ARCG 211– HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE I DR ABDURRAHMAN MOHAMED UNIVERSITY OF BAHRAIN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING & ARCHITECTURE BSc. in ARCHITECTURE PROGRAM ARCG 211– HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE I DR ABDURRAHMAN MOHAMED ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA

The distinction between the prehistoric world and historic - the development of written language 3500 BCE by the Sumerians

SUMERIANS Urban communities developed around religious shrines, the dwelling places of the gods and the repositories for surplus food stores, and monumental temple complexes at the heart of Sumerian cities. At about 3800 BCE Tepe Cawra featured an acropolis with two temples, a shrine, and dwelling houses

Temple at Tepe Cawra Architectural features FORM AND PLAN Its major buildings formed a U-shaped open court around the North Temple, which measured forty by twenty feet. The temple had a central hall with side chambers, and there were no large interior spaces ELEVATIONS Rectangle facade was articulated by buttresses and pilasters Very few narrow openings BUILDING MATERIALS buildings were constructed with sun-dried brick.

STRUCTURE AND CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM Roofs were fabricated from wood or reeds that could not span great distances. Important buildings were strengthened by weather-resistant casings for the mud brick. They were raised on a platform.

THE White Temple and its Architectural features BUILDING MATERIALS STRUCTURE AND CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM THE White Temple and its Architectural features The city of Uruk had the White Temple built (3500-3000 BCE). FORM AND PLAN Rectangle with a forty foot ­high base of rubble from earlier buildings. Entrance of the temple was through a chamber in the long side, so that a "bent axis' led from the outside into the courtyard and sanctuary. ELEVATIONS White sloping base The walls of the upper part were supported with buttresses and pilasters Very few narrow openings

BUILDING MATERIALS Sun-dried bricks provided with a protective coat of whitewash over its which were laid in panels between sloping buttresses STRUCTURE AND CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM Rubble base Bearing walls of sundried clay bricks Flat wood roof

White temple

Akkadians, Guti and Neo-Sumerian Sumerians were disrupted about 2350 BCE by the Akkadians who built imperial states composed of many urban settlements. The Akkadian Empire was in turn overthrown in about 2150 BCE by the Guti. Sumerian city-stales returned in what is termed the Neo-Sumerian period (2150-2000 BCE). This period witnessed the development of urban temple forms, particularly the ziggurat

The ziggurat A temple elevated on an artificial mound FORM AND PLAN The ziggurat rose with battered or inward sloping walls in a series of stepped platforms, culminating in a high temple at the top A flight of stairs set in the center of one side connected the temple to the ground Other stairways led to the second and third terraces opened only to the priests ELEVATIONS height was about seventy feet, with a base of about 200 by 150 feet Buttressed sloping walls for the base and the buildings above Few openings

BUILDING MATERIALS Commonly constructed of sundried brick bonded with bitumen, reed matting, or rope Ziggurats were finished with a weather resistant exterior layer of kiln-fired brick. STRUCTURE AND CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM Bearing walls with flat wooden roofs Buttresses and pilasters were also used to strengthen the walls and slopes of the building

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbRNPxUZ3SI

houses of the ordinary population were set in densely packed neighbourhoods. Plans were roughly orthogonal houses were constructed around open courtyards that provided light and fresh air to all rooms.

1.2 BABYLONIANS, HITTITES, AND ASSYRIANS About 1530 BCE the Hittites, overran the First Dynasty of Babylon. Their capital Hattusas covered some 300 acres enclosed in a four mile stone-based fortification wall. Upper wall sections were made from sun-dried brick Corbelled vaults were used for gates in the town wall Within the enclosure was a separately fortified palace complex containing audience halls, a library, archives, and granaries. The stone construction made extensive use of parabolic corbelled vaults to enclose long, narrow rooms. Within the town, five temples dedicated to the weather gods were constructed around central courtyards surrounded by storage rooms and well lit ritual chambers.

Assyrians gained a foothold in the fertile plains to the south by 900 BCE. They had established an empire with different capitals Strongly fortified citadels built for each capital. Khorsabad, the royal city built by Sargon II in 720 BCE At the center of the city the twenty-five-acre palace occupied a plateau fifty feet above the level of the town. Orthogonal geometry governed buildings in the palace area, which was bordered by a sturdy wall heavily reinforced by watchtowers. Rising near the central axis was a seven-stage ziggurat, 143 feet square at the base, representing the cosmic order of the seven planets.

1.3 NEO-BABYLONIANS AND PERSIANS Assyrians finally fell in 612 BCE to the combined assaults of Babylonians, Scythians, Persians, and Medes. Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 BCE),the Neo­ Babylonian Empiror rebuilt Babylon The city's processional way passed through the Ishtar Gate, a fortified portal clad in blue ­glazed brick. Animals were modelled in shallow relief on the surface of the bricks, which were glazed separately and then assembled as the covering was laid in horizontal courses. The gate's front face is now in Berlin's Pergamon Museum.

Hanging gardens of Babylon are considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Babylon's greatness was increased in 539 BCE when it became part of the Persian Empire of Cyrus II. The greatest surviving architectural contribution of the Persians is an impressive ruin at the city of Persepolis.

The reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar_Gate

Persians borrowed freely from the cultures they conquered. The great palace, used primarily for ceremonies at the New Year and the beginning of spring occupied a terrace 1500 by 900 feet; contained reception courts, banquet rooms, and audience halls in a loosely organized orthogonal layout. King Xerxes's throne room was known as the Hall of a Hundred Columns. The hall was completed by Artaxerxes, to be the largest enclosed space in the palace, able to contain 10,000 people within its 250-foot square plan.

Most of the construction was in stone where columns supported wooden roof beams resting on the unique double-headed capitals carved in the form of bulls and lions. Access to the terrace was gained via a fight of stairs flanked by relief sculptures. The conquest of Alexander the Great ended Persian dominance in 331 BCE.