medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: rochelle altman <[log in to unmask]>
> >From: rochelle altman <[log in to unmask]>
> >[excellent topographical description of the Galilee/Nazareth/Jerusalem area
ruthlessly snipped]
> Coming from you, that's high praise. :-)
i have a strong interest in 12th c. Nazareth (i know a Chartrain sculptor who
worked there, before the Salad-Inn put a stop to that foolishness), so you got
my attention up-front.
>>Conifers, in general, yield lumber good for chairs, tools, shelves, doors,
door-frames, bed-frames, etc.... also are limited in the width of the lumber
and are not the most durable of woods.
>>>durable enough (if kept out of the weather), but knotty as hell and, thus,
difficult to do fine work in.
> And that's why so many antique chairs, etc., from the general area are (1)
with very little shaping -- straight backs, legs, and frames -- and (2)
painted.
no doubt.
and no doubt ordinary furnature for ordinary folks was pretty simple (the very
possession of a chair, of any sort, might disqualify one from being
"ordinary").
still, the Upper Classes would have demanded furniture.
and the Egyptians, for all their lack of wood (good or otherwise) were --as
best we can judge from the tomb survivals) *master* cabinetmakers, joiners,
whateverthahellyouwannacallit.
there must have been *thousands* of small (and large) shrines of this sort:
http://www.suziemanley.com/march/tut_nest.htm
chairs
http://daphne.palomar.edu/mhudelson/WorksofArt/02Egyptian/2121.html
(there's another one from Tut's tomb, not gilded, but quite wonderfully worked
an marvelously finished; i don't know where it's wood came from, sub-sahara,
perhaps.)
these were so common, apparently, you can pick one up today for a Song on
eBay
http://cgi.ebay.com/Ancient-Egyptian-TUTANKHAMUN-THRONE-JEWELRY-BOX_W0QQitemZ180198445327QQihZ008QQcategoryZ10911QQcmdZViewItem
chariot wheels (not all that easy to design and construct), including a few
i've seen which show an absolutely *brilliant* solution to the problem of how
to solve the hub/spoke/wheel problem: the spokes were made out of half-round
pieces of wood which were (heat/steam)*bent* at acute angle and lashed
together two at a time, flat side to flat side, mortised into the fellees,
comming together at the hub.
as far as i'm concerned, in spite of the *massive* loses of exemplars over the
millennia, woodwork of this quality did not simply "suck itself out of its own
fingers," and implies *extensive* experience, over a long, long period of
time.
with no native wood close by, to speak of.
> > >> So, there was plenty of wood -- and work -- available for a jointer, a
cabinet-maker, but not much for a general carpenter. ...the dominant building
material was stone.... Wood was used in door and window frames, doors,
furniture, shelving, and household items. etc.
>>>and for roofs.
>>the construction of which would fall to the carpenter.<
> True -- if the roofs had wood cross beams.
you mean beams running across the building's width?
one way to do it.
esp. for large buildings.
more modest houses could have had a long ridge "beam", onto which the rafters
were attached, running down to the walls.
a post or column in the middle of the room would help that ridge beam out --or
it could be spliced ("fished") together from two pieces (the "evolution" of
middlevil splice joints is laid out in particular detail in the books of Cecil
Hewett which i mentioned previously on this thread).
>No wood in the roofs in the older plastered-stone houses (I've been inside
one that dates to
the 12th-century.)
roofs made out of stone?
in modest houses?
>We were talking about wood, so I didn't mention that the stone from the
Judean Hills is sandstone, chalky and soft (you can "inscribe" it with a
fingernail) and it's soft enough to be not difficult to cut cross-beams out
of.
i'm having trouble picturing a stone "cross-beam" --spanning a 10+ foot
space...
>Flat roofs
flat *stone* roofs?
i'd like to live long enough to see one of those...
>themselves may have been matting that was tarred (Dead Sea not far away) to
water-proof. And domes (of whatever size) are stone -- corbelled and
plastered, inside and out.
domes?
in "ordinary" (lower or even middle class) domestic architecture?
>The arch, corbel and other developments, has been used in construction in the
general area since the fourth millennium.
i've got no trouble with those, just don't see them being used all that much
in common domestic architecture.
> Buildings in Petra (the rose-red city built of stone) were cut into the
rock.
are their *houses* in Petra?
i thought that all those spectauclar carved "caves" (i wouln't call them
"buildings" --faux buildings, maybe) were tombs.
in any event, perhaps we can agree that Petra is something of a One-Of?
>No wood in the roofs.
no "roofs," in caves.
caves come with ready-made "roofs" --even man excavated caves.
>(And precious little wood available in that area.) In Egypt, the general
population built their houses of reed stalks bound together for support posts
and woven reed mats for roofing.
as in the Land of the Two Rivers.
but, not much in the way of reeds, in Palestine, i assume.
>Again, no wood and no need for general carpenters.
Viday Soupra, re Egyptians.
> Today, of course, it's poured concrete and concrete block -- much cheaper
than a stone mason.
yes, the damned Romans ruined it all.
c
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|