1.
Leptis Magna
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Leptis Magna was a prominent city in Roman Libya. Originally a Punic foundation, it was expanded under emperor Septimius Severus. Diocletian re-instated the city as capital, and the city grew again in prosperity until it fell to the Vandals in 439. It was re-incorporated into the Eastern Empire in 533, but continued to be plagued by Berber raids and it fell to the Muslim invasion in c.647 and was abandoned. The ruins of Leptis Magna are located in Khoms, Libya,130 km east of Tripoli, the site is one of best preserved Roman ruins in the Mediterranean. The Latin name was Lepcis Magna The Greek name was Λέπτις μεγάλη Leptis megale or Νεάπολις Neapolis, the city was called Greater in contrast with Leptis Parva in modern-day Tunisia. The Neo-Punic name is recorded as lpqy, the name appears to be Semitic in origin, tentatively connected to the Arabic root lfq to fabricate, piece together, taken to refer to the foundation or construction of the city. The modern Arabic name is لَبْدَة Labdah, the Punic city was founded in the second half of the 7th century BC. Little is known about the old city, but it appears to have been enough to repel Dorieus attempt to establish a Greek colony nearby in c.515 BC. A 4th to 3rd century BC necropolis was found under the Roman theatre, during the reign of Augustus, Leptis Magna was classified as a Civitas libera et immunis, or a free community, over which the governor had an absolute minimum of control. As such Leptis retain its two suphetes at the head of its government, with the mhzm, similar to the Roman aediles, in addition there were such sacred officials as the addir ararim or praefectus sacrorum, the nēquim ēlīm, and probably a sacred college of fifteen members. These offices were still in operation when Leptis was made a Municipium with a certain degree of Roman rights. The city depended primarily on the fertility of its surrounding farmland, as early as 46 BC, its olive oil production was of such an extent that the city was levied by Caesar with a tax of three million pounds of oil annually. The Roman Republic sent some colonists together with a garrison in order to control the city. Since then the city started to grow and was allowed to create its own money. Soon Italian merchants settled in the city and started a profitable commerce with the Libyan interior, Leptis Magna remained as such until the reign of the Roman emperor Tiberius, when the city and the surrounding area were formally incorporated into the empire as part of the province of Africa. It soon became one of the cities of Roman Africa. The city grew rapidly under Roman administration and it was elevated to municipium in AD 64/5 and to colonia under Trajan Leptis achieved its greatest prominence beginning in AD193, as the hometown of emperor Septimius Severus
2.
Door
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A door is a moving structure used to block off, and allow access to, an entrance to or within an enclosed space, such as a building or vehicle. Doors normally consist of a panel that swings on hinges on the edge, similar exterior structures to doors are called gates. Typically, doors have a side that faces the inside of a space. In many cases the interior side of a door mostly matches its exterior side, when open, doors admit people, animals, ventilation or light. The door is used to control the atmosphere within a space by enclosing the air drafts. Doors are significant in preventing the spread of fire and they also act as a barrier to noise. Many doors are equipped with locking mechanisms to allow entrance to certain people, as a form of courtesy and civility, people often knock before opening a door and entering a room. Doors are used to screen areas of a building for aesthetics, keeping formal, Doors also have an aesthetic role in creating an impression of what lies beyond. Doors are often endowed with ritual purposes, and the guarding or receiving of the keys to a door, or being granted access to a door can have special significance. Similarly, doors and doorways frequently appear in metaphorical or allegorical situations, literature, the earliest in records are those represented in the paintings of the Egyptian tombs, in which they are shown as single or double doors, each in a single piece of wood. Doors were once believed to be the doorway to the afterlife. The stiles were the boards, one of which, tenoned or hinged, is known as the hanging stile. The horizontal cross pieces are the top rail, bottom rail, the most ancient doors were made timber, such as those referred to in the Biblical depiction of King Solomons temple being in olive wood, which were carved and overlaid with gold. The doors dwelt upon in Homer would appear to have been cased in silver or brass, besides olive wood, elm, cedar, oak and cypress were used. A5, 000-year-old door has been found by archaeologists in Switzerland. All ancient doors were hung by pivots at the top and bottom of the hanging stile which worked in sockets in the lintel and sill and those found at Nippur by Dr. Hilprecht dating from 2000 B. C. were in dolerite. The tenons of the gates at Balawat were sheathed with bronze and these doors or gates were hung in two leaves, each about 8 ft 4 in wide and 27 ft. high, they were encased with bronze bands or strips,10 in. High, covered with decoration of figures, etc
3.
Window
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A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof or vehicle that allows the passage of light and, if not closed or sealed, air and sound by using sheet glass. Modern windows are glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent material. Windows are held in place by frames, many glazed windows may be opened, to allow ventilation, or closed, to exclude inclement weather. Windows often have a latch or similar mechanism to lock the window shut, the Romans were the first known to use glass for windows, a technology likely first produced in Roman Egypt, in Alexandria ca.100 AD. Paper windows were economical and widely used in ancient China, Korea, in England, glass became common in the windows of ordinary homes only in the early 17th century whereas windows made up of panes of flattened animal horn were used as early as the 14th century. In the 19th century American west, greased paper windows came to be used by itinerant groups, modern-style floor-to-ceiling windows became possible only after the industrial plate glass making processes were perfected. The English language-word window originates from the Old Norse vindauga, from vindr – wind and auga – eye, the Danish word is pronounced fairly similarly to window. Window is first recorded in the early 13th century, and originally referred to a hole in a roof. Window replaced the Old English eagþyrl, which literally means eye-hole, many Germanic languages however adopted the Latin word fenestra to describe a window with glass, such as standard Swedish fönster, or German Fenster. The use of window in English is probably because of the Scandinavian influence on the English language by means of loanwords during the Viking Age, in English the word fenester was used as a parallel until the mid-18th century. Fenestration is still used to describe the arrangement of windows within a façade, as well as defenestration, in the 13th century, the earliest windows were unglazed openings cut in a roof to admit light during the day. Later, windows were covered with animal hide, cloth, or wood, shutters that could be opened and closed came next. Over time, windows were built that both protected the inhabitants from the elements and transmitted light, using small pieces of translucent material set in frameworks of wood. In the Far East, paper was used to fill windows, the Romans were the first known to use glass for windows, a technology likely first produced in Roman Egypt. It would be over a millennium before a window glass became transparent enough to see through clearly, over the centuries techniques were developed to shear through one side of a blown glass cylinder and produce thinner rectangular window panes from the same amount of glass material. This gave rise to tall narrow windows, usually separated by a vertical support called a mullion, mullioned glass windows were the windows of choice among European well-to-do, whereas paper windows were economical and widely used in ancient China, Korea and Japan. In England, glass became common in the windows of homes only in the early 17th century whereas windows made up of panes of flattened animal horn were used as early as the 14th century. Modern-style floor-to-ceiling windows became possible only after the plate glass making processes were perfected
4.
Fireplace
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A fireplace is a structure made of brick, stone or metal designed to contain a fire. Fireplaces are used for the relaxing ambiance they create and for heating a room, modern fireplaces have variable heat efficiency, depending on the sophistication of the design. Historically they were used for heating a dwelling, cooking, and heating water for laundry, a fire is contained in a firebox or firepit, a chimney or other flue allows exhaust to escape. On the exterior there is often a brick crown, in which the projecting courses of brick act as a drip course to keep rainwater from running down the exterior walls. Some chimneys have a spark arrestor incorporated into the crown or cap, organizations like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington Department of Ecology warn that, according to various studies, fireplaces can pose a significant health risk. The EPA writes Smoke may smell good, but its not good for you, manufactured fireplaces are made with sheet metal fire boxes. Electric fireplaces can be built-in replacements for wood or gas or retrofit with log inserts or electric fireboxes, Masonry and prefabricated fireplaces can be fueled by wood, natural gas, biomass and propane fuel sources. Ventless Fireplaces are fueled by either gel, liquid propane, bottled gas or natural gas, in the United States, some states and local counties have laws restricting these types of fireplaces. They must be sized to the area to be heated. There are also air quality issues due to the amount of moisture they release into the room air. Direct vent fireplaces are fueled by either liquid propane or natural gas and they are completely sealed from the area that is heated, and vent all exhaust gasses to the exterior of the structure. Chimney and flue types, Masonry with or without tile-lined flue, fundamental design flaws bankrupted the US manufacturers and made the design obsolete. These chimneys often show vertical cracks on the exterior, metal-lined flue, Double or triple walled metal pipe running up inside a new or existing wood-framed or masonry chase. Newly constructed flues may feature a cover, a cap. All fireplaces require trained gas service members to carry out installations, a wide range of accessories are used with fireplaces, which range between countries, regions, and historical periods. For the interior, common in recent Western cultures include grates, fireguards, log boxes, andirons, pellet baskets, a grate is a frame, usually of iron bars, to retain fuel for a fire. Heavy metal firebacks are sometimes used to capture and re-radiate heat, to protect the back of the fireplace, fenders are low metal frames set in front of the fireplace to contain embers, soot and ash. For fireplace tending, tools include pokers, bellows, tongs, shovels, brushes, ancient fire pits were sometimes built in the ground, within caves, or in the center of a hut or dwelling
5.
Post and lintel
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In architecture, post and lintel is a building system where strong horizontal elements are held up by strong vertical elements with large spaces between them. This is usually used to hold up a roof, creating an open space beneath. The horizontal elements are called by a variety of names including lintel, header, architrave or beam, the use of wider elements at the top of the post, called capitals, to help spread the load, is common to many traditions. The trabeated system is a principle of Neolithic architecture, Ancient Indian architecture, Ancient Greek architecture. Other trabeated styles are the Persian, Lycian, Japanese, traditional Chinese, and ancient Chinese architecture, especially in northern China, the traditions are represented in North and Central America by Mayan architecture, and in South America by Inca architecture. In all or most of these traditions, certainly in Greece and India, the earliest versions developed using wood, timber framing, also using trusses, remains common for smaller buildings such as houses to the modern day. The biggest disadvantage to a post and lintel construction is the weight that can be held up. Ancient Roman architectures development of the allowed for much larger structures to be constructed. As with the Roman temple portico front and its descendents in later classical architecture, the classical orders of Greek origin were in particular retained in buildings designed to impress, even though they usually had little or no structural role. In architecture, a post-and-lintel or trabeated system refers to the use of horizontal beams or lintels which are borne up by columns or posts, the name is from the Latin trabs, beam, influenced by trabeatus, clothed in the trabea, a ritual garment. In India the style was used originally for wooden construction, but later the technique was adopted for stone structures for decorated load-bearing, post and lintel construction is one of four ancient structural methods of building, the others being the corbel, arch-and-vault, and truss. The two posts are under compression from the weight of the lintel above, the lintel will deform by sagging in the middle because the underside is under tension and the topside is under compression
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