PRE- COLUMBIAN ARCHITECTURE Presented By: Ar. Pradeep Kumar Yadav Assistant Professor Institute of Architecture & Town Planning Bundelkhand University, Jhansi PRE- COLUMBIAN ARCHITECTURE • INTRODUCTION • MAJOR CULTURAL AREAS OF THE PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICAS • PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS • BUILDING TECHNIQUES • ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER • BUILDINGS PRE- COLUMBIAN ARCHITECTURE Introduction • Pre-Columbian civilizations, the aboriginal American Indian cultures that evolved in Mesoamerica (part of Mexico and Central America) and the Andean region (western South America) prior to Spanish exploration and conquest in the 16th century. • The Pre-Columbian civilizations were extraordinary developments in human society and culture, ranking with the early civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China. • The high civilizations of Mesoamerica and South America consisted of peasant farmers ruled by hereditary elites whose basis of power was the belief that they had been created to govern & had access to the Gods. • One aspect of the culture that had a powerful influence on architecture was the belief that super natural powers were literally in certain places- thus determining the siting of ceremonial buildings. MAJOR CULTURAL AREAS OF THE PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICAS NORTH AMERICA MESOAMERICA SOUTH AMERICA • Archaic period • Olmec civilization • Norte Chico civilization • Middle Archaic period • Teotihuacan civilization • Valdivia culture • Late Archaic period • Tarascan/ Purepecha civilization • Cañari people • Woodland period • Maya civilization • Chavín civilization • Mississippian culture • Aztec/Mexica/Triple Alliance • Muisca people civilization • Historic tribes • Moche civilization • Tiwanaku Empire • Inca Empire • Cambeba MAJOR CULTURAL AREAS OF THE PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICAS Arctic Northwest Aridoamerica Mesoamerica Isthmo-Colombian Caribbean Amazon Andes PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS EASTERN UNITED CENTRAL AMERICA ANDEAN COASTAL REGIONS STATES • Extensive river system • The spring like climates, with reliable • Changing very abruptly from • Large areas of rainfall, in the upland plateau of extreme desert conditions to deciduous forest ( now present- day Mexico City, Oaxaca lush greatly reduced) valley and the Guatemalan highlands. • Well- watered river valleys • Rolling hills & well- • The humid tropical lowlands of sheltered valleys Yucatan & northern Guatemala, the • Low rainfall made abode central region of Mayan Civilization, construction feasible • Climate through the where the brief dry season in April & throughout the coastal zone area varies from humid May critically affects agricultural • The highlands of Peru, on the subtropical or humid success. other hand, offer only complex continental to relatively mountainous terrain, the cold subarctic conditions • The raised pyramidal platform as a elevated grassland plateaux in the northern third. device to elevate living surfaces of which defy habitation. above the forest floor seems clearly understandable as a response to conditions of high humidity & vigorous plant growth in the lowland areas. BUILDING TECHNIQUES NORTH AMERICA CENTRAL AMERICA ANDEAN COASTAL REGIONS • The laced – plank communal • Maya vault presents the most highly • Most Inca & pre-Inca lodges of the Canadian north- evolved of all American pre-colonial construction did not have west constructional devices. distinct hearting masonry comparable to that of Maya • The bent- sapling Iroquois • Few early Classic vaults were structures. long-houses corbelled( for example, the five storey Pyramid, Edzna) • True corbels were used • Earth lodges partly excavated extensively in Andean work to & roofed with timbers • The best-known Late Classic vaults support floor & roof timbers. depended for stability upon the • But the most impressive adhesive properties of mortar & • The famous Inca polygonal structures in North America, acted monolithically. masonry ( for example, the earth-platform temples of Saqsaywaman), laid without the Eastern Woodlands, were • The boot-shaped vault stones of mortar & very closely fitted, is accomplished with most northern Yucatan ( for example the unique among pre- colonial rudimentary means, the simple Nunnery Complex, Uxmal) methods of construction. pilling-up of basket- loads of earth. • The massive structural elements of Maya buildings were independently stable ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER NORTH AMERICA CENTRAL AMERICA SOUTH AMERICA • Pre- colonial monumental • In contrast to the disparate architectural forms • Earlier than c. 900 BC, architecture can be found in North America, monumental ceremonial architectural ideas remained throughout the eastern United architecture of the Mesoamerican high confined to their original States in the form of truncated civilizations (Olmec, Maya, Zapotec, Totec & localities, but subsequently a earthen pyramids, often grouped Aztec) generally conformed to a single model that series of regional styles around ceremonial plazas or varied only in detail with location & period. spread more widely through clustered in precincts. the Andean area. • This was based on a clear distinction between • The pyramids did not have facing superstructure & substructure. • Rubble & field stone as well materials & assumed large, simple as cut stone were used in the forms with little terracing or • Low land Maya builders vaulted the temple Chavin temples. surface articulation. buildings & expressed the vaulting on exteriors by means of a horizontal band known as the upper • Carved Stone & modelled • Rectangular & square plan- zone, on which were highly conspicuous symbolic stucco were used for shapes predominated, but a few images in painted relief. decoration. temples were circular, and were shaped like serpents or totemic figures. ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER NORTH AMERICA CENTRAL AMERICA SOUTH AMERICA • In the south- west United • Substructure platforms were also • The period following the spread of States, impressive communal symbolic. Chavin( c. 200 BC to AD 600) is structures were built by the notable for the construction of large Anazasi & Pueblo cultures at • In fully developed Maya temples of abode platform-temples such as the Pueblo Bonto, Mesa Verde, the southern Mexico & Guatemala elaborate Sun & Moon pyramids at Moche & in Chaco canyon & other sites. substructures were formed as additive many southern & central coastal assemblies of distinct, three- locations. • These buildings incorporated dimensionally recognisable ‘bodies’, and the functions of temples & also some extent were standardised. • From 600 to 1000, new empires palaces in their rectangular emerged with capitals at the cities systems of rooms, which were • A description of Temple I at Tikal, in of Tiahunaco & Huari, characterised used for various purposes & Guatemala, for example, with its six by very rigid, formal architecture on were punctuated by circular component types- basal-platform, a gridiron plan. kivas used as ceremonial pyramid, supplementary-platform, spaces. building-platform, building, and roof- • The Incas used a variety of comb- is equally applicable to more than construction techniques ranging from • In these structures the a hundred temples built over more than rubble masonry to polygonal dry stone geometry of ritual architecture 800 years. work . was hidden. BUILDINGS MONKS MOUND AT CAHOKIA, NORTH AMERICA • The largest single ceremonial building of pre-Columbian North America. • The mound size was calculated in 1988 as about 100 feet (30 m) high, 955 feet (291 m) long including the access ramp at the southern end, and 775 feet (236 m) wide. • Its massive platform, of truncated pyramid form, has four asymmetrical levels built up entirely of earth, and dominated a palisaded ceremonial precinct. • This makes Monks Mound roughly the same size at its base as the Great Pyramid of Giza (13.1 acres / 5.3 hectares). • Unlike Egyptian pyramids which were built of stone, the platform mound was constructed almost entirely of layers of basket-transported soil and clay. • Because of this construction and its flattened top, over the years, it has retained rainwater within the structure. This has caused slumping, the avalanche-like sliding of large sections of the sides at the highest part of the mound. MONKS MOUND AT CAHOKIA, NORTH AMERICA Cahokia as it may have appeared , painting by Michael Hampshire EMERALD MOUND AT CAHOKIA, NORTH AMERICA • The Emerald Mound Site , also known as the Selsertown site, is a Plaquemine culture Mississippian period archaeological site located on the Natchez Trace Parkway near Stanton, Mississippi, United States. • Emerald Mound, built and used during the Mississippian period between 1250 and 1600 A.D.,was a ceremonial center for the local population, which resided in outlying villages and hamlets. • The platform mound is the second-largest Pre-Columbian earthwork in the country, after Monk's Mound at Cahokia, Illinois. • The mound covers eight acres, measuring 770 feet (230 m) by 435 feet (133 m) at the base and is 35 feet (11 m) in height. • Emerald Mound has a flat top with two smaller secondary mounds at each end. It was constructed around a natural hill. This site once had six other secondary mounds which were lost due to the plowing of the surface of the mound. • It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989. EMERALD MOUND AT CAHOKIA, NORTH AMERICA POVERTY POINT, NORTHEASTERN LOUISIANA, NORTH AMERICA • A prehistoric earthwork constructed by the Poverty Point culture. • The Poverty Point site is located in present-day northeastern Louisiana though evidence of the Poverty Point culture