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HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE
1ST
SEMESTER
OMDAYAL INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING AND
ARCHITECTURE
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N.Africa was once a vast fertile area of forests and pasturelands
that was populated by humans . But in 6th millenium BCE,
warming that affected the globe changed that into a Sahara likedesert. People moved to Morrocco , Spain or bank ofNile.
and assertions of divinity in local elite assured protection and
isolation of power.
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One of the oldest Egyptian sites Merimda Beni Salama is a
major Predynastic settlement site on the western margin of the
Delta, about 60km north-west of Cairo.
The site has been found to consist offive levels, showing three
phases of occupation dating from 5000 BCE to 4100 BCE,
The later or Classic Merimda culture refers to the Level III
,
village of mud huts and work spaces in organised groups ofbuildings which were laid out in streets.
The high level of organisation in the villages is indicated bynumerous subterranean silos or granaries, lined with
basketware and used to store grain, probably associated with
individual dwellings.
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The suggestion is that by the later phases the population consisted
ofeconomically independent family groups in a formalisedvillage life.
Most of the burials found among the houses of the settlement
contained the bodies ofchildren or adolescents, while it isthought that the adult population must have been buried elsewhere
in yet undiscovered cemeteries.
matting and accompanied
by goods, - clay vessels,
shells, idols and wall
paintings all point to anaesthetic that would become
characteristically Egyptian
smooth surfaces ,abstract
forms and heroic actions.
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Considered one of the most important
archaeological sites of ancient Egypt ,100km from
Thebes,under the face of an imposing cliffthe sacred city of
Abydos was the site of many ancient temples,
including Umm el-Qa'ab, the royal necropolis,
where early pharaohs were entombed. A gorgeopens out dramatically through the cliff at the spot
and according to some this was regarded as the
entrance to the netherworld.
These tombs began to be seen as extremely
significant burials and in later times it became
desirable to be buried in the area, leading to the
growth of the town's importance as a cult site.
Like no other group of monuments, the graves of the
early rulers and kings reflect in their architecture and
funerary equipment the particular developmentalstage of society and the religious beliefs
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Abydos Umm el-Qaab
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Hor-Aha's tomb comprises
three chambers B10, B15
and B19, shown in insetwith over 1.50 m thick
brick walls.
B14 could be the tomb of
Hor-Aha's wife. The
chambers are rectangular,
directly dug in the desert
floor, their walls linedwith mud bricks.
The tomb of Narmer a had
only two adjacent
chambers, while the tombof Hor-Aha comprises
three substantially larger
yet separated chambers.
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The tomb of HorAha was stockplied
with provisions-
large cuts of ox
meat, freshly killed
water birds, loaves
of dried bread, figs
The reason for this architecture is
that it was difficult at that time to
build large ceiling above thechambers. Moreoever timber for
these structures often had to be
imported from Palestine.
and jars of beer andwine, each bearing
Ahas official seal.
There were also
morethan__________
ancillary graves for
servants and animals
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The tomb complex of Aha, which was built in three stages, for the first time
includes subsidiary burials for servants and takes a qualitative step towards
monumental architecture.Thus the new position of the king ruling over a unified Egypt becomes
apparent.
From Djer (Djet) onwards, the tomb complexes of the kings of the 1st Dynasty,
which are set into the desert floor and lined with mud-brick, comprise a largecentral chamber for the burial of the king and up to 200 subsidiary burials
lined in rows containing offerings, the remains of servants and also animals
(hunting dogs, lions) .
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The chambers were
covered with wooden
beams and layers ofmats and bricks. The
kings chamber was
superimposed by a
sand tumulus, a
symbolic primeval
mound, which emerged
from the primevalwaters during the
creation of the world.
From this building
element, whichguaranteed the
continuation of life,
the pyramid
developed later on.
In the graves there were also false exits,
orientated towards the opening of a wadi (valley
or riverbed) in the mountains west of the tombs:
the entrance to the netherworld, which theresurrected king was supposed to enter
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Merneith is believed
to have become ruler
upon the death of herhusband, Djet. The
title she held,
however, is debated.
It is possible that her
son Den was too
young to rule when
Djet ie , so she mayhave ruled as regent
until Den was old
enough to be the king
in his own right.
The strongest evidence that
Merneith was a ruler of Egypt is
her tomb. This tomb in Abydos
(Tomb Y) is unique among the
otherwise exclusively male tombs.
Merneith was buried close to Djetand Den.
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Her tomb is of the same scale as the tombs of the kings of that
period. Inside her tomb archaeologists discovered a solar boat, that
would allow her to travel with the sun deity in the afterlife.
The framing around the tomb is open on the SW side presumably
that the spirit can escape through the gorge through the cliff.
In Dens tomb this was more explicit a special chamber next to
.
Merneiths name appears on a seal found in the tomb of her son,
Den.
The seal includes Merneith on a list of the first dynasty kings.Merneith's name was the only name of a woman included on the
list.
However, Merneith's name is accompanied by the title "King's
Mother".
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An important innovationduring Dens reign was the
introduction ofnumbering
using hieroglyphs.
Den is said to have brought
prosperity to his realm and
numerous innovations are
attributed to his reign.He was the first to use the title
King of Lower- and Upper
Egypt, and the first depicted as
wearing the double crown (redand white).
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Tomb T is among the
largest and mostfinely-built of the
tombs in this area,
and is the first to
feature a staircase
and floor of his tomb
at Umm el-Qa'ab
near Abydos is madeofred and black
granite, the first
time in Egypt this
hard stone was usedas a building
material.
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In the original layout for the tomb, a
wooden door was located about
half-way up
the staircase, and a portcullis placed in
front of the burial chamber, designed to
keep out tomb robbers
Semerkhet's burial site was excavated and is
known as "Tomb U". While excavating, nostairways like at the necropolis of Den .He
found a ramp, four metres wide and leading
straight into the main chamber.
The burial chamber measures 29.2 20.8 metresand is of simple construction.
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Qa'a had a fairly large tomb
in Abydos which measures 30
X 23 meters.A long reign issupported by the large size of
this ruler's burial site at Abydos.
A seal impression was found ofQa'a (Tomb Q)
The discovery near the entrance
of the tom of the sealimpression bearing
Hotepsekhemwy's name, has
been interpreted as evidence
that Qa'a was buried, andtherefore succeeded, by
Hotepsekhemwy, the founder of
the second dynasty of Egypt
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The beautiful tomb stela of Qa'a
is now on display at the
University of Pennsylvania
Museum of Archaeology andAnthropology. The tradition of
burying the family and court of
the kin when he died was
abandoned at the time of kingQaa, one of the last rulers of the
1st dynasty.
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In this early stage of Egyptian
culture, there was no temple
architecture as in China wherereligion unified society. Architecture
was meant as interface between life
and death for members of the
elite.It has much less social
proliferation but wonderfully
Dramatic. Death for the Chinese was
handing down of family memoirsarticulated spatially within house
shrines and fragile wooden temples.
In Egypt death was majestic
making the way for a simulatedhouse with all arrangements for a
comfortable afterlife. How the spirit
moved about was to determine the
flow of history while entombing thehouse
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Archaeological evidence suggests that unification of Egypt
was a slow process that took several centuries. Thisunification as Old Kingdom combined with rapid
development of hieroglyphic script and powerful
bureaucracy was the final transformation of this complex
and vertically structured society of several million.
This organisation of efficient work force that little
..
Mesopotamia and China. Thus large numbers of labourers,slaves and then cooks, technicians, bureaucrats were all
employed solely for royal projects.
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No shortage ofbuilding material red
granite of Aswan, white marble of GebelRokham and black basalt of Faiyum and
various types of sandstone from Nubia.
By 3rd dynasty of Old Kingdom politicalstability of Egypt was secure with Zoser
creating building projects against which
accomplishments.
The Mortuary Complex of Zoser just
north of Saqqara was enclosed by 277m
x 544m x 10.5m wall laid out in preciseorientation to 4 cardinal points.
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The Saqqara royal tombs were cut from the
bedrock and incorporated a new design, unlike theearlier tombs at Abydos that were basically pits
lined with mudbricks.
The practice of building subsidiary graves for
family and servants surrounding the royal tomb
was discontinued.
Hetepsekhemwys immense tomb, very close to
the Pyramid of Unas with extensive galleries
partly underlying the pyramid, was identified by
numerous seal impressions bearing the KingsHorus names and those of his successor Nebre,
but his tomb was otherwise empty.