Architecture - Post-and-lintel construction
Ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman architects made extensive use of Post-and-lintel construction to support the roofs of temples and public places. Two vertical posts on either side of a beam (or lintel) hold up the beam and everything above the opening. This is a strong support when the structure is level and gravity pulls down evenly on the structure. The weight of the wall above the lintel is the load. In Post-and-lintel construction they would use many kinds of stone. Stone and marble were chosen for important monuments because they are incombustible and can be expected to endure. Stone is also a sculptural material; stone architecture was often integral with stone sculpture. The use of stone has declined, however, because a number of other materials are more amenable to industrial use and assembly. Some regions lack both timber and stone; their peoples used the earth itself, tamping certain mixtures into walls or forming them into bricks to be dried in the sun. Later they baked these substances in kilns, producing a ran
This grossly underutilizes most of the beam's other mass. Primitive tools, such as red deer antlers, were used to dig up the chalky countryside of Salisbury Plain, which was then taken away on ox shoulder blades. This increased their own dead weight, which significantly reduced the distance they could reliably span to about eight feet on average. Religious fanatics, who felt threatened by the mysteries posed by Stonehenge, knocked over many of the standing stones. As a consequence, Greek temples, like the Parthenon, were so crowded with columns that there was not much room for crowds to gather inside. On Salisbury Plain in Southern England stands Stonehenge, the most famous of all megalithic sites. ge of bricks and tiles with greater durability. But a closer look shows that only human imagination and determination could have created Stonehenge. Stonehenge is a well-known example of an ancient post and lintel construction. As a result the lintels had to be made especially thick and wide in order to increase the amount of mass they had to resist these tensile stresses. This form of construction is still found in homes for windows and doorways and many other ways. Most of the stones stand twenty-four or more feet high.
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