Architectural and Planning Aspect of Stone Age Sites, Indus Valley Civilization, Mesopotamian Civilization, Roman, Aztecs and Incas.

1. “ARCHITECTURAL AND PLANNING ASPECT
OF
ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS”
Presented By,
Mr.Pushpraj Suresh Patil
Guided By,
Prof.Mr.G.K.Patil

2. INDEX
Stone Age Civilizations
Indus Valley Civilization
Mesopotamian Civilization
Roman Civilization
Aztecs
Incas

3. STONE AGE SITES

4. Earlier, during
Paleolithic period
human work
essentially as food
gatherers.
Hunting was done
individually.
By the end of this
period, human
beings started
making and using
fire.

5. Earlier, they used to live on the tree.
Archeologists are surer on the ground, when they try to
reconstruct evidence for patterns of residence.
One way of doing this is by plotting the distribution of
artifacts*.
*Artifacts-Any object made by human being

6. Case study of Kilombe and Olorgesailie (Kenya)
Thousands of flake tools and hand axes have been excavated.
These findings are dated between 7,00,000 to 5,00,000 years ago.

7. Excavation at Olorgosailie, Kenya

8. Between 4,00,000 to 1,25,000 years ago, caves and open air
sites began to be used.
Example of how they used to live in caves.

9. Case Study of Bhimbetka:
30,000 years ago

10. Generally, civilizations occurred near water bodies.
Factory sites:
Places where stone found and where people made tools.
Here, blocks of stone tools found that were made and perhaps
discarded because they were not perfect.
Chips of waste stone left behind.
Sometimes , people lived here for longer spells of time then it is
called as “Habitation cum factory sites”.

11. Archeologists have found traces of huts or houses at some
sites.
Case Study of Burzahom (Present day Kashmir);
People built houses which were dug into the ground with
steps leading into them.

12. Pit House

13. The larger round hole in the floor is a fire pit.
The air intake (little rectangular door in the wall), the
stones that block air from the air intake, the fire pit and the
sipapu are all in a line; this aspect of the design was
intentional.
*sipapu symbolizes the portal through which their ancient
ancestors first emerged to enter the present world.
Stories explain that this is the hole in which the first
peoples of this world entered.
As "They" stepped outside of the "Sipapu", they morphed
from lizard-like beings into homo sapiens, or human form

14. Long House, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado,USA

15. Case Study of Terra Amata:
Located on the cost of Southern France
It was flimsy* shelters with roofs of wood and grasses were
built for short term seasonal visits.
Large stone boulders were used to support the sites of the
hut.
*thin layered

16. Post Holes- Deep hole made to hold a timber

17. Boulders
Hearth

18. Imaginary view of Terra Amata shelter

19. Case Study of Inamgaon:
Located near Shirur, Pune, Maharashtra

20. Layout of Inamgaon
Silo- Pit on a farm used to store grains
Platform bin- Used to store seeds.

21. Burial site at Inamgaon
The skeleton in each case was accommodated in a small pit
just large enough for the purpose and was oriented in a
north-south direction .

22. Case Study of Mehgarh:
Near Bolan Pass, it is important route into Iran.
Site flourished 8000 year ago.
Remains of square and rectangular houses.
Each house had 4+ compartments, some of which may have
been used for storage.

23. Rectangular / Square houses at Mehgarh

24. Components of House at Mehgarh
Adobe- a kind of clay

25. Tomb* at Mehgarh
* A place for the burial of a corpse

26. INDUS VALLEY
CIVILIZATION
Started establishing 4700 years ago.
Generally, Cities here were divided
into 2 parts:
(1) Citadel : On west side – Smaller
but higher
(2) Lower Town : On east side –
Larger but lower
Very often walls of baked bricks
built around each part.

27. Bricks were so well made that they have lasted for thousands of
years laid in interlocking pattern.
Houses were one or two storey high with rooms built around a
courtyard.
Some houses had wells to supply water.

28. Wells at Indus Valley

29. Many cities had covered drains with gentle slope.
Drains in houses connected to those on streets and smaller
drains led into bigger ones.
As drains covered, inspection holes provided at intervals to
clean them.
Drains in houses connected to those on streets

30. Covered drains at some sites

31. Inspection holes for closed drains

32. Case Study of Dholavira:
Located on Khadir Beyt* in Rann of Kutchh.
*small isolated isalnd

33. Unlike other sites , it was divided into 3 parts.
Each surrounded by stone walls.

34. The massive stone walls fortification at Dholavira

35. Water Reservoirs had found here.
A large water reservoir at citadel of Dholavira.

36. A stone masonry reservoir at Dholavira.

37. One of the water reservoir with steps at Dholavira.

38. Water Mangement System at Dholavira. Manhar
Channel
Mansar
Channel

39. Step well at Dholavira.

40. Case Study of Lothal:
Beside a tributary of Sabarmati and close to the Gulf
of Cambay(Khmbhat) in Gujrat.
Even in those days
people of Lothal
traded with Iraq,
Persia, Egypt and with
some regions of
Middle east because
of the artificial
dockyard.

41. Artificial brick dockyard had been found here.
It was an huge tank where boats and ships came in from sea
and through river channel.
Goods were loaded and unloaded here.
Spanning 216m * 37m.
World’s first tidal dockyard.
Artificial brick dockyard at Lothal

42. Layout of Lothal.

43. Artistic imaginary view of Lothal.

44. Artistic imaginary view of Lothal.

45. Case Study of Mohenjo-Daro:
In Sindhi language, it means “Mount of Dead”.
Located between the rivers Saraswati and Indus in Pakistan
It was the biggest site of Indus Valley Civilization.
It was a planned urban centre.

46. A settlement divided in 2 sections; citadel and lower town like
other cities of Indus Valley Civilization.
Citadel owes its height to the fact that buildings were
constructed on the mud brick platforms.
Citadel and Lower town both were walled.
Aerial view of excavation at Mohenjo-Daro

48. Layout of Mohenjo-Daro

49. Other signs of planning include bricks, which whether
sun dried or baked, were of a standardized ratio, where
the Length:Breadth:Height=4:2:1.
Such bricks were even found at other settlements.
Drains:
On the plan of Lower town, it is notice that roads and
streets were laid out along an approximate grid patterns,
intersecting at right angles.
It seems that street with drains were laid out first and
then houses built along them.
If domestic waste water had to flow into the street
drains, every house needed to have at least on wall along
a street.

50. Street Layout of Mohenjo-Daro

51. Street drains at Mohenjo-Daro

52. Domestic Architecture:
Lower town at Mohenjo-Daro provides an example of
residential buildings.
Many were centered on a courtyard, with rooms on all sides.
The courtyard was probably the centre of activities such as
cooking & weaving particularly during hot and dry weather.
What is also interesting is an apparent concern for privacy;
there are no windows in the walls along the ground level.
A typical set of
houses at
Mohenjo-Daro.

53. Drawing of big house at Mohenjo-Daro.

54. Isometric view of house at Mohenjo-Daro.

55. It is equally
remarkable that
hardly any of the
houses encroached
upon the street,
their frontages
forming fairly
straight lines. The
main streets ran
from east to west
and from north to
Mohenjo-Daro.
Besides, main
entrance does not
give a direct view of
the interior or the
courtyard.

56. Every house had its own bathroom paved with bricks with
drains connected through the wall to the street drains.
Bathrooms at Mohenjo-Daro.

57. Some houses have remains of staircases to reach a second
storey or the roof.
Staircase at Mohenjo-Daro.

58. Stairway at Mohenjo-Daro.

59. Stairway at Mohenjo-Daro.

60. Many houses had wells, often in room that could be reached
from the outside and perhaps used by passers by.
Wells are made with wedge shaped bricks to make a strong
circular structure.
Some bricks were made with special grooves to keep the ropes
from sliding sideways when drawing water.
Large Well at Mohenjo-Daro.

61. A small well inside private building.

62. Private well at Mohenjo-Daro. Even it is in house , it was used
by passers by also.

63. Wells in some parts of Mohenjo-Daro have been excavated in
such a way that they appear to be towers
Tower like well 20 feet tall at Mohenjo-Daro.

64. Citadel:
It is on citadel that find evidence of structures that were
probably used for special public purposes.
This include warehouse- a massive structure of which the
lower brick portions remain while upper portions, probably of
wood, decayed long ago.
Lower portion
of warehouse
at Mohenjo-
Daro.

65. Great Bath:
Large rectangular tank in a courtyard surrounded
by a corridor on all 4 sides .
It is lined with bricks coated with plaster and
made water tight with a layer of natural tar*.
There are 2 flights of steps on the North and South
leading into the tank, which was made water tight
by setting bricks on edge and using a mortar of
Gypsum.
*byproduct of coke production / black colored

66. Great Bath at Mohenjo-Daro.

67. There were rooms on three sides, in one of which was a
large well.
Water from the tank flowed into a huge drain.
Across a lane to North lay a smaller building with eight
bathrooms, 4 on each side of the corridor, with drain that
ran along the corridor.
The uniqueness of the structure, as well as the context in
which it was found(citadel with several distinctive
buildings) has led scholars to suggest that I it meant for
some kind of a special ritual bath.

68. Imaginary view of Great Bath

69. Artistic view of Great Bath.Large well

70. Painting of Mohenjo-Daro.

71. MESOPOTAMIAN
CIVILIZATION
It was the land between rivers Euphrates and Tigris, Iraq.
Established during 5000 BCE.

72. Earliest temples:
It was shrine made of unbaked bricks.
Constructed in brick, temples became larger over time, with
several rooms around open courtyards.
The earliest known temple of the
south, c.5000 BCE (plan).
A temple of a later period, c.3000 BCE,
with an open courtyard and in-and out
Façade(outward appearance)

73. Mesopotamia Irrigation

74. Case Study of Ur:

75. Layout of the city Ur

76. It is one of the earliest cities to be excavated.
It was a town whose ordinary houses were systematically
excavated in 1930’s.
Narrow winding streets indicate that wheeled carts could
not have reached many of the houses.
Narrow winding streets and irregular shapes of house plots
also indicate an absence of town planning.

77. Street Layout of Ur

78. There were no street drains.
Drains and clay pipes were instead found in the inner
courtyards of the houses.
Clay pipes for
conducting
water.

79. Hand made glazed clay sewer pipe.

80. Knee and T
joints:
Made about
4000 B.C. Found
in the
excavations .

81. It is thought that house roofs sloped inwards and
rainwater was channeled via the drainpipes into the
sumps* in the inner courtyards.
This would have been a way of preventing unpaved
streets from becoming excessively slushy after a
downpour.
Yet people seem to have swept all their household refuse
into the streets, to be trodden** underfoot.
This made street levels rise and overtime threshold of
houses had also to be raised so that the no mud would
flow inside after the rains.
*covered basin in ground into which water and sewage flows.
** pressing the foot against center.

82. Sewer Lines at Ur

83. Light came into the rooms not from windows but from
doorways opening into the courtyards.
This would also have given families their privacy.
Houses at Ur

84. There were superstitions about the houses, recorded in
Omen tablets at Ur.
(1) A raised threshold brought wealth.
(2) A front door that did not open towards another house
was lucky.
(3) If main wooden door of a house opened outwards
(instead of inwards) the wife would be torment* to her
husband.
* The act of harassing someone

85. There was a town cemetery* at Ur in which graves of
royalty.
Commoners have been found, but a few individuals were
found buries under floors of ordinary houses.
* Burial site
Town Cemetery at Ur

86. Ur city rose up around the shrine of a local god.

87. An artist impression of what Ur could have been looked like at
its peak.

88. Case Study of Mari:
Flourished after 2000 B.C.E.

89. Palace of Mari of King Zimrilim ( 1810-1760 B.C.E.):
It was a residence of royal family, hub of administration and
a place of production, especially of precious metal
ornaments.

90. Palace had only one entrance on the North.
Large and open courtyards such as 131 were beautifully paved.
King received foreign dignitaries and his own people in 132, a
room with wall paintings that would have owed visitors.
It was a sprawling structure with 260 rooms and covered area
of 2.4 hectares.
Throne Room- Official residence of crown

91. Courtyard 131

92. Scribes’ office with benches and clay bins for storing tablets

93. ROMAN
CIVILIZATION
2000 years ago, the King Augustus found Rome a city of
brick and made it into a city of marble.

94. Amphitheatres:
Open arenas surrounded by tiers of seats, where citizens
could watch all kinds of shows.

95. Amphitheatre in Roman empire.

96. Colosseum:
Started construction on 79 B.C.E.
Here, gladiators* fought wild beasts.
It could accommodate 60,000 people.
*armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic

97. Aerial view of Colosseum

98. Interior of Colosseum

99. Interior from another side

100. Pantheon: It means building of God.
Roman temple.
It started built from 27B.C.

101. Plan of Pantheon.

102. Pantheon Illusion

103. Inside view of Pantheon
Oculus

104. Panorama of inside of Pantheon

105. The striking perspective of the dome of the Pantheon with
the light from the oculus

106. Aerial view of Pantheon

107. Aqueducts: Channels to supply water to bring water to the
city.
Hidden aqueducts to supply fresh water to the city

108. Rome's magnificent Trevi Fountain, built in the 1700s, still
relies on sections of an ancient aqueduct for its water.

109. Sewer Lines:
Sewer line in Rome built in brick masonry.

110. Sewer line in Rome built in stone masonry.

111. AZTECS
CIVILIZATION
Established during 1300 A.D.
Aztecs moved from north into central valley of Mexico.

112. Since, land was limited, they undertook reclamations.
They made Chinampas, artificial island in Mexico Lake by
weaving huge reed* mats and covering them with mud and
plants.
*slender-leaved plant of the grass family, which grows in water or on marshy ground

113. Cross-section of the Chinampas(Midwest Permaculture)

114. Chinampas

115. Artificial island in Mexico Lake

116. Stairway:

117. Different types of temples of Aztecs

118. El-Castilo Temple in Mexico

119. INCAS
CIVILIZATION
Established during 1300 AD.

120. Incas built roads through mountains from Equador to Chile.

121. Along the ancient Incas roads

122. Evidences shows that the agricultural terraces found here are
perfectly concentric circles and ellipses created in an area of
natural depression. It is believed that these were used for
agriculture research, with each level having its own microclimate,
and, therefore capable of supporting different crop through the
year.

123. Case Study of Machu Picchu:
It is a 15th-century Inca citadel situated on a mountain ridge
2,430 meters (7,970 ft) above sea level.
Machu Picchu was built in the classical Inca style, with
polished dry-stone walls. Since no mortar is used.

124. Here it is clearly seen that the residential area were built up with
different ground levels.

125. View of the residential section of Machu Picchu

126. Interior of an Inca building, featuring trapezoidal windows

127. Inti Watana is believed to have been designed as an
astronomic clock or calendar by the Incas

128. REFERENCES
Books Referred:
Our Pasts Part 1
Our Pasts Part 2
Our Pasts Part 3
India and Contemporary World Part 1
India and Contemporary World Part 2
Contemporary India
Themes in World History
Themes in Indian History Part 1
Themes in Indian History Part 2
Themes in Indian History Part 3

129. THANK YOU!!!!