric Aegean: Cycladic
Dates and Places:
 Most examples are from the
NEOLITHIC period and are usually
female
 Cycladic Islands rich in metal ores
and marble (Parian Marble from
Paros considered some of the best in
the world)
 Very abstracted, geometric figures
found in stone burial chambers
 Abstract and geometric design with
some painted details (facial features,
hair and ornaments)
 Many figures of women found, a few
of men also found
 Some found in graves placed on
deceased
 Design suggests meant to rest on
back
 Various sizes and designs, from a few
inches tall to a 5’ tall
Prehistoric Aegean: Minoan
Dates and Places:
 1700-1200BCE
 Island of Crete (civilization emerges
as early as 3000 BCE, same time as
Cycladic and Old Kingdom Egypt)
People:
o Palace builders
o Prosperous (trade with
Egyptians and Mesopotamia)
o Stratified society, king apex
o Rituals involving animals
Prehistoric Aegean: Minoan
• Artwork found on the island of CRETE-
called Minoan because of the legend of
King Minos
• Very rich civilization with many
references to bulls and ocean themes.
• PALACE OF KNOSSOS- Huge palace
about 6acres in size 1st excavated by Sir
Arthur Evans in 1900
• Civilizations lasts approximately 1500
years, 1600-1450 “golden era”
• • Divided into “palace periods”
• – First Palace period ends with 1700
BCE earthquake – Second Palace
period ends between 1620 and1450
BCE probably due to volcanic activity
 – Followed by invasion from mainland
Greece
• Discovered 1908
• The Minoans developed their own writing
system, known as linear A (as yet only
partially deciphered) and Linear B
• The Phaistos disc is of an unknown script
similar to Anatolian Heiroglyphs and Linear
A, as yet undeciphered • Purpose and
meaning, even its original geographical
place of manufacture, remain disputed
• Features 241 tokens, comprising 45 unique
signs, which were apparently made by
pressing hieroglyphic "seals" into a disc of
soft clay, in a clockwise sequence spiraling
toward the disc's center
The Phaistos Disc (side A), 2nd millennium
BCE. Clay, approx. 6” diameter. Heraklion
Archaeological Museum, Crete, Greece
• PALACE OF KNOSSOS – Huge palace
about 6 acres in size!
• Palaces made of rubble and mud bricks,
faced with cut and finished limestone- marks
the first use of dressed stone as building
material in Aegean culture
• Open construction and fresco design
suggest peaceful people
 First excavated by Sir Arthur Evans in
1900
 Located on the north coast
 Evidence shows palace was
occupied in the Neolithic period
 Built over a succession of Bronze Age
palaces, the last of which was erected
c. 1900 BCE
 Possible earthquake and fire as early
as 1700 BCE, most murals date to
this period (within Second Palace
period)
 Labyrinthine yet open palace plan
 Open courtyard
 Wood columns with bulbous capitals
 Built near agriculturally rich center
 Administrative, commercial and
religious center • Minoan civilization
seems to revolve around palace, not
temple
 Palace attests to wealth and power of
Minoan kings whose role is not fully
understood
 Houses royal family, priests,
government officials, and artisans
Aerial view of the palace at Knossos.
Prehistoric Aegean: Mycenaean
Dates and Places:
• 1700-1200BCE
• Peloponnesos (Mainland Greece)
People:
• Kings and warriors
• Prosperous
• Ancestors of the Greeks “Mask of
Agamemnon,”
Funerary mask, ca. 1600-1500 BCE. Beaten
gold, approx. 12. “National Archaeological
Museum of Athens
• The people of Mycenae lived richly in large
citadels that had to be built with strong walls
to prevent attacks, including:
Lion Gate, Mycenae, c. 1300-1250 B.C.E.,
Limestone, relief panel 9' 6" high. Mycenae,
Greece.
Citadel at Tiryns, Greece
Lion Gate, Mycenae
• Citadel built of Cyclopean masonry
• Discovered
• Corbelled arch
• Relief sculpture on relieving triangle
• Inside: tholos with dome housing funerary
goods Lion Gate, Mycenae, c. 1300-1250
B.C.E. Limestone relief panel, 9' 6" high.
Mycenae.
• German archeologist Heinrich Schliemann
excavated the Lion Gate in 1876.
 He used the writings of Homer to find the
ruins Portraits of Heinrich Schliemann at
the Lion Gate and his wife, Sophia
Schliemann (née Engastromenos)
wearing treasures recovered at Hisarlik.
Corbelled Arch
Post & Lintel
GREEK ARCHITECTURE
The chronology of Greek Art is:
 Archaic period: 8th to 6th century b.c
 Classical period: 5th to 4th century
b.c
 Hellenistic period: 4th to 2nd century
b.c
Archaic period:
 It is the time of formation
 To the local basis are added other
influences:
o Crete civilization
o Mycenaean civilization
o Oriental influences, above all,
Egyptian
 Art evolved from abstraction to
expressive naturalism.
Classical period:
 It is the peak of this art
 Every art manifestation reached its
zenith
 It is the period of political, economic
and cultural expansion of the polis,
mainly Athens.
 It is the period of the Democracy
 This situation lasted until the political
decay of the polis with the
Peloponnesus Wars.
Hellenistic period
 Greek culture suffered a deep
transformation
 Alexander the Great expanded Greek
culture with culture, Art expanded too:
o The artistic forms
o Technical solutions
 Greece became the artistic reference
in the whole Mediterranean area
GEOGRAPHICAL INFLUENCES
 The mainland and islands of Greece
are rocky, with deeply indented
coastline.
 The most freely available building
material is stone.
 There is an abundance of high quality
white marble both on the mainland
and islands,
particularly Paros and Naxos.
 The climate of Greece is maritime,
with both the coldness of winter and
the heat of summer tempered by sea
breezes.
Greek civilization
 Ideologically:
o Freedom and individual
independence
o Isodomia: equal right
among free men
 Human being is the centre of their
culture: everything is done at man’s
measure
 Rich mythology and religion: gods
were used to express beauty ideal.
 Reason, observation and experience
are the basis for the reality:
Philosophy and Sciences.
Architecture: Basis
 Greek created equilibrate and
proportional.
 It is an architecture to be seen
(temple)
 Sculptural values, volumes
 Building is conceived as an
sculpture
 Beauty= proportion and measure: construction were probably
roofed with thatch.
 it is conceived from the human

point of view
The simplicity, harmony, and
Building systems perspective in Greek architecture have
been a foundation of Roman
 It has lintels, and it is apparently architecture as well.
serene and equilibrate
 Dominant lines are horizontal and
vertical Orders
 The column is the essential element
 Building materials limestone and Ancient Greek architecture of the most
white marble formal type, for temples and other public
buildings, is divided stylistically into three
 Walls are made of regular ashlars,
"orders", first described by the Roman
without mortar
architectural writer Vitruvius.
 Buildings were polychrome
 There are not fixed measures, this is
why there are different orders These are:
Structure  Doric Order

 Post and Lintel  Ionic Order

o it is composed of upright  Corinthian Order
beams (posts) supporting
horizontal beams (lintels).
 Entablature and pediment
o The columns of a temple
support a structure that rises in
two main stages, the
entablature and the pediment.
 Masonry
o Masonry walls were employed
for temples from about 600 BC
onwards.
 Openings
o Door and window openings
were spanned with a lintel,
which in a stone building
limited the possible width of
the opening.
 The Doric Order developed on
 Roof
mainland Greece and spread
o Ancient Greek buildings of
to Magna Graecia (Italy).
timber, clay and plaster
 The Doric order is the simplest and
shortest, with no decorative foot,
vertical fluting, and a flared capital.
 The Doric entablature is in three
parts, the architrave, the frieze and
the cornice.

 The Corinthian Order was a highly

decorative variant not developed until
the Hellenistic period and retaining
many characteristics of the Ionic. It
was popularised by the Romans.
 Ionic columns are taller and thinner,  The Corinthian Order does not have
with a decorative foot and scroll- its origin in wooden architecture.
shaped volutes on the capital.
 It grew directly out of the Ionic in the
 The Ionic order co-existed with the mid 5th century BC, and was initially
Doric, being favoured by the Greek of much the same style and
cities of Ionia, in Asia Minor and proportion, but distinguished by its
the Aegean Islands. It did not reach a more ornate capitals.
clearly defined form until the mid
 The most complex order is the
5th century BC.
Corinthian order, which is tall and thin
 The Ionic Order is recognized by and features a decorative foot,
its voluted capital, in which a volutes and acanthus leaves on the
curved echinus of similar shape to capital.
that of the Doric Order, but decorated
BUILDINGS:
with stylised ornament, is surmounted
by a horizontal band that scrolls under 1. TEMPLE OF OLYMPIAN ZEUS,
to either side, forming spirals ATHENS
or volutes similar to those of
the nautilus shell or ram's horn.
 Like the Doric Order, the Ionic Order
retains signs of having its origins in
wooden architecture.
  It is a dedicated piece of architecture
to the Goddess of Wisdom, Athena
whom the Athens considered as their
patron.
 The construction of this building
began in 447 BC just when the
Athenian Empire was enjoying its
powerful stature.
 Considered as the most significant
surviving building of ancient Greece,
 The temple was built in the ancient the Parthenon is said to be the
city of Korkyra which in the pinnacle of the Doric order.
modern day is a suburb of Garitsa.
 It is exquisitely the first to be
constructed with the stone in Doric 3. ODEON OF HERODES ATTICUS,
style. ACROPOLIS
 The temple was as large as 49 m
and as wide as 23.46 m. Built-in
580 BC, it is regarded as the
biggest temple of its times.
 The authenticity of the temple has
made it a milestone of Ancient
Greek architecture. Not only this
but the temple also falls among
the 150 masterpieces of the great
Western Architecture.

2. PARTHENON, ACROPOLIS  The Odeon of Herodes Atticus is

a stone theatre structure settled on
the southwest slope of the Acropolis
in Athens, Greece.
 In the first place, it was a steep-
sloped theatre which had a three-
storeyed front wall and a wooden roof
made of valuable, cedar of
Lebanon timber.
 The theatre was a host to huge music
concerts and was massive enough to
have a capacity of 5,000.
 The theatre regained its essence in
 One of the most influential buildings in the 1950s when the stage and
the Greek history, the Parthenon audience stands were reinstated with
stands atop Acropolis, which the help of Pentelic marble.
presently is a citadel.
 The place has been a venue for a
large variety of Greek as well as
International performances.
4. TEMPLE OF HERA, OLYMPIA
 The Ancient Archaic Greek temple,
dedicated to the Queen of Greek
Goddess, Hera was built in 590 BC.
 The temple initially is believed to be
constructed with wood which later
was replaced by stone. One of the
oldest temples in Greece the temple
was solely dedicated to Hera with
another temple of Zeus being built
nearby.
5. THE GREAT THEATRE OF
EPIDAURUS
 With due regards to acoustics and
aesthetics, the ancient theatre is
believed to be the perfect theatre of
all the times
 The theatre was large enough to
provide seating for 13,000 to 14,000
people.
 The place was also used to heal
patients since the people of ancient
times believed that witnessing the
staged drama had a positive effect
on both physical and mental health.
WEST ASIATIC ARCHITECTURE
RELIGIOUS CONDITION
 Religion dominated their life. Spells
were created, magic was largely
practiced.
 They carried mysterious ceremonial
rites, also looked after medicine,
astrology and thus invented with
unlimited authority in all the wisdom of
age.
 Gods were thought to reside in the
height and to approach them temples
were built on elevated platforms
usually provided with holy mountains
‘ziggurats’ with the shrine at top.
 Each city had at least one ziggurat.
The ziggurats were as impressive as
the great pyramids of egypt.
CLIMATIC CONDITION
 The climate is extreme severe hot in
summer and cold in winter.
 The rainfall is very small. To protect
from severe heat columned halls and
porticoes were common in persian
buildings.
 The twin rivers tigris and euphrates
produced flood hazard in summer due
to the melting of snows. So high
platforms were usually provided for
buildings to protect them from floods.
Location
  located in and around the valley of
tigris and euphrates rivers in modern
iraq.
 area is also known as mesopotamia
or land between two rivers.
 the land had poorly defined edges.
 the land stretches from
mediterranean to eastern borders of
present iran.
 to the south and west, it fades into the
arabian desert.
 To the north and west, it fades into the
plains of syria.
 the tigris and euphrates rivers sit in
the land as dominant physical feature.
 the rivers were unpredictable, being
subject to alternating flood and
drought.
Period:
 The area witnessed the earliest rise of
human civilization around 4500 bc.
 transformation from prehistory, to
villages and cities occurred there.
 civilization there lasted for 5000
years.  the cultures include
sumerian, akkadian, assyrian,
babylonian, and persian.
Historical condition: the ancient architecture
of west-asiatic developed from 3000 bc to 330
bc.
In the following period.
(a) early sumerian (3000—2000 bc)
(b) old babylonian (2016-1595 bc) ---neo
babylonian (626-539 bc)
(c) assyrian (1859—626 bc)
(d) persian (750—330 bc)
Sumerian architecture
 the transition from prehistory was made
around 4500 bc with the rise of the
sumerian civilization.
 the major cities of the sumerian
civilization were kish, urukand, ur.
 the sumerian were the first civilization
to make a conscious attempt of
designing public buildings.
 mud was their building material.
 mud was formed into brick, sun dried
and built into massive walls.
 walls were thick to compensate the
weakness of mud.
 they were reinforce with buttresses.
THE BABYLONIAN PERIOD
 Temples of the Babylonian period, of
which such surprising discoveries have
recently been made—as of the plans of
the Temples of Marduk, and Ashur on the
sites of ancient Babylon and Ashur—
seem to have formed the centre, not only
of religious, but of commercial and social
life, and to have served as granaries,
storehouses, and even as money banks.
 Remarkable pyramidal towers, known as
ziggurats (holy mountains) were also
erected, from the summit of which the
powerful class of astrologer-priests
observed the heavenly bodies and
formulated their prognostications.
 Traces of ziggurats, which were of
different types, have been found on most
of the Chaldaean city sites, such as
Mugheir (Ur of the Chaldees), Nippur,
Tello (Eninnu), and Warka (Erech) and it
is noticeable that, whereas in the
pyramids the sides were oriented, in the
ziggurats the angles faced the cardinal
points.
THE ASSYRIAN PERIOD
 Palaces of warrior-kings were the chief
buildings of Assyria, while temples sink in
importance compared with these great
palaces.
 Nineveh (Kouyunjik), the capital, 25o
miles north of Babylon, has remains of
three palaces built by Sennacherib (B.C.
705-681), Esarhaddon (B.C. 681–668),
and Ashur-bani-pal (B.C. 668–626) .
They were discovered by Botta (A.D.
842) and Layard (A.D. r845), and the
bas-reliefs in the British Museum show
not only warlike pursuits, but building
operations, while some still bear traces of
the action of the fire which destroyed
Nineveh in B.C. 609.
THE PERSIAN PERIOD
 Palaces and tombs at Susa and
Persepolis sugest that the Persians
adopted certain fetures from the
conquered Assyrians, such as raised
platforms, sculptured monsters, slabs of
bas-relief, besides glazed and coloured
brickwork which it is their glory to have
brought to perfection.
GEOLOGICAL INFLUENCES:
 Alluvial district of thick mud and clay
deposited by the two great rivers.
 Such soil, in which no stone was found
and no trees would grow, was eminently
suitable for the making of bricks, which
thus became the usual building material
in Babylonia.
 *Chaldeaa - Walls were made from
crude, sun-dried brick faced with kiln-
burnt and glazed bricks of different
colors.
 *Assyria - Plenty of stone in the
mountains but followed Babylonians in
the use of brick. They generally faced
the walls internally and externally, not
with glazed bricks, but with alabaster or
limestone slabs carved with low bas-
reliefs and inscriptions, which are of
great historic importance.
 *Persia - Hard, colored limestones
which were used in the building of Susa
and Persepolis, and roof-timbers were
obtained from Elam on the west, while
Persian tiles have always been world-
famous for their beauty of texture and
color.
ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER:
BABYLONIAN ARCHITECTURE ( B.C.
4000-1275)
 -Ziggurat-most important structure
 •Temple towers, observatories built
of mud brick and faced with baked
bricks and bitumen.
 • Also called as holy mountains
where sacred fire is kept burning.
 •Orientation of the four corners are
towards the four cardinal points.
Ziggurat Development:
 1. Archaic Ziggurat
2. Two or more stages type ziggurat-
multi story
3. Assyrian type or seven stages
ziggurat- no stairs but a continuous
ramp.
 7 stages symbolizes 7 heavenly
planet.
ASSYRIAN ARCHITECTURE ( B.C.1275-
538)
 •Chief structure – Palaces
•Temples were with or without a
ziggurat.
•Introduction of polychrome,
ornamental brickwork and high fleets or
pedestals, made of great stone slab.
•Presence of decorative continuous
stone found in their interiors.
PERSIAN ARCHITECTURE ( B.C.538-333)
 Persian palaces and tombs were derived
from old civilizations.
 Palaces and tombs at Susa and
Persepolis suggest that the Persians
adopted certain features from the
conquered Assyrians, such as raised
platforms, sculptured monsters, slabs of
bas-relief, besides glazed and colored
brickwork (polychrome bricks) which it is
their glory to have brought to perfection.
PREHISTORIC ARCHITECTURE
ARCHITECTURE OF THE CIVILIZATION
NEW STONE AGE
 Established permanent dwellings
and settlements
 Improvement in house form including
change to rectangular rooms
 Introduction of multi-room houses
 Introduction of non-residential
buildings for work, storage and
rituals
FUNERARY BUILDINGS
 Structures such as tombs used for
rituals and burials for the dead
 Example we studied is the dolmen
tomb
RELIGIOUS BUILDINGS
 Evidence of the first practices of
religion
 Buildings used for riuals related to
worship and religion
BUILDING MATERIALS,
CONSTRUCTION AND TECHNOLOGIES
Characteristics of prehistoric architecture
will be examined under three headings:
 Building types
 Building materials, construction
and technologies
 Principles of organization
Categories of Prehistoric Buildings
 Dwellings and Settlements
 Funerary and religious buildings
 Ritual structures
VOCABULARY
NEOLITHIC
The “new” stone age 98000-2300 BCE ,
which marked beginnings of monumental
architecture
CORBELED VAULT
A vault formed by the piling of the stone
blocks in horizontal courses, cantilevered
inward until the two walls meet in an arch.
POST AND LINTEL
One of the earliest method of architectural
construction in ehich teo parts (sometimes
called “uprights”) support a lintel.
MEGALITH
A large stone used in the construction of a
prehistoric structure
CROMLECH
A circle of megalths , as at Stonehenge
PREHISTORIC ARCHITECTURE
 Occurred before invention of written
records
 Also called STONE AGE PERIOD
because of the absence of metal
influences
 Occurred from human habitation of
earth to 9000 BC
The history of a man can be classified into
different stages and with it corresponding
structures were built:
1. Savage stage or the old stone age
or the paleolithic age. Up to 9000 BC
2. Barbarian stage or the new stone
age or the neolithic age 9000 BC to
3000 BC
3. Iron or bronze Age
ARCHITECTURE OF THE CIVILIZATION
 Residential building and settlements
varied between earlt and new sone
age periods
EARLY STONE AGE
 Always on the move
 Used temporary structures
 Provided basic shelter and protection
for short periods of time
PRINCIPLES OF ARCHITECTURAL
ORGANIZATION
DWELLINGS AND SETTLEMENTS:
EARLY STONE AGE:
 Primary requirement is for
temporary structure
 No desire to invest in
construction of dwellings
 Constructed dwellings using
available materials
 Form directly reflecting natural
objects
MATERIALS, CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM
AND TECHNIQUES
EARLY STONE AGE
 Used simple, easily available
materials
 Usually of plant and animal materials
such as wooden poles, grasses,
leaves and animal skins
 Construction system was also simple
 Usually involves digging holes,
putting wooden poles in holes and
burying them
 The poles are tied together to create
the shell of the building
 The shell is covered with grasses,
leaves or animal skins
THE OLD STONE AGE
  BEFORE 9000 BC
 Where people used crude stone for
their implements
 Man was a hunter and a food
gathere
 Got their food through food
gathering, hunting and fishing
 Constructed temporary shelters from
perishable materials susch as tree
trunks and leaves.
 Man also made use of natural and
man-made caves both below and
above the ground as shelter
THE NEW STONE AGE
 When early man emerged from cave
dwellings into shelters created by his
hands
 The history of architecture began
 The new stone age lasted from 8000
to 3000 BC
 People used polished stone for their
implements
 Their method of housing was made
more permanent with use of durable
materials
 Discovered art of farming and animal
husbandry
DWELLINGS AND SETTLEMENTS :
STONE AGE
 Became settled requiring permanent
dellings
 Required durable construction
 Improved dwellings and settlements
to meet needs
 Change in form of house,
introduction of furniture and
differentiation of space
 Improvement in village form including
introduction of streets
 Improvement in construction
technology
RUINS OF HAGAR QIM, MALTA 3200-
2500 BC
 One of the earliest stone temples in the
world is on tisland of malta. The 5,000
year old structure is remarkably
sophisticathed for its date, especially in
the combination of rectilinear and curved
forms.
STONEHENGE :
the circles of trilithons at stone henge
probably functioned as an astronomical
observatory and solar calendar. The sun
riss over its “hell stone” at the summer
solstice. Some of the megaliths weight 50
tons.
FUNCTION OF STONEHENGE
 Cremation / burial site
 Astrological observatory
 Solar calendar
 Sacred site
BRONZE AGE
 Started around 2000 BC, when iron
was discovered
 Carpentry and masonry was
practiced
 There was a gradual improvement in
the design of buildings particularly in
egypt
TEMPORARY STRUCTURES: HUT AT
TERRA AMATA, FRANCE
 Early stone people constructed
temporary shelters using available
materials
 One of earlist known example
 Discovered in 1966 at terra amata in
france
  Dates bacj to 400,000 years
 Oval in shape and constructed of
free branches

HUTS
 Bambunti huts
Huts show evudence of use of leaves to
cover hut
 The tongus Hut
Show evidence of use of grass to make
huts