Prehistoric architecture predates recorded history. This is a period in time where the writing system has not yet emerged and most of the knowledge of this era  lies on the objects used by people during that time. Most of the data are of non-verbal form and it is a challenge for professionals to  investigate and study these artefacts to know more about the story of early humans.

2, 300, 000 million years ago, the known ancestors of humans thrived and survived in prehistoric times through developing tools through stone, wood and bones. Humans are believed to have migrated from Africa and spread all over the globe. From Africa, they travelled to Southern Europe and Asia. Far North proved to be too cold for human settlement thus travelling from Siberia to North America. For those who  travelled to Southeast Asia went further south by boat and settled in Australia and others in Oceania.

HUMAN LINEAGE:

• Australopithecus afarensis

• Homo habilis

• Homo erectus

• Homo neanderthalensis

• Homo sapiens

Early humans lived a Nomadic life gathering food as they went and went on hunting. Around 9000 BC, the early humans started practicing agriculture as they grow their food in fertile lands making food to be abundant.

Because of this agricultural practice, early humans have wanted to settle down in  communities and leave their Nomadic life for a more stable and secured life. This lead to the formation of villages in Middle East, South  America, Central America, India and China.

Early settlements were usually found in river valleys where fertile lands and water are abundant.

I. PRE-HISTORIC PERIODS

STONE AGE

• Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age (c 40000-8000 BC) – mostly nomadic hunter

  • Lower Palaeolithic

  • Middle Palaeolithic

  • Upper Palaeolithic

• Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age (c 8000-7000 BC)

• Neolithic or New Stone Age (c 7000-2300 BC)

BRONZE AGE

IRON AGE

II. ETYMOLOGY

PALEO – “old”

MESO – “middle / between”

NEO – “new”

LITH – “stone”

MEGA – “large or great”

III. 3 Classifications Of Early Known Types Of Architecture

• Dwellings

• Religious Monuments

• Burial Grounds

PALAEOLITHIC AND MESOLITHIC ARCHITECTURE

• Materials – Animal skins, wooden frames, animal bones

• Construction System – Existing or excavated caves, Megalithic structures

• Decoration – Caves paintings in Africa, France and Spain

• Religion - No organized religion. The dead are treated with respect - burial rituals and monuments

TYPES OF PALEOLITHIC HOUSES

• Lean To- attached to caves, opening is on the longer side

• One Room House- multipurpose room

• Mud Hut
  

MONOLITH – isolated single upright stone also known as “Menhir”

MEGALITH – Several number of stones forming part of a prehistoric structure.

3500 BCE – Architecture made of huge rocks to make megalithic structure for either religious of burial purposes

Carnac – where around 3,000 megalithic structures are located, the largest number in the world. These  Megalithic structures are believed to date between 5000 – 1000 BCE.

Cairn/Carn – a landmark or memorial site made of pile of stones in Medieval English.

THREE MAIN TYPES OF STONE PREHISTORIC STRUCTURES:

MENHIR

• A large monolith standing in an upright manner. Menhirs can usually be seen in a middle of a field, but there are instances that a group of Menhirs are arranged in rows parallel and would sometimes stretch out for miles.

• Usually 1/5th or 1/4th of the rock is buried beneath the earth

• Average of 9 meters as its height.

• These large monoliths are usually found in Europe particularly in Ireland, Great Britain and Brittany. However, it can also be found in Africa and Asia.

• Purposes vary. Either a Commemorative or Celebratory monument for a tribe or community or a religious monument.

DOLMEN

• Megalithic structure which is composed of a horizontal stone slab supported by two upright ones. Leg count sometimes be more than 2 upright stones supporting it.

• Believed to have been used as an altar or a tomb. Sometimes Dolmens would form long chambers or hallways that lead to rooms

• Also called “long tombs”, “passage graves”, “portal tombs” or “chamber tombs.” Sometimes they appear in sequence like a corridor which can be seen in Western France dating as far back as 5th millennium BCE.

• Expression in Brittany, taol maen meaning "stone table”.

STONES ARRANGED IN CIRCLE OR STONE CIRCLE

• The purpose of structure is still debated although many believe that some of this megalithic structures are ancient stone burial chambers.

• Stonehenge at the Salisbury Plains of Southern England is the best and most well-known megalithic structure in the world.

Dolmen vs. Cromlech – both mean a megalithic tomb with a massive flat stone laid on upright stones in Wales. In Brittany, cromlech refers to a circle of standing stones.

STONEHENGE

• stān meaning stone, hencg meaning hinge or hen(c)en mean meaning hang or gallows.

• The most remarkable megalithic monument built around 2800 to 1500 BC for astronomical purposes.

• Despite  having so many speculations on its use, it is believed to be a solar observatory marking Midsummer day’s sunrise during Summer Solstice.

• Location – Wiltshire, 3.2 kms west of Amesbury, 13 kms north of Salisbury, Southern England ∙ Largest stones – 45 to 50 tons from Wales (200 km)

• Stones were transported through the sea or river. With the help of sledges and rollers it was heaved on land by hundreds of labourers. It is believed to have an estimation of 30,000,000 hours of construction and was divided in 3 phases.

• Pits were dug where stones are set upright before capping with lintels similarly like the post-and lintel construction.

The most impressive of the extant prehistoric earthworks in Europe is located just 25 miles north of Stonehenge – the Avebury Henge.

TUMULUS or BURIAL MOUND or PASSAGE GRAVE

• A Tumuli or “Barrows” is a dominant tomb type in prehistoric times known for its earthen mounds.

• Has a corridor that leads to an underground chamber.

• It can house several burials up to hundreds of bodies interred inside.

PREHISTORIC OR PRIMITIVE DWELLINGS

There are no partitions and usually is just one room. As civilization developed into complex societies, this had led to the partition of the floor plans of the ancient dwellings such as Dining, Cooking, Sleeping and Socializing. Some of the ancient houses or building methods were still used or adapted today in areas where industrial revolution never occurred.

NATURAL OR ARTIFICIAL CAVES

Lascaux Cave or Grotto

• Famous for its Palaeolithic cave paintings, it is found in a complex of caves in the Dordogne region of southwestern France.

• Estimated to be upto 20,000 years old, the paintings consist primarily of large animals once native to the region.

• Lascaux is located in the Vézère Valley where many other decorated caves have been found since the beginning of the 20th century

• It was discovered on September 12, 1940 and given statutory historic monument protection in December of the same year.

• In 1979, several decorated caves of the Vézère Valley - including the Lascaux cave - were added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list.”

Tents

• Made of tree barks, animal skins and plant leaves

Huts

• Usually made up of reeds, brushes and wattles (e.g. beehive houses)

Beehive Hut

• Also known as Cochlán in Ireland, a traditional dried stone hut shaped like a beehive with corbelled roof

Trullo

• Known also as the Trulli in Southern Italy

• Are traditional Apulian dry stone houses with conical roof.

• Its interior is covered by a dry stone corbelled or keystone vault.

• It is believed that the method of its construction came from a prehistoric tradition.

Lake Dwellings

• Widespread in coastal areas around the world where the main livelihood is fishing.

Tepee or Teepee

• Built by the indigenous people in the plains of North America.

• It came from a Lakota word “thipi” meaning “they dwell”.

• A cone-shaped tent with a framework made from wooden poles traditionally covered by animal skin or rush mats.

Wigwam

• Also known as wickiup or wetu is used by certain Native American and First Nations tribes.

• It is a semi-permanent enclosure with a domical shape and a round or oval shaped plan.

• It has a framework made of wooden poles and covered with barks, animal skin or rush mats.

Hogan

• Traditional dwelling of Navajo people.

• Composed of logs which are covered by mud and sod. The entrance faces east for the sunrise and it embraces the concept of thermal mass which made it known as a pioneer of energy-efficient homes.

Igloo

• Snow house or snow hut that is built up spirally mostly and associated with the Innuit or Eskimo people.

• The term “iglu” in Innuit refers to houses not just specifically made of snow.

Nigerian hut

• Mostly known traditional hut in Nigeria is the Igbo house which is made of mud for its walls and palm leaves for its roof.

Mammoth Bone Hut

• Prehistoric hut made from massive mammoth bones usually found in Ukraine.

Iraqi mudhif

• Known as the traditional reed house of the Marsh Arabs known as the Madan.

• Found in the swamps of southern Iraq and used as a large ceremonial house.

• It is covered with split reed mats, built on a reed platform to prevent settlement.

Sumatran house

• Vary from various tribes however they are usually built for several families.

• Usually materials are made of timber and palm leaves

• Underneath it is a fenced pen for livestock or for protection against water.

Catal Hüyük (c. 6500 BCE) –

• One of the best preserved neolithic towns

• Covering some 32 acres in southern Turkey , Anatolia

• Rectangular houses with windows but no doors.

• They adjoin each other, like cells in a honeycomb, and the entrance to each is through the roof.

• The windows are accidental, made possible by the sloping site.

• Each house projects a little above its neighbour, providing space for the window

• Life is shown transitioning to a fully settled existence has been satisfactorily achieved

• Food is produced by agriculture and domestication of animals

• The community uses pottery and woven textiles.

• Only a fraction of the site has been excavated, but it is known to be in continuous occupation from about 6500 to 5700 BC.

• The population is calculated to number about 5000, living in 1000 houses

• Each house in Catal Huyuk has its own oven for the baking of bread.

• The walls and the floors of the houses are covered in plaster, renewed annually, and the walls in most houses are decorated with panels of red.

• Rush matting is used on the floors.∙

• The furniture is built in (as at the much later Neolithic settlement of Skara Brae in Scotland) with brick platforms for sitting on, working on and sleeping on.

• Under these platforms the bones of the dead are buried, to remain part of the family

• Many of the houses excavated in Catal Huyuk are shrines (so many that the small section of the site so far revealed is thought to be the religious quarter)

• Their walls are painted with a wide range of subjects. These include hunting scenes, a picture of vultures setting about human corpses, and even an elementary landscape.

Khiriokitia (6500 BCE)

• Round tent-like house located in Cyprus

• Most of the rooms here have a dome-like roof in corbelled stone or brick.

• One step up from outside, to keep out the rain, leads to several steps down into each room; seats and storage spaces are shaped into the walls; and in at least one house there is a ladder to an upper sleeping platform.

• And there is another striking innovation at Khirokitia. A paved road runs through the village, a central thoroughfare for the community, with paths leading off to the courtyards around which the houses are built.

• The round house has remained a traditional shape.

• Buildings very similar to those in Khirokitia are still lived in today in parts of southern Italy, where they are known as trulli.

• The circle remains the obvious form in which to build a roofed house from the majority of natural materials.

Jericho (c. 8000 BCE)

• Usually quoted as the earliest known town.

• A small settlement here evolves in about 8000 BC into a town covering 10 acres.

• And the builders of Jericho have a new technology - bricks, shaped from mud and baked hard in the sun.

• In keeping with a circular tradition, each brick is curved on its outer edge.

• Most of the round houses in Jericho consist of a single room, but a few have as many as three - suggesting the arrival of the social and economic distinctions which have been a feature of all developed societies.

• The floor of each house is excavated some way down into the ground; then both the floor and the brick wall are plastered in mud.

• The roof of each room, still in the tent style, is a conical structure of branches and mud (wattle and daub).