Stonehenge, British Isles, circa 2200
BC
Nowhere else is the singular lintel structure of Stonehenge to be found. Nor is there
any other
example of the tongue and groove interlocking construction which has enable this drystone building
to stand against the passage of Time for almost four thousand years.
Saqqara, Egypt, ca. 2630-2611 BC
There are two Step Pyramid Complexes on the Saqqara plateau. One belongs to Phaoroh
Zoser
and the other to his successor, Sekhemkhet, the ruins of which were discovered in 1951. In both
these complexes the step pyramid is built at the centre of a rectangular Open Court. There is,
however, archaeological evidence of two huge Open Courts without pyramids or tombs, lying to the
west of these structures. Sakkhara is derived from Sokar, and agricultural god believed to dwell in
the earth.
Dominating the horizon at Saqqara is the Step Pyramid, the central feature of a funerary
complex
built by Imhotep for his Pharaoh Zoser, the first king of the 3rd Dynasty. Zoser exercised complete
political and religious control over the Two Lands of Upper and Lower Egypt. His reign marks the
beginning of the Old Kingdom, an era of great vision and invention.
The Funerary Complex is symbolic. It was fashioned after the existing structures of
the state
capital, in order for the pharaoh to repeat in the afterlife his earthly experience. All the principal
elements are presented in pairs, indicating that all rituals and activities were carried out twice:
in
the pharaoh's capacity first as King of Upper Egypt, and then as King of Lower Egypt. Naturally the
monuments shed much light on the functions of the pharaoh, and the manner in which the distant
provinces of Egypt were brought into relationship with the central power.
Zoser's vizier architect, Imhotep, the first architect whose name has been recorded
in history,
chose to build his pharaoh's funerary complex in stone. Until this time royal tombs had been built
of sun-dried brick. Stone had been used for doorways or for the flagstones of a tomb chamber only.
Imhotep therefore had no architectural tradition from which to draw, and was obliged to turn to
existing forms. He observed the bundles of reeds tied together at the corners of brick structures
with heads fanning out, and, transcribed into stone, these became the fasciculated column with
capital seen in the entrance colonade; he simulated in stone the logs placed edgewise to form a
roof; palm stalks, reed fences, matting, papyrus and other soft materials of which the contemporary
houses were constructed, and which have all perished, thus became petrified in a medium that lent
itself to stateliness and austerity.
The importance of this funerary complex is therefore twofold. It mirrors the structures
of the state
capital, from which we can glean the administrative and religious activities at the time; and,
faultlessly copyies nature's themes. Imhotep created a diversity and originality of architectural style
that has never been surpassed. He bequeathed a legacy to which architecture, through the Greeks
and Romans, was to return time and again.
Three architectural inventions appear for the first time in world history at Saqqara
- Ashlar masonry. The Third Dynasty
funerary precinct of Zoser at Saqqara is the first major
architectural enterprise to be executed in stone throughout. Moreover, the fine limestone
blocks are in ashlar masonry. That is, they are parallelepipeds, six-faced regular solids of
standard sizes, laid in regular horizontal courses. Before this, such monuments were of mud
brick. Imitating the regularity of the six- faced bricks (top, bottom and four sides), the Saqqara
limestone blocks are examples of skeuomorphism, a learned term for the migration of a form
native to one medium into another. Once invented, ashlar masonry had a great future. One
thinks of the walls of Greek monumental buildings, not to mention countless stately banks,
libraries, and governmental buildings of our own time—all executed in ashlar masonry. It
is
sometimes assumed, by the way that standardization is a product of our own industrial age.
However, standarized bricks and limestone blocks long preceded it.
- Modularity. The invention of ashlar
is probably the first instance of the principle of
modularity—the regular "scansion" of space using architectural means. A kind of
negative
version appears in the regular bays of Egyptian temples and hypostyle halls.
- Columnar architecture. The Saqqara
complex shows several types of engaged (attached)
columns. Later, the columns are freestanding, surmounted by capitals, and marshaled into
rows (colonnades). Indebted to Egypt, columnar architecture was fundamental in ancient
Greece, Rome, and the Renaissance.
