Let’s build us a new house”. Materials, technics, and the structure of dwelling houses in the Ancient Near East

General data

Course ID:	2800-D-BUD
Erasmus code / ISCED:	08.4 Kod klasyfikacyjny przedmiotu składa się z trzech do pięciu cyfr, przy czym trzy pierwsze oznaczają klasyfikację dziedziny wg. Listy kodów dziedzin obowiązującej w programie Socrates/Erasmus, czwarta (dotąd na ogół 0) – ewentualne uszczegółowienie informacji o dyscyplinie, piąta – stopień zaawansowania przedmiotu ustalony na podstawie roku studiów, dla którego przedmiot jest przeznaczony. / (0222) History and archaeology The ISCED (International Standard Classification of Education) code has been designed by UNESCO.
Course title:	Let’s build us a new house”. Materials, technics, and the structure of dwelling houses in the Ancient Near East
Name in Polish:	"Budujemy nowy dom" - materiały, techniki i struktura domów Starożytnego Bliskiego Wschodu
Organizational unit:	Faculty of Archeology
Course groups:	(in Polish) Zajęcia pomocnicze dla studiów dziennych II stopnia mgr
ECTS credit allocation (and other scores):	(not available) Basic information on ECTS credits allocation principles: the annual hourly workload of the student’s work required to achieve the expected learning outcomes for a given stage is 1500-1800h, corresponding to 60 ECTS; the student’s weekly hourly workload is 45 h; 1 ECTS point corresponds to 25-30 hours of student work needed to achieve the assumed learning outcomes; weekly student workload necessary to achieve the assumed learning outcomes allows to obtain 1.5 ECTS; work required to pass the course, which has been assigned 3 ECTS, constitutes 10% of the semester student load. view allocation of credits
Language:	Polish
Type of course:	elective courses
Mode:	Classroom
Short description:	Free-choice classes for students interested in the Ancient Near East, but also – in the housing/dwelling architecture in a general approach; thus participants from other „cultural circles” are welcome. Topics such as the creating of the dwelling space shall be treated, beginning with the planning phase, through different aspects of use/functioning, to the final „abandonment”/”forgetting” and the archaeological exploration of the remains.
Full description:	Classes shall be divided into two parts: – Part I: shall treat the basic building materials (clay, stone, timber) used in the building art of the Ancient Neat East, and the techniques. We shall deal extensively with the production od bricks, both mud bricks and the fired bricks, and the history of their appliance – differing dimensions and shapes, for the building of walls, floors, and the decoration. An analysis of stone/boulders/masonry courses, window- and door-openings and the methods of roofing (flat ceiling, vaults) shall close this first part. – Part II: will be devoted to plans/structures of houses, as anticipated projects and functional ways to arrange the living space, in the „traditional” typological approach, followed by the functional-processual framing of the Spatial Archaeology, finally reaching the meaning-symbolic considerations as recommended by post-processual approaches. Finally, some non-architectonic aspects shall be treated – ephemeric installations, floor/usage/occupational deposits, as a source to perceive both the long-term and short duration usage of buildings.
Bibliography:	(in Polish) (opracowania ogólne i metodologiczne; publikacje wykopalisk – do ustalenia, po wyborze tematów przez uczestników): O. Aurenche, La maison orientale, l'architecture du Proche Orient Ancien des origines au milieu du quatrième millénaire, Paris 1983. D. i A. Benedyktowicz, Dom w tradycji ludowej, Wrocław 1992. P. Bieliński, Budownictwo mieszkalne Syrii i Palestyny w środkowym i późnym okresie epoki brązu, Warszawa 1978 (rozprawa doktorska w maszynopisie - IA UW). J. Bretschneider, Architekturmodelle in Vorderasien und der östlichen Ägäis vom Neolithikum bis in das 1. Jahrtausend, Kevelaer/Neukirchen-Vluyn 1991 (AOAT 229). D.L. Clarke (red.), Spatial Archaeology, London 1977. R. Eichmann, Aspekte prähistorischer Grundrissgestaltung in Vorderasien, Mainz am Rhein 1991 (BaF 12). A. Fiedermutz-Laun et al., Aus Erde geformt. Lehmbauten in West- und Nordafrika, Mainz 1990. D.R. Frank, Versuch zur Rekonstruktion von Bauregeln und Massordnung einer nordsyrischen Stadt des vierten Jahrtausend - untersucht anhang von Grabungsergebnissen der DOG in Habūba-Kabīra, MDOG 107 (1975), 7-16. M. Heidegger, Budować, mieszkać, myśleć, (w:) Eseje zebrane (wybór i opracowanie K. Michalski), Warszawa 1977, 317-334. I. Hodder, C. Orton, Spatial Analysis in Archaeology, Cambridge 1976. E. Heinrich, "Haus" (hasło w RlA IV, 176 nn.). K. Jakubiak, "Wczesnoneolityczne" budownictwo na planie koła na obszarze Bliskiego Wschodu, Warszawa 1996 (praca magisterska w maszynopisie). D.H. van der Laan, Architectonic Space, Leiden 1983. P.A. Miglus, Städtische Wohnarchitektur in Babylonien und Assyrien, München 1995. P.A. Miglus, Das Wohngebiet von Assur. Stratigraphie und Architektur, Berlin 1995 (WVDOG 93). M. Müller (red.), Household Studies in Complex Societies, Chicago 2015 (OIS 10). E.E. Neraznik, A.N. Žilina (red.), Žilišče narodov Srednej Azii i Kazachstana, Moskva 1982. P. Pfälzner, Haus und Haushalt. Wohnformen des dritten Jahrtausends vor Christus in Nordmesopotamien, Mainz am Rhein 2001. W. Rybczyński, Dom. Krótka historia idei, Gdańsk, Warszawa 1996. A. Sarcina, A Statistical Assessment of House Patterns at Mohenjo-Daro, Mesopotamia 13-14 (1978-79), 155-200. I. Tłoczek, Dom mieszkalny na polskiej wsi, Warszawa 1985. M. Tobolczyk, Narodziny architektury, Warszawa 2000. R. Tringham, Archaeological Houses, Households, Housework and the Home, (w:) D.N. Benjamin (red.), The Home: Words, Interpretations, Meanings, and Environments, Avebury 1995, 79-107. K.A. Veenhof (red.), Houses and Households in Ancient Mesopotamia, Istanbul, Leiden 1996. J.A. Włodarczyk, Żyć znaczy mieszkać, Warszawa, Kraków 1997. ANG. See the Polish section. Note: general and method-relevant publications are indicated here – basic material presentations shall be searched for and regarded according to individual researches of the participants.
Learning outcomes:	Extended knowledge on the representative dwelling houses of the Ancient Near East, complemented with the ability of their differentiated interpretation – the „traditional” one (typology, technics and materials), the processual-functional (Spatial Archaeology), and the semiotic-contextual (in the frame of post-processual proposals, e.g. the cognitive archaeology)
Assessment methods and assessment criteria:	Recommended active participation in the discussions; individual presentation of a chosen feature/building – some basic narrative, the „near” context included; an extended explication/interpretation, within the heuristics proposed – highly appreciated.

This course is not currently offered.

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