arch250 w2 04 prehistoric architecture part2

Okay, so we go on to this thing called a megalith, right? So a megalith is this big, giant, massive stone, right? And it's rough, it's, they didn't, the people that were using these megaliths didn't really have much in the way of tools that would cut stone, right? They had other stone that might be a little bit harder, but in general, they were stones that were kind of in sort of the shape that they were in, or they were roughly sort of cut into a shape, right? Most of the times these constructions were made from either a single stone or a grouping of two or three stones with a roof over top of them. Sometimes those things were buried and they created a burial thing, I think they were called dolmens, okay? So the word megalith describes a structure that's made from these big stones, okay? Or megalithic. Megalithic means of these gigantic stones, okay? They were built without mortar or concrete, that means that they had nothing to glue the stones together with. It was just gravity, or at most, there might be some sort of a pin that was inserted to connect the two pieces, okay? All right, most of the time we associate megalithic structures with things that are prehistoric, right? By the time people developed the ability to write and record history, they had developed a lot of tools that would allow them to create things that were more sophisticated than the megaliths. So here's an example of a megalith called a menhir, okay? This one is, I think it's about 25 feet tall. That's the exposed part that's above the ground. So that's a big frickin' rock, okay? And obviously, that didn't land like that unless it came in from outer space, right? It just buried itself. So what we have here is a group of people that erected some sort of a monument, okay? For some reason, unknown to us. There's no written history, remember. So another example is the Ring of Brodgar, which is in Scotland in the British Isles. British Isles have a lot of rings, okay? And there's a significance to the notion of a ring in relationship to north, south, east, west, and the position of the sun. So there's a lot of discussion amongst anthropologists about why did they erect these things, all right? But this one's got a whole series of stones that you see the aerial over here that are erected around a circle. And oftentimes, when they did these things, there were multiple rings that were part of the construction. Megalithic construction consisted of a bunch of little ant-like people, right? Grabbing a rock and digging it, digging a hole and dragging it over and then shoving the rock in the hole, okay? And that's what kept it from falling over was it was partially buried, right? Then after they stuck it in the hole, right? They would backfill around it and then they could either pile up soil over top of the edges or leave it exposed as in the case of the men here. And then maybe drag another rock over top of it and then cover the whole thing over top of it with soil, okay? But that's how those things essentially came to be. And then a lot of times they were just, these were sort of burial areas, all right? Does anybody know the Flintstones? One, two, a few people? Doesn't that look like Fred's house, right? You can just see Dino come out of it. All right, continuing on. So looking at sort of ritual centers, there are a few ritual centers. The oldest one that they've sort of, that they're sort of focusing on right now is this one that's in Turkey. It's called Gobleki Tepe. I probably am butchering that word, but it contains just a massive amount. It's a big site. It contains a massive amount of these T-shaped stone pillars. And when I say T, it's a very small T. It's a tall but not very wide T, okay? Right now, this is the oldest known megaliths that they have found. They date back about 9,000 years. No history, we don't know why they put them up. It's just stuff that the archeologists are uncovering. So there's more than 200 pillars and over 20 circles in this area, all right? And remember, these are ritual centers. These were not cities where people lived in these circles. This was things where people came from around the countryside to perform some sort of ritual. Maybe it was a sacrifice in hope that they would get rain that year or something else, okay? Each of the pillars are about 20 feet tall. They weigh 20 tons. And so, hey, I don't know how I would move something that weighed one ton. I can't imagine moving something that weighs 20 tons. So they obviously were able to do that. One of the things that's interesting about this particular site is that instead of digging a hole in the dirt, these people actually fitted sockets into the bedrock, then dropped the stone inside of the socket. So not only was it a bitch to cut and move those giant 20-ton stones, right? But then they had to dig a hole in bedrock to be able to drop it into, so. Here's a couple of images of some of the circles and some of the T-stones. Another one that's getting a lot of attention right now is Katul Hayuk. This one is also in Turkey. It does not have megaliths in it, but it is a sort of a ritual center that they've located that was preserved enough to where they could excavate it. And there's things there that they can sort of understand what the configuration of things were there. It's, again, 7,500 to 5,700, okay? So this predates the Egyptians, all right? And then we take a look at Stonehenge, and that's why we say it's an uneven history, because this Stonehenge, the Egyptians were done building pyramids for thousands of years before this thing was ever built. But yet, you guys are probably all familiar with this. It's been in movies and stuff, and people have seen it. So one of the interesting things about Stonehenge is that some of the stones were brought from miles and miles, hundreds of miles away. And we're talking big stones. I think they're the ones that they call the blue stones. And how they transported them, 150 miles? I don't know. I mean, lots of people dragging lots of rocks, okay? So the stones, in this particular case, are set in a series of concentric circles, and there are earthwork dikes and berms that were built around the thing, okay? So there are also a lot of burial mounds that existed around it. So it sort of acted as both a ritual center and sort of a cemetery of sorts, okay? Some of the stone circles, to give you an idea of how many stone circles are found just in the British Isles. So England, Scotland, Ireland. I forgot, I think this might be partly Ireland. I'm not sure. All right, that general area where they talk like this, you know? They say bloody hell and stuff like that. They drink warm beer. No, that's Germany. Never mind. All right, so this gives you just a general idea of just how many of these stone circles did these different sites that they found all over the place there, all right? So sometime after this is where we start to see this shift towards civilization. And remember, civilization, you are going to equate with cities and buildings. Can you have a city without buildings? Uh-uh, all right? So sometime around 5,000 BCE, in certain areas, right, people went through this agricultural revolution and they were able to not have to move around so much, okay? Or at least a ruling elite did not have to move around so much. For the first time, they were able to grow their own crops in some relative proximity. It's at this same time that we go from what's called Paleolithic to I believe it's the Neolithic, which is when people started to use metals like copper, bronze, instead of stones. And that made a huge difference because those metals, right, gave them abilities that people didn't have before when they used stone to cut stone, right? Or they used stones to cut wood even, all right? So around 3,000, right, BCE, they developed writing, okay? And I believe the earliest form that we're aware of and have been able to come in some level of contact with is called cuneiform. We'll talk about that when we get to Mesopotamia, all right? So again, this new form of living where they didn't have to move around and they conquered nature and there was a ruling class and all of that sort of stuff, they called it civilization, okay? So let's take a look at part of the reason that I am insistent that you guys learn a little bit about where stuff is on earth, okay? These are the locations of the earliest civilizations, okay? So Nile River, Mesopotamia around the Tigris and Euphrates, Indus Valley around the Indus River and I believe this is the Yellow River in China. Those are the earliest civilizations where people started to sort of build cities, okay? And you've got to kind of look at it and sort of understand that, hey, these two are pretty close to each other and these aren't horribly far from each other. I'm not sure about that, right? But knowing where they are in relationship to each other is kind of one of the important things that I hope you guys take away from this class, okay? So that's the end of that one. Stop.