The history of ideas remains to be written; art and science have often evolved in similar ways, with phases of linear accumulation, stagnation and ruptures marked by ingenious discoveries.
3. Science in architecture
The Jonas Salk Biological Sciences Research Institute, La Jolla, California, designed by Louis Kahn between 1959 and 1965
Airports, nuclear plants and space stations are some of the twentieth-century architectural creations designed not merely to fulfill their functions, but as emblems of the age. A journalist once wrote about Kahn: “When architecture reaches the summit of its expression, it arouses a very peculiar thrill, a cool bliss which suddenly invests everything, and through which consciousness of a supremely formulated technical wisdom engages in a conflict with mystical tranquility.”
The unity of art and science
The mastery of fire was man’s chief prehistoric accomplishment. As the hearth became a place for social gatherings, cooking stimulated interest in the variety of plant and animal life used for paint, poisons and medicines. Fire led to the making of hard clay objects and tools. With the crudest of implements, beautiful sculptures were carved and stunning images produced.
La Dame de Brassempoy, c. 25,000 B.C.
Ivory, height: 13⁄8 in. (3.65 cm)
Musée d’Archéologie Nationale, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
Astronomy, the mother of science, had its roots in prehistoric times, too. It was practiced by early hunters and gatherers: notches carved in artefacts suggest that Stone Age people detected patterns in the motions of the stars.
Astronomy and architecture were linked very early on and would remain so for thousands of years. By definition, architecture is an applied art with functional, technical and aesthetic requirements. It is also a major art in contrast to other applied arts which are generally considered minor.
At the dawn of civilization, people were already conceptualizing in art and science and designing their places of worship to reflect their ideas about the structure of the universe.
Incised bone record, c. 28,000 B.C., interpretation by Alexander Marshack
Long considered as decorations or records of successful hunts, these notches are now believed to constitute a calendar of lunar cycles.
Musée d’Archéologie Nationale, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
The transformation of society during the Stone Age marked a major cultural and technical upheaval. Agriculture and the way of life that it imposed called for the fixing of boundaries, which perhaps occurred independently in the Middle East, the Far East and other regions. Stone monuments were the architectural response.
In Europe, thousands of megalithic “card houses” were scattered across the continent. Long regarded as simple constructions consisting of one colossal flat stone resting on two rough pillars, such structures are now believed to have been the skeletons of richly decorated monuments.
Stonehenge, for example, was built and rebuilt over 1,000 years, with huge and heavy materials that had to be hauled over long distances in ways we still cannot fully understand. In its oldest known medieval reproduction, the circular complex—poetically supposed to have been master-minded by Merlin—is represented as a flat rectangle with all its triliths complete.
During the Renaissance, scholars thought that Stonehenge was the work of the Romans, for presumably they alone had the required technology.
The monument’s compass-like design suggests that it was an open-air observatory. Stones were aligned with celestial events such as the setting sun on the solstices and various phases of the moonrise. Sites like this must have had an important ritual function which historians have interpreted differently, in accordance with the ideas of their own time.
The temple of Stonehenge, United Kingdom, built between 2750 and 1500 B.C.
Plan of Stonehenge
This ancient structure is called the “Neolithic computer” because the fundamentals of astronomy are incorporated into its architectural design.
In the Middle East, more than 3000 years B.C., urban development was well under way. Large settlements called for specialized labor to produce goods and services. Luxury materials used for decoration—marble, flint and alabaster—were actively traded. In one of the largest cities commerce was based on obsidian, a hard volcanic “glassy” material used for cutting tools.
Babylonian map of fields and canals, Nippur, c. 1500 B.C.
Geometry was mastered by early Middle-Eastern civilizations. Units of weight and length were legally fixed. Maps were made for tax purposes; this one resembles modern abstract art.
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia; Object B 13885
Sophisticated building techniques were in use. Hand-molded mud-brick and mortar, sun-dried walls and floors, would soon be covered with colored plaster and water-resistant tile-like materials.
Although rarely used, columnar pillars were known. Mesopotamian ziggurats, ladder-type buildings—several rectangular stories painted in different colors—were so monumental that archaeologists who discovered them in the nineteenth century mistook them for industrial complexes.
The construction of the Mesopotamian city-states was carried out by a practical, well-organized society in which writing, calculation, sophisticated medicine and astronomy were commonly practiced. Although the fragile soil of Mesopotamia caused constructions to eventually collapse, many architectural and other inventions were passed on to the Egyptians.
Liver made of clay inscribed with Babylonian characters, nineteenth or eighteenth century B.C.
This sculpted liver is inscribed with signs, which, when correlated to the movements of the stars, were interpreted by priests for the purpose of divination. Astrology and medicine were also closely linked in Etruscan and Chinese cultures.
British Museum, London
Along the Nile, geometry and planning were used for standardizing buildings and for dividing fields. Since the Nile—the major highway—was the source of life, water management was mastered at an early stage. The step pyramid at Saqqara (c. 2650 B.C.), the world’s oldest stone structure, was probably designed on the basis of canal-building experience. Its central monument, which was changed several times, was a technological and an artistic marvel.
The complex of stone and rubble had a facing of limestone slabs and was richly decorated. Blocks were molded in imitation of natural materials such as wood pillars and bundles of reeds, which suggested earlier sophisticated wooden constructions. Saqqara’s designer, Imhotep, was the first architect ever to have his name recorded and the first in an impressive series of builder-scientists. A celebrated astronomer and healer, Imhotep was deified during his lifetime as the god of learning and medicine.
Soon after, the great pyramids were built at Giza with