Archinect - News

Researchers claim to have uncovered world’s oldest architectural plans

2023-05-19T15:30:00-04:00

Engraved between 7,000 and 9,000 years ago, these representations are by far the oldest known to-scale architectural plans recorded in human history, the team reported on Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE. They also highlight how carefully planned the desert kites may have been by the ancient peoples who relied on them.

The “desert kites” in question are essentially large-scale slaughter pen-type catchalls used to herd and kill wild animal herds in the prehistoric regions known today as the Levant and Central Asia. Researchers will soon display the plans, which are engraved in stone slabs, in a special exhibition at Jordan’s Al-Hussein Bin Talal University. The paper can be found here.

Co-author Wael Abu-Azizeh told the New York Times the engravings “could also be symbolic commemorations of the desert kites, which may have been an important part of the cultural identity of the ancient peoples who made and used them.”

Hidden corridor discovered in Great Pyramid of Giza

2023-03-03T16:34:00-05:00

A hidden corridor nine metres (30 feet) long has been discovered close to the main entrance of the 4,500-year-old Great Pyramid of Giza, and this could lead to further findings, Egyptian antiquities officials said on Thursday.

The discovery was made under the Scan Pyramids project, a program launched in 2015 that aims to explore and discover ancient Egyptian Pyramids using non-invasive and non-destructive techniques. The group, which includes Cairo University and the French Heritage Innovation Preservation (HIP) Institute currently uses infrared thermography, 3D simulations, and cosmic-ray imaging. Reuters reports that the discovery could provide more information of the Pyramid’s construction and the purpose of a gabled limestone structure located at the front of the corridor.

It’s theorized that the corridor was made to redistribute the pyramid’s weight around either the main entrance, now used by tourists, or around a potentially undiscovered space. Scientists found the corridor through cosmic-ray muon radiography and then retrieved images of it by feeding a 6mm-thick endoscope from Japan through a small joint in the pyramid’s stones.

Malta's chamber of architects lays out guidelines for development near ancient Megalithic temples

2023-02-23T15:25:00-05:00

The chamber of architects has issued guidelines for its members working on projects close to Megalithic temples. “As professionals in the field of architecture and engineering, it is imperative that we approach the design and planning of development projects within the buffer zones of UNESCO World Heritage Sites with the utmost care and sensitivity,” the chamber said.

This is the first time Malta’s chamber of architects and civil engineers, Kamra tal-Periti (KTP) has introduced these types of rules for UNESCO buffer zones, areas around sites with legal and customary restrictions on their use and development to protect them. KTP’s directive lays out the limitations on developments that can be carried out within the buffer zones of Megalithic temples in Malta. It also provides guidance on how to develop in compliance with the guidelines.

KTP has required that only development consistent with the purpose and intent of the buffer zones and the UNESCO World Heritage Convention can be carried out within the buffer zones designated for the Megalithic temples. Development must also be of a scale and design that aligns with the international architectural and cultural heritage value of the temples and their buffer zones. Additionally, all development within Malta’s buffer zones must be in compliance with the relevant international conservation charters, ...

SOM to reimagine visitor experience at Egypt's pyramids and sphinx

2022-07-26T19:02:00-04:00

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) and Egyptian practice Raafat Miller Consulting (RMC) have been selected to reimagine the visitor experience for the popular sound and light show attraction at the site of the ancient Pyramids and the Sphinx in Giza, Egypt.

The pair were appointed by OSL for Entertainment Projects, an Orascom Investment Holding Company (OIH). SOM will act as lead designer for the concept, design, and master plan for the project. Existing facilities will be enhanced with contemporary interventions in order to establish a world-class visitor experience while respecting unique environmental and preservation requirements.

“Visiting Giza is a rare, transformative experience that offers a glimpse into centuries of human history. As one of the Seven Wonders of the World, Giza welcomes millions of people every year,” SOM design partner Chris Cooper commented on the commission. “In reimagining the experience, our priority is to honor and preserve its history and create a sus...

Win a copy of “Trajan's Hollow” by Joshua G. Stein!

2019-12-03T13:13:00-05:00

“Trajan's Hollow” is a new book by Joshua G. Stein — founder of Radical Craft and co-director of the Data Clay Network — that sheds new light on the historic Trajan's Column, one of ancient Rome's great monuments that has been obsessively documented by archaeologists and historians for centuries and visited by tourists from around the world. Thanks to ORO, Archinect is giving away five copies of the book to our readers!

Intrigued by Piranesi's iconic engravings on the Column and “the perennial tension between classical geometry and picturesque ruin,” Stein compiled his research into a book that exposes and renders new material qualities of the Column that have long been overlooked. The book “proposes a new ethos of scanning and replication, saturating digital technologies with an expansive material awareness to amplify the projective capacity of historical inquiry.” Plus, it features written contributions from David Gissen, Michael J. Waters, and Michael Swaine.

Courtesy ORO Edition...

Yemen’s “Manhattan on the desert” faces uncertain future amid civil war

2019-10-19T19:45:00-04:00

A result of Yemen’s complex civil war – now in its fifth year – many of the country’s wonders have been damaged or are under threat. While the destruction pales in comparison to the human cost of the conflict, the country’s rich cultural heritage has also been ravaged.

Writing in The Guardian, author Bethan McKernan describes the ways in which Yemen’s ancient cultural heritage has been put at risk by the country’s tragic civil war. Sites that are under threat include the city of Shibam, a 1,700-year-old settlement built from a series of tall masonry structures in the desert.

McKernan writes, “The city’s 3,000 residents still largely follow the traditional living pattern, with in some cases up to 40 family members in the same tower. Animals and tools are kept on the ground floor and food is stored on the second. Elderly people live on the third and the fourth is used for entertaining. Higher levels are occupied by more nimble families, with childless newlyweds on the roof.”

The Getty devotes $100 million to global “Ancient Worlds Now: A Future for the Past” conservation initiative

2019-09-23T15:45:00-04:00

As a response to the race against time to preserve the world's ancient cultural heritage, The Getty recently announced an ambitious, $100 million initiative called “Ancient Worlds Now: A Future for the Past” that aims to promote a stronger understanding of global cultural heritage and its value to present and future society. Although activities related to the decade-long initiative are already underway, an official launch is scheduled for next summer.

Main objectives of the initiative include:

raising broad awareness of the threats to ancient heritage caused by development, economic pressures, mass tourism, political forces, climate change, and violent conflict;
creating effective conservation strategies and educational programs to engage audiences worldwide about the significance of protecting ancient sites;
and pursuing further research to strengthen understanding of the interconnections between ancient cultures.

“In an age of resurgent populism, sectarian violence, and climate ch...

UNESCO finally recognizes Iraq's Babylon as a World Heritage Site

2019-07-08T18:31:00-04:00

Since 1983, Iraq has lobbied to have Babylon, the "Mesopotamian metropolis," recognized as an official World Heritage Site. For three decades, Iraq persisted until finally, on July 5th, a committee met in Azerbaijan to vote for the city to be recognized by UNESCO. According to a piece in Al Jazeera, Iraq's UNESCO World Heritage Committee representative stated, "What is the world heritage list without Babylon? How to tell the history of humanity without the earliest of old chapters, Babylon?"

Reconstructed ruins of Babylon. Image courtesy of unsualtraveler.com

The Ishtar Gate at the ancient archaeological site of Babylon, south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. Image © Hussein Faleh/AFP

Remains of the original walls from the Tower of Babylon. Image © Toby Johnson

Located near the Euphrates River south of Baghdad, Babylon was the center of the Babylonian empire. Recognizable by its temples and towers made of mudbricks, Babylon is famously associated with the Tower of Babel as well as the Is...

Ancient ramp discovery could help explain construction of Egyptian Pyramids

2018-11-06T18:48:00-05:00

The mystery of how, exactly, the pyramids were built may have come a step closer to being unravelled after a team of archaeologists made a chance discovery in an ancient Egyptian quarry. Scientists researching ancient inscriptions happened upon a ramp with stairways and a series of what they believe to be postholes, which suggest that the job of hauling into place the huge blocks of stone used to build the monuments may have been completed more quickly than previously thought.

The theory of ancient Egyptians using ramps to move the enormous stone blocks to build the Great Pyramids of Giza some 4,500 years ago has been around for a while, but this new discovery suggests the possibility of a significantly steeper ramp angle and shorter construction period than commonly assumed.

Predating all known ancient civilizations, Göbekli Tepe may be world's first architecture

2018-08-06T15:13:00-04:00

At around 12,000 years old, Göbekli Tepe in south-east Turkey has been billed as the world’s oldest temple. It is many millennia older than Stonehenge or Egypt’s great pyramids, built in the pre-pottery Neolithic period before writing or the wheel. But should Göbekli Tepe, which became a Unesco World Heritage Site in July, also be regarded as the world’s oldest piece of architecture?

T-shaped limestone pillars. Image: Wikipedia.

Archaeological research of the ancient Göbekli Tepe ruin site in present-day Turkey suggests that the impressive monolithic structures, believed to date back to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic era (10th–8th millennium BCE), might in fact be the first known example of architecture. "Rather than architecture being the product of organised societies, as has long been thought, there is new thinking that, in fact, it may have been the organisation needed to build on such a scale that helped usher in agriculture and settled society," The Art Newspaper writes.

Watch 7 ancient ruins get reconstructed

2018-03-23T18:06:00-04:00

It can be difficult to picture what ancient architecture would have looked back when it was first erected. Reconstructions by NeoMam and Thisisrender help you visualize what these ancient ruins looked like at the height of their glory. Take a look back in time and watch these historical structures get rebuilt.

The Parthenon, Athens, GR

Temple of Jupiter, Rome, IT

Milecastle 39 (part of Hadrian’s Wall), Northumberland, ENG

Luxor Temple, Luxor, EG

The Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacán, MX

Area Sacra di Largo Argentina (Temple B), Rome, IT

All images courtesy of viewfinder.

Laser scans uncover thousands of ancient Mayan structures

2018-02-05T14:06:00-05:00

In what’s being hailed as a “major breakthrough” in Maya archaeology, researchers have identified the ruins of more than 60,000 houses, palaces, elevated highways, and other human-made features that have been hidden for centuries under the jungles of northern Guatemala. Using a revolutionary technology known as LiDAR (short for “Light Detection And Ranging”), scholars digitally removed the tree canopy from aerial images of the now-unpopulated landscape [...]

Archeologists uncover the secret of the Great Pyramid

2017-09-26T15:29:00-04:00

Archaeologists believe they have found the key to unlocking a mystery almost as old as the Great Pyramid itself: Who built the structure and how were they able to transport two-ton blocks of stone to the ancient wonder more than 4,500 years ago?

The pyramid's stones were known to have been transported from over 500 miles away but archeologists did not agree on how ancient Egyptians achieved it . Recent discoveries suggest that the stones were transported using boats and a network of waterways leading to the site of the pyramid in Giza.

This slick staircase restores access to medieval Kalø Castle in Denmark

2017-01-26T19:01:00-05:00

Built in the 14th century on the Jutland peninsula in Denmark, the Kalø Castle ruins is one of the country's most iconic landmarks and tourist hotspots. But the medieval tower was largely inaccessible to the public, and lacked any internal structure for centuries. That all changed with a crafty intervention by Copenhagen-based MAP Architects and Mast-Studio, who successfully designed a zig-zagging staircase inside the monument.

Commissioned by the Danish Ministry of the Environment, the architects completed the project in 2016. The 38 m2 staircase lets visitors enter and climb through the tower, which is 3 stories high and 2 stories deep. People can walk further up the stairs to access facade openings and balconies, where they can take in views of the surrounding landscape.

“The desire to allow the visitor to ‘touch’ the archaeological layers of the tower, and simultaneously ‘leave’ the ruin and ‘levitate’ in the landscape was pivotal,” MAP Architects writes. “The building site was e...

One of the best long reads of 2016 explores the demise of a medieval U.S. city

2016-12-14T18:20:00-05:00

Each generation likes to think it is unique, or at least living on the cutting-edge; but archaeologists have long known that history has a way of repeating itself. Although North America is often considered to be part of the "New World," inhabitations on this continent date back millennia. In this fascinating piece by Annalee Newitz for Ars Technica (whose length is perfect for plane reading) archaeologists uncover new sections of the lost city of Cahokia, which flourished between 1100 and 1400 A.D. in an area that is currently known as East St. Louis. A city of 30,000 that was more populous than Paris at the time, the pyramid and earthern-mound laden city went through all the statutte-endowed stages of societal refinement before taking the low road into ritual sacrifice and random trash fires. Sound familiar?

For more on the ancient world:

Archaeologists discover hidden ancient cities in Cambodia, some as big as Phnom Penh

2016-06-13T16:07:00-04:00

Archaeologists in Cambodia have found multiple, previously undocumented medieval cities not far from the ancient temple city of Angkor Wat...Some experts believe that the recently analysed data – captured in 2015 during the most extensive airborne study ever undertaken by an archaeological project, covering 734 sq miles (1,901 sq km) – shows that the colossal, densely populated cities would have constituted the largest empire on earth at the time of its peak in the 12th century.

“That survey uncovered an array of discoveries, including elaborate water systems that were built hundreds of years before historians believed the technology existed. The findings are expected to challenge theories on how the Khmer empire developed, dominated the region, and declined around the 15th century, and the role of climate change and water management in that process.”

Italian government assigns €1B to cultural preservation

2016-05-03T19:31:00-04:00

The Italian government announced [May 2] that it is allocating €1bn [approx. $1.15B] to major restoration and building projects at 33 museums, monuments and archaeological sites across the country, including Pompeii, the earthquake-stricken city of L’Aquila and the Uffizi galleries in Florence. [C]ulture minister Dario Franceschini described the funding, which will continue until 2020, as the “biggest investment in cultural heritage” in Italy’s history.

Massive tomb complex unearthed in Beijing suburb

2015-05-05T16:34:00-04:00

Archeologists have unearthed a massive tomb complex in a southwest suburb in Beijing, according to the Beijing Institute of Cultural Heritage on Monday. They said the complex is a rare discovery given its size, time span and location. The 70 hectare archeological site consists of 129 tombs built over 1,100 years, spanning from the East Han Dynasty (25-220) to Tang Dynasty (618-907) and Liao (907-1125).

Take a Tour of Ancient Rome, 320 CE

2015-03-20T12:58:00-04:00

[The] extended tour [is] guided by renowned “virtual archaeologist” and overseer of the Rome Reborn project Dr. Bernard Frischer...in dialogue with Dr. Steven Zucker, whose...questions ensure that, while we take in the spectacle of Rome’s impressive architecture (to say nothing of its equally impressive aqueducts) as it looked back in 320, we also think about what the real flesh-and-blood people who once lived there actually did there...

PBS' premiere of "Time Scanners" brings 3D digital preservation technology to a wider audience

2014-07-01T13:53:00-04:00

PBS taps into the growing presence of 3D digital preservation on their new show, Time Scanners, which will premiere its first episode tonight at 8 p.m. ET. The three-part series will peruse the ancient iconic sites of the Egyptian Pyramids, St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, and the city of Petra in Jordan through the use of 3D laser-scanning technology.

Hosted by Dallas Campbell, each episode will follow Steve Burrows — the notable structural engineer known for working on the Bird's Nest Stadium at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics — and his team of investigators as they discover each landmark's physical and forensic history and scientific secrets.

Below are summaries of each episode:

July 1, Egyptian Pyramids: "The team travels to Egypt to scan the pyramids to find out how the necropoles evolved from simple mud-brick structures to the most impressive buildings in the ancient world. They use their laser technology to scan Djoser’s Step Pyramid at Saqqara, Meidum’s collapsed pyramid, the m...

The Humble Beginnings of Early Roman Architecture

2013-08-20T18:22:00-04:00

Any definitive insight into the formative stages of Roman architectural hubris lies irretrievable beneath layers of the city’s repeated renovations through the time of caesars, popes and the Renaissance [...] Now, at excavations 11 miles east of Rome’s city center, archaeologists think they are catching a glimpse of Roman tastes in monumental architecture much earlier than previously thought, about 300 years before the Colosseum.

The New York Times recently reported on the ongoing excavations of Roman monumental
remnants from the city's pre-Colosseum era at the Gabii digging site not far from the capital.
Since last summer, a team of archaeologists and University of Michigan students led by classical studies professor Nicola Terrenato have found a number of significant discoveries from the formative stages of early Roman architecture, including a possible public building from the city-state Gabii, where the digging site gets its name.

The team's findings so far reveal the more modest beginnings of early Roman architecture instead of the image of grandeur many are accustomed to seeing -- and even evidence of urban planning. At this point, the Michigan group has explored two-thirds of the site and continues to unearth the vast layers of ancient Roman history.

Click here to read the full article.

Photo by Anna Gallone/The Gabii Project, via The NY Times.