History of Architecture

The Neolithic era, which began around 10,000 BC, is when architecture first emerged. Around this time, our ancestors moved from living in caves to customizing their homes to suit their needs. This was the beginning of architectural philosophy, motivated as much by utility as by beauty. Buildings started to physically represent the demands and creative abilities of people. 

When delving into the history of architecture, it is frequent to begin with the ancient ziggurats, such the 21st-century BC Ziggurat of Ur in Iraq. Constructed for ceremonial purposes, these terraced buildings served as a conduit between the divine and the material world. Also Egyptian step pyramids, which developed into the magnificent smooth-sided pyramids of Giza, are among the most famous examples of the architectural legacy left by the Egyptians. 

Now, numerous historical cultures, including the Egyptian and Mesopotamian ones, used monumentality in their architectural design to allegorically symbolize the political might of the ruler or the state. Architecture and urbanism also reflected these societies' ongoing interactions with the divine and the paranormal.

Instead of developing from religious or empirical values, the architecture and urbanism of other ancient civilizations, including the Greek and Roman ones, grew from civic ones. In addition to the emergence of new building types, the classical orders in architecture evolved. Roman builders adopted many Greek architectural aspects into their structures, which in turn affected Greek architecture.

THE MYCENAENS

The Mycenaeans, who are regarded as the ancestors of the Greeks, left a lasting impression on subsequent Greek literature, art, and architecture. Mycenaea was a Bronze Age military society ruled by palace kingdoms that stretched throughout coastal portions of modern Turkey, Italy, and Syria, as well as southern Greece. Every palace state was governed by a king who had political, military, and religious power. The classes that made up the state were slaves, common people, and the king's attendants. The civilization worshipped a pantheon of gods and held heroic warriors in high regard. The achievements of these warriors and gods participating in the Trojan War became legendary in later Greek literature, such as Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey, and were even taken by later Greeks as their founding myths.

The economic engines of Mycenaean expansion were agriculture and trade, both of which were aided by the engineering prowess of the people who built harbors, dams, aqueducts, drainage systems, bridges, and an extensive network of roads that was unsurpassed until the Roman era. Their inventive architects created Cyclopean masonry, which is the technique of building gigantic fortifications without the need for mortar between large rocks. The Mycenaeans also created the relieving triangle, a triangular area above the lintel that was either left open or filled with lighter materials, to lessen the weight of the heavy burden above gates and gateways. 

The Mycenaeans pioneered the acropolis, a stronghold or citadel built on a hill that would later characterize Greek towns. A large palace complex has been found in various Mycenaean centres. These complexes share some significant architectural traits, even if they each have some site-specific developments. The Megaron, a massive rectangular center chamber, served as the foundation. It was a circular throne room with four columns, at the center of the king's palace, was adorned with vibrantly colored frescoes depicting gods and goddesses, hunting, processions, marine life, and battles.

There is substantial controversy regarding the causes of the Mycenaean civilization's decline, which happened gradually between 1230 and 1100 BCE. We do know that a number of sites were demolished between 1250 and 1200 BCE, which is when the centralized system of palace authority began to wane and the so-called Post-Palatial period began. Different sites show different degrees of destruction, while other areas seem to have completely avoided the mayhem. Then, certain locations saw a return of human habitation, but occasionally on a smaller scale and with less richness than before, while other locations saw an increase in size and prosperity. However, on the whole most sites had been reducted to mere villages.

The general collapse of the Mycenaean culture (and other modern Mediterranean cultures) has been explained by scholars by a number of factors, including natural disasters (tsunami, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes), overpopulation, internal social and political unrest, invasions by foreign tribes like the Sea Peoples, regional climate change, or a combination of some or all of these. After the mysterious collapse of the Mycenaean civilization and the so-called Bronze Age Collapse in the ancient Aegean and wider Mediterranean, there came the 'Dark Ages' (another extreme label for a period which was perhaps not as dark at all). Plus, it would take several more years before Greek culture reached the pinnacles of the Late Bronze Age, despite the fact that some sites started to resurrect as early as the 10th century BCE. 

MORE TO COME...