Ancient Construction: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece & Rome

Construction in Ancient Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia did not have much timber, but the area could boast of palm leaves and reed instead. However, before the consumption of fired pottery, and since the period of the earliest Neolithic, the villagers residing east of the Tigris used to construct their homes out of dried clay. The area of Jericho depicts instances of construction done with mud bricks, one type of which would be altered to accept timber cross-beams (Straub, 1952; Derry and Williams, 1961).

One of the advantages of buildings constructed in this way was that they had a longer life in a drier climate. Mesopotamia, characterized by flat alluvial plains, recorded instances of clay construction over a period spanning more than 6,000 years. In comparison, the Nile valley used stone for state construction while clay was still used largely by the general population. The construction of buildings from clay was also found in Asia Minor and the Crete islands, despite those regions being heavily forested. Even Asia Minor had alternative materials in the form of wood and stone. Therefore, rammed clay — also known as pisé — sun-dried brick, and kiln-fired brick were all important elements in the history of the initial empires (Straub, 1952; Derry and Williams, 1961).

The preparation of clay involved adding water to kneaded and chopped straw or dung to prevent deformation, after which bricks were shaped, mostly in pairs. The shape was usually a rectangle without a top or bottom, which would then be allowed to dry after being occasionally flipped from side to side. If water was added in a large quantity to the mixture, the clay would become suitable for plastering (Straub, 1952).

For building purposes, the kiln was mostly reserved for special uses, such as in the construction of pavements and footpaths and when it was necessary to make bricks watertight. However, it was not until classical times that kiln-fired brick began to be used in Egypt. The process of brick-laying and the shapes of bricks in Mesopotamia were quite unlike those that became common in later periods. The upper portion of the brick was kept curved, like the top of a loaf of bread, and the bricks were laid at a slight angle. Every other course slanted in contrasting directions, creating a herringbone effect — a pattern that may still be observed in the west of England in modern times (Hibbert, 1955; Derry and Williams, 1961).

Brick building reached its peak in worship and prayer areas known as ziggurats around 2000 B.C. in Mesopotamia. At Ur, the ziggurat measured approximately 75 yards long and 60 yards wide, rose to a height of 30 yards, and had walls 8 feet thick; the bricks used were kiln-baked. Records in Strabo indicate that at Hit, rivers contained an ample supply of bitumen used to facilitate the setting of kiln-baked bricks. Developments in Mesopotamia were later furthered by the introduction of stone usage by the Assyrians, who lived in the north.

During the first millennium B.C., gypsum and limestone were both incorporated into brick-building practice in the plains of Mesopotamia. The stone canal of Sennacherib, which carried water to Nineveh from a distance of 50 miles with a gradient of 1 in 80, is a particularly remarkable example of construction. Not only did it span a great distance, but the limestone structure was graded evenly throughout. Bitumen was also used to make the construction waterproof (Toy, 1955; Derry and Williams, 1961).

The Assyrian kings customarily decorated the entrances of their palaces with approximately 20-ton bull colossi, with the carving carried out only after the figures were sledged into place. They were initially transported from the Tigris by water. Most constructions were still done in brick, and arching was used to make the vaults (Stocks, 2003).

Monumental Architecture in Ancient Egypt

It was in Babylon that glazed bricks were used at a high rate. The structures on the Ishtar Gate were set out in a clay panel that was later separated into glazed and fired bricks. Notably, the designs are repeated on both the gate and the underground street walls, meaning that only a modern archaeologist would be able to capture the full composition — a detail that becomes even more remarkable given that the foundations in Mesopotamia, as in Egypt, were the weakest part of any structure (Toy, 1955; Derry and Williams, 1961).

During the third millennium B.C., Egypt displayed impressive examples of buildings that reflected highly developed skills in quarrying and stonemasonry. The Step Pyramid of Zoser is one example. To reach the huge blocks of stone, a tunnel was constructed from the face of a cliff, spanning many hundreds of yards to facilitate transfer. Workers, leaning in deep alcoves cut just beneath the roof of the layer being worked, outlined blocks at the base of the alcove and then cut and split them by driving in wooden wedges, which were wetted to encourage expansion (Hibbert, 1955; Derry and Williams, 1961).

The alcove would be slowly extended while the rock was cut in steps. This process was carried out with a mason's pick. What is even more remarkable is that blocks of stone weighing thousands of tons were transported from the quarries to the working site without modern vehicles — only basic materials such as levers, rollers, ropes, sledges, and a prodigious amount of human strength were used (Beck, 2009).

During the reign of King Zoser, smaller blocks were used, while later periods saw larger stone masonry. The blocks were squared and shaped by hand using a chisel, mallet, boning rod, and mason's square. According to Herodotus, the labor needed to construct the Great Pyramid — built roughly 100 years after Zoser's time — amounted to over eight working days per cubic foot of masonry, and when transport time is taken into account, this figure becomes entirely credible (Toy, 1955; Derry and Williams, 1961).

The Great Pyramid stands 150 feet higher than St. Paul's Cathedral and, although it covers an area of 13 acres, deviates from a perfect square by only 6/10 of an inch in length and 12 seconds of angle. The method of construction by alternating deposits, each with its own limestone casing, makes the end product all the more breathtaking (Toy, 1955; Derry and Williams, 1961).

Egyptian temples, lacking the arch, were restricted to a span of 9 to 10 feet between columns, as that was the maximum safe length for a limestone block. However, when Silsila sandstone was discovered, this distance was trebled. The Egyptians also achieved the feat of converging three architraves so that all three rested on the head of a single column (Toy, 1955; Derry and Williams, 1961).

Construction in Ancient Greece

At the temple of Karnak, columns were frequently built from a series of drums, often requiring several blocks to construct a single capital given the enormous scale. As with many other Egyptian constructions, however, the foundations were weak and received little attention — a fact that became painfully apparent in 1899 A.D. when eleven columns collapsed. Regardless of this structural weakness, Egyptian monuments have never failed to fascinate people worldwide with their immaculate construction: their walls, ceilings, obelisks, and the astonishing accuracy of the pyramids, achieved apparently without any formal knowledge of mathematics (Beck, 2009).

The Roman and Greek architectural traditions share an artistic sensibility also visible in their literature. Their town planning is systematic, following a grid-iron pattern that originated with Hippodamus of Miletus, who also redesigned the Piraeus. This tradition was developed further in Alexandrian Egypt as the Greeks pursued the practices of their ancient predecessors. Today, archaeologists show considerable interest in Roman architecture, though they also devote significant attention to Herodotus. Greek architecture has been generally neglected because the great Greek writers paid little or no attention to its intricacies and grandeur — Pausanias, a Greek writer of the second century A.D., being one notable exception. For other details, information on Greek architecture is largely limited to the writings of Vitruvius, a Roman architect, military engineer, and writer who lived during the reign of Augustus (Margary, 1957; Derry and Williams, 1961).

Greek construction derives its character from timber-framed European houses built around three chambers and hearths, rather than from buildings in the Near East or Mycenaean tombs. The earliest temples in Greece were built of mud brick with a thatched timber roof; to accommodate a wider span, transverse beams were supported by a row of posts kept in the middle and additional posts set into the mud-brick walls. This is how architecture began to evolve in the age of Pericles (Margary, 1957; Derry and Williams, 1961).

In the Mycenaean era, the hard limestone of Argos was used, while in the west and north of the Peloponnese, classical architects preferred materials that provided a more suitable surface for plastering with fine stucco made of burnt limestone, which was later color-washed. For the great public buildings at Athens, however, marble was used, brought from the quarries on Mount Pentelicon. The blocks were shaped into rectangles with chisels and then refined with wedges. Pentelic marble was characterized by its fine grain and milky whiteness, with traces of iron adding a considerable brown finish. Because the iron traces allowed for a smoother finish, it was considered superior to burnt limestone (Margary, 1957; Derry and Williams, 1961).

The Greeks did not generally favor brightly colored marble, unlike the Romans. The Parian marble most commonly used for sculpture was uncolored, and Naxian marble was grey. Hymettus marble was considered inferior, and the quarries of large-grained Syracuse limestone did not become fully popularized until the beginning of the third century B.C. (Margary, 1957; Derry and Williams, 1961).

Because limestone and marble blocks could be made up to 15 feet long, a trabeated style of architecture became possible. Columns were constructed from drums, as the Egyptians had done. When stones of moderate hardness were used, the drums were sometimes shaped on a lathe. When stone blocks were ground together, a very fine joint could be achieved. Clamps were made from various metals, including iron, and particularly remarkable was the use of wrought-iron beams — for example, at the Parthenon, where wrought-iron beams acted as cantilevers to support the heaviest statues and sculptures. Timber framework was used for the low-pitched roofs of these buildings (Ashby, 1935; Derry and Williams, 1961).