Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
on the ground. All that was necessary was to set a peg into the earth at the centre
of the area to be enclosed, attach a piece of cord to it and with a marker at the
desired radius of the building describe a circle on the ground to demarcate the
single (peripheral) wall. Man was here simulating natural growth. h is was nature's
economic principle of
multum in parvo
. A round design af ords the maximum
space enclosed by the minimum construction. h e communion here with natural
growth (cf of a tree or a bush) was total.
h at this mentality was entire is shown in a round house complex. Here not
only are the individual buildings round but connecting walls and stretches of bar-
rier walling are also arcs in form. It may be imagined that all this came by second
nature and was sometimes constructed hand over i st without any setting out. Just
as a modern man can rough out a rectangle by eye, so a round house builder could
probably estimate the curvature of a wall appropriate to demarcating a desired
space. (For the Early Neolithic Round House v O. Aurenche La Maison Orientale;
G.R.H. Wright, “h e Antiquity of the Beehive House”, h etis 4, 1997, pp. 7-28.)
Round
& rect-
angular
buildings
2.
Rectangular Building
h e transition from round to rectangular building as the norm for solid load-bear-
ing structures in the ancient Middle East some 8,000 years ago is one of the most
striking changes in building history (v O. Aurenche La Maison Orientale). h e
material question here is how were such buildings marked out on the ground so
that they
were
rectangular—i.e. walls mitred at right angles. Some device(s) must
have been known, since from earliest times plans were quite closely rectangular.
Where plans depart notably from rectangular, it seems generally by design not
misadvertance.
Conjecture on the nature of such devices is entirely speculative since antiquity
and fugitive materials operate against the survival of material remains of the
devices. Any number of set squares survive from Pharaonic Egyptian and Classi-
cal times, but these are of small dimensions for use as masons' tools in i ne stone
masonry. It is always presumed that long sided wooden set squares were used for
sighting out right angles in early building construction. Certainly a very ef ective
device of this sort has been imagined with 3 pins set into holes in the wood to act
as sights. h e virtue of this device is that angular imperfection in its construction
can be eliminated in use. h e instrument is set up with one arm aligned with the
base line and the reading given by the perpendicular arm marked on the ground.
h e instrument is then rotated etc. so that the other arm is aligned with the base
line and the appropriate reading marked on the ground. Any distance between
these two readings can be halved to give the true right angle. Such a device used
33
