Exam 1,2,3 Questions with Solved
Solutions Spring (2017-2027) Newest
Update.
Paleolithic Period - Answer (Old Stone Age) ca. +100,000 - 9000 BCE
• hunter-gatherer societies (first societies)
• small family groups & clans
• seasonal habitation (huts, tents, caves)
Neolithic Period - Answer (New Stone Age) ca. 9000-3000 BCE
• agriculture
• domestication of animals
• settled village life
Mudbrick - Answer sun-dried mud-brick (adobe)
Non-weather resistant common building material
Intramural Burial - Answer graves within a settlement, ie, under the floors of houses.
Megalithic - Answer Prehistoric architecture made from large stones or boulders
Corbeling - Answer When rocks are brought in closer together to form an arch or "tower" until
the top can be closed off using a capstone. This is formed without mortar and is made in layers
(each being slightly further inward than the previous layer)
Post-and-lintel - Answer Style of construction where one horizontal member, lintel, is
supported by two vertical members, posts.
mortise-and-tenon - Answer where a small piece sticks out of a building material and fits into
a hole in another building piece. Tenon sticks out, and fits into mortise.
Mammoth-bone houses; Mezhyrich,Ukraine; c. 16,000 - 10,000 BCE (paleolithic period) -
Answer - settlement of 10 houses
-bones, pine poles, animal hides, hearth, floors colored with ochre (red, brown, yellow mineral
that can be used as paint)
,Lascaux Cave; Dordogne, France; 15,000 BCE (paleolithic period) - Answer -"Hall of the Bulls"
has ceiling painted with images of oxen/bulls
-paintings were part of a system, NOT at the mouth of the cave, they were deep in the cave
system.
-Could depict the hunts, but there isn't evidence of the animals in the caves, meaning they
probably didn't eat them.
-May be ritualistic; possibly worshiped these animals
Göbekli Tepe; southeast Turkey; c. 9100-8100 BCE (neolithic period) - Answer - Layer III (9000 -
8100 BCE)
-circular rubber enclosures
- T-shaped limestone pillars
- benches
-represents investment of time, energy, and resources by
a community to create large-scale (monumental) architecture
-stones are carved with figures of animals (shallow relief)
-interpretation: ceremonial??? ("world's first temples?")
-no evidence of agriculture here yet
-permanent settlement, complete village
multilayered (tell) possible ceremonial enclosures
-circular enclosures, sometimes very wide
pillars were possibly supports, buttresses
multilayered structure, new structures built over old ones (info gathered from layer 3)
-it was a full civilization - with residences and gathering places the circular rubble enclosures
may have been the first temples/ceremonial enclosures
Jericho, Israel; ca. 8000 BCE (neolithic period) - Answer -natural spring
-settlement is enclosed by a wall (fortified)
-ca. 6-10 acres
-population >= 2000 people
-wall made of stone: 5027 ft. thick and 13 ft. tall
-ditch cut into the rock
-tower: 28 ft. in diameter and 26 ft. tall
-Houses:
*earliest (PPNA) = circle
,*later (PPNB) = rectangular
•stone foundation levels
•sun-dried brick (mudbrick or adobe)
•lime- or gypsum-plaster walls and floors
•plaster was painted or stained red and
burnished to a smooth and shiny finish
•intramural burials (ancestor worship?)
PPNA House (Jericho) - Answer
PPNB House (Jericho) - Answer
Çatal Hüyük, Turkey; c. 6500-5700 BCE (neolithic period) - Answer - sun-dried brick (mudbrick)
(adobe) walls
•has to be kept protected from the elements by
plaster (so it doesn't melt)
- stone socle (foundation)
-Single story houses with two rooms
-No doorways, entrance through roof
-roof--->timber beams topped with small brances and clay, and is mostly flat but has slight
incline for rain run-off
-had woven mats b/c we saw the impression of them on the earthen floors
-walls coated with plaster & were painted
•very schematic style of art; bows & arrows
w/ deer might represent a hunting scene;
bulls that are very large & have horns are
very common and sometimes there were real
bull horns in the house (religious
ceremony???)
•"map" depicting town & volcanic eruption?
c. 6150 BCE Hasan Dag Volcano was
probably an active volcano in that time
-Bull = masculine potency and fertility
-Women who are large & breasts specified by the sculpture found @ Catal Huyuk
•One has two animals @ the seat of the chair
, •Breasts = fertility
•Big Belly = have enough food/nutrition to be
fat
-Has burials beneath the floors; sometimes they go back into the grave, take a skull, plaster &
paint it, and then display it in the house
Newgrange Passage Grave, Ireland; c. 3100 BCE (neolithic period) - Answer - "Passage grave" =
tomb for small # of people
-surrounding perimeter of stone around the mound
-entrance chamber comes to a cross-shaped central hall w/ a backroom; "Burial Chamber"
-megalithic architecture
-at the entrance there is post & lintel architecture where weight of the stone goes down onto
the post stones; Window/Transom acts as a relieving space in order to distribute the weight of
the structure
-at the central hall, they raised up the ceiling using corbeling with a capstone. Then they put
weight on top until these stone are locked in position
-Evidence of Decoration with spiral symbols
•how do we interpret spirals - maybe a maze,
waves, or a journey?
- On the winter solstice, the sun shines through the transom all the way to the back wall (special
orientation)
-investment of resources & effort; monumentality; architectural sophistication; special
orientation; symbolism
Stonehenge; Salisbury Plain, England; c. 2900 - 1400 BCE (neolithic period) - Answer -Built in
sever phases
Phase 1)
*circular mound w/ ditch (***DEMARCATION***)
*56 "Aubrey" Holes
*Possible bluestones
*Cremation Burials
Phase 2)
*timber posts
*cremation burials
Phase 3)
*Bluestones from Wales (150 miles away)
*Station Stones