Let’s build us a new house”. Materials, technics, and the structure of dwelling houses in the Ancient Near East 2800-D-BUD
Classes shall be divided into two parts:
– Part I: shall treat the basic building materials (clay, stone, timber) used in the building art of the Ancient Neat East, and the techniques. We shall deal extensively with the production od bricks, both mud bricks and the fired bricks, and the history of their appliance – differing dimensions and shapes, for the building of walls, floors, and the decoration. An analysis of stone/boulders/masonry courses, window- and door-openings and the methods of roofing (flat ceiling, vaults) shall close this first part.
– Part II: will be devoted to plans/structures of houses, as anticipated projects and functional ways to arrange the living space, in the „traditional” typological approach, followed by the functional-processual framing of the Spatial Archaeology, finally reaching the meaning-symbolic considerations as recommended by post-processual approaches. Finally, some non-architectonic aspects shall be treated – ephemeric installations, floor/usage/occupational deposits, as a source to perceive both the long-term and short duration usage of buildings.
Type of course
Mode
Learning outcomes
Extended knowledge on the representative dwelling houses of the Ancient Near East, complemented with the ability of their differentiated interpretation – the „traditional” one (typology, technics and materials), the processual-functional (Spatial Archaeology), and the semiotic-contextual (in the frame of post-processual proposals, e.g. the cognitive archaeology)
Assessment criteria
Recommended active participation in the discussions; individual presentation of a chosen feature/building – some basic narrative, the „near” context included; an extended explication/interpretation, within the heuristics proposed – highly appreciated.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: