The origin of architecture in primitive society.

Organize, rebuild and master environment By their own standards, farmers began in two directions at once - with the creation of architecture of small and large forms. Small forms were used for private purposes, primarily residential and commercial buildings, and large ones were used for the construction of public institutions, mainly religious temples and royal palaces. Most early form human habitation served as sites - temporary unfortified camps of primitive hunters and gatherers. The sites of Stone Age hunters were replaced by settlements (villages) of farmers, which could take the form of a fortress (a structure made of huge rough-hewn stones) or a settlement (a group of residential buildings and outbuildings surrounded by an earthen rampart or wooden fence). Later the fortress and the fortification as two different types settlements are connected and turned into fortified fortified cities (there were especially many of them in the Middle Ages). Somewhat later - during the period of ancient Eastern civilizations - the architectural organization of the space of populated areas, the creation of cities and towns, and the regulation of settlement systems became a special area - urban planning.

Archaeologists claim that the Neanderthals were the first to begin burying their ancestors 80-100 thousand years ago. A similar thing happened in the era of Mousterian culture.

Burial rites reflected a dual desire - to remove, neutralize the deceased and take care of him: tying up the corpse, stoning, cremation, etc. were combined with providing the deceased with implements, as well as sacrifices, mummification, etc.

In architectural terms, burials are divided into two main types: with grave structures (mounds, megaliths, tombs) and ground ones, i.e. without any grave structures.

Mounds (Turkic) are burial mounds made of earth or stone, usually hemispherical or conical in shape.

Megaliths (from mega... and...lit) - religious buildings of the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. e. from huge unprocessed or semi-processed stone blocks. Megaliths are the most famous Western Europe(Stonehenge, Karnak), North Africa and the Caucasus. Megaliths include dolmens, menhirs, and cromlechs.

DOLMENS

Dolmens are usually “boxes” made up of stone slabs, sometimes joined by long or short galleries. They were collective burial chambers, as evidenced by bone remains and votive treasures (ceramics, jewelry, polished stone axes). Dolmens could be either free-standing structures or part of more complex structures.

MENHIRS

A menhir is a stone pillar dug vertically into the ground. Their height varies from 0.80 meters to 20. Free-standing menhirs are usually the tallest. The “record holder” was Men-er-Hroech (Fairy Stone), from Lokmariaker (Morbihan), which was destroyed around 1727. Its largest fragment was 12 m, and in its entirety it reached 20 m in height, with an approximate weight of 350 tons. Currently, all the largest menhirs in France are located in Brittany:

Menhir in Kerloas (Finistère) - 12 m.

Menhir in Kaelonan (Cote-d'Armor) - 11.20 m.

Menhir in Pergal (Côtes d'Armor) - 10.30 m.

CROMLECHES

An example of a cromlech is such a well-known building as Stonehenge.

Cromlechs are called ensembles of menhirs standing, most often, in a circle or semicircle and connected by stone slabs lying on top, however, there are menhirs collected in a rectangle (as in Crucuno, Morbihan).

ANCIENT EGYPT

We know the Egyptian style solely thanks to the developed funeral cult of the ancient Egyptians.

The monuments that have reached us are temples, palaces and tombs, i.e. monumental structures designed to personify Eternity. Although the style has existed for 4,000 years, the decorating tradition has remained virtually unchanged.

Walls, pylons, columns, as a rule, were covered with hieroglyphic writings and scenes of funeral rituals, where human figures were depicted in a characteristic “Egyptian” pose - the head and lower body in profile, and the torso and arms in front.

The exception is the Amarna period - the reign of Amenhotep IV (1368-1351 BC). The ban on numerous old cults and the proclamation of the sun itself as the true god gave impetus to the development of the arts “towards man.”

ANTIQUITY

Antiquity refers to the architecture of ancient Greece and Rome.

Ancient Greek architecture, which arose on the islands of the Aegean Sea, was so harmonious and holistic that it was subsequently perceived by later styles (Renaissance, Classicism, Neoclassicism) as a primary source, as a kind of standard to follow.

Based on mythology, naively representing the forces of nature, Greek art was, in fact, quite realistic.

It is impossible not to mention the emergence of geometry as a science, which made it possible to understand proportions as a measure of harmony. Greatest achievement Greek architects "invented" the Doric and Ionic orders.

The ancient Romans, being good students of the Greeks, not only fully adopted their heritage, but also developed it, complementing the order system with the Tuscan and Composite orders.

The real achievement of the Romans was that by combining the Greek order, the Italic arch and the cylindrical vault (the Greeks had neither one nor the other), they “invented” the arched order cell. The Romans also experimented with the stunningly beautiful form of the dome.

BYZANTIUM

In the East, the so-called centric type of temple was born and evolved, when the central room was made large and, as a rule, covered with a dome.

The dome, being the personification of heavenly paradise for believers, was present as an element of any temple. However, the dome had a rather unpleasant “structural weakness” - it transferred a gigantic thrust to the walls, which is why the latter had to be made very thick. Therefore, chronicles often noted the collapse of domes.

This was the case with the famous Cathedral of St. Sofia in Constantinople. (This is now the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, so mentally remove the four tall minaret towers.)

When re-erecting the dome, Anthymius and Isidore for the first time used a design that would later be called a dome on sails, and will be widely used to this day.

“The art of primitive man” - Painting in a cave. Trypillian culture. Malta. Cave images. Lasko. Expressive sculpture. Rock carving of a bison. Primitive art. Dolmens. Appliqué on the saddle cover. Ceramics and ornamental elements. Monuments of Paleolithic art. The art of primitive man.

“Ancient painting” - The first artists of the earth. How did the history of architecture begin? Menhirs from Karnak. Table. Images of animals on the walls of the Altamira cave. Bison. Fighting archers. Goals. Ensemble of megaliths. Imprint human hand. France. Menhirs. "Jumping cow" and "pony". "Pasta" frieze on the ceiling of the Altamira cave.

“Figures of women” - Clay figurines of people. Schematic outline drawings. True meaning. Cult of fire. General proportions of the figure. The oldest sculptural image of a person. "Venus" by the first artists of the Earth. Archaeologists. Animal sculptures. Women-mothers. Women's figurines. Figures of women. Researchers.

“The Emergence of Primitive Art” - Discovery of cave painting. Bison hunting. Complex. Archaeological excavations. Drawing and magic ritual. Animal images. The emergence of art and religion. The emergence of religion. Pithecanthropus. Mysteries of ancient drawings. Ancient stone structures.

“Features of primitive culture” - Culture primitive society. Chauvet Cave. Rotunda with bulls. Drakensberg Mountains. Cave of hands. Traditional art. Religious ideas ancient man. Art at the dawn of humanity. Contemporary painting. Cave Lascaux France. First drawings. Pesh-Merle Cave. Rock painting. Features of Paleolithic painting.

"Cave paintings" - Male images in the Paleolithic era are very rare. Cave paintings from the Paleolithic era. IN last period There are no realistic images at all. For engravings of the middle and final madeleine, more delicate detailing is typical. The nature of Paleolithic art. Technique of Paleolithic art. Primitive sculptors were not even interested in facial features.

There are 11 presentations in total

The word "architecture" translated from Greek means "construction". This is one of oldest species human activity. The surviving remains of human settlements indicate the existence of different ways of life of people in different areas globe and at different stages of human development.

The oldest monumental structures that have come down to us belong to stone age and are called megalithic. The name comes from the Greek words “megas” - large and “litos” - stone, that is, structures made of large stones. They are found in the most different countries Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor, India, Japan and other parts of the world. Such buildings are called menhirs, dolmens, and cromlechs.

Isn’t it amazing that the seemingly limitless variety of forms of world architecture, including its most modern achievements, merely reproduces in different ways these eternal principles laid down by the still nameless architects of the Stone Age.

Metal structures acted as public buildings, but people have needed housing since ancient times. It is unlikely that anyone is able to find out where and when a person built his first house. In the Neolithic, in some places, dwellings were built from wood, reeds, twigs and clay. In others, buildings are erected on stilts and so-called communal houses. The settlements found in Northern Italy (approximately 1800 BC) had a peculiar character. Platforms arranged in a circle were arranged on the pillars, on which huts were located. A wooden fence was erected around the village, and a ditch was dug and filled with water. As a result of research in Anatolia (Türkiye), an ancient fortified settlement dating back to the 6th millennium BC was discovered.

But, perhaps, the most ancient human dwelling is described in V. Glazychev’s book “The Origin of Architecture.” The house reconstructed by scientists was built 11 thousand years ago in the Wadi en-Natuf valley (upper reaches of the Jordan River) and looked like this: a round depression in the stone base, flexible poles inserted into pre-dug holes and converging at the top. Then the poles were intertwined with thinner rods and coated with clay. In the middle of the base of this round house is the place of the hearth, with a hole above it. There are still many millennia ahead, discoveries and disappointments, the grandeur of the Egyptian pyramids and the perfection of the Athenian Acropolis, the monumentality of Rome and the frantic impulse of Gothic, but there, in the distant Wadi en-Natuf, a decisive step has already been taken, the great craft of architecture is already counting down the times. A person finds shelter over his head, protection from bad weather and danger, warmth and coolness not under a tree or in a cave, but in a specially built permanent house.

The most important moment in the emerging agricultural civilization was the emergence of a completely new type of art, impossible and unknown to hunters and collectors. It's about about architecture. Taking refuge in a randomly discovered cave is one thing, but building artificial structures of arbitrary sizes and shapes from clay, wood or stone, placing them in specially selected places, is a completely different matter.

Architecture refers to the art of designing and constructing buildings in accordance with predetermined goals and a design that meets the technical capabilities and aesthetic criteria of the local community (town, city, country). As an art form, architecture already enters the sphere of spiritual culture, aesthetically shapes the human environment, expresses social ideas in artistic images.

Farmers began to organize, rebuild and develop the environment according to their own standards in two directions at once - with the creation of architecture of small and large forms. Small forms were used for private purposes, primarily residential and commercial buildings, and large ones were used for the construction of public institutions, mainly religious temples and royal palaces. This should also include large engineering projects, such as the large irrigation systems of Ancient Egypt.

The earliest form of human habitation was encampments - temporary unfortified camps of primitive hunters and gatherers. The sites of Stone Age hunters were replaced by settlements (villages) of farmers, which could take the form of a fortress (a structure made of huge rough-hewn stones) or a settlement (a group of residential buildings and outbuildings surrounded by an earthen rampart or wooden fence). Later, the fortress and the fortification, as two different types of settlements, are combined and turned into fortified fortified cities (there were especially many of them in the Middle Ages).

Somewhat later - during the period of ancient Eastern civilizations - the architectural organization of the space of populated areas, the creation of cities and towns, and the regulation of settlement systems became a special area - urban planning.

The origins of architecture date back to the late Neolithic. It was then that stone was already used for the construction of monumental buildings. But the purpose of most of the monuments that have come down to us from that period is not known.

A menhir is usually a free-standing stone with traces of processing, sometimes oriented in some way or marking a certain direction.

A cromlech is a circle of standing stones, in varying degrees of preservation and with different orientations. The term henge has the same meaning. This term is usually used in relation to structures of this type in the UK. However, similar structures existed in prehistoric times also in Germany (Goloring, Goseck Circle) and in other countries.

A dolmen is something like a stone house.

They are all united by the name “megaliths,” which simply translates as “big stones.” For the most part, according to some scientists, they served for burials or were associated with the funeral cult. There are other opinions. Apparently, megaliths are communal buildings with a socializing function. Their construction represented primitive technology a daunting task and required the unification of large masses of people. Some megalithic structures, such as the complex of more than 3,000 stones at Carnac (Brittany) France, were important ceremonial centers associated with the cult of the dead. Other megalith complexes have been used to determine the timing of astronomical events such as solstices and equinoxes. Found in the Nabta Playa area of ​​the Nubian Desert megalithic structure, which served for astronomical purposes. This structure is 1000 years older than Stonehenge.

Stonehenge

Stonehenge is a structure of 82 five-ton megaliths, 30 stone blocks weighing 25 tons and 5 huge so-called trilithons, stones whose weight reaches 50 tons. Folded stone blocks form arches that once served as a perfect indicator of the cardinal directions. Scientists suggest that this monument was built in 3100 BC by tribes living in the British Isles to observe the Sun and Moon. The ancient monolith is not only solar and lunar calendar, as previously assumed, but also represents an accurate model solar system in cross section.

Cromlech Broughgar or Sun Temple, Orkney. Initially it had 60 elements, but now it consists of 27 rocks. Archaeologists date the Cromlech of Brodgar or the ring of Brodgar to 2500 - 2000 BC. The Ring of Brodgar was first mentioned in the 1529 manuscript “Description of the Orcadian Islands” by a certain Joe Ben, a wandering monk or pilgrim whose identity is not precisely established. Not only the Brodgar monument, but also the more ancient one, located here, the cromlech of Stenness, and in general, everything around them, in this small area - the whole area - ritual, sacred, communicative - is literally stuffed with mounds, group and individual burials, even “ cathedral”, as well as the dwellings and villages of the Neolithic people. All these monuments are united into a single complex, protected by UNESCO. Archaeological research is currently being carried out in Orkney.

The most famous dolmens are located in Scandinavia, on the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of Europe and Africa, on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, in the Kuban region, and in India. However, most of them are in the Caucasus - about 2.5 thousand! Here along the Black Sea coast (megaliths generally gravitate towards the seas) you can find “classical” tiled dolmens, monolithic dolmens, entirely hollowed out in the rock, dolmen structures made from a combination of stone slabs and blocks laid in two or more rows. They also talk about the spiritual content of these amazing structures, their energy charges. Scientists believe that approximate age dolmens are 3-10 thousand years old.

Log buildings (second half of the 2nd millennium BC - beginning of the 1st millennium), in particular mounds, are a common type of memorial structures. Their prototype was residential log houses. When erecting a mound, a powerful wooden frame with a wooden floor was built in a pit, inside which a burial chamber was located. Sometimes the space between the two chambers was filled with stones. The chambers were covered with rolls of logs, which were covered with birch bark and bark. Then they covered it with earth, forming a mound, often of considerable height. A stone was thrown onto the top of the hill.

Log dwellings were the first step towards creating above-ground logged wooden buildings. Long horizontally laid logs made multifaceted buildings, which over time transformed into one-room rectangular houses. There was a fireplace in the middle, with smoke coming out of a hole in the roof above it. This type of building was later called "megaron", the basis of Greek architecture

Thus, primitive art is presented in the following main types: graphics (drawings and silhouettes); painting (images in color, made with mineral paints); sculptures (figures carved from stone or sculpted from clay); decorative arts(stone and bone carving); reliefs and bas-reliefs.