Western Civilizations (Ancient Times, Egypt, Greece, and Rome)

Question 1

A linear civilization for nearly a thousand miles, along the Nile River; its concept of environment was one of absolute stability, based on an annual repetitive cycle of natural events

Answer 1

Ancient Egypt

Question 2

The sun god of the Egyptians, greatest of the gods

Answer 2

Ra

Question 3

Accepted as the son of Ra on earth, and therefore considered as a god; a ruler of Egypt

Answer 3

Pharaoh

Question 4

Egyptian term for ‘soul,’ conceived to be within Pharaoh and, to a lesser extent, in his subject; the spiritual link between the eternal life and the present

Answer 4

Ka

Question 5

An ancient Egyptian system of writing using pictures as words

Answer 5

Hieroglyphic

Question 6

A tropical water plant (common name and genus), believed to be sacred by the Egyptians; eating the fruit was supposed to induce a dreamy euphoria

Answer 6

Lotus (Nymphaea)

Question 7

Aquatic plant used by the Egyptians for the construction of primitive reed huts, and a recurrent motif in Egyptian architectural sculpture; used to make a paper-like writing material

Answer 7

Cyperus papyrus (Papyrus)

Question 8

A device invented in Egypt for raising irrigation water from one level to another using a bucket and fulcrum

Answer 8

Shaduf

Question 9

An ancient Egyptian stone figure having a lion’s body and a human or animal head, especially the huge statue near the Pyramids at Giza

Answer 9

Sphinx

Question 10

The sepulchres, or burial chamber, of IVth Dynasty pharaohs (2613-2494 BC); possibly the simplest and most fundamental form in architecture (abstract geometry); monumental structures that are related asymmetrically one to another, yet precisely oriented to the cardinal points

Answer 10

Pyramids at Giza

Question 11

Locations of the temples of the living and the mortuary temples, following the sun pattern, also influenced by the Egyptian’s belief that the cycle of nature is parallel to the cycle of human life, death and resurrection

Answer 11

East and West

Question 12

Of Egyptian origin, symbolic of procreation; a tall vertical monument, usually monolithic, square in section and tapering up toward a pyramidal apex

Answer 12

Obelisk

Question 13

The monumental entrance of an Egyptian temple or other wall enclosed space; symbolic of the mountains on each side of the Nile

Answer 13

Pylon

Question 14

(1380 BC) A garden that depicts the elegant and ephemeral nature of domestic architecture and the decorative use of plants such as the fine trellis and the pomegranate; shows an ordered arrangement of specific plants around a rectangular basin stocked with fish

Answer 14

Tomb of Nebamun, Thebes

Question 15

(1400 BC) A tomb dramatically sited at the base of a cliff on the west bank of the Nile River, comprised a series of monumental terraces and colonnades symmetrically organized around a processional axis, the Avenue of Sphinxes; with presence of exotic vegetation on its terraces such as myrrh trees from Somalia

Answer 15

Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatsheput, Deir el-Bahri, Egypt

Question 16

A Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete (c. 2000-1470 BC)

Answer 16

Minoan Civilization

Question 17

A term coined by Sir Arthur Williams; a religious or ceremonial symbol found extensively in Minoan contexts, also placed about the unfortified palace at Knossos; represented the bull sacrifice and symbolized the sacredness of the place

Answer 17

“Horns of Consecration” (bull horns)

Question 18

Situated on a rugged, mountainous indented peninsulas and islands, including the Peloponnesus (mainland), the Aegean archipelago of islands and the western coast of Anatolia; composed of people isolated by separate political units; with hot, arid climate and little arable land area

Answer 18

Greece

Question 19

An ancient city of Magna Graecia on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea, founded by settlers from Euboea in the 8th century BC, was the earliest Greek colony in Italy

Answer 19

Cumae

Question 20

A late Bronze Age Aegean civilization after the collapse of the Crete (1400 BC) located on the mainland

Answer 20

Mycenaean Civilization

Question 21

Site of the cave of Persephone, also the site of the annual celebration of the rebirth of spring, reenacted as the mystery of Persephone’s return from the underworld

Answer 21

Eleusis, Greece

Question 22

Legendary center of the world, which symbolized the religious unity of all Greece, and an oracular shrine of Gaia, the Earth Goddess; in the 7th century BC, the site had been rededicated to the worship of Apollo

Answer 22

Delphi, Greece

Question 23

The sacred precinct allotted to the deity, containing the altar, temple (if any), and other sacral or natural features

Answer 23

Temenos

Question 24

A Greek mystic and mathematician, who believed that universal essences or truth had an existence apart from the visible work of matter, man and time, and that here lay God; an ancient Athenian philosopher, pupil of Socrates, and teacher of Aristotle

Answer 24

Plato

Question 25

Recognition and expression of the spirit of particular places; the most enduring legacy of Greece in landscape design

Answer 25

Genius loci

Question 26

An Ionian Greek philosopher and mathematician (6th century BC), who first discovered a relation between spatial and musical proportions

Answer 26

Pythagoras of Samos

Question 27

Basic order and idealized harmonies of forms

Answer 27

Golden Mean or Golden Section

Question 28

The Greek word for "city-state"

Answer 28

Polis

Question 29

The religious symbolic center of the Greek community; the citadel on the summit of most ancient Greek cities ("the high city"); comprised of the temples to local patron deity; non-axial grouping of structures that were arrived at obliquely

Answer 29

Acropolis

Question 30

The national goddess and a legendary Athenian king, to whom the Acropolis of Athens was dedicated to

Answer 30

Pallas Athena and Erechtheus

Question 31

An Athenian statesman who undertook a major campaign to restore the city of Athens and rebuild its temples, after the war with Persia

Answer 31

Pericles

Question 32

An ancient Greek who codified principles of planning (c. 450)

Answer 32

Hippodamus

Question 33

A system governing the design of columns and entablatures in classic architecture; a proportioning system based on the length and width of the column style

Answer 33

Order

Question 34

The most famous of all temples located in the acropolis in Athens, Greece, which was completed c. 438 B.C.; considered the finest of all the Doric-style structures built during the golden age of Greece

Answer 34

Parthenon

Question 35

An Ionic-style temple on the acropolis in Athens, Greece, built c. 420 BC; notable for the six caryatids on its south porch; left incomplete owing to the Peloponessian War (429-404 BC)

Answer 35

Erectheum (In Greek, Erechtheion)

Question 36

Named after the procession which took place during an Anthenian festival in honour of Athena Polias and Erechtheus; marked the route from the city gates (Doric Propylaea) to the acropolis

Answer 36

Panathenaic Way

Question 37

A central civic marketplace in a Greek town, also used as an open-air assembly; usually surrounded by porticos (forum); can be found the civic heart of the Athens, where people gathered to conduct personal business and participate in municipal affairs (200 BC)

Answer 37

Agora

Question 38

A circular temple in Athena's sanctuary

Answer 38

Tholos

Question 39

Burned navel of the earth, where vapors emanated from the natural fissures

Answer 39

Omphalos

Question 40

Of or relating to ancient Greek or Latin literature, art, or culture

Answer 40

Classical

Question 41

A characteristic of the Greek and Roman, especially relating to the arts and literature; a type or architecture that created rules and forms or orders

Answer 41

Classic

Question 42

Of the Greek culture from the late eight century B.C. to the death of Alexander the Great, 323 B.C.

Answer 42

Hellenic

Question 43

Characteristic of the Greek culture after the death of Alexander the Great, 323 B.C.

Answer 43

Hellenistic

Question 44

During this event, there was common agreement among the city states in Greece that there should be no war and that the festival should be one of body, mind, and spirit

Answer 44

Olympic Games (Games at Olympia)

Question 45

Aristotle's philosophy of place as defined by specific natural features

Answer 45

Topos

Question 46

Places in their natural condition imbued with sacred significance; places of worship and meditation for the Greeks; became the setting for the academy

Answer 46

Sacred grove

Question 47

He is compared to the annual plants with brief seasonal cycle or short life; the Greeks associated him with the vegetation cycle

Answer 47

Adonis

Question 48

Small gardens in terracotta pots; basis of the courtyard gardens of the Mediterranean area with their potted plants

Answer 48

Adonis Garden

Question 49

Formalized architectural complex with facilities for schooling and development of the body as well as the mind; derived from the name of the grove where Plato held his seminars on philosophy

Answer 49

Academy

Question 51

Named for the Greek mathematician (c. 287 B.C. - 212 B.C.); a device comprised of a spiral or screw which turned inside an inclined closed cylinder for raising water to a height

Answer 51

Archimedean Screw

Question 52

A portion of a Greek or Roman house forming an enclosed entry hall or small court or courtyard with the roof opening to the sky in the center

Answer 52

Atrium

Question 53

The greek word of Basilica and its definition

Answer 53

Basileus means "for a king"

Question 54

A variation of the three classical Greek design orders; characterized by column capitals of ornamentally stylized acanthus leaves and curled fern fronds; slender columns with fluted shafts and fillets, and a base

Answer 54

Corinthian

Question 55

From Greco-Latin, a sculptured female figure employed as an architectural female figure employed as an architectural supporting member or columns

Answer 55

Caryatid

Question 56

Greek senate building or council house

Answer 56

Bouleuterion

Question 57

The earliest and simplest of the classical orders; characterized by columns without a base; relatively squatty shafts that were fluted, and simple and undecorated capitals

Answer 57

Doric

Question 58

The two main order and one subordinate order in Greek architecture

Answer 58

Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian

Question 59

One of the classical orders; characterized by capitals with spiral scrolls, tall, graceful fluted shafts, and molded

Answer 59

Ionic

Question 60

A plant with large toothed, scalloped leaves; often stylized into Corinthian capitals and other ornamental moldings, brackets and friezes

Answer 60

Acanthus (Acanthus mollis)

Question 61

A recess or alcove with raised seating where the discussions among scholars were held; for the Romans, any semicircular or rectangular recess with benches, also applied to an apse or niche in a church

Answer 61

Exedra

Question 62

Greek version of the Circus in the Roman Empire; an oval track for horse and chariot races, surrounded by tiered seats for spectators; used on a grand scale by Hadrian at his villa in Tivoli

Answer 62

Hippodrome

Question 63

The very slight convex swelling used on the shaft of Greek and later columns to counteract the illusion of concavity

Answer 63

Entasis

Question 64

A place or building in which young Greek men gathered for physical exercise and education

Answer 64

Gymnasium

Question 65

Term used to describe regular arrangement of streets in planned towns from ancient Greek times; like a checkerboard

Answer 65

Gridiron

Question 67

System of town planning using gridiron system of streets

Answer 67

Hippodamian

Question 68

A sanctuary of the nymphs; a building in Classic architecture for plants and running water ornamented with statues

Answer 68

Nymphaeum

Question 68

The Greek word for paradise; "park" or "garden"

Answer 68

Paradeisos

Question 69

An open colonnaded space or portico that forms an open building for public use; the great hall in Athens in which the ancient Greek philosopher Zeno gave the founding lectures of the Stoic school of philosophy

Answer 69

Stoa

Question 69

The Greek word for an enclosure; Greek architectural term for the colonnade or long portico especially used for athletics

Answer 69

Xystos

Question 70

A pre-Roman civilization or design style originating in west central Italy, eight century BC (ancient Italy and Corsica)

Answer 70

Etruscan (from Etruria)

Question 71

A civilization that originated in the hot, arid central Italian peninsula and expanded westward to Spain and Scotland, and eastward to the Persian Gulf

Answer 71

Roman Society

Question 72

Two main groups of the Roman World, one based on Greek democracy and religion and the other, had a class system under dictatorship of emperor

Answer 72

``` Roman Republic (510 - 27 BC) and Roman Empire (27 BC - AD 476) ```

Question 73

First emperor of the Roman Empire (27 BC); the Pax Romana and the age of grandeur began with him

Answer 73

Augustus Caesar (Gaius Octavius)

Question 74

A Roman statesman, general and architect; a powerful deputy of Augustus; responsible for the construction of Pont du Gard at Nimes

Answer 74

Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa

Question 75

Any human-made channel for carrying water by means of gravity from a distant source to a designated destination; an engineered structure that supports the channel over a valley or river (ex. Pont de Gard)

Answer 75

Aqueduct

Question 76

A Roman townhouse (domus) located within the ruined ancient city of Pompeii, Italy; extraordinary archaeological remains of the Roman town was preserved by the volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius (79 CE); contains a roofed colonnade and a paved atrium

Answer 76

House of the Vettii (Casa dei Vettii)

Question 77

A colonnade or rows of columns around the outside or a building, (Greek temple) or around the inside of a courtyard in a Greek or Roman residence; enclosed space

Answer 77

Peristyle

Question 78

Painting made by applying pigments to a wall while the plaster is still wet; usually garden scenes on the walls of the a peristyle garden which visually extended the space or created a sense of unlimited space

Answer 78

Fresco

Question 79

A seaside villa of Pliny the Younger at Laurentinum, west of Rome (c. 100 CE); planned according to their funtional and climatic requirements, and to take advantage of views

Answer 79

Pliny the Younger's Villa

Question 80

Another type of Roman villa, a seaside villa

Answer 80

Villa marittima

Question 81

In Roman times, a self-contained farmstead serving a country estate and containing accommodation for the owner and employees; often expansive, yet walled

Answer 81

Villa or villa rustica

Question 82

The Roman residential structure located within the city; enclosed within walls, included formal, geometric gardens

Answer 82

Villa urbana

Question 83

(118 CE) Located 15 miles east of Rome in the foothills of the Sabine mountains; considered as the most influential of the landscapes of antiquity for the Renaissance; no organizing geometry unified the site plan, although each self-contained space was organized axially; held together conceptually by its thematic associations

Answer 83

Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli

Question 84

A long rectangular canal in Hadrian's Villa, bordered by caryatids on one side and terminated at its southern end by an aped nymphaeum and a semicircular colonnade at its northern end; named after a branch of the Nile river

Answer 84

Canopus

Question 85

Named for the painted stoa at Athens, which provided a space to promenade year-round; a "painted portico"

Answer 85

Stoa poikile

Question 86

The site of an earlier building constructed by Marcus Agrippa (27 BC); the current structure was the largest concrete dome from the reign of Hadrian until the 15th century; the height of the dome equals its width; studied by Brunelleschi, a Renaissance architect, who designed an even larger dome in Florence

Answer 86

Pantheon, Rome

Question 87

An opening in the center of the dome, particularly in Pantheon, which creates dramatic lighting and atmospheric effects

Answer 87

Oculus

Question 88

A landmark or boundary post in an ancient Roman times in the form of a head of the god Terminus atop a stone pillar

Answer 88

Term

Question 89

The Roman god of boundaries, private property, municipal or nationa, where his image, in statue, was placed at the edges of gardens or property lines; also an endpoint, extremity of an axis, or a focal point

Answer 89

Terminus

Question 90

An elliptical or circular space surrounded by rising tiers of seats, as used by the Romans for gladiatorial contests; first made by the Greeks as settings for their dramas

Answer 90

Amphitheater

Question 91

From Latin, the two major streets that formed cross axes of an orthogonally laid-out community of the Entruscans and Romans; one is aligned north south while the other is oriented east-west

Answer 91

Cardo and Decumanus

Question 92

Latin for 'fortified place,' a Roman legion camp that evolved into a fortified walled town; usually rectangular in outline with a gridiron street arrangement within

Answer 92

Castrum

Question 93

Largest circus in Rome

Answer 93

Circus Maximus (150,000 seats)

Question 94

The Flavian amphitheater in Rome, built c. AD 78-80; its name derives from a statue of Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constaninus (Emperor Constantine I)

Answer 94

Colosseum

Question 95

Latin word for the Roman single-family house

Answer 95

Domus

Question 96

Latin word for a multi-family residential structure, often including shops along one or more of its outside walls and may have achieved five storied in height; an apartment building

Answer 96

Insula

Question 97

Italian word for an area designated for exercise

Answer 97

Gestatio

Question 98

The Romans defined it as "abode of the blessed," park or orchard

Answer 98

Paradise

Question 99

In Greek and Roman houses, a shallow tank or pool under Roman houses, a shallow tank or pool under the opening in the roof of an atrium

Answer 99

Impluvium

Question 100

The Romans coined this word meaning the person who designed or made a such a garden

Answer 100

Topiarius

Question 101

For the Romans, it is a term used for the rear garden outside the house but enclosed within walls

Answer 101

Xystus

Question 102

Added by the Romans in the classic order; one resembles Doric and the other is a combination of Ionic and Corinthian

Answer 102

Tuscan and Composite

Question 103

A material used by the Romans, which revolutionized construction, was invented by a mixture of pozzolana (sand) and lime

Answer 103

Concrete

Question 104

The person who legalized Christianity as official religion in A.D. 313

Answer 104

Emperor Constantine

Question 105

The book where the phrase "genius of the place" first appeared

Answer 105

Book V of Virgil's Aenid

Question 106

The Roman concept of leisure afforded by a natural setting exemplified by the idea of a country villa

Answer 106

Otium

Question 107

Monumental piece of urban design combined Hellenistic principles of movement about an axis with Roman technology; its grand staircases, ramps, and arcaded terraces that gracefully negotiated the slope and culminated in an exedra influenced Italian Renaissance designers; the sanctuary was over 1,000 feet above sea level and visible from the Tyrrhenian Sea

Answer 107

Temple of Fortuna Primigenia, Praeneste (Palestrina, Italy)