Pre-History: Impact on Landscape Architecture

I. Pre-history (20,000-3,000 BC)

A. Paleolithic (20,000-8,000 BC) "Old Stone Age" 

Web Page on Paleolithic Times

B. Neolithic (8,000-3,300 BC) "New Stone Age"

Cradle of Civilization (more western)

Orient Cradle of Civilization 

Web Page of Stonehenge

C. Bronze Age (3,500-3,000 BC) "Urban Revolution"

D: Pre-Columbian Landscape

Pueblo Bonito (Pretty Village),  northwestern New Mexico

 

Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, northwestern New Mexico

 

Mesa Verde, Long House - also in New Mexico  

II. Mesopotamian Civilization (3,500-538 BC)

A. Earliest Period:  Sumerian Civilization (3,500-900 BC)

Map of ancient Mesopotamia

1. Development of Urban Form

2. Private Housing

3. Building Technology (Example: Ur of the Chaldees)

B. Middle Period:  Assyrian Civilization (900-625 BC)

1. Structural Systems

 

2. Advancements in Urban Form (Example: Citadel of Sargon II)

C. Advanced Period:  Neo-Babylonian Civilization (611-538 BC)

1. The Hanging Gardens Website of Hanging Gardens

 

2. Early Park Development (private and noble)

III. Persian Influence (539-331 BC)

A. Contributions: Evolution of the Persian Garden Style (a garden style that will influence gardens in Spain into the 15th Century.

B. Principles of Garden Design - Moorish Garden will draw from the Persian Gardens.

NOTE: A few examples remain in modern Iran, but Southern Spain has numerous gardens remaining using these principles.

IV. Egypt (3,500-538 BC)

A. Zoser at Sakkara

B. Temple of Khufu (or Kufu) Pyramid

• Khufu Belongs to the Horizon
• Original Height: 146.6 m (480.96 ft)
• Current Height: 138.75 m (455.21 ft)
• Length of Side: 230.37 (755.8 ft)Angle: 51º 50’ 40”
• Estimated Volume: 2,521,000 cu m

http://www.akropolis.net/~zeus/home/pyramid.asp

http://library.thinkquest.org/C0130480/Main%20page%20pyra.htm

http://www.ambilac.com/files/archives/archives03.html

C. Temple of Amon

 

    

   

http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Temple_of_Amon.html

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/egypt/karnak/karnak.html

 

D. Temple of Queen Hatshepsut (Funerary)  

 

 

http://touregypt.net/historicalessays/hatshepsut.htm

Required Readings: Norman T. Newton, Design on the Land, pp. 1-20.

Additional Readings:

• John and Ray Oldham, Gardens in Time , pp. 11-38 & 83-140 Excellent Reading
• Ronald King, The Quest for Paradise, pp. 10-50 Interesting alternative to the above text

Return to LA 322 Home Page

prepared by:  Dennis Colliton

Last Revised January 9, 2002