One of the interesting elements of the chaitya is that they were built in a manner similar to older Vedic architecture, but in stone rather than in wood.. Archaeologists speculate that
Trang 1yard Th ese drab cells evolved from the caves in which monks
had lived in previous centuries Another, called the chaitya,
was a set of halls that could be used when the main outdoor
stupa could not because of bad weather
One of the interesting elements of the chaitya is that they
were built in a manner similar to older Vedic architecture, but
in stone rather than in wood Th us, the chaitya have
barrel-shaped vaulted roofs, entrances barrel-shaped like horseshoes, and
railings Archaeologists speculate that the craft smen who built
the structure were reluctant to give up the techniques they had
used for building wooden structures when they turned to the
use of stone In fact, much of the cave architecture of ancient
India, such as the caves at the city of Karle, look in most ways
as though they have been carved out of wood, right down to
the “joints” that were carved into the stone Other early
tem-ples, such as the modest temple at Tigawa near modern-day
Jabalpur, use a great deal of stone, including a stone slab for
the roof, giving the temples an almost cavelike quality, though
much of the stone is intricately carved
Th ese and similar structures were precursors to an era
marked by the construction of magnifi cent Buddhist
tem-ples under the reign of the Gupta Dynasty, which reached
the height of its power in about 400 c.e During this period
builders turned away from their “wood carving” approach
to stone and began to employ techniques more suitable for
stone and masonry construction Th is gave rise to a style of
architecture that was radically new Until this time Indian
ar-chitecture had been relatively simple and impermanent Th e
earliest Indians worshipped in the open, then in buildings
constructed with reeds and bamboo, then in wooden
post-and-beam buildings, and fi nally in stone stupas Under the
Gupta Dynasty, though, architects began to develop the core
principles that led to more magnifi cent temples during the
later medieval period
One early Gupta temple is a small Shiva temple in the
Jhansi district of India, in the town of Deogarh (A Shiva
temple was one dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva.) One
noteworthy characteristic of this temple is that above the
central worship area was erected a raised, pyramid-shaped
structure that is estimated to have been 40 feet tall (much
of the temple is lost) Th e temple also has four porticoes, or
covered porches, one facing in each compass direction Th e
temple is also of interest because of the elaborate carvings
on the exterior pillars
ARCHITECTURE OF ANCIENT KOREA
Archaeologists have discovered the remains of Korean
civi-lization dating back to the fi ft h millennium b.c.e Among
the remains are those of homes Th e earliest homes on the
Korean Peninsula were pits in the earth Later homes used
earthen walls with thatched roofs, and still later homes were
made of logs
Among the architectural sites that have been excavated
is that of the city of Choson, which emerged in the fourth
century b.c.e and survived to the third century c.e Th ere
archaeologists have uncovered the remains of colonial head-quarters buildings and tombs Most of the offi cial build-ings were constructed of brick and wood, and their roofs were tiled Tombs include the Tomb of the Painted Basket,
a wooden structure with a single chamber and a large num-ber of treasures Tombs of kings and memnum-bers of the upper classes have also been found in Koguryo, Kungn ae-song, and Pyongyang, which served as district capitals In about 18 b.c.e the city of Paekche was founded, and it, too, is the site
of numerous building sites and tombs Prominent among the city’s sites was a central pagoda with an entrance gate, a main hall, and other rooms laid out along a central axis, refl ecting the infl uence of Chinese architecture
ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE ON THE
PACIFIC ISLANDS
Not a great deal is known about the architectural achieve-ments of the peoples who inhabited the four major regions and some 25,000 islands that make up Oceania: Australasia (including Australia and New Zealand), Micronesia (includ-ing Guam, the Mariana Islands, and the Marshall Islands), Melanesia (including Fiji, New Guinea, Indonesia, and the Solomon Islands), and Polynesia (including Samoa, the Cook Islands, and Tonga) Settlement of these islands was a slow process over long periods of time, as people had to travel from far-fl ung locations by boat Most of the region’s architectural record dates back, at the earliest, to about 500 c.e However, the remains that do exist demonstrate an ability on the part of Oceanic peoples to adapt their architecture to their environ-ment, using wood, coral, lava rock, reeds, and other materials that happened to be at hand on a particular island
EUROPE
BY JAMES A CORRICK
Ten thousand years ago the people of Europe lived a nomadic life as they followed game and searched for other food Th ese hunter-gatherers established temporary camps from which to hunt, fi sh, and forage Th eir dwellings were as temporary as their camps and were easily assembled from materials found
at hand, such as the wood and bark of trees, stones, and ani-mal hides Th ese early shelters were the beginning of Euro-pean architecture
TENTS AND HUTS
Th e most common shelters for early Europeans were tents that were fashioned in a variety of shapes—circular, oval, rectangular, and square Whatever the shape, each tent had
a wooden frame from which hides hung to form walls Some-times stones were placed along the bottom of the hide walls
to hold them in place European hunter-gatherers also built wooden huts, which had the same variety of shapes as tents
Th e walls were wooden poles or stakes covered with bark, reeds, or hides in order to add further protection from wind and rain Entry was through an opening left in the wall, which
architecture: Europe 69