Western Civilizations (Ancient Times, Egypt, Greece, and Rome) Flashcards
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
Ancient Egypt
The sun god of the Egyptians, greatest of the gods
Ra
Accepted as the son of Ra on earth, and therefore considered as a god; a ruler of Egypt
Pharaoh
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
Ka
An ancient Egyptian system of writing using pictures as words
Hieroglyphic
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
Lotus (Nymphaea)
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
Cyperus papyrus (Papyrus)
A device invented in Egypt for raising irrigation water from one level to another using a bucket and fulcrum
Shaduf
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
Sphinx
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
Pyramids at Giza
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
East and West
Of Egyptian origin, symbolic of procreation; a tall vertical monument, usually monolithic, square in section and tapering up toward a pyramidal apex
Obelisk
The monumental entrance of an Egyptian temple or other wall enclosed space; symbolic of the mountains on each side of the Nile
Pylon
(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
Tomb of Nebamun, Thebes
(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
Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatsheput, Deir el-Bahri, Egypt
A Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete (c. 2000-1470 BC)
Minoan Civilization
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
“Horns of Consecration” (bull horns)
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
Greece
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
Cumae
A late Bronze Age Aegean civilization after the collapse of the Crete (1400 BC) located on the mainland
Mycenaean Civilization
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
Eleusis, Greece
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
Delphi, Greece
The sacred precinct allotted to the deity, containing the altar, temple (if any), and other sacral or natural features
Temenos
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
Plato
Recognition and expression of the spirit of particular places; the most enduring legacy of Greece in landscape design
Genius loci
An Ionian Greek philosopher and mathematician (6th century BC), who first discovered a relation between spatial and musical proportions
Pythagoras of Samos
Basic order and idealized harmonies of forms
Golden Mean or Golden Section
The Greek word for “city-state”
Polis
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
Acropolis
The national goddess and a legendary Athenian king, to whom the Acropolis of Athens was dedicated to
Pallas Athena and Erechtheus
An Athenian statesman who undertook a major campaign to restore the city of Athens and rebuild its temples, after the war with Persia
Pericles
An ancient Greek who codified principles of planning (c. 450)
Hippodamus
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
Order
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
Parthenon
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)
Erectheum (In Greek, Erechtheion)
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
Panathenaic Way
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)
Agora
A circular temple in Athena’s sanctuary
Tholos
Burned navel of the earth, where vapors emanated from the natural fissures
Omphalos
Of or relating to ancient Greek or Latin literature, art, or culture
Classical
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
Classic
Of the Greek culture from the late eight century B.C. to the death of Alexander the Great, 323 B.C.
Hellenic
Characteristic of the Greek culture after the death of Alexander the Great, 323 B.C.
Hellenistic
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
Olympic Games (Games at Olympia)
Aristotle’s philosophy of place as defined by specific natural features
Topos
Places in their natural condition imbued with sacred significance; places of worship and meditation for the Greeks; became the setting for the academy
Sacred grove
He is compared to the annual plants with brief seasonal cycle or short life; the Greeks associated him with the vegetation cycle
Adonis
Small gardens in terracotta pots; basis of the courtyard gardens of the Mediterranean area with their potted plants
Adonis Garden
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
Academy
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
Archimedean Screw
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
Atrium
The greek word of Basilica and its definition
Basileus means “for a king”
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
Corinthian
From Greco-Latin, a sculptured female figure employed as an architectural female figure employed as an architectural supporting member or columns
Caryatid
Greek senate building or council house
Bouleuterion
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
Doric
The two main order and one subordinate order in Greek architecture
Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian
One of the classical orders; characterized by capitals with spiral scrolls, tall, graceful fluted shafts, and molded
Ionic
A plant with large toothed, scalloped leaves; often stylized into Corinthian capitals and other ornamental moldings, brackets and friezes
Acanthus (Acanthus mollis)
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
Exedra
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
Hippodrome
The very slight convex swelling used on the shaft of Greek and later columns to counteract the illusion of concavity
Entasis
A place or building in which young Greek men gathered for physical exercise and education
Gymnasium
Term used to describe regular arrangement of streets in planned towns from ancient Greek times; like a checkerboard
Gridiron
System of town planning using gridiron system of streets
Hippodamian
A sanctuary of the nymphs; a building in Classic architecture for plants and running water ornamented with statues
Nymphaeum
The Greek word for paradise; “park” or “garden”
Paradeisos
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
Stoa
The Greek word for an enclosure; Greek architectural term for the colonnade or long portico especially used for athletics
Xystos
A pre-Roman civilization or design style originating in west central Italy, eight century BC (ancient Italy and Corsica)
Etruscan (from Etruria)
A civilization that originated in the hot, arid central Italian peninsula and expanded westward to Spain and Scotland, and eastward to the Persian Gulf
Roman Society
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
Roman Republic (510 - 27 BC) and Roman Empire (27 BC - AD 476)
First emperor of the Roman Empire (27 BC); the Pax Romana and the age of grandeur began with him
Augustus Caesar (Gaius Octavius)
A Roman statesman, general and architect; a powerful deputy of Augustus; responsible for the construction of Pont du Gard at Nimes
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
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)
Aqueduct
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
House of the Vettii (Casa dei Vettii)
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
Peristyle
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
Fresco
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
Pliny the Younger’s Villa
Another type of Roman villa, a seaside villa
Villa marittima
In Roman times, a self-contained farmstead serving a country estate and containing accommodation for the owner and employees; often expansive, yet walled
Villa or villa rustica
The Roman residential structure located within the city; enclosed within walls, included formal, geometric gardens
Villa urbana
(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
Hadrian’s Villa, Tivoli
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
Canopus
Named for the painted stoa at Athens, which provided a space to promenade year-round; a “painted portico”
Stoa poikile
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
Pantheon, Rome
An opening in the center of the dome, particularly in Pantheon, which creates dramatic lighting and atmospheric effects
Oculus
A landmark or boundary post in an ancient Roman times in the form of a head of the god Terminus atop a stone pillar
Term
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
Terminus
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
Amphitheater
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
Cardo and Decumanus
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
Castrum
Largest circus in Rome
Circus Maximus (150,000 seats)
The Flavian amphitheater in Rome, built c. AD 78-80; its name derives from a statue of Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constaninus (Emperor Constantine I)
Colosseum
Latin word for the Roman single-family house
Domus
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
Insula
Italian word for an area designated for exercise
Gestatio
The Romans defined it as “abode of the blessed,” park or orchard
Paradise
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
Impluvium
The Romans coined this word meaning the person who designed or made a such a garden
Topiarius
For the Romans, it is a term used for the rear garden outside the house but enclosed within walls
Xystus
Added by the Romans in the classic order; one resembles Doric and the other is a combination of Ionic and Corinthian
Tuscan and Composite
A material used by the Romans, which revolutionized construction, was invented by a mixture of pozzolana (sand) and lime
Concrete
The person who legalized Christianity as official religion in A.D. 313
Emperor Constantine
The book where the phrase “genius of the place” first appeared
Book V of Virgil’s Aenid
The Roman concept of leisure afforded by a natural setting exemplified by the idea of a country villa
Otium
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
Temple of Fortuna Primigenia, Praeneste (Palestrina, Italy)
