31/10/2017 Prehistoric Architecture

Prehistoric Architecture
Posted on May 10, 2016

Stonehenge / Wikimedia Commons

Edited by Matthew A. McIntosh

Brewminate Editor-in-Chief

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The term prehistory references the period before history was written down, prior to any kind
of written explanation of culture and civilization. This discussion covers architecture during
the period we call the Late New Stone Age. This is a very small segment or cross-section of
prehistory. Prehistory basically covers the Old Stone Age, Middle Stone Age, and New Stone
Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic ) periods, as well as portions of the Bronze and Iron
Ages. These ages refer to the materials with which tools were made during those periods. So
the earliest tools were made of stone and then people developed bronze and iron metal tools.
The Three-Age System was developed by Danish antiquarian Christian Jrgensen Thomsen, who
was able to use the Danish national collection of antiquities and the records of their nds as
well as reports from contemporaneous excavations to provide a solid empirical basis for the
system. He showed that artifacts could be classi ed into types and that these types varied over
time in ways that correlated with the predominance of stone, bronze or iron implements and
weapons.1

How did people live and build before this period? An architectural typology references a
building type is usually an architectural form related to a function, such as train stations,
airports, churches, schools, etc. It involves the same type of architectural form repeated for a
speci c use. Before the Old Stone Age (100,000-50,000 years ago), there were two basic
typologies caves and temporary dwellings.

Caves were natural rock-cut shelters. They were not man-made. They were natural forms
usually created by the erosion of water in natural bedrock. These are the earliest examples of
human dwellings. They had irregular forms as a result instead of any kind of regular or
especially purposeful geometry.

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Map of Lascaux Cave Interior Layout2

Lascaux Cave Paintings, c.40,000 BCE / Wikimedia Commons

The most famous caves the Lascaux Caves are in southwestern France. We know these
caves were inhabited by humans because of the paintings within them of the animals that were
part of their daily life, which are prominently displayed in the paintings. Images of themselves
and their hands are also on the walls. So they recorded their lives on the inside of these caves.

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An artists rendering of a temporary wood house, based on evidence found at Terra Amata (in
Nice, France) and dated to the Lower Paleolithic3
The second type of prehistoric building was a more temporary dwelling. These were wood,
tent-link structures made of wooden poles and branches covered with grass or animal hides.
These were light and easily constructed and dismantled. They were used by people on the
move, by nomads (hunters-gatherers and early pastoral people).

So what happened roughly about 10000-9000 BCE as people entered the Neolithic Period, or
New Stone Age? There were important climate changes a considerable general warming of
the Western European climate. This is one of the things that led to people changing the way
they lived. As the climate got warmer, they were able to start farming. These environmental
changes led to social changes as well. They had to stay in place to farm instead of being
nomadic so that they could grow seasonally in cycles. This led to stability and community
development. Also important was the domestication of animals to become part of the
workforce. These two things (climate change and animal domestication) led to a communal
life. This is when we see new types of buildings and construction. The most basic was human
shelter, and also just as important were sanctuaries (places of religious reference or
commemoration). Sanctuaries were temples or tombs (remembering the dead). So the three
different types of buildings at the time were houses, tombs, and temples.

Buildings were constructed markers of human dominance over nature. Important to

remember is that architecture re ected a change in the social environment in the form of
communities. Architecture is an expression of social change and position. Nothing is created in
a vacuum we rely on, draw from, and become a part of our history. The most famous cave
structure in southwestern France, as previously noted, is Lascaux. The interior is now closed to
the public to prevent ruining the paintings.

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Carnac Menhirs / Wikimedia Commons

The earliest examples we have of menhirs (enormous vertical stones) are in Carnac in
Northwest France, which we see here in rows. Menhir is the local word for long stone. They
are monolithic stones, meaning each stone is only one stone and not constructed of several in
layers. They are usually 16-30 feet high, the highest being 67 feet from the ground. They date
to 1500-1000 BCE and were erected with human and animal strength.

Mehirs are often placed into the landscape in rows such as seen above, though we dont know
why this was done. We can only draw inferences as best as possible. They may have been used
for agriculture or to de ne boundaries in the natural landscape. We only know that they did
not naturally appear in this manner and required human intervention. They still exist on
farmland and are now protected. Sometimes they are constructed in circles, such as these in
Attlebury, England, or Stonehenge in Salisbury. These are important markers of scale.

Dolmen in Ireland (left) and Dolmen Barrow in Portugal (right) / Wikimedia Commons

Menhirs were also manipulated by taking two vertical menhirs and placing another
horizontally atop them often repeated in a circle or line. This created a dolmen two vertical
menhirs supporting another laid horizontally over them. These usually indicated tomb
locations. They would often be covered with a mound of Earth, known as a barrow. These
created a kind of sanctuary, a form of commemoration of the dead. This is very interesting
architecture because it re ects a sense of community as well as a sense of the unknown what
happens after death. Hidden under these barrows were houses for the dead. There was a

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very important structural system used here the post-and-lintel system. We use the same
words today for the sides of the door (jambs) and the piece or structure over the top (lintels).
This remains the most common structural system today.

Stonehenge Close View (left, Wikimedia Commons) and Wide View with Ditch (right)4

Stonehenge is still one of the most mysterious structures in the world. It is still being
excavated, and we do not know what its function truly was. It probably had numerous
functions. It is a monument in ruin today in southern England near the town of Salisbury, about
30-40 miles west of London in a relatively at plain. It was built over the course of many years,
from 2750 to 1500 BCE, in different phases. There is a large circle, and the circle is de ned by
a ditch. The entire circle is approximately 320 feet in diameter.

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Stonehenge Plan5

The circle was dissected by an axis. This is a combination of circular and axial (linear) planning.
The circle is broken by a street originally lined by menhirs. The heelstone was a single menhir
that stood alone, also surrounded by a small ditch. This is oriented speci cally to the sun. On
the summer solstice (the longest day of the year), the sun rises over the heelstone. The most
basic organization of such structures was based upon what people saw happening in the sky.
Things on the ground are related to the cosmos the sun, moon, and positions of stars. There
are also four holes marked by four stones in a rectangle that represent the rising and setting of
the moon.

Stonehenge Altar / Wikimedia Commons

At the very center was an altar (as we reference it) with the altar stone that must have had
some kind of spiritual signi cance, surrounded by a circle of stones and ve dolmen menhir
structures. The outer circle was a series of post-and-lintel structures, and the inner altar area
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contained the same structure types in a horseshoe shape around the altar and opening to the
sun around the summer solstice as the axis goes through the center. These are 25-30 feet tall,
and there are many theories as to how the stones were moved to this location after being
quarried in Western England near Wales. The menhirs were likely erected with animal power
and rope-and-pulley systems. Scaffolding was likely built around each stone so that the lintel
stones could be raised above them. These stones were relatively crudely quarried and carved,
but they have also been weathered with age and exposure to the elements.

Mortise-and-Tenon Joint / Wikimedia Commons

Optical re nement was used to account for the human eye and how people see scale. Each
lintel is slightly angled in, wider at the top and angled at the bottom. At certain distances it
gives the impression of being vertical instead of angular. The vertical menhirs were also angled
so that they were wider at the bottom and smaller at the top. The lintels were not simply
placed on top of the menhirs but were attached using mortise-and-tenon joints. Each of the
vertical menhirs has a tenon and each of the lentils has two mortise holes to t atop the tenon
to provide stability. This shows sophistication in the construction.

The site is off-limits today and people must walk around it. It open once per year on the
summer solstice. It will likely not be restored but simply preserved for protection. It was an
open-air observatory with no evidence that it ever had any type of roof or covering. Burials
have been uncovered within the circle and cremations were known to occur, indicating that it
was also a funerary site. It is also thought to have been a place of healing, which was very
common in early historic structures. It was useful for predicting seasonal changes as well. It
may also have been part of a ritualistic celebration of nature and the circle of life. These
multiple uses indicate both practical and spiritual/religious functions.

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Stonehenge Painting by John Constable (left) and Engraving by Robert Turner (right) / Wikimedia
Commons

As the name implies, this is a henge monument, and there are many others (though this is the
most well-known today). Others exist as well in various locations. There are many remnants
on agricultural land all over Southwestern England still today. The henge was a construction
typology as well. It has inspired many artists and there are many renditions, particularly in the
19th century such as from John Constable and Robert Turner who were inspired by the
romantic nature of the ruins (particularly the sky as seen dramatized above). The painting and
engraving present a mysterious quality that re ect the unknown construction and the folklore
of it.

Village des Bories, France / Wikimedia Commons

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In southern France is a complete reconstruction of what a village might have looked like in
roughly 2000 BCE based upon fragments collected and studied by archaeologists and
historians. The village is known as the Village des Bories, from Latin boarium (a stable for
oxen). However, these types of structures were used for everything. They were used for both
human and animal shelters as well as for storing grain and food. They have a beehive shape in
the same form as their ovens at the time. Each of the structures was made of local stone
(relatively thin and small, quarried locally). They are roughly laid in horizontal courses (a course
being a horizontal layer of stone). They were not perfectly laid because they were not perfectly
cut and had to be laid and t together as best as possible.

Bories Stone Hut Interior (left) and Corbeled Arch (right) / Wikimedia Commons

To get this beehive shape, they corbeled the stone. A corbel is a stone that projects out slightly
from the wall. They corbeled each layer slightly inward to create a fault vault. In architecture,
a vault is a curving masonry surface. Masonry would comprise a curving stone or brick ceiling.
The stones were corbeled, and there was a large stone placed at the top to close it (a capping
stone). No mortar was used as there was no cement. This was dry construction and the walls
stand because of their own weight (gravity). This was done for all domestic structures, some as
high as fteen feet wide and twenty feet high. Shelves, as well as replaces, were made by
cutting into the thickness of the wall. Everything necessary to live in a village communally used
this technique.

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A Malta Temple Complex / Wikimedia Commons

Also of note are the prehistoric temple complexes in Malta. The one shown here used a
combination of corbeled and post-and-lintel construction, two types of structural systems
previously mentioned. This is a large complex of numerous rooms arranged around an axis.
There were spaces outside of each structure that curved in a space called an apse: a curving
space most commonly seen in later church architecture. It was where the altar was placed in
the church at the end of the aisle.

Malta Temple Complex Post-and-Lintel Threshold / Wikimedia Commons

This series of curving spaces (apses) had thresholds leading from one space to the next. Each
apse contained an altar, and there were niches in the wall for offerings where rituals took place
to celebrate nature, fertility, the dead, healing from the power of the temple, etc. These were
not homes or tombs but instead were structures used as temples and dedicated to their gods
and goddesses the supernatural, those things outside of Earth that they felt controlled their
lives. These were constructed by exterior and interior walls of large irregular blocks with
rubble lling between them. There was no exterior decoration as the focus of their temples
was on the inside, not the outside. These temples are marked by a post-and-lintel system and
the walls were created by using corbeling to create corbeled vaults for each space.

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