WOOD CONSTRUCTION - Ancient Building Technology - page 115

area, Round House building excavations have shown that the tradition of the
Round House emplacement goes back into the Mesolithic Era, several millenia
before the Pre-pottery Neolithic, and it appears that in Mesolithic examples the
overhead shelter was, in fact, provided out of light fugitive materials (v ABSP,
pp. 23-24). However, in this connection much of the archaeological reporting may
be based again on argument from a negative—i.e. there is no surviving evidence
of rooi ng out of solid material (mud etc.) therefore it must have been of light
vegetal composition.
Other interesting evidence of early construction out of light pliant material is
provided by remains in the Nile valley during Neolithic times (cf the Badarian).
Here the interest particularly turns on the inl uence of this type of construction
on later building in solid material (brick and stone). In Egypt this development is
unmistakeable and has been well studied (NB G. Porta, L'Architettura Egizia delle
origini in legno e materiali leggeri , Milan, 1988).
It has always been a preferred thesis that the earliest settled inhabitants of the
luxuriant reed banks and cane brakes of the Nile were essentially of African stock.
Certainly the type of dwelling built from this resilient but pliable riverine growth
has always remained evident in many regions of Africa—associated almost invari-
ably with a round plan (the beehive hut). Material remains of these Neolithic
dwellings in the Nile Valley are not very substantial. h ey include post holes to
show the disposition of woody material, the occasional chance preservation of
actual woody members (e.g. long canes), soil discoloration due to decomposition of
organic material and also presence of ashes to show the original presence of woody
structural members, together with occasional well preserved pieces of matting to
indicate the cladding (v Porta, pp. 36-37, 43, 45-46, 51-53, 151-53).
h e circumstantiality of the derivation in Egypt of forms in later solid build-
ing material (brick and stone) from forms originally expressed in pliant woody
materials (palms, canes, reeds etc.) arises not from the superior preservation of
the material remains of the ancestral construction, but from the circumstantial
evidence peculiar to Egyptian civilisation.
In the i rst place there are numbers of ancient representations of construction
in the original light pliant material, where the identity of the materials is mani-
fest. h ese representations are very early pre-dynastic or archaic, i.e. prior to the
subsequent expression of the forms in solid brick and stone (cf Porta, Pls VI-X).
Among them a prominent subject represented is the Nile Boat. h ese splendid ves-
sels constructed of papyrus bundles, were all furnished with deck cabins manifestly
reproducing the form and construction of traditional huts and cabins on dry land.
Among the forms here represented are several approximating those renowned in
another context. Egyptian ultra-conservatism ascribed certain unvarying forms as
proper to several basic religious or hierachic structures, e.g. the per nu and per ur

Pliant
material
in Nile
Valley