HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE 1.

THE BEGINNINGS AND VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE

1. ARCHITECTURE OF PALEOLITHIC

Peter Rabb PhD

EXTRA SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Istvánfi, Gyula: Az építészet története Őskor Népi építészet (The history of architecture
Prehistory and vernacular architectue / text: hungarian / there are a lot of drawings)
BME library: 815.552.

Munro, Eleonor – Rudorff, Raymond: Art treasures of the world / BME library: 908.357.

Huyghe, René (ed.): Larousse enciclopaedia of prehistoric and ancient art.

BME library: 910.065.

Weachter, John: Man before History. Lausanne, 1976.

Renfrew, Colin – Bahn, Paul: Archaeology. London, 1991.

Renfrew, Colin: Before Civilization. London, 1973.

EXTRA SOURCE FOR LAZY STUDENTS

www.donsmaps.com
Don Hitchcock / independent researcher / AUS, NZL
Libor Balák / www.liborbalak.wz.cz
PALEOLITHIC

Lower Paleolithic (c. 2,6 or 2,5 million –150.000 years ago)

Genus Homo
Homo habilis
earliest stone tools
Homo ergaster
migrate out of Africa
Homo erectus
use controlled fire
earliest large game hunting

Middle Paleolithic (c. 150.000 – 30.000 years ago)

Neanderthales, Homo sapiens

Earliest evidence of behavioral modernity (art and
intentional burials)
Earliest undisputed evidence of cooking food
migration beyond Africa
Mousterian culture
Aterian culture

Upper Paleolithic (c. 30.000 – 10.000 years ago)

Behavioral modernity:
appearance of abundant artwork,
fully developed language
Châtelperronian culture
Aurignacian culture
Gravettian culture
Solutrean culture
Magdalenian culture
Sviderian culture
Statuette of Venus / Neuchâtel / 11 000 BP
 Age Period Tools Economy Dwelling sites Society Religion

Handmade
tools and
objects found in
nature:
-cudgel
-sharpened A band of
Paleolithic
stone gatheners and
(2,500.000-10.000
-chopper Hunting and Mobile lifestyle: hunters
BC)
-handaxe gathering: (migration) (25-100 people)
-scraper -food (-cave)
-spear -firewood -hut
-bow and arrow -materials for -tooth or skin
-harpoon tools, clothes hovel
-needle and shelters (first of all by Evidence of
rivers and lakes!) belief in the
Handmade
afterlife:
tools and
Stone -appearance
objects found in
age of burial rituals
Mesolithic nature: Tribes and
-appearance
(10.000-6.000 BC) -bow and arrow Bands
of ancestor
-fish basket
worship
-boats

Handmade
tools and
objects found in
nature: Agriculture
-chisel Hunting Tribes and
Neolithic Farmsteads
-hoe Fishing formation of
(6.000-3000 BC)
-yoke Gathering chiefdoms
-loom Domestication
-pottery
-weapons
 THE PROCESSION OF HUMAN EVOLUTION

Australopithecus and Homo habilis: Olduvai-gorge (Tanzania) / Homo erectus: Peking-men / Neanderthales
OLDUVAI-GORGE / Tanzania (1960) / Louis Leakey (1903-1972)
The oldest remains of Homo Habilis (or Australopithecus) / Oldowan culture / lower paleolithics
Bed I. tools 2,6 million years BP / Bed II. axe 1,7-1,2 million years BP / Bed III-IV. other tools 600 thousand years BP
OLDUWAI-GORGE / THE FIRST KNOWN ARTIFICAL SHELTER
Australopithecus: early prepaleolithic hominid / began to develop bipedalism
Homo habilis: earliest member of the genus homo / larger brain / made stone tools / social organization

Quarry DK IA in Bed I-II. layer (1,8 million years BP) Zinj / Australopithecus / victim of Homo habilis
THE OLDOWAN SHELTER AND IT’S MODERN VARIATIONS

Reconstruction of shelter made with curved branches Shelter of Kumeyaay-tribe (San Diego, USA)
fixed by stone-blocks
Pigmee hut (Central Africa) Pigmee hut (Uganda)
THE FIRST CAMPGROUNDS

Homo habilis / Homo ergaster / Olduvai-gorge

Two tipes of campgrounds: -living place

clear area, there’s a pit hole (garbage) in the middle
the dimension of clear area provides the possibility of
escape away from enemies or predators
mostly on the river-bank, on the mouth of river
long-lasting residence
remains of several activities

-workplace
processing of the large game on the spot (eating it)
temporary

Homo erectus / Peking-men / Tsoukoutien (China) / Vértesszőlős (Hungary)

Use of fire: -the campground must be settled in calm valley, ditch,

gorge, basin, egde of cliff (sheltered zone)

Homo Neanderthalensis / Neanderthales / La Ferrassie (cave, France)

Selection of campgrounds: -area of daily hunting and gathering: in radius is cca. 2

hours yourney (~10 km) area
HUMAN EVOLUTION DURING THE PALEOLOTHIC

Homo habilis: earliest member of the genus homo / larger brain / made stone tools / social organization
Homo ergaster: the first hominid to stand fully upright / migrate out of Africa
Homo erectus: hunter-gathener society / first hominid that definitely used controlled fire

Timeline scale is in thousands of years

Homo erectus The Peking-man (Beijing, China) The face of Homo erectus
THE PEKING-MAN (Homo erectus, 780-500.000 BP)

It was founded in 1923-1927 in the narrow gorge near to Peking (Tsoukoutien, Beijing / Davidson Black) / another known place:
Vértesszőlős (Hungary, 500.000 years BP)
THE PEKING-MAN (Homo erectus, 780-500.000 BP)

use controlled fire, tools, flints, cooking, hunting, cannibalism (to eat enemies, especially it’s brain), worship of skulls, no
buildings!
Cannibalism: to get the enemy’s force, or/and to keep fit itself (themselves)
THE AFTERLIFE OF PEKING-MEN

THE MIGHTY PEKING MAN (Danny Lee, Evelyn Kraft, Hong Kong, 1976)
THE FIRST SHELTER: THE CAVE
natural (geological) formation - human transformation
Primarily cultic function / the fixed place of cave conflicts with mobile lifestile of hunter-gathener people
Lot of caves remains (weren’t destroyed by following civilizations because these are far from the populated areas) / the
common shelters were destroyed (by following civilizations / these were made of temporary structures)

above: Tsoukoutien (China), Font de Gaume (France), modern cave-men (Philippines)

below: living or cultic cave of Neanderthales (Drachenloch-cave, near to St. Gallen, Switzerland)
k = altar inside skulls of bear t = fire places (the mouth of the cave looks onto east, there was a large entrance „hall”)
Drachenloch-cave / near to St. Gallen / Switzerland / 100 000 BP / cultic and living cave of neanderthales
THE SECOND STEP / SIMPLY SHELTER UNDER THE EGDE OF CLIFF / PROVIDE FROM RAIN AND WIND

Arcy-sur-Cure, France, 30 000 BP, mammoth bones and skins / La Ferrassie, France, Kr.e. 70 000, branches and skins /
shelter of neanderthales: x = tombs y = tomb covering with stone slab / simply windbreak structure
La Ferrassie-cave / Les Eyzies / Perigord / France / Louis Capitan (1909) / La Ferrassie 1: skull 70 000 BP / Neanderthales
THE NEANDERTHALES / DEAD-END OF EVOLUTION? / DYING OUT OR SURVEYING? (unanswered questions)

1856 / Neander-valley / Johann Karl Fuhlrott (1803-1877) / 250 000 – ? BP / Belgium: 1828 / Gibraltar: 1848
smaller than modern men / more robust looking / stooping backbone / larger brain(!)
HOW WE KNOW THE NEANDERTHALES

1856 / Neander-valley / Johann Karl Fuhlrott (1803-1877) / 250 000 – ? BP / Belgium: 1828 / Gibraltar: 1848
La Madeleine-cave / valley of river Vèzère / Dordogne / France / Eduard Lartet (1863) / 10 100 BP
La Madeleine-cave / valley of river Vèzère / Dordogne / France / Eduard Lartet (1863) / 10 100 BP
La Mouthe-cave / Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil / Dorgogne / Franciaország / Emile Riviére (1894) / 200 graves / paintings /
Neanderthales and modern men / picture of traps, folds and hut made of branches
THE REAL HUTS / THE FIRST KNOWN SETTLEMENT IN EUROPE

TERRA AMATA, HUT (Nice, France cca. 300.000-230.000 BC, reconstruction)/ SETTLED CAMP! / (discovered: 1966)
It made of curved branches and some timber posts standed on the middle. The stones pressed down the leg of branches.
There was a fireplace and wokplaces inside, (in the centre of) the hut. These people were hunters (elk, mammooth and wild boar)

Henry de Lumelay (1934-)

THE FORM OF FIRST HUTS BY EYES OF PALEOLITHIC PEOPLE
It preserved by the cave-paintings

above left: huts with a pitched roof, doors and post (Font-de-Gaume, France)

below left: hut with mammoths and buffalos (bisons) (Bernifal, France)

right: A = Les Combralles B – E = Font-du-Gaume G = La Mouthe, France

C = pen, or trap (?)
PALEOLITIC SHELTER / RECONSTRUCTION

provide from rain, snow and wind (but from one direction only)
MODERN SHELTER / THE STRUCURE IS THE SAME

Bus stop / Mali

TENTS AND PRIMITIVE HUTS

above left: early hut made of branches above right: modern hut made of branches and
leaves (pigmy village, Zaire)
below left: paleolithic tents (reconstruction, France) below right: modern summer tent of inuits
MAMMOTH-BONE HUTS / WHERE THEREN’T ENOUGH TREE (WOOD)

Puskari / Moldova / Ukraine 45.000 BP

Kostenki / Ukraine / 38 000 – 26 000 BP / Gravetti-culture (35 000 – 24 000 BP)

(reconstructions and pictures: Libor Balák / www.iabrno.cz/agalerie/gravetti/htm)

Mezirich / Ukraine / 15 000 BP
CAVE-ART / CAVE-PAINTINGS

Cultic act / to help in hunting with magic power of animals were painted

Valley of rivers Dordogne and Vèzère / Dordogne / Perigord / SW-France / 35 000 – 10 000 BP
La Madeleine-cave / valley of river Vèzère / Dordogne / France / Eduard Lartet (1863) / 10 100 BP
Bernifal-cave / near to Meyrals / Dordogne / France / Neanderthales
Roffignac-cave / near to Bergerac / Dordogne / Perigord / France / 13 000 BP / Francois de Belleforest (1575)
Chauvet-cave / Pont d’Arc / France / Jean-Marie Chauvet (1994) / 32 900 – 22 000 (?) BP
Cap Blanc-cave / Dordogne / France / Louis Capitan (1909) / 15 000 BP / sceleton of 20 years old woman (13 000 – 15 000 BP)
THE BEGINNING OF SCULPTURE

Female statuette is symbol of fertility (with stressed breasts) and abundance (with fat body) / it never has face!

Venus / Hohe Fels / Germany / 35 000 – 40 000 BP Venus / Brassempouy / France / 30 000 BP
Venus / Willendorf / Austria / 20 000 – 40 000 BP Venus / Lespugue / Garrone / France / 24 000 – 26 000 BP
Venus / Dolní Vestonice Lion Lady Woman with horn / Laussel
Czech Hohlenstein-Stodel Dordogne / France
27 000 BP 32 000 BP 22 000 – 27 000 BP
Venus / Neuchâtel / Switzerland/ 11 000 BP
Ankles of woman / Gare de Couze Figurines of woman / Hohlenstein and Gonnersdorf / Germany
Dordogne / France / 18 000 – 10 000 BP
 PERIOD: PALEOLITHICS
HUNTING
BASIS OF EXISTENCE:
GATHERING
PERMANENT AND
TYPICAL FEATURE OF LONG-DISTANCE MIGRATION
WAY OF LIFE: -need to follow the migration of
games
NO PERMANENT SETTLEMENTS
THE SUCCESS OF LIVING
PROBLEMS:
DEPENDS ON THE CLIMATE AND
WEATHER
EASY TO ESCAPE
ADVANTAGES:
everything is movable
LARGE
DIMENSION OF TERITORY: BOUNDLESS
-every members have to move
DENSITY OF POPULATION: LOW
PERIODIC AND DISPOSABLE
TYPE OF SETLEMENTS:
with frequent moving
DISPOSABLE: CAVES, HUTS
TYPE OF SHELTERS:
REMOVABLE: TENTS
TIPICAL USED MATERIALS OR BRANCHES, LEAVES, SKINS,
STRUCTURES FOR BUILDING: BONES, TEETH
NEOLITHICS
ANIMAL HUSBANDRY AGRICULTURE
(NOMADIC) (CULTIVATION OF PLANTS)
REGULATED AND
SHORT-DISTANCE MIGRATION
SETTLED
-need to follow the animals on
the pasture
THE SUCCESS OF LIVING
DEPENDS ON THE CLIMATE AND
THERES IS NOT (ENOUGH) WEATHER
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS FREQUENT ROBBERIES
answer: TO ROB agricultural BUT NO ABILITY TO ESCAPE
settlements of it’s products The main properties (agricultural
products) are not movable
answer: BUILDDING RAMPARTS
REGULATED ABILITY TO ESCAPE
FIXED COMMUNITY
the main properties (animals)
are movable (on it’s legs)
SMALL
SMALLER
-how big territory needs for
LIMITED
supply the people
-how big the territory (pasture)
-how big territory can cultivate
of tribe
the people
-one part of tribe may live in
-how big territory can defend
fixed settlements
the people against the enemies
HIGHER HIGH
PERIODIC BUT REMOVABLE
FIXED
with regulated moving on the
SETTLED
territory of tribe
REMOVABLE FIXED
HUTS, TENTS, JURTS HOUSES
SPECIAL MOVABLE STRUCTURES
(SEE JURTS), STONE, BRICK, WOOD, CANE
SKINS, FELT