This document provides an overview of early civilizations in Asia and their connections through trade networks by 2000 BCE. It discusses the Andronovo Culture and the neighboring Margiana civilization, including their economies based on animal husbandry, agriculture, and metal mining. Details are given on the Margiana cities of Arkim and Gonur, including their defensive walls, layouts, and burial grounds. The document also summarizes the architecture of the Sumerian city of Ur, including its houses built around courtyards and religious practices. Finally, it outlines the rise of ancient Egypt, including the construction of monumental temples and mortuary complexes at Memphis during the Old Kingdom.

1. Cities , Gods and
Empires
History and Theory of Architecture (1) - 0902241
12/23/2022
1
Lecture 6 part 1
University of Jordan
Faculty of Engineering
Department of Architecture

2. O Archaeology has proven that by 2000 BCE
in Asia, there were already many more
connections across the vast expanses of
the continent than had been anticipated
even twenty years ago. If we look at the
map of Asia, it is clear that, though the
principal civilizations are far-flung, trade
was already linking the entire continent
into a composite whole.
12/23/2022 2
Lecture 6 part 1

3. • At the center of this vast territorial
system was a region dominated by the
Andronovo Culture, which includes the
related Sintashta Culture, and to its south,
the Margiana civilization, also known as the
Bactrian-Margiana Archaeological Complex
(BMAC).
12/23/2022 3
Lecture 6 part 1

4. Margiana
12/23/2022 4
Lecture 6 part 1

5. Reasons:
OClimate Change
ODeforestation
Results:
ODesertification
ODepopulation
12/23/2022 5
Lecture 6 part 1

6. Economy of Andronovo
Culture
O animal husbandry,
O agriculture,
O hunting,
O and fishing.
 The mining of bronze and other metals gave
them further regional significance.(Recently
rediscovered tin mines containing pottery from
both the Andronovo Culture and Margiana
suggest that trade in ores or metal ingots was
wideranging.)
12/23/2022 6
Lecture 6 part 1

7. Culture Achievements
O numerous animal sacrifices—
O horse-harnessing
O spoke-wheeled Chariots
O an impressive array of metal weapons
12/23/2022 7
Lecture 6 part 1

8. O Over time the settlements grew
larger
and developed into a series of
towns, some circular and some
square
12/23/2022 8
Lecture 6 part 1

9. Arkim
IT had two protective circular walls,
160 meters in diameter and 4 meters wide,
built with soil that had been packed into
timber frames before being faced with
adobe
bricks. On the interior, houses abutted the
wall and were situated radially, with their
doors exiting to the circular internal street.
12/23/2022 9
Lecture 6 part 1

10. Gonur
O along the Murghab River, seems,to have
been its capital(margiana)
O It consisted of a temple/citadel and a
palace compound separated by about 300
meters
12/23/2022 10
Lecture 6 part 1

11. Gonur palace
To get to the throne
room, one traversed two long audience halls
and made two left turns.
The residential part
of the palace was at the center and had to its
west two courtyards. There was also a chapel
and a mortuary complex
. Oddly, there was
a suite of rooms with no access doors that
was completely filled with clean river sand.
The symbolic purpose of these spaces has
not been ascertained
. A long stairway led to
the roof over these rooms, an indication that
the roof was used for ritual purposes
12/23/2022 11
Lecture 6 part 1

12. 12/23/2022 12
Lecture 6 part 1

13.  To the west of the site was a large burial
ground of about five thousand graves.
It seems that bodies were not buried
immediately after death, but were first
purified by fire.
12/23/2022 13
Lecture 6 part 1

14. The City of Ur
O Much of the city of Ur was built of sun-
baked
mud brick, making destruction by acts of
war easy and common.
O Though Ur was destroyed in several
battles around 2000 BCE, it was rebuilt
and remained important,mainly on
account of its religious
12/23/2022 14
Lecture 6 part 1

15. The blocks enclosed by the street system
were quite large, with alleys and narrow
passageways giving access to houses in the
center
 The affects of having narrow
streets:
1. Wheeled traffic would have
been impossible
2. Garbage was dumped
into the streets, where it washed
away with the rains.
 The accumulation of
garbage led to an increase in the
elevation of the street, forcing
residents to raise the
thresholds of their doors 12/23/2022 15
Lecture 6 part 1

16. Ur’s houses
1. Roofs were of mud layered onto matting
that was placed on a framework of
wooden rafters.
2. The houses of Ur, of varying quality
depending on the wealth of the
occupant,
3. were organized around small courtyards.
Some of the better ones had baked-brick
foundation walls.
12/23/2022 16
Lecture 6 part 1

17. Ur’s Religious Thoughts
 At Ur, masks of the demon-god Pazzu
were
sometimes hung on the door jambs to
protect
the house against the southwest wind,
which
was thought to bring pestilence.
12/23/2022 17
Lecture 6 part 1

18. Egypt: the Old Kingdom
O Though later Egyptians described their
early
history as emerging after the unification of
Upper and Lower Egypt.
O Out of this unification emerged what later
Egyptians would themselves call
the Old Kingdom, with its capital
at Memphis.
12/23/2022 18
Lecture 6 part 1

19. The transformation into a complex and vertically
structured society with a population of several
Million was because of :
1. This new political unity,
2. combined with the rapid development of a
hieroglyphic
12/23/2022 19
Lecture 6 part 1

20. 1. Egypt was organized around an efficient
and
vast workforce that had little contact with the
religious practices of the ruling elite.
2 .there was no shortage of building
material.
Stone was abundant up and down the Nile:
the colorful red granite of Aswan, the white
marble of Gebel Rokham, and the black
basalt of Faiyum—not to mention the
various
types of soft sandstone brought downriver
from Nubia.
12/23/2022 20
Lecture 6 part 1

21. The Mortuary Complex
Located on a slight hill west of Memphis
The structure:-
-enclosed by a 277-by-544 meter wall.
-an impressive 10.5 meters high.
-They served more symbolic purposes
than defensive ones,
-There were fifteen gateways,
yet only one was a functioning entrance.
12/23/2022 21
Lecture 6 part 1

22. The Ptah Temple
“Mansion of the Ptah,”
The visitor passed through a 1-meter-wide
hallway into a narrow corridor defined by
two rows of columns attached to wall fins
that projected into the space and supported
a massive stone ceiling.
12/23/2022 22
Lecture 6 part 1

23. • These columns are probably the earliest
monumental stone columns in the history of
architecture
• Egypt to decorate wooden columns with
a skirt of reeds as a representation of the
mother goddess.
• The first mortuary temple pyramid was
also rebuilt and expanded. To the east
there was another court lined on both
sides with chapels, one for each of the
Egyptian provinces. Behind them rose the
facades of ten tall dummy buildings,
replicating government buildings or, more
likely, granaries.
12/23/2022 23
Lecture 6 part 1

24. • This building represents a shift in the
idea of death, and its associated religious
practices began to change.
• In classical Egyptian, the
word for tomb actually meant a “house of
eternity” or, more precisely, a “house for
eternity.” The pyramids were certainly built
for eternity, but they were now defined
differently, as “the place where one
ascends.”
• providing
the king with an impregnable refuge while
also assisting him in the first steps of his
ascension toward the hereafter.
12/23/2022 24
Lecture 6 part 1