Architecture of Death: Stones, Tombs and Pyramids

Question 1

Mastaba Toms - Egypt , 2700 BC

Answer 1

• Burial chambers for middle to upper class
• Sun dried brick
  
  • Durability (as opposed to wood)
  • Dwelling made permanent
  • Eternal house of the deceased
• Deep shafts leading to chamber
• Further you descend into the structure - increasing sacredness
  
  • Egyptians often used landscape itself to signify this change

Question 2

Step Pyramid of Zoser,

Saqqarah, Egypt

Imphotep, 2630 BC

Answer 2

• **Transition between stout Mastaba form and the perfection of Gizan pyramids
• Use of lime stone - more durable than mud brick
• Largest builing of its time
• Contains courtyards, chapels, altars, passages
  Only one entrance
• Lifts pharaoh skywards - verticality
• Architectural mountain
• Connection with celestial realm
• Receives first glimpse of morning light

Question 3

Pyramids of Giza, Egypt, 2550-2460 BC

Answer 3

• Biggest to smallest
  
  • Khufu (2600BC)
  • Khafre (2532BC)
  • Menkhare (2525 BC)
• Khufu aligned with North pole
• Tombs are granite - external structure limestone
• Corbelling for tomb
• Contains megaliths with huge lintels within
• Ascending and descending passages

Question 4

Treasury of Atreus, Mycenae, 1330 BC

Answer 4

• Bee hive like structure, tholos
• Dromos, uncovered passage way
• Interior volume via corbelling
• Lintel above doorway
• Interior surface smooth, previously decorated
• Mound - reaching to celestial realm
• Megalithic structure

Question 5

Maussoleum of Helicarnarssus, Turkey, 353 BC

Answer 5

• White marble - monumental, permanence
• Dedicated to King Mausos
• Four sides - sculptural relief of people and animals
• Octastyle portico
• Raised on large podium
• Ascending structure on top - ziggurat-like
• **Shrine of Rembrance, Melbourne

Question 6

Mausoleum of Hadrian, Rome, 135 AD

Answer 6

• Circular plan
• Inspired by Mausoleum of Augustus
• Fortified, monumental structure
• Cut stone bearing masonry

Question 7

Key themes

Answer 7

• Life after death - one of the instigators of Early Architecture
• Life and death as interchangeable
• Focus on making dwelling permanent
• Height, verticality, monumentality
  
  • Connecting with celestial + human realm
• Opportunity to express wealth + reverence
• Connected to ceremony, religion, political context