Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/406

Rh 384 A RCHITEGT U R E [PREHISTORIC. Stonehenge, as well as separately, are found trilithons (fig. 1 ), which appear to be a modification of the dolmen. (4.) Tumuli. These include the beehive huts, so called from their shape, found scattered throughout Cornwall, Wales, and Scotland (fig. 5). Similar, but superior, edifices are to be met with in Ireland; and of these, New Grange, near Drogheda, ap parently a burial mound, is the finest specimen (fig. 6). Fid. 5. Beehive Hut, Lewis. Waring. From The design of the Fio. 6. Section of chambered Burial Mound, New Grange, Ireland. From Waring. Fia. 7. &quot; Nurhag,&quot; near Isili, Sardinia. From Waring. nurhags &quot; (fig. 7), which are found in great numbers in the island of Sardinia, has greatly puzzled archaeologists. It has been conjectured that they were sepulchres, the dead Fia. 8. Section of Pict s House, Pierowall, Orkney. Archceoloyia, vol. xxxiv. pi. 17. From being exposed on their summits. Of the so-called &quot;Picts houses&quot; of the Orkney Islands, some are chambered tumuli, while others may be moro properly described as under ground dwellings (fig. o). (5.) Wooden huts, the sub merged remains of which have been recently discovered in the lakes of Switzerland, as well as in Sweden, in Italy, and in Ireland. These erections, which rose on piles just above the surface of the water, present no features of architectural interest. Fics. 9. Lake Dwellings, or Cranuoges, Lr.ke Ardakillin, Rosccmmon. From Troyon s Hab. Lacustres, 1860. A specimen of prehistoric sculpture, on stone, taken Fia. 10. Ancient Swiss Lake Dwellings. From Troyon s Hob. Lacustres, 1860. from ruins in the island of Gozo, in the Mediterranean, is given in fig. 11. Prehistoric remains are separated by a wide gulf from those which now fall to be noticed, inasmuch as, whether or not they led, by improvement in their forms, to any- FIG. 11. Ornaments on stone, Gozo. From Waring. thing really architec tural, no evidence re mains of such progress, and they must therefore be re garded as practically dissociated from anything that we have now to describe. EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE. For the beginnings of the art its earliest effort^ grand even in their infancy we must turn to Egypt. A short description of the general configuration of tha country may be useful here. Its habitable land is a narrow strip a few miles wide, extending from the Nile, on one or both its banks, to the rocks or desert. About 100 miles up the river is Cairo, and close to it Memphis, the old capital of Lower Egypt, Heliopolis, and the great pyramids of Ghizeh. Abooseer, Sakkara, and Dashour ; 450 miles higher up the river is the site of the great Thebes, with Karnak and Luxor on the right or eastern bank, and Medinet Haboo on the west. Beyond this in succession are Esne, Edfoo, Elephantina, Syene, and Philre, close to the first cataract. Higher up (in Nubia) are the great caves of Aboosimbel, and at a still greater distance the pyramids of Meroe, or Dankelah. The rock is generally limestone up to Thebes-, sandstone and breccia to Syene, where the well-known variety of granite, with hornblende, is found ; these with the addition of unburnt brick, are the chief materials used in the construction of the Egyptian architectural monu ments. The granite was principally supplied by the quarries at Elephantina and Syene, for which the Nile offered a ready mode of conveyance, although it appears that the obelisks and other enormous blocks were sent by land, Some species were brought down the river from Ethiopia, but we do not find that the materials were brought from any other foreign country. It may be remarked, too, that in the earliest structures the common (/res or sandstone ia principally employed. Excepting the obelisks and some few of the propylaea, all the temples at Thebes are of that material. In Lower Egypt, on the contrary, and in the works of later date generally, almost everything is con structed of granite. It seems quite certain that Egyptian art is original and not derived from that of India ; and it may be concluded