Art History in Credo: Prehistoric & Ancient

Burial mound, usually composed of earth but sometimes of stones.

An isolated volcanic island in the Pacific, 3700 km (2300 miles) west of Chile, of which it is a dependency: discovered on Easter Sunday, 1722; annexed by Chile in 1888; noted for the remains of an aboriginal culture. Easter Island is famous for its hieroglyphs and for hundreds of remarkable monolithic stone heads (moais) whose origin and meaning have been widely debated. Carved from soft volcanic tufa, the statues are from 10 to 40 ft (3-12 m) high, some weighing over 50 tons.

Prehistoric stone monument of the late Neolithic (New Stone Age) or early Bronze Age. A number of explanations have been put forward for the building of megaliths during the Neolithic period in areas including Denmark, Ireland, northeastern Scotland, England, western France, and Spain. These range from economic reasons to expressions of dominance (neo-Marxist) and symbolism.

Single isolated stone or column, usually standing and of great size, used as a form of monument.

From The classical tradition
Architectural form consisting of a square or trapezoidal base with four triangular sides meeting at a central point or apex. The pyramid achieved its characteristic form in pharaonic Egypt, where edifices of this type were employed as sepulchral monuments.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Form of temple common to the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians. The ziggurat was a pyramidal structure, built in receding tiers upon a rectangular, oval, or square platform, with a shrine at the summit.

Also known as the Flavian amphitheatre, the Colosseum in Rome was the largest of the ancient amphitheatres. Elliptical in plan, it measures 188 × 156 m and is 48.5 m in height (620 × 515 × 160 ft).

Fortifications, c.1,500 mi (2,400 km) long, winding across N China from Gansu prov. to Hebei prov. on the Yellow Sea.

Line of fortifications built by the Roman emperor Hadrian across northern Britain from the Cumbrian coast on the west to the North Sea on the east.

Constructed during the reign of the emperor Hadrian between 118 and 125 ce in the Campus Martius district of ancient Rome, the imposing Pantheon still dominates its surroundings today.

[Gr.,=the virgin's place]; temple sacred to Athena, on the acropolis at Athens. Built under Pericles between 447 B.C. and 432 B.C., it is the culminating masterpiece of Greek architecture.

Ancient rock city in present-day Jordan, known to the Arabs as Wadi Musa for the stream that flows through it. The site includes some 800 structures, the best known of which is the Khazneh el-Farun, a mausoleum, monument, or temple with a two-story facade and Hellenistic split pediment.

From The Classical Tradition
The most common list of the Seven Wonders of the World includes the following outstanding buildings and monumental sculptures: (1) the Pyramids of Gizeh and (2) the Lighthouse (Pharos) of Alexandria, in Egypt; (3) the walls and the hanging gardens of Babylon, in Mesopotamia; (4) the Temple of Artemis at Ephesos and (5) the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, in Asia Minor; (6) the Colossus, on the Aegean island of Rhodes; and (7) the Statue of Zeus in his temple at Olympia, in Greece.

[Gr.,=high point of the city], elevated, fortified section of various ancient Greek cities. The Acropolis of Athens, a hill c.260 ft (80 m) high, with a flat oval top c.500 ft (150 m) wide and 1,150 ft (350 m) long. The Acropolis of Athens was a ceremonial site beginning in the Neolithic Period and was walled before the 6th century BCE by the Pelasgians. The area was adorned during the time of Cimon and Pericles with some of the world's greatest architectural and sculptural monuments.

Europe's largest stone circle (diameter 412 m/1,350 ft), in Wiltshire, England. This megalithic henge monument is thought to be part of a ritual complex.

Inca site in Peru, about 50 mi (80 km) NW of Cuzco. It is perched high upon a rock in a narrow saddle between two sharp mountain peaks. The imposing city is one of the largest pre-Columbian sites found virtually intact.

From Brewer's Dictionary of Irish Phrase and Fable
A megalithic passage tomb dating from about 3200 bc. It is situated in the Boyne Valley, near Slane in Co. Meath. The grave-mound, which is kidney-shaped, is about 11 m (36 ft) high and 90 m (300 ft) in diameter, and has been reconstructed with materials found on the site after a major excavation that began in 1962.

Megalithic monument on Salisbury Plain, 3 km/1.9 mi west of Amesbury in Wiltshire, England. The intriguing mysterious prehistoric stone circle known as Stonehenge is one of the world’s oldest and most famous holy sites. While much about Stonehenge remains unknown, it is best understood as the culminating product of the stone-building culture that produced these many monuments across the British Isles.

The architecture of the Byzantine Empire at its outset was essentially that of the Late Roman Empire from which it emerged in the early fourth century CE.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
The architecture of the ancient Egyptians, formulated prior to 3000 B.C. and lasting through the Ptolemaic period (323–30 B.C.).

The art of building that arose on the shores of the Aegean Sea and flourished in the ancient world.

Structures produced by the ancient Romans, characterized by rational design and planning, the use of vaulting and concrete masonry, and the use of the classical orders only sporadically for purposes of architectural articulation and decoration. The origins of Roman architecture can be traced to the Etruscans, who migrated from Asia Minor to Italy in the 12th century B.C.E.

In classical styles of architecture the various columnar types fall, in general, into the five so-called classical orders, which are named Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan, and Composite.

Earliest of the orders of architecture developed by the Greeks and the one that they employed for most buildings.

One of the early orders of architecture. The spreading scroll-shaped capital is the distinctive feature of the Ionic order; it was primarily a product of Asia Minor, where early embryonic forms of this capital have been found.

Most ornate of the classic orders of architecture. It was also the latest, not arriving at full development until the middle of the 4th century B.C.E.