DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.572#0033
PART I. NOT FROM WOODEN BUILDINGS. 5
temple, and the primitive house, consisted merely
of four walls; and it is only in countries, where
timber is extensively used, that architecture derives
its members from wooden framewoi'k. This was
not the case in Egypt; and though the architrave
was borrowed, there, as elsewhere, from constructed
buildings, that member doubtless originated in the
stone beam, reaching from pillar to pillar, in the
temples; and though the square stone pillar was
used in the quarry, the stone architrave was un-
known to the Egyptians, until they thought it ne-
cessary to increase the size of, or add a portico to,
their temples. And that this last was neither a
necessary, nor an original, part of their temples, is
plainly shown by the smaller sanctuaries being
built, even at the latest times, without it.
The early houses of Egypt were of mud; and
the masses of that material, used in constructing
their walls, soon led to the simple invention of sun^
baked bricks,* at once more durable, and conve-
nient. The flat roof was of palm-beams, covered
with the branches of the same tree; and a thick
coating of mud laid upon them, completed the
whole; as in the houses of the poor class of Egyp-
tians, to the present day.
But it was not till luxury had been introduced,
* In most countries, the use of stone preceded the invention of bricks;
and that they might not he injured by rain, these last were burnt, except
in Egypt, where burnt bricks were rarely, if ever, employed, before the
Roman conquest. Pliny supposes that " bricks and houses were invented
by Euryalus and Hyperbius, at Athens,caverns having till then served for
houses ;* and that " mud huts were derived from the nests of swallows"!
Pliny's dates of inventions are generally very late; hut he justly con-
siders Diospolis (or Egyptian Thebes) far older than Athens, Argos, or
Sicyon. Plin. vii, p. 57. ■
temple, and the primitive house, consisted merely
of four walls; and it is only in countries, where
timber is extensively used, that architecture derives
its members from wooden framewoi'k. This was
not the case in Egypt; and though the architrave
was borrowed, there, as elsewhere, from constructed
buildings, that member doubtless originated in the
stone beam, reaching from pillar to pillar, in the
temples; and though the square stone pillar was
used in the quarry, the stone architrave was un-
known to the Egyptians, until they thought it ne-
cessary to increase the size of, or add a portico to,
their temples. And that this last was neither a
necessary, nor an original, part of their temples, is
plainly shown by the smaller sanctuaries being
built, even at the latest times, without it.
The early houses of Egypt were of mud; and
the masses of that material, used in constructing
their walls, soon led to the simple invention of sun^
baked bricks,* at once more durable, and conve-
nient. The flat roof was of palm-beams, covered
with the branches of the same tree; and a thick
coating of mud laid upon them, completed the
whole; as in the houses of the poor class of Egyp-
tians, to the present day.
But it was not till luxury had been introduced,
* In most countries, the use of stone preceded the invention of bricks;
and that they might not he injured by rain, these last were burnt, except
in Egypt, where burnt bricks were rarely, if ever, employed, before the
Roman conquest. Pliny supposes that " bricks and houses were invented
by Euryalus and Hyperbius, at Athens,caverns having till then served for
houses ;* and that " mud huts were derived from the nests of swallows"!
Pliny's dates of inventions are generally very late; hut he justly con-
siders Diospolis (or Egyptian Thebes) far older than Athens, Argos, or
Sicyon. Plin. vii, p. 57. ■