CONCLUSION - Ancient Building Technology - page 297

individual items survived or could be regained if necessary. It was the idiosyncratic
combination of all the technical elements which lapsed. Traditional modern stone
dressing employs exactly the same processes as Classical Greek ashlar masonry;
but this does not mean that Classical Greek building construction has survived
into modern times. Overall types of building construction are time bound, they
have their entrances and their exits.
h is latter fact in turn gives onto an occasion where the circumstances of building
construction appear to illustrate clearly a general historical issue of note. Megalithic
style building construction obtained over several millennia, say from the 5th mil-
lennium BC to the 3rd millennium BC; Egyptian Pharaonic building construction
say from the 3rd millennium BC to the 1st century AD. Mesopotamian massive
brick building construction had an even longer life span. However Classical Greek
ashlar building had a drastically reduced life cycle of somewhat over only half a
millennium; while Roman Concrete construction endured for still less a period,
say for under half a millennium. Is this another record for the speeding up of the
process of change (= time)?
Finally it may be in point to say the obvious. Ancient building construction is
patently in the i rst instance an expression of human thought. h us the study of
ancient building construction in the i rst instance is the study of the thought of
man in a setting of time. It is a long process whereby the “i xed action patterns” of
emerging hominids became the (relatively) free thought patterns of (some) men.
h e new “bastard” ashlar masonry at Saqqarah did not grow up out of the soil. In
this instance the innovation was so striking that the thinker of it was deii ed by
later men, and remembered by his name—Imhotep. h us the modern study of the
building construction of the funerary complex of the Pharaoh Zoser (ca 2650 BC)
is the study of Imhotep's thought—very strenuous thought. “h e thoughts of men
are light and l eeting.” h ese were monumental thoughts. h ey are history.