1.
Inca Empire
–
The Inca Empire, also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire, was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America, and possibly the largest empire in the world in the early 16th century. The administrative, political and military center of the empire was located in Cusco in modern-day Peru, the Inca civilization arose from the highlands of Peru sometime in the early 13th century. Its last stronghold was conquered by the Spanish in 1572, from 1438 to 1533, the Incas incorporated a large portion of western South America, centered on the Andean Mountains, using conquest and peaceful assimilation, among other methods. The Incas considered their king, the Sapa Inca, to be the son of the sun, the Inca Empire was unique in that it lacked many features associated with civilization in the Old world. In the words of one scholar, The Incas lacked the use of wheeled vehicles, the Incan economy has been described as feudal, slave, socialist. The economy functioned largely without money and without markets, instead, exchange of goods and services was based on reciprocity between individuals and among individuals, groups, and Inca rulers. Taxes consisted of an obligation of a person to the Empire. The Inca rulers reciprocated by granting access to land and goods and providing food, the Inca referred to their empire as Tawantinsuyu, the four suyu. The four suyu were, Chinchaysuyu, Antisuyu, Qullasuyu and Kuntisuyu, the name Tawantinsuyu was, therefore, a descriptive term indicating a union of provinces. The Spanish transliterated the name as Tahuatinsuyo or Tahuatinsuyu, the term Inka means ruler or lord in Quechua and was used to refer to the ruling class or the ruling family. The Incas were a small percentage of the total population of the empire, probably numbering only 15,000 to 40,000. The Spanish adopted the term as a term referring to all subjects of the empire rather than simply the ruling class. As such the name Imperio inca referred to the nation that they encountered, the Inca people were a pastoral tribe in the Cusco area around the 12th century. Incan oral history tells a story of three caves. The center cave at Tampu Tuqu was named Qhapaq Tuqu, the other caves were Maras Tuqu and Sutiq Tuqu. Four brothers and four sisters stepped out of the middle cave and they were, Ayar Manco, Ayar Cachi, Ayar Awqa and Ayar Uchu, and Mama Ocllo, Mama Raua, Mama Huaco and Mama Qura. Out of the side caves came the people who were to be the ancestors of all the Inca clans, Ayar Manco carried a magic staff made of the finest gold. Where this staff landed, the people would live and they traveled for a long time
Inca Empire
–
Inca Empire
Inca Empire
–
Banner of the Tawantinsuyu
Inca Empire
–
The first image of the Inca in Europe,
Pedro Cieza de León, Cronica del Peru, 1553
Inca Empire
–
View of
Machu Picchu
2.
Machu Picchu
–
Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca citadel situated on a mountain ridge 2,430 metres above sea level. It is located in the Cusco Region, Urubamba Province, Machupicchu District in Peru, above the Sacred Valley, most archaeologists believe that Machu Picchu was built as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti. Often mistakenly referred to as the Lost City of the Incas, the Incas built the estate around 1450 but abandoned it a century later at the time of the Spanish Conquest. Machu Picchu was built in the classical Inca style, with polished dry-stone walls and its three primary structures are the Inti Watana, the Temple of the Sun, and the Room of the Three Windows. Most of the buildings have been reconstructed in order to give tourists a better idea of how they originally appeared. By 1976, thirty percent of Machu Picchu had been restored, Machu Picchu was declared a Peruvian Historical Sanctuary in 1981 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. In 2007, Machu Picchu was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a worldwide Internet poll. In the Quechua language, machu means old or old person, while picchu means peak, mountain or prominence with a base that ends in sharp peaks. Machu Picchu was built around 1450, at the height of the Inca and its construction appears to date to the period of the two great Inca rulers, Pachacutec Inca Yupanqui and Túpac Inca Yupanqui. It was abandoned just over 100 years later, in 1572 and it is possible that most of its inhabitants died from smallpox introduced by travellers before the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the area. Although it was located only about 80 kilometers from the Inca capital in Cusco, the conquistadors had notes of a place called Piccho, although no record of a Spanish visit exists. The types of sacred rocks defaced by the conquistadors in other locations are untouched at Machu Picchu, over the centuries, the surrounding jungle overgrew the site, and few outside the immediate area knew of its existence. The site may have discovered and plundered in 1867 by a German businessman. Some evidence indicates that German engineer J. M. von Hassel arrived earlier, maps show references to Machu Picchu as early as 1874. In 1911 American historian and explorer Hiram Bingham travelled the region looking for the old Inca capital and was shown to Machu Picchu by a local farmer, Bingham brought Machu Picchu to international attention and organized another expedition in 1912 to undertake major clearing and excavation. He returned in 1914 and 1915 to continue with excavation, in 1981, Peru declared an area of 325.92 square kilometres surrounding Machu Picchu a Historical Sanctuary. In addition to the ruins, the sanctuary includes a portion of the adjoining region, rich with the flora and fauna of the Peruvian Yungas. In 1983, UNESCO designated Machu Picchu a World Heritage Site, describing it as a masterpiece of architecture
Machu Picchu
–
Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu
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Hiram Bingham III at his tent door near Machu Picchu in 1912
Machu Picchu
–
View of the city of Machu Picchu in 1912 showing the original ruins after major clearing and before modern reconstruction work began.
Machu Picchu
–
The dawn mist lifts above the terraced structures
3.
Dry stone
–
Dry stone is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their construction method. Dry stone technology is best known in the context of wall construction, but dry stone artwork, buildings, bridges, Dry stone walls have been traditionally used in building construction as field boundaries and garden or churchyard walls, and on steep slopes as retaining walls for terracing. Some dry-stone wall constructions in north-west Europe have been dated back to the Neolithic Age, some Cornish hedges are believed by the Guild of Cornish Hedgers to date from 5000 BC, although there appears to be little dating evidence. In County Mayo, Ireland, a field system made from dry-stone walls. The cyclopean walls of the acropolis of Mycenae have been dated to 1350 BC, in Belize, the Mayan ruins at Lubaantun illustrate use of dry stone construction in architecture of the 8th and 9th centuries AD. When used as boundaries, dry stone structures often are known as dykes. Dry stone walls are characteristic of areas of Britain and Ireland where rock outcrops naturally or large stones exist in quantity in the soil. They are especially abundant in the West of Ireland, particularly Connemara and they may also be found throughout the Mediterranean, including retaining walls used for terracing. Such constructions are common where large stones are plentiful or conditions are too harsh for hedges capable of retaining livestock to be grown as field boundaries. Many thousands of miles of such walls exist, most of them centuries old, the technique of construction was brought to America primarily by English and Scots-Irish immigrants. The technique was taken to Australia and New Zealand. Similar walls also are found in the Swiss-Italian border region, where they are used to enclose the open space under large natural boulders or outcrops. The higher-lying rock-rich fields and pastures in Bohemias South-Western border range of Šumava are often lined by dry stone walls built of field-stones removed from the arable or cultural land and they serve both as cattle/sheep fences and the lots borders. Sometimes also the dry stone terracing is apparent, often combined with parts of masonry that are held together by a clay-cum-needles composite mortar. Great Zimbabwe is a city in the south-eastern hills of Zimbabwe, near Lake Mutirikwe. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe during the countrys Late Iron Age, construction on the monument began in the 11th century and continued until the 15th century. The exact identity of the Great Zimbabwe builders is at present unknown, the stone city spans an area of 722 hectares which, at its peak, could have housed up to 18,000 people
Dry stone
–
17th century dry stone wall at
Muchalls Castle,
Scotland
Dry stone
–
Inca wall of dry stone construction in
Cusco,
Peru
Dry stone
–
Mosaic embedded in a dry stone wall in Italian
Switzerland
Dry stone
–
Using a batter-frame and guidelines to rebuild a dry stone wall in
South Wales UK
4.
Course (architecture)
–
A course is a continuous horizontal layer of similarly-sized building material one unit high, usually in a wall. The term is almost always used in conjunction with unit masonry such as brick, cut stone, stretcher – The typical course style, masonry units are laid with their head viewed from a side cross-section and the long, narrow sides forming the bulk of the visible course. Header – Heads form the course and the long, narrow side is viewed from a side cross-section. This is often used to interlock a double wall. Rowlock – The long narrow sides are top and bottom, long thin sides are top and bottom, the heads are viewed from a side cross-section. Away from the top of the building it will represent a table where it has any mock or physical supports, these effects are defined as a dentillated course. Where just below the eaves or parapet wall the band course can be considered part of a cornice
Course (architecture)
–
Styles [edit]
5.
Henry Hobson Richardson
–
Henry Hobson Richardson was a prominent American architect who designed buildings in Albany, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and other cities. The style he popularized is named for him, Richardsonian Romanesque, along with Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, Richardson is one of the recognized trinity of American architecture. He was the great-grandson of inventor and philosopher Joseph Priestley, who is credited with the discovery of oxygen. Richardson went on to study at Harvard College and Tulane University, initially, he was interested in civil engineering, but shifted to architecture, which led him to go to Paris in 1860 to attend the famed École des Beaux Arts in the atelier of Louis-Jules André. He didnt finish his training there, as family backing failed due to the U. S. Civil War, Richardson returned to the U. S. in 1865. He settled in New York in October 1865 and he found work with a builder, Charles, whom he had met in Paris. The two worked together but Richardson was not being challenged. He had little to do and yearned for more, Richardson developed a unique and highly personal idiom, adapting in particular the Romanesque of southern France. His early works, however, were not very remarkable, there are few hints in the mediocre work of Richardsons early years of what was to come in his maturity, when, beginning with his competition-winning design. For the Brattle Square Church in Boston, he adopted the Romanesque, in 1869, he designed the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane in Buffalo, the largest commission of his career and the first appearance of his eponymous Richardsonian Romanesque style. A massive Medina sandstone complex, it is a National Historic Landmark and, the 1872 Trinity Church in Boston solidified Richardsons national reputation and led to major commissions for the rest of his life. Although incorporating historical elements from a variety of sources, including early Syrian Christian, Byzantine, Trinity was also a collaboration with the construction and engineering firm of the Norcross Brothers, with whom the architect would work on some 30 projects. Of his buildings, the two he liked best, the Allegheny County Courthouse and the Marshall Field Wholesale Store, were completed posthumously by his assistants, Richardson died in 1886 at age 47 of Brights disease, a historical term for the kidney disorder chronic nephritis. On his last day, he signed an informal will directing the three still remaining to carry on the business, which was soon formalized as Shepley, Rutan. One example includes Richardsons design for the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce Building, Richardson had won the selection process in 1885 and nearly finalized the work, but after his death, his aforementioned successors completed the project. He was buried in Walnut Hills Cemetery, Brookline, Massachusetts, despite an enormous income for an architect of his day, his reckless disregard for financial order meant that he died deeply in debt, leaving little to his widow and six children. Richardsons great grand-daughter is Mill Valley architect Heidi Richardson, Richardson spent much of his later years in his house in Brookline, Massachusetts, which had a studio attached to ease the strain on his health. The house fell into disrepair and was listed in 2007 as an historic site
Henry Hobson Richardson
–
Close-up of Henry Hobson Richardson, portrait by Sir
Hubert von Herkomer from the
National Portrait Gallery in
Washington, D.C.
Henry Hobson Richardson
–
Trinity Church,
Boston (1872) is Richardson's most acclaimed early work.
Henry Hobson Richardson
–
The
Thomas Crane Public Library (Quincy, Massachusetts) is seen as Richardson's best library. Note the Japanese inspired eyelid dormers in the roof to each side of the entrance.
Henry Hobson Richardson
–
The
Old Colony station illustrates Richardson's use of Japanese architectural concepts.
6.
North Congregational Church
–
North Congregational Church was built in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1872-73, and was one of the early works by noted American architect Henry Hobson Richardson. It is one of his first works in the Romanesque style, the structure is of light sandstone and does not show the more distinctive features of later Richardsonian Romanesque works by Richardson and others. While the exterior is rectangular, the interior is cruciform with the corners filled by functional spaces i. e. the vestibule, the church is located at 18 Salem Street, at the corner of Salem and Mattoon Streets. The North Congregational Society disbanded in 1935 and the church was sold and it was later renamed Hispanic Baptist Church. By 2016, the church was operating as IAR Springfield, part of the Apostolic Renewal Renovation Network, the church is a bilingual Apostolic congregation with Hispanic, African-American and Anglo-Saxon members. It has an attendance of 500 people
North Congregational Church
–
North Congregational Church
7.
Masonry
–
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar, the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of construction are brick, building stone such as marble, granite, travertine, and limestone, cast stone, concrete block, glass block. Masonry is generally a durable form of construction. However, the used, the quality of the mortar and workmanship. A person who constructs masonry is called a mason or bricklayer, Masonry is commonly used for walls and buildings. Brick and concrete block are the most common types of masonry in use in industrialized nations, Concrete blocks, especially those with hollow cores, offer various possibilities in masonry construction. They generally provide great strength, and are best suited to structures with light transverse loading when the cores remain unfilled. Filling some or all of the cores with concrete or concrete with steel reinforcement offers much greater tensile, the use of material such as bricks and stones can increase the thermal mass of a building and can protect the building from fire. Masonry walls are resistant to projectiles, such as debris from hurricanes or tornadoes. Extreme weather, under circumstances, can cause degradation of masonry due to expansion. Masonry tends to be heavy and must be built upon a foundation, such as reinforced concrete. Other than concrete, masonry construction does not lend well to mechanization. Masonry consists of components and has a low tolerance to oscillation as compared to other materials such as reinforced concrete, plastics, wood. Masonry has high compressive strength under vertical loads but has low tensile strength unless reinforced, the tensile strength of masonry walls can be increased by thickening the wall, or by building masonry piers at intervals. Where practical, steel reinforcements such as windposts can be added, a masonry veneer wall consists of masonry units, usually clay-based bricks, installed on one or both sides of a structurally independent wall usually constructed of wood or masonry. In this context the brick masonry is primarily decorative, not structural, the brick veneer is generally connected to the structural wall by brick ties. There is typically an air gap between the veneer and the structural wall. Concrete blocks, real and cultured stones, and veneer adobe are sometimes used in a very similar veneer fashion
Masonry
–
A mason laying mortar on top of a finished course of blocks, prior to placing the next course.
Masonry
–
Dry set masonry supports a rustic
log bridge, where it provides a well-drained support for the log (which will increase its service life).
Masonry
–
Masonry repair work done to a brick wall.
Masonry
–
Concrete masonry units (CMUs) or blocks in a basement wall before burial.
8.
Rock (geology)
–
Rock or stone is a natural substance, a solid aggregate of one or more minerals or mineraloids. For example, granite, a rock, is a combination of the minerals quartz, feldspar. The Earths outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock, rock has been used by mankind throughout history. The minerals and metals found in rocks have been essential to human civilization, three major groups of rocks are defined, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. The scientific study of rocks is called petrology, which is a component of geology. At a granular level, rocks are composed of grains of minerals, the aggregate minerals forming the rock are held together by chemical bonds. The types and abundance of minerals in a rock are determined by the manner in which the rock was formed, many rocks contain silica, a compound of silicon and oxygen that forms 74. 3% of the Earths crust. This material forms crystals with other compounds in the rock, the proportion of silica in rocks and minerals is a major factor in determining their name and properties. Rocks are geologically classified according to such as mineral and chemical composition, permeability, the texture of the constituent particles. These physical properties are the end result of the processes that formed the rocks, over the course of time, rocks can transform from one type into another, as described by the geological model called the rock cycle. These events produce three general classes of rock, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic, the three classes of rocks are subdivided into many groups. However, there are no hard and fast boundaries between allied rocks, hence the definitions adopted in establishing rock nomenclature merely correspond to more or less arbitrary selected points in a continuously graduated series. Igneous rock forms through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava and this magma can be derived from partial melts of pre-existing rocks in either a planets mantle or crust. Typically, the melting of rocks is caused by one or more of three processes, an increase in temperature, a decrease in pressure, or a change in composition, igneous rocks are divided into two main categories, plutonic rock and volcanic. Plutonic or intrusive rocks result when magma cools and crystallizes slowly within the Earths crust, a common example of this type is granite. Volcanic or extrusive rocks result from magma reaching the surface either as lava or fragmental ejecta, the chemical abundance and the rate of cooling of magma typically forms a sequence known as Bowens reaction series. Most major igneous rocks are found along this scale, about 64. 7% of the Earths crust by volume consists of igneous rocks, making it the most plentiful category. Of these, 66% are basalts and gabbros, 16% are granite, only 0. 6% are syenites and 0. 3% peridotites and dunites
Rock (geology)
–
Balanced Rock stands in the
Garden of the Gods park in
Colorado Springs
Rock (geology)
–
Rock outcrop along a mountain creek near
Orosí,
Costa Rica.
Rock (geology)
–
Sample of igneous
gabbro
Rock (geology)
–
Sedimentary sandstone with iron oxide bands
9.
Cuboid
–
In geometry, a cuboid is a convex polyhedron bounded by six quadrilateral faces, whose polyhedral graph is the same as that of a cube. By Eulers formula the numbers of faces F, of vertices V, in the case of a cuboid this gives 6 +8 =12 +2, that is, like a cube, a cuboid has 6 faces,8 vertices, and 12 edges. Along with the rectangular cuboids, any parallelepiped is a cuboid of this type, in a rectangular cuboid, all angles are right angles, and opposite faces of a cuboid are equal. By definition this makes it a rectangular prism, and the terms rectangular parallelepiped or orthogonal parallelepiped are also used to designate this polyhedron. The terms rectangular prism and oblong prism, however, are ambiguous, the square cuboid, square box, or right square prism is a special case of the cuboid in which at least two faces are squares. It has Schläfli symbol ×, and its symmetry is doubled from to, the cube is a special case of the square cuboid in which all six faces are squares. It has Schläfli symbol, and its symmetry is raised from, to, if the dimensions of a rectangular cuboid are a, b and c, then its volume is abc and its surface area is 2. The length of the diagonal is d = a 2 + b 2 + c 2. Cuboid shapes are used for boxes, cupboards, rooms, buildings. Cuboids are among those solids that can tessellate 3-dimensional space, the shape is fairly versatile in being able to contain multiple smaller cuboids, e. g. sugar cubes in a box, boxes in a cupboard, cupboards in a room, and rooms in a building. A cuboid with integer edges as well as integer face diagonals is called an Euler brick, a perfect cuboid is an Euler brick whose space diagonal is also an integer. It is currently unknown whether a perfect cuboid actually exists, the number of different nets for a simple cube is 11, however this number increases significantly to 54 for a rectangular cuboid of 3 different lengths. Hyperrectangle Trapezohedron Weisstein, Eric W. Cuboid, rectangular prism and cuboid Paper models and pictures
Cuboid
–
Rectangular cuboid
10.
Vitruvius
–
His discussion of perfect proportion in architecture and the human body, led to the famous Renaissance drawing by Da Vinci of Vitruvian Man. By his own description Vitruvius served as an artilleryman, the class of arms in the military offices. He probably served as a officer of artillery in charge of doctores ballistarum. Little is known about Vitruvius life, most inferences about him are extracted from his only surviving work De Architectura. Even his first name Marcus and his cognomen Pollio are uncertain. Cetius Faventinus writes of Vitruvius Polio aliique auctores, this can be read as Vitruvius Polio, and others or, less likely, as Vitruvius, Polio, Vitruvius was a military engineer, or a praefect architectus armamentarius of the apparitor status group. He is mentioned in Pliny the Elders table of contents for Naturalis Historia, frontinus refers to Vitruvius the architect in his late 1st-century work De aquaeductu. Likely born a free Roman citizen, by his own account, Vitruvius served the Roman army under Caesar with the otherwise poorly identified Marcus Aurelius, Publius Minidius and these names vary depending on the edition of De architectura. Publius Minidius is also written as Publius Numidicus and Publius Numidius, as an army engineer he specialized in the construction of ballista and scorpio artillery war machines for sieges. It is speculated that Vitruvius served with Caesars chief engineer Lucius Cornelius Balbus, the locations where he served can be reconstructed from, for example, descriptions of the building methods of various foreign tribes. Although he describes places throughout De Architectura, he not say he was present. His service likely included north Africa, Hispania, Gaul and Pontus, the position of the camp, the direction of the entrenchments, the inspection of the tents or huts of the soldiers and the baggage were comprehended in his province. His authority extended over the sick, and the physicians who had the care of them and he had the charge of providing carriages, bathhouses and the proper tools for sawing and cutting wood, digging trenches, raising parapets, sinking wells and bringing water into the camp. He likewise had the care of furnishing the troops with wood and straw, as well as the rams, onagri, balistae, at various locations described by Vitruvius, battles and sieges occurred. He is the source for the siege of Larignum in 56 BC. The broken siege at Gergovia in 52 BC, and the siege of Uxellodunum in 51 BC. These are all sieges of large Gallic oppida, a legion that fits the same sequence of locations is the Legio VI Ferrata, of which ballista would be an auxiliary unit. Mainly known for his writings, Vitruvius was himself an architect, frontinus mentions him in connection with the standard sizes of pipes
Vitruvius
–
A 1684 depiction of Vitruvius (right) presenting
De Architectura to
Augustus
Vitruvius
–
Vitruvian Man by
Leonardo da Vinci, an illustration of the human body inscribed in the circle and the square derived from a passage about geometry and human proportions in Vitruvius' writings
Vitruvius
–
Greek house plan after Vitruvius
Vitruvius
–
Drainage wheel from
Rio Tinto mines
11.
Opus isodomum
–
Opus isodomum is an ancient technique of wall construction with ashlars. It uses perfectly cut, completely regular square stone blocks of equal height, in classical antiquity this technique was perfected and widely used, especially for public buildings. One of the most well-known examples is the Parthenon, vitruvius briefly described this technique in his De Architectura, 2nd book, 8th chapter as following, A wall is called “isodomum“ when all the courses are of equal height. Completely regular isodomum is relatively rare, especially in the provinces, more frequent is isodomum made of stone blocks of the same height but not of the same length. In order to strengthen this type of wall, builders always take care that the ends of stone blocks in alternating courses of the wall do not match. Vitruvius considered both types of construction as Greek, emphasizing that both kinds are strong. P.3,31,60,61 Suić1976 - Mate Suić, Antički grad na istočnom Jadranu, Zagreb,1976, p.108,110
Opus isodomum
–
Opus isodomum on the back face of the Temple of Augustus,
Pula, 1st century BC
Opus isodomum
–
Different types of opus isodomum
Opus isodomum
–
Opus isodomum (left) and opus pseudoisodomum (right)
12.
Trapezoid
–
The parallel sides are called the bases of the trapezoid and the other two sides are called the legs or the lateral sides. A scalene trapezoid is a trapezoid with no sides of equal measure, the first recorded use of the Greek word translated trapezoid was by Marinus Proclus in his Commentary on the first book of Euclids Elements. This article uses the term trapezoid in the sense that is current in the United States, in many other languages using a word derived from the Greek for this figure, the form closest to trapezium is used. A right trapezoid has two adjacent right angles, right trapezoids are used in the trapezoidal rule for estimating areas under a curve. An acute trapezoid has two adjacent acute angles on its longer base edge, while an obtuse trapezoid has one acute, an acute trapezoid is also an isosceles trapezoid, if its sides have the same length, and the base angles have the same measure. An obtuse trapezoid with two pairs of sides is a parallelogram. A parallelogram has central 2-fold rotational symmetry, a Saccheri quadrilateral is similar to a trapezoid in the hyperbolic plane, with two adjacent right angles, while it is a rectangle in the Euclidean plane. A Lambert quadrilateral in the plane has 3 right angles. A tangential trapezoid is a trapezoid that has an incircle, there is some disagreement whether parallelograms, which have two pairs of parallel sides, should be regarded as trapezoids. Some define a trapezoid as a quadrilateral having one pair of parallel sides. Others define a trapezoid as a quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides, the latter definition is consistent with its uses in higher mathematics such as calculus. The former definition would make such concepts as the trapezoidal approximation to a definite integral ill-defined and this article uses the inclusive definition and considers parallelograms as special cases of a trapezoid. This is also advocated in the taxonomy of quadrilaterals, under the inclusive definition, all parallelograms are trapezoids. Rectangles have mirror symmetry on mid-edges, rhombuses have mirror symmetry on vertices, while squares have mirror symmetry on both mid-edges and vertices. Four lengths a, c, b, d can constitute the sides of a non-parallelogram trapezoid with a and b parallel only when | d − c | < | b − a | < d + c. The quadrilateral is a parallelogram when d − c = b − a =0, the angle between a side and a diagonal is equal to the angle between the opposite side and the same diagonal. The diagonals cut each other in mutually the same ratio, the diagonals cut the quadrilateral into four triangles of which one opposite pair are similar. The diagonals cut the quadrilateral into four triangles of which one pair have equal areas
Trapezoid
–
The
Temple of Dendur in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New York City
Trapezoid
–
Trapezoid
Trapezoid
–
Example of a trapeziform
pronotum outlined on a spurge bug
13.
Polygonal masonry
–
Polygonal masonry is a technique of stone construction. True polygonal masonry is a technique wherein the visible surfaces of the stones are dressed with straight sides or joints and this technique is found throughout the world and sometimes corresponds to the less technical category of Cyclopean masonry. Some notable sites that have fortification walls built in this technique include Norba, Signia, Alatri, Boiano, Circeo, Cosa, Alba Fucens, Palestrina, the so-called Porta Rosa of the ancient city of Velia employs a variant of the technique known as Lesbian masonry. Larchitecture romaine, du début du IIIe siècle av
Polygonal masonry
–
View of a polygonal masonry wall at
Rusellae, Italy
Polygonal masonry
–
Section of the ancient polygonal masonry wall of Amelia, Italy (ancient
Ameria)
Polygonal masonry
–
A detail of the polygonal masonry bastion flanking the Porta Maggiore.
Polygonal masonry
–
Velia, Porta Rosa
14.
Mortar (masonry)
–
In its broadest sense mortar includes pitch, asphalt, and soft mud or clay, such as used between mud bricks. Mortar comes from Latin mortarium meaning crushed, mortars are typically made from a mixture of sand, a binder, and water. The most common binder since the early 20th century is Portland cement, there are several types of cement mortars and additives. The first mortars were made of mud and clay, because of a lack of stone and an abundance of clay, Babylonian constructions were of baked brick, using lime or pitch for mortar. According to Roman Ghirshman, the first evidence of using a form of mortar was at the Mehrgarh of Baluchistan in Pakistan. The ancient sites of Harappan civilization of third millennium BCE are built with kiln-fired bricks, gypsum mortar, also called plaster of Paris, was used in the construction of the Egyptian pyramids and many other ancient structures. It is made from gypsum, which requires a firing temperature. It is therefore easier to make lime mortar and sets up much faster which may be a reason it was used as the typical mortar in ancient, brick arch. Gypsum mortar is not as durable as other mortars in damp conditions, in early Egyptian pyramids, which were constructed during the Old Kingdom, the limestone blocks were bound by mortar of mud and clay, or clay and sand. In later Egyptian pyramids, the mortar was made of gypsum or lime. Gypsum mortar was essentially a mixture of plaster and sand and was quite soft, in the Indian subcontinent, multiple cement types have been observed in the sites of the Indus Valley Civilization, such as the Mohenjo-daro city-settlement that dates to earlier than 2600 BCE. Bitumen mortar was used at a lower-frequency, including in the Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro. Historically, building with concrete and mortar next appeared in Greece, the excavation of the underground aqueduct of Megara revealed that a reservoir was coated with a pozzolanic mortar 12 mm thick. This aqueduct dates back to c.500 BCE, pozzolanic mortar is a lime based mortar, but is made with an additive of volcanic ash that allows it to be hardened underwater, thus it is known as hydraulic cement. The Greeks obtained the volcanic ash from the Greek islands Thira and Nisiros, or from the then Greek colony of Dicaearchia near Naples, the Romans later improved the use and methods of making what became known as pozzolanic mortar and cement. Even later, the Romans used a mortar without pozzolana using crushed terra cotta, introducing aluminum oxide and this mortar was not as strong as pozzolanic mortar, but, because it was denser, it better resisted penetration by water. Hydraulic mortar was not available in ancient China, possibly due to a lack of volcanic ash, around 500 CE, sticky rice soup was mixed with slaked lime to make an inorganic−organic composite mortar that had more strength and water resistance than lime mortar. It is not understood how the art of making hydraulic mortar and cement, during the Middle Ages when the Gothic cathedrals were being built, the only active ingredient in the mortar was lime
Mortar (masonry)
–
Mortar holding weathered bricks
Mortar (masonry)
–
Roman mortar on display at
Chetham's School of Music.
Mortar (masonry)
–
Laying bricks with Portland cement mortar
Mortar (masonry)
–
Mortar mixed inside a 5-gallon bucket using clean water and mortar from a bag. When it's the right consistency as in the photo (trowel stands up) it's ready to apply.
15.
Inca architecture
–
Incan architecture is the most significant pre-Columbian architecture in South America. The Incas inherited a legacy from Tiwanaku, founded in the 2nd century BCE in present-day Bolivia. The capital of the Inca empire, Cuzco, still contains many examples of Inca architecture. The famous royal estate of Machu Picchu is an example of Inca architecture. Other significant sites include Saksaywaman and Ollantaytambo, the Incas also developed an extensive road system spanning most of the western length of the continent. Inca buildings were made out of fieldstones or semi-worked stone blocks and dirt set in mortar, adobe walls were quite common. The material used in Inca buildings depended on the region, for instance, the most common shape in Inca architecture was the rectangular building without any internal walls and roofed with wooden beams and thatch. There were several variations of basic design, including gabled roofs. Rectangular buildings were used for different functions in almost all Inca buildings. Even so, there are examples of curved walls on Inca buildings. Two-story buildings were infrequent, when they were built the second floor was accessed from the outside via a stairway or high terrain rather than from the first floor. Wall apertures, including doors, niches and windows, usually had a trapezoidal shape, other kinds of decoration were scarce, some walls were painted or adorned with metal plaques, in rare cases walls were sculpted with small animals or geometric patterns. The most common form in Inca architecture was the kancha. A testimony of the importance of these compounds in Inca architecture is that the part of the Inca capital of Cusco consisted of large kancha, including Qurikancha. The best preserved examples of kancha are found at Ollantaytambo, an Inca settlement located along the Urubamba River, Inca architecture is widely known for its fine masonry, which features precisely cut and shaped stones closely fitted without mortar. However, despite this fame, most Inca buildings were made out of fieldstone. In the 1940s, American archaeologist John H. Rowe classified Inca fine masonry in two types, coursed, which features rectangular shaped stones, and polygonal, which blocks of irregular shape. In addition to references, they also identified some formal similarities between Tiwanaku and Inca architecture including the use of cut and polished stone blocks, as well as of double jambs
Inca architecture
–
Twelve angle stone, in the Hatun Rumiyoc street of
Cuzco, is an example of Inca masonry
Inca architecture
–
Cyclopean polygonal masonry at
Sacsayhuamán
Inca architecture
–
Inca wall in Cuzco
Inca architecture
–
Digital reconstruction of original
Inca painting on Room 42 wall,
Tambo Colorado; this late Inca period fortress/palace is still largely intact despite being constructed of adobe and located in an earthquake-prone area of
Peru. Remaining traces of the original paint guided this 2005 reconstruction. Laser scan data taken from a
CyArk /
University of California research partnership
16.
Cusco
–
Cuzco, often spelled Cusco, is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region as well as the Cusco Province, in 2013, the city had a population of 435,114. Located on the end of the Knot of Cuzco, its elevation is around 3,400 m. The site was the capital of the Inca Empire from the 13th until the 16th-century Spanish conquest. In 1983 Cusco was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and it has become a major tourist destination, hosting nearly 2 million visitors a year. The Constitution of Peru designates it as the Historical Capital of Peru, the indigenous name of this city is Qusqu. Although the name was used in Quechua, its origin is found in the Aymara language, the word is derived from the phrase qusqu wanka, related to the citys foundation myth of the Ayar Siblings. According to this legend, Ayar Awqa acquired wings and flew to the site of the future city, there he was transformed into a rock to mark the possession of the land by his ayllu. Then Ayar Oche stood up, displayed a pair of large wings, then they went up on top of the hill. Now at the site where he was to remain as an idol and he returned and told Ayar Manco that from then on he was to be named Manco Capac. Ayar Oche came from where the Sun was and the Sun had ordered that Ayar Manco take that name, after this had been stated by the idol, Ayar Oche turned into a stone, just as he was, with his wings. Later Manco Capac went down with Ayar Auca to their settlement. he liked the place now occupied in this city Cuzco, Manco Capac and his companion, with the help of the four women, made a house. Having done this, Manco Capac and his companion, with the four women and it is said that they took the maize from the cave, which this lord Manco Capac named Pacaritambo, which means those of origin because. they came out of that cave. The Spanish conquistadors adopted the name, transliterating it into Spanish phonetics as Cuzco or, less often. Cuzco was the spelling on official documents and chronicles in colonial times. Cuzco, pronounced as in 16th-century Spanish, seems to have been an approximation to the Cusco Quechua pronunciation of the name at the time. As both Spanish and Quechuan pronunciation have evolved since then, the Spanish pronunciation of z is no longer close to the Quechuan pronunciation of the consonant represented by z in Cuzco. In 1976, the city signed an ordinance banning the traditional spelling and ordering the use of a new one, Cusco
Cusco
–
The first image of Cuzco in Europe.
Pedro Cieza de León. Cronica del Peru, 1553.
Cusco
–
Cristo Blanco in the surrounding mountains of Cusco
Cusco
–
Night view of Plaza Regocijo, Cusco
Cusco
–
Night view of the
Qurikancha and Convent of
St. Dominic
17.
Middle English
–
This stage of the development of the English language roughly followed the High to the Late Middle Ages. Middle English developed out of Late Old English, seeing many dramatic changes in its grammar, pronunciation and this largely forms the basis for Modern English spelling, although pronunciation has changed considerably since that time. Middle English was succeeded in England by the era of Early Modern English, by that time, a variant of the Northumbrian dialect was developing into the Scots language. During the Middle English period many Old English grammatical features were simplified or disappeared, noun, adjective and verb inflections were simplified, a process that included the reduction of most grammatical case distinctions. Middle English also saw an adoption of Norman French vocabulary, especially in areas such as politics, law. Everyday English vocabulary remained mostly Germanic, with Old Norse influence becoming apparent, significant changes in pronunciation took place, especially for long vowels and diphthongs, which in the later Middle English period began to undergo the Great Vowel Shift. Little survives of early Middle English literature, most likely due to the Norman domination, poets wrote both in the vernacular and courtly English. It is popularly believed that William Shakespeare wrote in Middle English, the latter part of the 11th century was a period of transition from Late Old English to Early Middle English. The influence of Old Norse certainly helped move English from a synthetic language towards a more analytic or isolating word order and it was, after all, a salutary influence. The gain was greater than the loss, there was a gain in directness, in clarity, and in strength. The change to Old English from Old Norse was substantive, pervasive and it is most important to recognise that in many words the English and Scandinavian language differed chiefly in their inflectional elements. The body of the word was so nearly the same in the two languages only the endings would put obstacles in the way of mutual understanding. In the mixed population which existed in the Danelaw these endings must have led to confusion, tending gradually to become obscured. This blending of peoples and languages resulted in simplifying English grammar. There are also many Norman-derived terms relating to the cultures that arose in the 12th century. Sometimes, and particularly later, words were taken from Latin, giving such sets as kingly, later French borrowings came from standard rather than Norman French, this leads to such cognate pairs as warden, guardian. The end of Anglo-Saxon rule did not, of course, change the language immediately, the general population would have spoken the same dialects as before the Conquest, these changed slowly until written records of them became available for study, which varies in different regions. Once the writing of Old English came to an end, Middle English had no standard language, Early Middle English has a largely Anglo-Saxon vocabulary, but a greatly simplified inflectional system
Middle English
–
A page from
Geoffrey Chaucer 's
The Canterbury Tales
18.
Old French
–
Old French was the Gallo-Romance dialect continuum spoken from the 9th century to the 14th century. In the 14th century, these came to be collectively known as the langues doïl. The mid-14th century is taken as the period to Middle French. The areal of Old French in contemporary terms corresponded to the parts of the Kingdom of France, Upper Burgundy. As part of the emerging Gallo-Romance dialect continuum, the langues doïl were contrasted with the langue doc, in these examples, we notice a clear consequence of bilingualism, that sometimes even changed the first syllable of the Latin words. Pope estimated that perhaps still 15% of the vocabulary of modern French derives from Germanic sources, at the third Council of Tours in 813, priests were ordered to preach in the vernacular language, since the common people could no longer understand formal Latin. The second-oldest document in Old French is the Eulalia sequence, which is important for reconstruction of Old French pronunciation due to its consistent spelling. The Capetians langue doïl, the forerunner of modern standard French, did not begin to become the common speech of all of France, however, until after the French Revolution. In the Late Middle Ages, the Old French dialects diverged into a number of distinct langues doïl, during the Early Modern period, French now becomes established as the official language of the Kingdom of France throughout the realm, also including the langue doc-speaking territories in the south. Old French gives way to Middle French in the mid-14th century, the earliest extant French literary texts date from the ninth century, but very few texts before the 11th century have survived. The first literary works written in Old French were saints lives, the Canticle of Saint Eulalie, written in the second half of the 9th century, is generally accepted as the first such text. The first of these is the area of the chansons de geste. More than one hundred chansons de geste have survived in three hundred manuscripts. The oldest and most celebrated of the chansons de geste is The Song of Roland, a fourth grouping, not listed by Bertrand, is the Crusade cycle, dealing with the First Crusade and its immediate aftermath. Jean Bodels other two categories—the Matter of Rome and the Matter of Britain—concern the French romance or roman, around a hundred verse romances survive from the period 1150–1220. From around 1200 on, the tendency was increasingly to write the romances in prose, the most important romance of the 13th century is the Romance of the Rose which breaks considerably from the conventions of the chivalric adventure story. The Occitan or Provençal poets were called troubadours, from the word trobar to find, lyric poets in Old French are called trouvères. By the late 13th century, the tradition in France had begun to develop in ways that differed significantly from the troubadour poets
Old French
–
Map of France in 1180, at the height of the
feudal system. The
possessions of the French king are in light blue, vassals to the French king in green,
Angevin possessions in red. Shown in white is the
Holy Roman Empire to the east, the western fringes of which, including
Upper Burgundy and
Lorraine were also part of the Old French areal.
19.
Latin
–
Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
Latin
–
Latin inscription, in the
Colosseum
Latin
–
Julius Caesar 's
Commentarii de Bello Gallico is one of the most famous classical Latin texts of the Golden Age of Latin. The unvarnished, journalistic style of this
patrician general has long been taught as a model of the urbane Latin officially spoken and written in the floruit of the
Roman republic.
Latin
–
A multi-volume Latin dictionary in the
University Library of Graz
Latin
–
Latin and Ancient Greek Language - Culture - Linguistics at
Duke University in 2014.
20.
Construction
–
Construction is the process of constructing a building or infrastructure. Construction as an industry comprises six to nine percent of the domestic product of developed countries. Construction starts with planning, design, and financing, and continues until the project is built, large-scale construction requires collaboration across multiple disciplines. An architect normally manages the job, and a manager, design engineer. For the successful execution of a project, effective planning is essential, the largest construction projects are referred to as megaprojects. Construction is a term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations. Construction is used as a verb, the act of building, and a noun, how a building was built, in general, there are three sectors of construction, buildings, infrastructure and industrial. Building construction is further divided into residential and non-residential. Infrastructure is often called heavy/highway, heavy civil or heavy engineering and it includes large public works, dams, bridges, highways, water/wastewater and utility distribution. Industrial includes refineries, process chemical, power generation, mills, there are other ways to break the industry into sectors or markets. Engineering News-Record is a magazine for the construction industry. Each year, ENR compiles and reports on data about the size of design and they publish a list of the largest companies in the United States and also a list the largest global firms. In 2014, ENR compiled the data in nine market segments and it was divided as transportation, petroleum, buildings, power, industrial, water, manufacturing, sewer/waste, telecom, hazardous waste plus a tenth category for other projects. In their reporting on the Top 400, they used data on transportation, sewer, hazardous waste, the Standard Industrial Classification and the newer North American Industry Classification System have a classification system for companies that perform or otherwise engage in construction. To recognize the differences of companies in this sector, it is divided into three subsectors, building construction, heavy and civil engineering construction, and specialty trade contractors, there are also categories for construction service firms and construction managers. Building construction is the process of adding structure to real property or construction of buildings, the majority of building construction jobs are small renovations, such as addition of a room, or renovation of a bathroom. Often, the owner of the property acts as laborer, paymaster, for this reason, those with experience in the field make detailed plans and maintain careful oversight during the project to ensure a positive outcome. Residential construction practices, technologies, and resources must conform to local building authority regulations, materials readily available in the area generally dictate the construction materials used
Construction
–
In large construction projects, such as this
skyscraper in
Melbourne,
Australia,
cranes are essential.
Construction
–
Military residential unit construction by U.S. Navy personnel in Afghanistan
Construction
–
The National Cement Share Company of
Ethiopia 's new plant in
Dire Dawa.
Construction
–
Framing
21.
Brick
–
A brick is building material used to make walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Traditionally, the term referred to a unit composed of clay. A brick can be composed of clay-bearing soil, sand, and lime, Bricks are produced in numerous classes, types, materials, and sizes which vary with region and time period, and are produced in bulk quantities. Two basic categories of bricks are fired and non-fired bricks, block is a similar term referring to a rectangular building unit composed of similar materials, but is usually larger than a brick. Lightweight bricks are made from expanded clay aggregate, fired bricks are one of the longest-lasting and strongest building materials, sometimes referred to as artificial stone, and have been used since circa 5000 BC. Air-dried bricks, also known as mudbricks, have an older than fired bricks. Bricks are laid in courses and numerous patterns known as bonds, collectively known as brickwork, the earliest bricks were dried brick, meaning that they were formed from clay-bearing earth or mud and dried until they were strong enough for use. The oldest discovered bricks, originally made from shaped mud and dating before 7500 BC, were found at Tell Aswad, in the upper Tigris region, ceramic, or fired brick was used as early as 3000 BC in early Indus Valley cities. In pre-modern China, bricks were being used from the 2nd millennium BCE at a site near Xian, the carpenters manual Yingzao Fashi, published in 1103 at the time of the Song dynasty described the brick making process and glazing techniques then in use. He also had to know when to quench the kiln with water so as to produce the surface glaze, Early civilisations around the Mediterranean adopted the use of fired bricks, including the Ancient Greeks and Romans. The Roman legions operated mobile kilns, and built large brick structures throughout the Roman Empire, during the Early Middle Ages the use of bricks in construction became popular in Northern Europe, after being introduced there from Northern-Western Italy. An independent style of architecture, known as brick Gothic flourished in places that lacked indigenous sources of rocks. Examples of this style can be found in modern-day Denmark, Germany, Poland. A clear distinction between the two styles developed at the transition to Baroque architecture. In Lübeck, for example, Brick Renaissance is clearly recognisable in buildings equipped with terracotta reliefs by the artist Statius von Düren, production of bricks increased massively with the onset of the Industrial Revolution and the rise in factory building in England. For reasons of speed and economy, bricks were increasingly preferred as building material to stone and it was at this time in London, that bright red brick was chosen for construction to make the buildings more visible in the heavy fog and to help prevent traffic accidents. The transition from the method of production known as hand-moulding to a mechanised form of mass-production slowly took place during the first half of the nineteenth century. His mechanical apparatus soon achieved widespread attention after it was adopted for use by the South Eastern Railway Company for brick-making at their factory near Folkestone, the Bradley & Craven Ltd ‘Stiff-Plastic Brickmaking Machine’ was patented in 1853, apparently predating Clayton
Brick
–
A wall constructed in glazed-headed
Flemish bond with bricks of various shades and lengths
Brick
–
A pallet of bricks stacked without mortar
Brick
–
Raw Indian brick
Brick
–
An old brick wall in
English bond laid with alternating courses of headers and stretchers
22.
Classical architecture
–
Different styles of classical architecture have arguably existed since the Carolingian Renaissance, and prominently since the Italian Renaissance. Although classical styles of architecture can vary greatly, they can in all be said to draw on a common vocabulary of decorative and constructive elements. The term classical architecture also applies to any mode of architecture that has evolved to a highly refined state, such as classical Chinese architecture and it can also refer to any architecture that employs classical aesthetic philosophy. The term might be used differently from traditional or vernacular architecture, for contemporary buildings following authentic classical principles, the term New Classical Architecture may be used. Classical architecture is derived from the architecture of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, with the collapse of the western part of the Roman empire, the architectural traditions of the Roman empire ceased to be practised in large parts of western Europe. In the Byzantine Empire, the ancient ways of building lived on, the first conscious efforts to bring back the disused language of form of classical antiquity into Western architecture can be traced to the Carolingian Renaissance of the late 8th and 9th centuries. In general, therefore, they are not considered classical architectural styles in a strict sense, nonetheless, the classical architecture of the Renaissance from the outset represents a highly specific interpretation of the classical ideas. Most of the styles originating in post-renaissance Europe can be described as classical architecture and this broad use of the term is employed by Sir John Summerson in The Classical Language of Architecture. The elements of architecture have been applied in radically different architectural contexts than those for which they were developed. For example, Baroque or Rococo architecture are styles which, although classical at root, during these periods, architectural theory still referred to classical ideas but rather less sincerely than during the Renaissance. Neoclassical architecture held a strong position on the architectural scene c. With the advent of Modernism during the early 20th century, classical architecture arguably almost completely ceased to be practised, as noted above, classical styles of architecture dominated Western architecture for a very long time, roughly from the Renaissance until the advent of Modernism. That is to say, that classical antiquity at least in theory was considered the source of inspiration for architectural endeavours in the West for much of Modern history. Furthermore, it can even be argued that styles of architecture not typically considered classical, like Gothic, therefore, a simple delineation of the scope of classical architecture is difficult to make. The more or less defining characteristic can still be said to be a reference to ancient Greek or Roman architecture, and the architectural rules or theories that derived from that architecture. In the grammar of architecture, the word petrification is often used when discussing the development of sacred structures, such as temples, during the Archaic and early Classical periods, the architectural forms of the earliest temples had solidified and the Doric emerged as the predominant element. And not everyone within the reach of Mediterranean civilization made this transition. Nor was it the lack of knowledge of working on their part that prevented them from making the transition from timber to dressed stone
Classical architecture
–
Caryatids on the
Erechtheion, (
Athens), an example of a
Greek architectural element taken up by later classical architecture.
Classical architecture
–
Sebastiano Serlio 's canon of the
Classical orders, a prime example of classical
architectural theory.
Classical architecture
–
The forms of ancient
Roman temples like the pictured
Maison Carrée in
Nîmes (France) has served as an inspiration for plenty of much later classical architecture, e.g.
Virginia State Capitol.
Classical architecture
–
Lorsch Abbey gatehouse (Germany), c. 800, an example of the architectural style of the short-lived
Carolingian Renaissance, a first classical movement in architecture.
23.
Rustication (architecture)
–
The visible face of each individual block is cut back around the edges to make its size and placing very clear. In addition the central part of the face of each block may be given a rough or patterned surface. Rusticated masonry is usually dressed, or squared off neatly, on all sides of the stones except the face that will be visible when the stone is put in place. This is given wide joints that emphasize the edges of block, by angling the edges. The main part of the face may worked flat and smooth or left or worked with a more or less rough or patterned surface. Rustication is often used to give weight to the ground floor in contrast to smooth ashlar above. Though intended to convey a rustic simplicity, the finish is highly artificial, and it remains in use in some modern architecture. Rough finishes on stone are very common in architecture outside the European tradition. For example, the bases of Japanese castles and other fortifications usually use rough stone, probably the earliest and most influential example is the Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence, built between 1444 and 1484, with two contrasting rusticated finishes. The ground floor has an irregular and genuinely rugged appearance, with a variation in the degree to which parts of the faces of blocks project from the wall that is rarely equalled later. Above, the rustication is merely to emphasize the blocks. Also in Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, begun 1489, with large oblong rounded cushions, and these facades only used the classical orders in mullions and aedicules, with arched forms in rustication the main relief from the massive flat walls. The Palazzo Rucellai, probably of the 1460s, begins to classicize such facades, using smooth-faced rustication throughout, in Rome, Donato Bramantes Palazzo Caprini provided a standard model for the integration of rustication with the orders. The first major Renaissance building in Spain, the Palace of Charles V in Granada, had a deeply rusticated ground floor facade with regular rounded cushions, the technique was enthusiatically taken up by the next generation of Mannerist architects, with Giulio Romano in the lead. Most early examples of rustic style are therefore built for sophisticated patrons in the leading centres of taste. The Mannerist architectural writer Sebastiano Serlio and others of his generation enjoyed the play between rusticated and finished architectural elements, the Italians brought in to expand the Palace of Fontainebleau introduced the technique to France. Its spread to Germany and England took longer, but by about the end of the 16th century it had reached all parts of Europe. In his Banqueting House in London, Inigo Jones gave a lightly rusticated surface texture to emphasize the blocks on both storeys, and to them behind his orders of pilasters and columns
Rustication (architecture)
–
Two different styles of rustication in the
Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in
Florence.
Rustication (architecture)
–
Sicilian Baroque style rusticated
pilasters against a smooth background at the
University of Catania.
Rustication (architecture)
–
Serlio, rusticated doorway, 1537
24.
Beehive tomb
–
A beehive tomb, also known as a tholos tomb, is a burial structure characterized by its false dome created by the superposition of successively smaller rings of mudbricks or, more often, stones. The resulting structure resembles a beehive, hence the traditional English name, tholoi were used for burial in several cultures in the Mediterranean and West Asia, but in some cases they were used for different purposes such as homes, ritual, and even fortification. Although Max Mallowan used the name for the circular houses belonging to the Neolithic culture of Tell Halaf. In Greece, the vaulted tholoi are a monumental Late Bronze Age development, in concept, they are similar to the much more numerous Mycenaean chamber tombs which seem to have emerged at about the same time. Both have chamber, doorway stomion and entrance passage dromos but tholoi are largely built while chamber tombs are rock-cut, a few early examples of tholoi have been found in Messenia in the SW Peloponnese Greece, and recently near Troezen in the NE Peloponnese. These tholoi are built on ground and then enclosed by a mound of earth. A pair of tumuli at Marathon, Greece indicate how a built rectangular central chamber was extended with an entrance passage, after about 1500 BCE, beehive tombs became more widespread and are found in every part of the Mycenaean heartland. In contrast, however, to the early examples these are almost always cut into the slope of a hillside so that only the third of the vaulted chamber was above ground level. This masonry was then concealed with a small mound of earth. The tombs usually contain more than one burial, in places in the tomb either on the floor, in pits and cists or on stone-built or rock-cut benches. After a burial, the entrance to the tomb was filled in with soil, the chamber is always built in masonry, even in the earliest examples, as is the stomion or entrance-way. The dromos in early examples was usually just cut from the bedrock, in later examples such as the Treasury of Atreus and Tomb of Clytemnestra, all three parts were constructed of fine ashlar masonry. The chambers were built as corbelled vaults, with layers of stone placed closer together as the vault tapers toward the top of the tomb, the entrances provided an opportunity for conspicuous demonstration of wealth. That of the Treasury of Atreus, for example, was decorated with columns of red, the larger tombs contained amongst the richest finds to have come from the Late Bronze Age of Mainland Greece, despite the tombs having been pillaged both in antiquity and more recently. Although the Vapheio tholos, south of Sparta, had been robbed and these contained, among other valuable items, the two gold “Vapheio cups” decorated with scenes of bull taming which are among the best known of Mycenaean treasures. Circular structures were built in the Near East, including the examples known as tholoi found in the Neolithic Halaf culture of Iraq, Syria. They were probably used as houses and as storage structures, but ritual use may also have occurred. Other, later examples are found in Cyprus, where they were used as homes, there is no clear connection between these domestic, circular buildings and later tholos tombs
Beehive tomb
–
Cross section of
Treasury of Atreus, a beehive tomb
Beehive tomb
–
Dromos entrance to the Treasury of Atreus
Beehive tomb
–
The Lion Tholos Tomb at
Mycenae. Of note are the ashlar stomion (of conglomerate) and dromos while the chamber itself remains made of smaller stones, placing the tomb in Wace's second group
Beehive tomb
–
tholos of the
Nuraghe Arrubiu
25.
Bronze Age
–
The Bronze Age is a historical period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in modern times by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen. An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Copper-tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before trading in bronze began in the third millennium BC. Worldwide, the Bronze Age generally followed the Neolithic period, with the Chalcolithic serving as a transition, although the Iron Age generally followed the Bronze Age, in some areas, the Iron Age intruded directly on the Neolithic. Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing, according to archaeological evidence, cultures in Mesopotamia and Egypt developed the earliest viable writing systems. The overall period is characterized by use of bronze, though the place and time of the introduction. Human-made tin bronze technology requires set production techniques, tin must be mined and smelted separately, then added to molten copper to make bronze alloy. The Bronze Age was a time of use of metals. The dating of the foil has been disputed, the Bronze Age in the ancient Near East began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC. Societies in the region laid the foundations for astronomy and mathematics, the usual tripartite division into an Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age is not used. Instead, a division based on art-historical and historical characteristics is more common. The cities of the Ancient Near East housed several tens of thousands of people, ur in the Middle Bronze Age and Babylon in the Late Bronze Age similarly had large populations. The earliest mention of Babylonia appears on a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 23rd century BC, the Amorite dynasty established the city-state of Babylon in the 19th century BC. Over 100 years later, it took over the other city-states. Babylonia adopted the written Semitic Akkadian language for official use, by that time, the Sumerian language was no longer spoken, but was still in religious use. Elam was an ancient civilization located to the east of Mesopotamia, in the Old Elamite period, Elam consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered in Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered in Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Its culture played a role in the Gutian Empire and especially during the Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded it
Bronze Age
–
Chalcolithic copper mine in
Timna Valley,
Negev Desert,
Israel.
Bronze Age
–
Diffusion of metallurgy in
Europe and
Asia Minor. The darkest areas are the oldest.
Bronze Age
–
A
Shang Dynasty two-handled bronze gefuding gui (1600–1046 BC).
Bronze Age
–
Spring and Autumn Period pu bronze vessel with interlaced
dragon design (722–481 BC)
26.
Mycenae
–
Mycenae is an archaeological site in Greece, located about 90 kilometres southwest of Athens, in the north-eastern Peloponnese. Argos is 11 kilometres to the south, Corinth,48 kilometres to the north, from the hill on which the palace was located, one can see across the Argolid to the Saronic Gulf. In the second millennium BC, Mycenae was one of the centres of Greek civilization. The period of Greek history from about 1600 BC to about 1100 BC is called Mycenaean in reference to Mycenae, at its peak in 1350 BC, the citadel and lower town had a population of 30,000 and an area of 32 hectares. Although the citadel was built by Greeks, the name Mukanai is thought not to be Greek, legend has it that the name was connected to the Greek word mycēs. Thus, Pausanias ascribes the name to the legendary founder Perseus, the earliest written form of the name is Mykēnē, which is found in Homer. The reconstructed Mycenaean Greek name of the site is Mukānai, which has the form of a plural like Athānai, the change of ā to ē in more recent versions of the name is the result of a well-known sound change in later Attic-Ionic. An EH–MH settlement was discovered near a well on top of the Kalkani hill southwest of the acropolis. The first burials in pits or cist graves manifest in the MH period on the west slope of the acropolis, during the Bronze Age, the pattern of settlement at Mycenae was a fortified hill surrounded by hamlets and estates, in contrast to the dense urbanity on the coast. Richer grave goods mark the burials as possibly regal, mounds over the top contained broken drinking vessels and bones from a repast, testifying to a more than ordinary farewell. A walled enclosure, Grave Circle A, included six more shaft graves, with nine female, eight male, Grave goods were more costly than in Circle B. The presence of engraved and inlaid swords and daggers, with points and arrowheads, leave little doubt that warrior chieftains. Some art objects obtained from the graves are the Silver Siege Rhyton, the Mask of Agamemnon, the Cup of Nestor, Alan Wace divided the nine tholos tombs of Mycenae into three groups of three, each based on architecture. His earliest – the Cyclopean Tomb, Epano Phournos, and the Tomb of Aegisthus – are dated to LHIIA, burial in tholoi is seen as replacing burial in shaft graves. The care taken to preserve the shaft graves testifies that they were by then part of the royal heritage, being more visible, the tholoi all had been plundered either in antiquity, or in later historic times. Within these walls, much of which can still be seen, the final palace, remains of which are currently visible on the acropolis of Mycenae, dates to the start of LHIIIA,2. Earlier palaces must have existed, but they had cleared away or built over. The construction of palaces at that time with an architecture was general throughout southern Greece
Mycenae
–
The
Lion Gate at Mycenae.
Mycenae
–
A view of the citadel.
Mycenae
–
The Tomb of Aegisthus outside the walls of the citadel.
Mycenae
–
View from the
acropolis, or high city.
27.
Coping (architecture)
–
Coping consists of the capping or covering of a wall. A splayed or wedge coping slopes in a direction, a saddle coping slopes to either side of a central high point. A coping may consist of stone, brick, tile, slate, metal, in all cases it should be weathered to throw off the water. A diagramatic explanation of copper copings is available, in Romanesque work copings appeared plain and flat, and projected over the wall with a throating to form a drip
Coping (architecture)
–
A bridge on the
Lancaster Canal, featuring coping stones linked by large metal "staples".
28.
Corbel arch
–
A corbel vault uses this technique to support the superstructure of a buildings roof. For a corbeled vault covering the technique is extended in three dimensions along the lengths of two opposing walls, unlike true arches, not all of the structures tensile stresses caused by the weight of the superstructure are transformed into compressive stresses. The Newgrange passage tomb has a corbel arch supporting the roof of the main chamber. Egyptian pyramids from around the time of Sneferu used corbel vaults in some of their chambers and these include the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid. Corbel arches and vaults are found in places around the ancient Mediterranean. In particular, corbelled burial vaults constructed below the floor are found in Ebla in Syria, and in Tel Hazor, nuraghe constructions in ancient Sardinia, dating back to 1900 BC, use similar corbel techniques. The use of Beehive tombs on the Iberian peninsula and elsewhere around the Mediterranean, the Hittites in ancient Anatolia were also building corbelled vaults. The earliest ones date to the 16th century BC, some similarities are found between the Hittite and Mycenaean construction techniques. Yet the Hittite corbelled vaults are earlier by about 300 years, the ruins of ancient Mycenae feature many corbel arches and vaults, the Treasury of Atreus being a prominent example. Dating to the Greek Bronze Age, it is one of the oldest arch bridges still in existence, the well-preserved hellenistic Eleutherna Bridge on Crete has an unusually large span of nearly 4 m. Corbeled arches are a feature of certain pre-Columbian Mesoamerican constructions and historical/regional architectural styles. By the beginning of the Classic era corbeled vaults are a feature of building construction in the central Petén Basin region of the central Maya lowlands. Before the true arch was introduced by the Mughals, the arches in Indian buildings were trabeated or corbelled, the tomb of Sultan Ghari is an example of a corbelled arch from 1231 AD, located in New Delhi, India. The candi or temples of Indonesia which are constructed between 8th to 15th century, are made use of corbel arch technique to create an opening for gate or inner chamber of the temple. The notable example of corbel arch in Indonesian classic temple architecture is the arches of Borobudur, the interlocking andesite stone blocks creating the corbel arch, is notable for its T formed lock on the center top of the corbel arch. All the temples in Angkor made use of the corbel arch, Beehive house Beehive tomb Catenary arch Corbelling Parabolic arch Coe, Michael D. An illustrated glossary of the terms used masonry construction
Corbel arch
–
Comparison of a corbel arch (right) and a generic "true" stone
arch (left).
Corbel arch
–
Basic principle of corbeled arch design.
Corbel arch
–
Royal Palace of Ugarit Entrance
Corbel arch
–
The "Treasury of Atreus".
29.
Crete
–
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, 88th-largest island in the world and the fifth-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and Corsica. Crete and a number of surrounding islands and islets constitute the region of Crete, the capital and the largest city is Heraklion. As of 2011, the region had a population of 623,065, Crete forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece, while retaining its own local cultural traits. It was once the centre of the Minoan civilization, which is regarded as the earliest recorded civilization in Europe. The island is first referred to as Kaptara in texts from the Syrian city of Mari dating from the 18th century BC, repeated later in Neo-Assyrian records and it was also known in ancient Egyptian as Keftiu, strongly suggesting a similar Minoan name for the island. The current name of Crete is thought to be first attested in Mycenaean Greek texts written in Linear B, through the words
Crete
–
NASA photograph of Crete
Crete
–
Lefka Ori
Crete
–
Port of Heraklion
Crete
–
Lefka Ori (White mountains).
