Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
are virtually non-existant (for an exception in Bronze Age Palestine v ABSP I,
pp. 430-31). In the more monumental construction there was a standard ordon-
nance of a wooden column shat with stone base and stone capital. Many examples
of stone bases in the form of a decorated pot (bowl) survive in the region to give
evidence of vanished wooden columns (ABSP 2 p. 431; Naumann, p. 136; Wesen-
berg Kapitelle und Basen, pp. 87 f ). h ere is some evidence both archaeological
and textual that on special occasions (cf the symbolic columns Jachin and Boaz
l anking the entrance to Solomon's Temple) wooden columns were ennobled by
metal sheathing at er the mode established in Mesopotamia during the third mil-
lenium BC (ABSP I, pp. 377-78, 429).
A somewhat unexpected development has been recognised in Late Bronze Age
Cyprus. h is is, in fact, not a wooden column but a wooden pillar. Stone capitals
and bases of simple stepped form have indicated the use of a composite wooden
pillar just of square in section formed by securing together four stout timber
baulks (ABC I, pp. 429-32).
Wooden
column
shat s
with
stone
bases &
capitals
125
(iii) Roofs
h e roof is perhaps the most salient example of a part of a building constructed
out of wood when other parts of the building are constructed of another material,
eg brick or stone. h roughout antiquity (and indeed until the nineteenth century)
if the form of rooi ng was of plane surfaces, then the structural material employed
was inevitably wood. If the use of some other material were preferred (or obligatory)
then the rooi ng assumed a curved form at least in one contour. h is fact holds
good whether the building is a slight domestic one or an imposing monument. h e
only exception to this situation in the ancient world was the rooi ng of the great
Egyptian stone temples. h ese buildings were all-stone structures provided with
l at, terrace roofs formed from massive stone beams and slabs. However the very
high ratio of weight to strength of stone used in this manner made the rooi ng
very inei cient compared with eg the stone walling of the temple. Whereas many
Egyptian temple walls still remain intact up to roof height, relatively few stone
rooi ng components have survived intact.
A brief survey of ancient wooden rooi ng is given with a primary distinction
between l at (i.e. virtually horizontal) roofs and pitched (inclined) roofs.
119, 126,
127-136
255-259
(a) Flat Terrace Roofs. h e l at terrace roof is apposite to a relatively dry climate.
Even then an occasional torrential downpour is likely to ruin it; and it certainly
needs constant seasonal maintenance to keep it in functional order. It is also
unsatisfactory construction on account of its self weight. Very frequently in time
the structure sags under its own load and eventually collapses. Nonetheless in all
the dryer parts of the Ancient World (h e Middle East, the Mediterranean) this
Wooden
framed
roofs
