Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
2.
Setting out and Building Construction
Although it has not been possible to specify in detail the manner of setting out
buidings during antiquity, it is possible to make one or two comments on the
use made of setting out markings during construction. Contrasting illustrations
are af orded by monumental building in Egypt and in Greece. In some way both
illustrations concern development in elevation which is not the basic province of
setting out the design of buildings.
Con-
struction
accord-
ing to
the set-
ting out
(a)
Egyptian Building
h e practice of i ne stone masonry in Pharaonic Egyptian building construction
is so ideosyncratic according to the tradition derived from classical masonry that
considerable note has been taken of it in manuals (cf Petrie; Clarke and Engelbach;
Arnold
pass
). h e masonry technique of setting large blocks virtually quarry faced
and dressing them into the required form
in situ
during and at er construction
meant, in ef ect, that the precise building lines of the temple were marked out on
the upper bed of each course at er setting. h us it was that Egyptian builders were
required to make reference to setting out marks continually throughout the con-
struction of a monument in order to give ef ect to the intentions of the designer.
h ese circumstances were augmented and intensii ed by the feature of battered
external wall faces, which required the retreat (
sqd
) of the batter to be controlled
at every course setting. h is incident of setting out in Egyptian building merges
with that of masonry technique (v
infra
pp. 150-151). How, then, did Egyptian
builders make reference to the original setting out markings so as to control the
masonry construction?
h e dismantling of Egyptian temple masonry occasioned in considerable part
by transfer of monuments to avoid submergence consequent on the High Dam
at Aswan af orded opportunities for observation of many markings normally
concealed in the construction. h ese indicated (at least for Graeco-Roman monu-
ments) that axes were marked in the stone and carried up course by course so as
to be continually available for reference. Final dressing obliterated these markings
on exposed faces, but they remained visible on e.g. the upper beds of wall blocks.
During the operation for the transfer of the Temple of Kalabsha (G.R.H. Wright,
“Kalabsha h e Preserving of the Temple”) it was hoped to study these markings
so as to reconstruct the system employed. However the speed of the operation
necessitated by economic considerations did not permit this. Nonetheless passing
notice of these matters was published in K.-G. Siegler,
Kalabsha Architektur und
Baugeschichte des Tempels
, N.B. i gs 23-27.
At this point another feature of Egyptian masonry construction should be noted
which is relevent to this question. h e device of using earth ramps and i lls to
44
63
