In exploring early vernacular settlements, Catal Huyuk and Mohenjo-Daro, they offer examples of how prominent lifestyle changes occurring at the time impact these settlements due to technological advancements, adaptation to geography, and use of local resources for these successful cities. Although Catal Huyuk was built 5000 years before Mohenjo-Daro they still offer important comparisons of vernacular architecture showing similarities and differences of the cities growth and adaptation to the resources they had. Catal Huyuk, located in Southern Turkey, is a complex neolithic city which exemplifies the transition from hunter gather lifestyle to a settled agricultural lifestyle thru the cultivation of wheat and cattle breeding. Mohenjo-Daro
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The city is made up on a grid pattern with rectilinear buildings mostly made of fired mud bricks and sun-dried mud bricks. The city covered a wide amount of area and based on the size and sophistication of the technology in the city, this suggests a high level of social organization. They also had a sophisticated construction layout based on a grid of streets, laid out in perfect patterns. The buildings all feature an advanced design, with structures constructed of the same-sized sun dried bricks of baked mud and burned wood. The public buildings in the city suggests a high level of social organization and community. The city is divided into two parts, the Citadel and the Lower City. The Citadel is made of a mud-brick mound which houses the great bath, a large residential structure, and two assembly halls. The city had a central marketplace, and central well from the reservoir system. Individual households received their water from smaller wells. As part of the water system waste water was brought to covered drains that lined the major streets using exported medals including …show more content…
Some of the rooms within the homes were set aside for bathing and waste. Two characteristics that define them as an agricultural society is the large well and reservoir system, and the centralized marketplace. Mohenjo-Daro was a well fortified city despite the lack of city walls, it did have towers that served as the defensive fortification. Mohenjo-Daro follows with the architectural layout of other Indus Valley sites of this time adding to the belief that the cities within the Indus River Valley created a system of unified regional government that led to these highly advanced societies. Unlike Catal Huyuk, Mohenjo-Daro does show evidence of some religion. The Great Bath not only shows the complex planning of the Harappans water work system, but it is believed that this site may have also been used as part of their ritual bathing to purify and renew the bather. The great bath is the earliest public water tank in the ancient world featuring two wide staircases that lead down into the tank which leads to an ledge people could walk on around the water. The bath is water tight due to finely fitted bricks with gypsum paste. To ensure water tightness they added a thick layer of bitumen. There are brick colonnades which is believed that they held window frames. Throughout the great bath there are rooms along the eastern edge which may
The city is made up on a grid pattern with rectilinear buildings mostly made of fired mud bricks and sun-dried mud bricks. The city covered a wide amount of area and based on the size and sophistication of the technology in the city, this suggests a high level of social organization. They also had a sophisticated construction layout based on a grid of streets, laid out in perfect patterns. The buildings all feature an advanced design, with structures constructed of the same-sized sun dried bricks of baked mud and burned wood. The public buildings in the city suggests a high level of social organization and community. The city is divided into two parts, the Citadel and the Lower City. The Citadel is made of a mud-brick mound which houses the great bath, a large residential structure, and two assembly halls. The city had a central marketplace, and central well from the reservoir system. Individual households received their water from smaller wells. As part of the water system waste water was brought to covered drains that lined the major streets using exported medals including …show more content…
Some of the rooms within the homes were set aside for bathing and waste. Two characteristics that define them as an agricultural society is the large well and reservoir system, and the centralized marketplace. Mohenjo-Daro was a well fortified city despite the lack of city walls, it did have towers that served as the defensive fortification. Mohenjo-Daro follows with the architectural layout of other Indus Valley sites of this time adding to the belief that the cities within the Indus River Valley created a system of unified regional government that led to these highly advanced societies. Unlike Catal Huyuk, Mohenjo-Daro does show evidence of some religion. The Great Bath not only shows the complex planning of the Harappans water work system, but it is believed that this site may have also been used as part of their ritual bathing to purify and renew the bather. The great bath is the earliest public water tank in the ancient world featuring two wide staircases that lead down into the tank which leads to an ledge people could walk on around the water. The bath is water tight due to finely fitted bricks with gypsum paste. To ensure water tightness they added a thick layer of bitumen. There are brick colonnades which is believed that they held window frames. Throughout the great bath there are rooms along the eastern edge which may