Religion has a big influence on Mesopotamian and Japanese architecture. Mesopotamia shifts their religious views to the concept of having multiple gods looking over them. This same concept influenced the Mesopotamians to build massive, tall structures called Ziggurats. The purpose to the ziggurat’s design was to enable the community a way to become closer to the gods, essentially as a passageway between heaven and earth. Japan on the other hand, centralizes their beliefs around Buddhism, Shintoism, and Zen. Although Shintoism centralizes around the way of the gods, all three of these religions focus greater on the concepts of connecting with nature and not as much with the gods. Japans religious structures include temples and shrines designed …show more content…
Mesopotamian architecture consists of stone and hardened clay making their structures rigid and permanent. Japanese architecture on the other hand consists of mostly wood making their structures lighter and less permanent. Even though both of these cultures used different materials for building, both had to repair and rebuild their structures every so many years. Mesopotamian communities built out of hardened mud would eventually soften and collapse requiring the community to recoat the walls yearly. Japanese shrines have two separate buildings in order to alternate its use while the other was under construction due to the wood decaying. Although the concept of having to rebuild a structure yearly may seem like an efficient way of building, the idea still influenced the communities to work together to complete the …show more content…
One of these examples is Churches; Churches are religious structures designed for a community to meet and worship the religion they follow. The shape of churches closely resembles the shape of Ziggurats and temples for most churches have a wide base with multiple tapered towers reaching towards the sky. Another example of similarities would include the materials we use for construction. Although our reasoning may not be for the exact same reason as the older civilization, we still use wood today to build smaller lightweight structures while concrete and steel allow for more permanent, larger buildings. Modern architecture even uses some of the same building methods used in the past such as elevated floor to protect the building in hot, humid climates. One example of this is most of Louisiana’s residential architecture. Louisiana homes built on pillars keep rainwater and moisture away from the floor similar to the Japanese homes. Through architecture history, we begin to learn from previous building and design methods attempting to repeat and improve the methods that work well and prevent the mistakes created by those that do
As the timeline of humans progressed since the very first settlements, so did the way humans built structures. Human beings became smarter and the planning behind enormous structures became more intricate and marvelous. Further back in history, places of worship played an enormous part in the everyday lives of everyone in those times. Different civilizations have built great temples of worship that have expressed their love of a deity (or deities). These great buildings embody the very best that those people can offer: their best engineering, their best carpentry, their best architecture, their best decoration. Two great examples are the Romanesque Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy and the Gothic Chartres Cathedral. While these two structures are
There are many similarities between the four civilizations Egypt, Mesopotamia, Indus Valley, and Ancient China. One of the similarities is that all of these civilizations were located near rivers. These rivers were essential for surviving. The rivers would provide not only fresh water, but the rivers would flood and bring fresh soil for crops. Egypt used the Nile River. Mesopotamia used the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Indus Valley used the Indus River. Ancient China used the Yellow and the Yangzi Rivers. Another similarity is that all the civilizations believed in multiple gods. Religion played a big role in developing these civilizations. In these civilizations there was a hierarchy in which religious people were in charge. In Egypt, there
The role of the city is to be the center of economic, political, and cultural movement. Cities have a dense population compared to the area, so careful planning must go into its development. In the U.S. alone, 55% of the population lives in cities with more than 1,000,000 people, 78% in cities with more than 100,000, and less that 3% live in agricultural areas (Angotti, Tomas. 1993). Since it is so crucial for a city with countless numbers of inhabitants to work properly, there has to be certain building types to facilitate the lives of the people. One of the most important building types is the temple. Temples through out time usually work very similarly urbanistically in the sense that they are centers of religious practice and located in key areas. A temple is a symbol of the culture; it represents the people’s beliefs and how devoted they are to them. Temples have usually been elaborate and large scale; examples of this include the Temple of Kukulkán in Chichén Itzá, Mexico, and the Mother Church in Boston, Massachusetts. The Temple of Kukulkán and the Mother Church in Boston are strikingly similar in many ways, including architecturally and how they are used by the people of the city.
A group called the Sumerians dominated majority of Mesopotamia and left their legacy on the land. They created writing, built monuments, and developed a social structure. They established how the economy and how the government works. There was independent city-state, and each state had its own king. In these times, the people were very focused on religion and so in the center of every town was a temple dedicated to the chief god/goddess of the city.
...r architecture foundation such as theater's, skyscrapers and other buildings that showed art in a different formation which we copied from Roman's and they had got the idea from Greeks.
Since people feared pharaohs, they respected them. For instance, the passage in Document 5 states that wokers built large pyramids to serve their pharaohs inside tombs. The text states, "Pharaohs were burried with their possessions." In addition, some people (Sumerians Akkadians) practiced polytheism, the worship of gods. Based on the document, "They believed that keeping the gods happy was the key to their own happiness and prosperity. On the other hand, if the gods were angry, they might bring suffering and disaster." In additon, previously stated, Egypt and Mesopotamia develoved into successful civilizations by effectively using the resources that surrounded them to solve problems and live happily. The text states, "Sumerians built huge temples called ziggurats. They believed these temples linked Earth with the heavens and linked people with the gods." This shows that they use dtheir resources to build ziggurats for their own goods so that the gods can give them happiness and prosperity instead of bringing them suffering and disaster. Therefore, Egyptians' religion and beliefs would help develop Egypt and Mesopotamia into successful
Monumental public works of the ancient world demonstrated an extraordinary degree of human organization and power in the absence of machinery or modern weapons used today to establish that power. Archaeologists recognize cities/states with the evidence of two essential characteristics in state development: increase in population density and monumental architecture, both tie in together. Religious, social, political, and economic reasons brought people of ancient civilizations to come together to form monumental works. Large human made structures of stone or earth commonly used as public buildings and spaces: monumental architecture. A key characteristic in the development of most, if not all civilizations. Structures constructed by a large amount of people and are either consensually or forced to. These buildings, temples, etc. are characterized in their elaboration of requirements that exceed the practical purposes a building is supposed to form.
For a great many years, architecture has been a breaking point for different artisticeras in history. Some of the most famous “works of art” have been chapels, temples, and tombs. Among the most dominant and influential eras of great architecture are the sophisticated, stoic Greeco-Roman periods and the more mystical, elemental Japanese eras. These two very distinct and very different eras have more in common than you may realize.
These include ball courts, palaces, tombs, temples, and pyramids (Klobuchar 5). These were frequently built of limestone (Foster 26). Although limestone was used periodically to build, the common houses weren’t built using this as they were far more simplistic than the pyramids they built. While they weren’t complex, the common houses were far from shabby as they had a pole framework with a thatched roof and daub walls made from an adobe coated sticks constructed similar to a lattice (“Maya Architecture”).
The end of the Geometric period resulted in the beginning of the Orientalizing Period, dated between 700-600 BC. Within this time frame, Greek introduced a new innovation, the Peripteral Temple. For many years prior, a row of colonnade was used on the interior primarily to hold up the roof of the building. In contrast, columns are seen being used on the outside, creating a visual wall around the building exposing parts of the interior. With in the temple existed the megaron style, carried forward from Bronze Age homes. It was also in eastern influenced period, the first real stone temples, and terra cotta roof tiles came to exist to hold the weight on these new stone temples. The population grew drastically, introducing new techniques and styles, which blended to form designs with balance and symmetry. It was during this period, two major Greek designs were developed, the Ionic and Doric order. (Pedley, 2012: pg. 180) The Doric order, being the first and most simple, consisted of baseless columns placed closely together as the Greeks did not know how much weight the shortened columns could hold. Reason behind this was the lack of length in the columns were believed to hold less weight and therefore forced into being placed closer together. This closely set arrangement created a very bold statement in the Doric temple. The Capital, which sat on top of the concaved shaped shaft, was left plain but when grouped alongside others, suggested a bold harmony. In contrast, the Ionic order was less bulky and more delicate than the Doric order. The top of the capital is decorated with two scrolls, also known as volutes, which could have resembled a shell or animal horns. Above the capital, held room for a surrounding frieze depictin...
When walking around a city, you may notice that the architecture and art look similar to other works. Many of these designs have changed along the course of history and time whilst others have not. The designs that many people still see in society and day to day living is from two of the many cultures of the old civilizations, Roman and Islamic. The art and architecture forms from the Islamic and Roman cultures have many comparisons and contrasts between them. They, the Islamic and Roman nations, have both adopted from other cultures and have made their own discoveries in the art and architecture worlds. The Roman and Islamic architecture and art vary drastically from each other and yet have varying comparisons between the two.
"...the Egyptians made their complex heirachy of Gods, and their strange religion. In the service of that religion they made their architecture" (Romer: 75,1982).
The constructions of the temple-palace had large scale implications for the Mesopotamian landscape. It served as a symbolic entity for the city and towns that it was located in due to the tremendous height of these buildings that served as beacons that loomed over villages. These temples were perceived by many individuals who resided in these villages as homes for the deities. A wide cross section of villagers from various social backgrounds belonged to a particular temple in which they would worship. “The temple community comprised a cross section of the population: officials, priests, merchants, craftsmen, food-producers and slaves.” (174 Temple-Palace) Due to the great spiritual investment that was placed within these temples it prompted much time and labor to be invested into their construction. These temples also served as an outlet in which to take care of underprivileged citizens who were poor, orphaned or physically incapable of earning a living. Besides the fact that these temples provided support to the community it also supported the government sector as well. “The activities of the temple coordinated the construction of irrigation canals that often involved the cooperation of several communities.” (174 Temple-Palace) The temple-palace served a variety of integral roles to the villages and cities located within Mesopotamia. Temples intially did not immediately serve all these features within communities in Mesopotamia. Through examining specific periods on the Mesopotamian plain we will further understand how the temple-palaces evolved over the centuries within Mesopotamia and how they eventually became centralized within the community.
Even today the ideas and formulas of Greek architecture influence present day architects. When you think of Roman architecture, you think of the arch but even then they used the Imperial Motif to decorate their buildings. The Imperial Motif is the art of trabeation on arcuated architecture. The architecture of Ancient Greece will continue to influence the architecture of today and tomorrow.
From the time of the ancient Greeks all the way to modern day, some part of humanity has almost always been interested in the past. For the ancient Greeks, it was discovering Mycenaean ruins and composing stories about them. Today, inspiration is still drawn from classical architecture. One has to look no further than the U.S. capitol building, or even the University of Michigan's Angell Hall to see remnants of this architectural style. This raises the question of why does it still persists? Logically, the best way to answer this is to examine the origins of classical architecture, and what it represented then and now. Furthermore, the study of ancient architecture can show insights into past civilizations which otherwise would have been lost.