INTD 56 primitive spaces: majestic beginnings

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INTD 56primitive spacesmajestic beginnings
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Caves of Lascaux France c. 28,000 B.C.E.

• in the Pyrenees
• noted for an exceptional concentration of
  Palaeolithic caves (130 sanctuaries)
• dimensions 250 meters deep with a drop of about
  30 meters

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themes
animals signs humans
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bull is out of proportion relative to the horses
small in scale compared to a real horse
The Painted Gallery
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TEXTURE
Chamber of Engravings
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basic use of point line

• 2 categories simple complex
• simpledots or linear elements
• complex quadrangles, triangles, circles,
  pentagons, branched chains
• decorative work ends in a double line consisting
  of three sets of two red dotssuggests a
  topographical boundary marking the extremities of
  the sanctuary.

basic use of line
The Main Gallery
The Chamber of Felines
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• are the images to scale?
• are they proportionate to each other?
• Lascaux has only one anthropomorphic
  representation
• (human figure)
• highly stylized.

BISON
HUMAN
BIRD
Shaft of the Dead Man
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Stonehenge3,100 B.C.E.WiltshireEngland
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HARMONYthe relationship of parts to each other
and an overall theme of design through unity and
variety

• unique megalithic monument
• alleged connection with the Druids dates from
  17th c.
• in 12th c. was believed to be monument over King
  Arthur's grave
• other theories have attributed it to the
  Phoenicians, Romans, Vikings, and visitors from
  other worlds
• modern theory inclines to the view that it was a
  temple.

Harmony
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menhir

• unity
• collection of elements seen as a visually related
  whole
• vertical stones are called Menhirs
• lintels are about 13 above the ground, 6.5 wide
  3 thick

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• example of shape to define space
• circular ditch of about 330 feet (100 metres) in
  diameter with an internal bank, and a
  north-eastern entrance
• 56 Aubrey holes and 4 station stones

Period I (c. 3100 2300 BCE) Neolithic
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• example of balance
• axis is pointed roughly in direction of sunrise
  at the summer and winter solstices
• served as an observatory where early rituals or
  religious ceremonies took place on specific days
  of the year
• unlikely as a Druid temple they appear a few
  hundred years before the Christian era

Period I (c. 1550 1100 BCE) Bronze Age
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LIGHT
SHADOW
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Skara Braec. 3,000 B.C.E.ScotlandOrkney
Mainland

• uncovered by gradual sea erosion and a storm in
  1850
• excavated since 1927
• occupants were farmers (cow and sheep) that grew
  cereals, hunted red deer and fished

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Skara Brae Neolithic Settlement c. 3,000 BCE
dresser
hearth

• all houses were similarhearth in the center
• across from door was dresser prized possessions
• walls made of sandstone slabroof was corbelled
  walling or whale jawbones supporting a thatched
  roof

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emphasis

• skilled craftsman that could work in bone, stone,
  clay potterytools were richly decorated
• emphasis created by the location of the dresser
  relative to both the door, hearth, and central
  location on wall
• balance achieved by symmetrical placement of
  objects

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BEDS

• cluster of sub-rectangular huts with
  interconnecting passages
• beds are constructed of 3 slabs set upright to
  form a boxthe house wall completes the fourth
  side

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Teotihuacanc. 300-700 C.E.Mexico CityMexico

• City of the Gods or Where Men Become Gods
• plazas, avenues, great pyramids of city were
  laid out as symbolic sacred landscape of
  artificial foothills mountains

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FORM
Pyramid of the Sun

• 600 pyramids greatest of which is the Pyramid
  of the Sun (215 x 215 meters 63 meters high)
• built on top of cave which was believed were the
  gateways to the spiritual worldcontained
  offerings

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Pyramid of the Moon
main street2.5 km
Avenue of the Dead
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low relief carving
high relief carving
TEXTURE
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Great Enclosurec. 1000 C.E.Zimbabwe

• agricultural potential is fairly limited due to
  intense heat

• monopolized trade connections between gold
  ivory producers on the plateau and Swahili
  traders who travelled to the various ports of
  contemporary Mozambique

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Great Enclosure, 1000 CE, Zimbabwe

• developed because it occupied the transit route
  between the Zimbabwean plateau and the Indian
  Ocean coastline
• cluster of trees at top mark location of stone
  monolith

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scale

• Zimbabwe means stone enclosure
• palace - 300 x 500 (40 wall) 820 perimeter

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original stones seem to have been found in that
form and not cut
The Restored Entrance Gate
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• reflects the classic design of a southern African
  village - stone walls demarcate housing areas for
  different segments of the ruling family
• senior wives of the Zimbabwe ruler would have had
  their own walled areascontained wattle and daub
  huts (made of tree limbs surfaced with packed
  mud
• the stone walls adjacent to the lower enclosure
  probably marked the living areas of subordinate
  wives and their children and dependents

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• granite monolith stands about 40 feet in height
• contains no internal chambers or external
  decoration
• meant to convey the power and authority of the
  Zimbabwe ruler to his subordinates

Stone Monolith
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Machu Pichuc. 1200 C.E.PeruCuzco

• rediscovered in 1911

• Incas utilized Andean Mountain top-Machu Pichu
  means Old Peak
• palaces, baths, temples, storage rooms and 150
  housescarved from grey granite

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• invisible from below
• completely self-contained
• surrounded by agricultural terraces sufficient to
  feed the population
• watered by natural springs
• seems to have been utilized by the Inca as a
  secret ceremonial city

Machu Pichuc. 1200 C.E.PeruCuszco
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Intihuatana Stone ('Hitching Post of the Sun')

• primary function was that of astronomical
  observatory
• precise indicator of date of winter solstice
  other significant celestial periods
• held ceremony every midwinter at this stone, in
  which they 'tied the sun' to halt its northward
  movement in the sky
• once broken, deities were thought to have died or
  departed

Intihuatana Stone Hitching Post of the Sun
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• terraces for farmingblocks weigh 50 tonsno
  mortar used
• cannot fit even a thin knife blade between blocks

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rhythm repetition

• little is known of the social or religious use of
  the site
• skeletal remains of ten females to one male
  suggests that it may have been a sanctuary for
  the training of priestesses and/or brides for the
  Inca nobility
• Inca civilization systematically destroyed by the
  Spanish, but Machu Pichu was never discovered
• Cuzco fell in 1533 and Machu Pichu was abandoned