Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
ground and development, and why it became endemic in the region during late
antiquity. h ere are two obvious background considerations. When the late antique
building of North Syria was re-investigated in 1976-78 (J.-P. Sodini, “Déhès”),
the French archaeologists had dii culty in distinguishing between pillared por-
ticos and framed wall construction. h ey also thought to recognise fore-runners
of this framed construction in the area, going back to the Early Roman Empire.
In this way, they established the line of development of the striking framed stone
construction evidenced in Les Villes Mortes during later antiquity. h is evolved
out of the Portico House Type of the Early Empire, e.g. at Banaqfur, 1st Cent
AD; Benabil, 2nd Century AD (cf Ward Perkins, pp. 428-30, i g 161). h e other
strand relevent was the stif ened wall masonry called
opus africanum
but perhaps
better termed
opus punicum
. However ultimately these considerations merge in
an original pillared construction.
All stone
building
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D.
Mode of Construction
More or less on a par with wood, stone construction can take two modes: “all stone”
buildings and as a contributing material in mixed construction. h is statement,
of course, must be understood as referring to building structure. A building does not
cease to be an all stone building because, e.g. the doors, windows etc. are of wood.
1.
All Stone Building
h ere are numbers of all stone structures in several dif erent contexts in the ancient
world and there would be many more if the physical properties of stone admitted
of convenient trabeated rooi ng out of stone. However this is not so, and thus “all
stone” building is virtually limited to monumental building where the rooi ng, if
trabeated, is on a grandiose scale (Egypt) or else it must be of vaulted construction
(later Graeco Roman).
(a)
Trabeated Rooi ng
(v Arnold, pp. 183-260; Clarke & Engelbach, pp. 151-61)
h e inexpediency of trabeated stone rooi ng is manifest and it is demonstrated
by the surviving record in Egypt To roof any reasonable span by stone beams
or slabs requires such massive units that their burden is great, e.g. some 20 tons.
h ere is dii culty in getting such units in position 15 m or more above the ground;
and equally the wall construction must be very strong to support this load. In
any event the results in Egypt were not notably successful—very few massive
stone beams have survived intact across the ages. Also it is a striking fact that
nowhere else in the ancient world was an attempt made to emulate this Egyptian
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