Evolution of Primitive Dwellings

EVOLUTION OF PRIMITIVE DWELLINGS Prof. Crisencio Paner, MSc.

PREHISTORIC DWELLINGS Early humans are often thought of as dwelling in caves, largely because that is where we find traces of them.  The flints they used, the bones they gnawed, even their own bones - these lurk for ever in a cave but get scattered or demolished elsewhere. 

Primitive cave dwelling, Dar al Uqur Road, Jabal Shams

PREHISTORIC DWELLINGS   



Caves are winter shelter. On a summer's day, which of us chooses to remain inside? The response of our ancestors seems to have been the same. But living outside, with the freedom to roam widely for the purposes of hunting and gathering, suggests the need for at least a temporary shelter. And this, even at the simplest level, means the beginning of something approaching architecture.

PREHISTORIC DWELLINGS The modern history of the cave homes in Spain's northern Andalucia stretches back hundreds of years.  If you wander the hills and valleys surrounding Galera you will be amazed to see just how many abandoned cave houses there are.  Just forty years ago almost all of these rather primitive dwellings were inhabited and it is only since then that they have been abandoned. 

PREHISTORIC DWELLINGS 

Confronted with the need for a shelter against sun or rain, the natural instinct is to lean some form of protective shield against a support - a leafy branch, for example, against the trunk of a tree.

PREHISTORIC DWELLINGS If there is no tree trunk available, the branches can be leant against each other, creating the inverted V-shape of a natural tent.  The bottom of each branch will need some support to hold it firm on the ground.  Maybe a ring of stones. 

Large Yakut conical birch bark summer tent similar to ancient Yakut Urasa

PREHISTORIC DWELLINGS The first reliable traces of human dwellings, found from as early as 30,000 years ago, follow precisely these logical principles.  There is often a circular or oval ring of stones, with evidence of local materials being used for a tent-like roof. 

circular or oval ring of stones

Prehistoric home unearthed in Scotland

PREHISTORIC DWELLINGS Such materials may be reeds daubed with mud in wet areas; or, in the open plains, mammoth bones and tusks lashed together to support a covering of hides.  A good example of such an encampment, from about 25,000 years ago, has been found at Dolni Vestonice in eastern Europe. 

Early encampment at Dolni Vestonice

FROM TENTS 8000 BC

TO

ROUND HOUSES:

Once human beings settle down to the business of agriculture, instead of hunting and gathering, permanent settlements become a factor of life.  The story of architecture can begin.  The tent-like structures of earlier times evolve now into round houses. 

FROM TENTS 8000 BC

TO

ROUND HOUSES:

Jericho is usually quoted as the earliest known town.  A small settlement here evolves in about 8000 BC into a town covering 10 acres.  And the builders of Jericho have a new technology bricks, shaped from mud and baked hard in the sun.  In keeping with a circular tradition, each brick is curved on its outer edge. 

FROM TENTS 8000 BC  



TO

ROUND HOUSES:

The round tent-like house reaches a more complete form in Khirokitia, a settlement of about 6500 BC in Cyprus. Most of the rooms here have a dome-like roof in corbelled stone or brick. One step up from outside, to keep out the rain, leads to several steps down into each room; seats and storage spaces are shaped into the walls; and in at least one house there is a ladder to an upper sleeping platform.

FROM TENTS 8000 BC

TO

ROUND HOUSES:

The round house has remained a traditional shape.  Buildings very similar to those in Khirokitia are still lived in today in parts of southern Italy, where they are known as trulli. 

FROM TENTS 8000 BC  Whether

TO

ROUND HOUSES:

it is a mud hut with a thatched roof in tribal Africa, or an igloo of the Eskimo, the circle remains the obvious form in which to build a roofed house from the majority of natural materials.

STRAIGHT 6500 BC  



WALLS WITH WINDOWS:

But straight lines and rectangles have proved of more practical use. One of the best preserved neolithic towns is Catal Huyuk, covering some 32 acres in southern Turkey. Here the houses are rectangular, with windows but no doors. They adjoin each other, like cells in a honeycomb, and the entrance to each is through the roof.

ICE AGE TENT Reconstructions of Ukrainian shelters depict a low domical shape covered with animal skins and the tent is restrained by heaped mammoth bones.  Later shelters are crude teepees reminiscent of those used by present day reindeer herders in Northern Asia.  Mousterian domical shelter comprising a wood frame covered with skins (44,000 years old). 

ICE AGE TENT 

The support structure of the Keti is of particular interest because it consists of a two-pole foundation with two additional poles, one on either side of the entrance, a single pole at the back and two rings, one at bench height and another at head height.

ICE AGE TENT A kibitka is a tent of the nomad tribes of the Kirghiz Tartars.  The frame consists of twelve stakes, each 6.5 feet high, set up in a circle 12 feet in diameter on which is laid a wheel-shaped roof-frame, consisting also of twelve stakes, united at one extremity but free at the other, so that the stakes radiate like spokes. 

ICE AGE TENT  The

whole is covered with thick cloth made of sheep's wool, with the exception of an aperture in the centre for the escape of smoke.  The door is formed by the removal of a stake.

HUT 

A hut is a structure of a lower quality than a house (durable, well built dwelling) but higher quality than a shelter (place of refuge or safety) such as a tent and is used as temporary or seasonal shelter or in primitive societies as a permanent dwelling .

Early Japanese hut

HUT

Huts are vernacular architecture in that they are built of readily available materials such as wood, snow, ice, stone, grass, palm leaves, branches, hides, fabric, and/or mud using techniques passed down through the generations.  Huts exist in practically all nomadic cultures.  Some huts are transportable and can stand most conditions of weather.  Huts may be built on the ground, underground or inbetween. 

Early English hut

TYPES OF HUTS

The nipa hut also known as bahay kubo, is an indigenous house used in the Philippines.  The native house has traditionally been constructed with bamboo tied together and covered with a thatched roof using nipa/anahaw leaves. 

TYPES OF HUTS 

 

Nipa huts were the native houses of the indigenous people of the Philippines before the Spaniards arrived. They are still used today, especially in rural areas. Different architectural designs are present among the different ethnolinguistic groups in the country, although all of them conform to being stilt houses, similar to those found in neighboring countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and other countries of Southeast Asia.

TYPES OF HUTS A

nipa hut is an icon of Philippine culture as it represents the Filipino value of bayanihan, which refers to a spirit of communal unity or effort to achieve a particular objective.

TYPES OF HUTS  Barabara

- An earth sheltered winter home of the Aleut people

TYPES OF HUTS  Bothy

- Originally a one room hut for men farm workers in the United Kingdom, now a mountain hut for overnight hikers.

TYPES OF HUTS  Burdei

or bordei - a dugout or pit-house with a sod roof in Ukraine, Canada

TYPES OF HUTS  Cabana

- an open shelter  Choza also spelled chozo - Spanish for hut, term also used in Mexico

Cabana hut

Choza hut

TYPES OF HUTS  Clochán

- A dry stone hut in Ireland  Earth lodge - Native American dwelling

Clochan

Earth lodge

TYPES OF HUTS  Hytte

- A cabin or hut in Norway

Hytte hut- exterior and interior

TYPES OF HUTS  Kolba

– Afghanistan  Mitato - A small, dry stone hut in Greece

Kolba

Mitato

TYPES OF HUTS  Orri

- A French dry stone and sod hut  Rondavel - Central and South Africa

Orri

Rondavel

TYPES OF HUTS  Tipi

- Central North America tent  Tule hut - Coastal North America, West Coast, Northern California

Tipi

Tule hut

TYPES OF HUTS  Quinzhee

- A shelter made in a pile of snow  Yurt - Central and North Asia

Quinzhee

Yurt

THANK YOU! BACKGROUND OF PROF. CRISENCIO M. PANER: •Ph.D. in Biological Science (Candidate), UST •M.S. in Microbiology, UST •B.S. Biochemistry, UST •Italian Government Scholar •College Scholar •Certificate in Education •10th Placer Licensure Exams for Teachers •20 years of experience as a teacher (College, High School, Elementary) •Expert in Internet, Computer (Software, Hardware, and Repair) •Researcher and Blogger •Art Restorer/Conservator PLS. CHECKOUT ALSO THE FOLLOWING BLOGS OF MINE: http://allaboutweightmanagement.blogspot.com http://thepregnancyplanner.blogspot.com http://internet-moneymakingsecrets.blogspot.com http://cmpaner.blogspot.com http://letsecrets.blogspot.com (HOW TO PREPARE FOR LET) https://www.facebook.com/crisencio.paner