Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
tecture in Pope's Survey of Persian Art (Vol. 1, pp. 424, 425; i gs 100, 101). h ey
represent a triple aisled hall with barrel vaulted roof supported on arcaded brick
pillars. Reuther's text refers to pitched brick construction. h e vaults could have
been constructed in this manner, although the brick for brick detail in the drawings
does not show it so. h e arches between the pillars must have been constructed as
shown—i.e. by semi-circles of bricks set on edge vertically. However these drawings
were not made directly from the surviving material evidence, but are interpreta-
tions of Andrae's written reports.
Building during the Sassanian regime (224 AD-627 AD) as dispersed over a very
great area does not constitute a uniform category, neither historically nor geographi-
cally. In any event the characteristic building material employed is not brick but
rubble. However it has long been popularly understood that a structure of general
architectural signii cance, the dome carried on squinches, originated in Sassasian
building construction. Although this structural form is by no means coni ned to
brick building, it is closely connected with brick building. In this way it is appropri-
ate to discuss the structural form in connection with vaulted Sassanian brickwork.
h ere is no general study of Sassanian brickmasonry. Accepted statements are
that it carried on Parthian practice in brick laying (e.g. alternation or variation
in brick courses set normally on bed with brick courses set upstanding on edge).
Also, and more signii cantly, that rooi ng was always in arcuated brickwork. In this
latter connection a marked progression or dif erence was exhibited from Parthian
brickmasonry—and this in two instances.
Parthian building construction accepted and developed the brick barrel vault.
However its signii cant development was in underground construction (vaulted
tomb chambers). Vaulted rooi ng occurred in free standing buildings (e.g. the Palace
at Assur) but this was not general practice. As opposed to this a stupendous barrel
vault with a span of ca 26m remains standing at the present day over the reception
hall (iwan) of the Sassanian palace of Ctesiphon, near Baghdad. Secondly it has been
observed that Parthian vaulted construction was coni ned to the barrel vault. Herein
lay a striking dif erence, for from the beginning of the Sassasian regime (mid 3rd Cen-
try AD) Sassanian builders employed the dome to roof square chambers, carrying it
on squinches, and very frequently constructing it of brick. It is this fact (alone) which
has brought Sassanian brickmasonry into general consideration (as stated above).
h e dome carried on squinches appears to have occurred in Sassanian build-
ing earlier (3rd Century AD) than elsewhere, while later examples of the dome
on squinches can be found dispersed widely to East and to West—e.g. in Cen-
tral Asia to the borders of China, and in Anatolia, Greece and Sicily (v Reuther,
“Sassanian Architecture,” pp. 500-03; Hamilton, pp. 46-48). In these circumstances
it was generally accepted that the dome carried on squinches was i rst developed
by Sassanian builders. Various generalised concepts were adduced in support of
Sassanian
dome on
squinches
388
391-392
393-396
