Architectural Energetics (Other Keyword)
1-7 (7 Records)
This poster presents a study that applies an architectural energetics model to around 140 monumental earthen burial mounds located in an area known as Bin Tepe (the "Thousand Mounds") in western Turkey, which served as the burial ground for Iron Age Lydian rulers and elites. Using measurements obtained from ground survey and aerial reconnaissance, volumetric figures for each of the tumuli are calculated to determine the amounts of building materials necessary to construct each tumulus. These...
An architectural energetics analysis of ceremonial architecture from the shaft tomb culture of the highland lakes region of Jalisco, Mexico (2016)
During the Late Formative to Classic period (300 BC – 550 AD) in the highland lakes region of Jalisco, Mexico, a number of concentric circular ceremonial monuments known as guachimontones were built by the shaft tomb culture. The largest site in the region is Los Guachimontones near the town of Teuchitlan. The site is thought to have been governed by competing familial groups within a corporate framework rather than a single powerful ruler. The platforms that are a part of a guachimonton are...
Building Charlieu: Chronology and Asset Flow over Time at Saint Fortunatus Monastery, 872-1120 C.E. (2016)
The monastery of Saint Fortunatus in Charlieu, France, was built and rebuilt several times from the ninth to the twelfth centuries. In the twentieth century, the monastery was excavated by American archaeologist and art historian Elizabeth Sunderland, who relied heavily on its relationship to mega-monastery Cluny to reconstruct the smaller abbey’s chronology. However, re-examining Charlieu’s timing and phasing with attention to material and labor costs over time exposes an alternative chronology...
From Cooperation to Competition: An Architectural Energetics Analysis of Labor Organization for the Construction of Circle 2 at Los Guachimontones, Jalisco, Mexico (2018)
The Teuchitlán culture is one of many cultures in West Mexico during the Late Formative to Classic periods (300 B.C. – 450/500 AD) that share in the tradition of burying some of their dead in shaft and chamber tombs. The Teuchitlán culture is noteworthy among their contemporaries for the large number of circular ceremonial buildings concentrated around the Tequila volcano and surrounding valleys. Los Guachimontones, located on the southern side of the volcano, is the largest site in the region...
Maya Monumental Energetics (2016)
Inspired by the important development of architectural energetics methodologies in Maya studies, I explore current research concerning monumental construction practices and labor at the ancient Maya site of Xunantunich, Belize. I discuss the foundational energetics principles applied to the major acropolis of Xunantunich, known as the Castillo, and highlight how virtual reconstruction plays a role in developing such energetics studies. Most importantly, I discuss how the scale of monumentality...
Monuments for the Living, Monuments for the Dead: A Stone-by-Stone Guide to Mycenaean State Formation (2016)
Prior to the appearance of the first palaces at Mycenae in the 15th century B.C., the most impressive architectural manifestation of elite authority in the Argolid was not the palace or the house, but rather the tomb, specifically the shaft grave and the tholos tomb. While the funerary data supplied by these burials have long served as the primary means by which the study of Early Mycenaean state formation has been approached, such studies focus almost exclusively on the grave goods themselves,...
Use of Raw Energy Data in the Estimation of the 'Cost' of Building Iron Age Brochs in Scotland (2016)
Iron Age brochs, drystone-built towers unique to Scotland, are typically 18m in external diameter, 9m internally, and 12m to 14m high. Calculation of the volume of stone required for the construction is relatively simple. Calculation of its standard bulk density, only marginally more difficult so that the mass of stone involved can be calculated with confidence. The calculation of the number of kWhs of energy required to quarry, lift move, horizontally and vertically and place into the monument...