Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Arthur Evans this led to a Pan-Cretan sentiment, which was prominent during
the i rst half of last century, but is no longer in vogue today. One locality where
this Cretan type of building construction occurs and has been accurately studied is
Cyprus. Here the chronology is later than in Crete. It is found in the palace buildings
at e.g. Enkomi and Kition during LC III, at the end of the Bronze Age in the 13th
cent. BC (ABC I, pp. 274-76, 414; II i gs 241-50). Very illustrative reconstructions
have been made of the construction at Kition. And here the architect O. Callot has
restored the timbering into a self-subsistent frame structure (
Kition V.1
).
Very similar building construction has been recognised at the North Syrian town
of Ras Shamra (Ugarit) which was closely associated in trade with Cyprus during
the latter part of the Late Bronze Age. However, whereas the superstructure of the
walls at Kition was of mud brick, at Ugarit the superstructure of the walls was of
good rubble masonry. Here also the architect O. Callot has made very illustrative
restorations of the construction based on meticulous accurate study (
Une Maison
à Ugarit
, 1983;
La Tranche Ville Sud
, 1994). h is building style is earlier attested
in North Syria than in Cyprus.
In addition to these recent and very notable studies of the wooden component
in building construction many notices and records have been made in the past of
the signii cant use of wood in the rubble and mud brick building of the Levant and
Anatolia. h e subject is thus a ramii ed one with the wooden component rang-
ing from a framed construction resembling traditional modern “half timbered”
constuction to an auxilliary reinforcement of the masonry structure (ABSP I,
pp. 363-69, 490; Naumann, Chap. 8). Also many reconstruction drawings of the
profuse incorporation of wood into Anatolian mud brick and rubble construction
appear in the publications of the Beyce Sultan excavations (S. Lloyd,
Beyce Sultan
I, II, III
).
Wood in
Bronze Age
Masonry
—Levant
144
145
139-141
Wood as
an entire
struc-
tural ele-
ment
(2) Mixed Construction of wood and other materials used separately in
dif erent structural elements of a building.
h e use of wood for a certain structural element of a building (e.g. the roof ) when
other elements are built of stone or brick etc. is obviously a very extended subject
since it was widespread in time and place. Perhaps the most notable instances
are the use of wood for foundations, for point supports, and for rooi ng when
remaining parts of the building are constructed of other materials. In the interest
of conciseness a specimen treatment of the subject is presented according to these
categories, although there are other applications.
(i) Foundations. Wooden piles to rectify instable natural foundations.
Wooden piles emerging from marshy ground (indeed from shallow waters) con-
stitute a familiar image, and it is not always kept in mind what exactly is in issue,
