Vocab 3 & 4!

 

archaeology: the scientific study of historic or prehistoric peoples and their cultures by analysis of the artifacts, inscriptions, monuments, and other such remains that have been excavated.

 

capitol: the ancient temple of Jupiter in Rome.

 

relief sculpture: shapes carved on a surface so as to stand out from the surrounding background.

 

tholos tomb: Tholos, keyhole-shaped houses of the Halaf culture of the Ancient Near East; a circular temple of Ancient Greece.

 

cornice: a prominent, continuous, horizontally projecting feature surmounting a wall or dividing ithorizontally for compositional purposes.

 

cuneiform: composed of slim triangular or wedge-shaped carvings, created by the ancient Mesopotamians

 

cromlech: a megalithic chamber tomb.

 

stele/stelai: an upright stone slab or pillar bearing an inscription or design and serving as a monument, marker, or the like.

 

acropolis: the citadel or high fortified area of an ancient Greek city.

 

entablature: the entire construction of a classical temple between the columns and the eaves, usually composed of an architrave, a frieze, and a cornice.

 

cylinder seal: a small carved cylinder used by the ancient Mesopotamians to press a design in wet clay.

 

henge: a Neolithic monument of the British Isles consisting of a circular area enclosed by a bank and ditch, probably used for ritual purposes or for marking astronomical events, as solstices and equinoxes.

 

ziggurat: a temple of Sumerian origin in the form of a pyramidal tower with a number of stories and having about the outside a broad ascent winding round the structure, presenting the appearance of a series of terraces.

 

amphora: a large storage jar having an oval body, usually tapering to a point at the base with a pair of handles extending from immediately below the lip to the shoulder, used chiefly for oil, wine, etc., and,set on a foot, as a commemorative vase awarded the victors in contests such as the Panathenaic games.

 

frieze: the part of a classical entablature between the architrave and the cornice, usually decorated with sculpture in low relief.

 

façade: the front of a building, especially an imposing or decorative one.

 

megalith: a stone of great size, especially in ancient construction work, as the Cyclopean masonry, or in prehistoric Neolithic remains, as dolmens or menhirs.

 

corbel arch: a construction like an arch, but composed of masonry courses corbeled until they meet.

 

architrave: the lowermost member of a classical entablature, resting originally upon columns.

 

kiln: a furnace or oven for burning, baking, drying pottery, limestone, bricks, and the like.

 

ground plan: first or fundamental plan.

 

menhir: an upright monumental stone standing either alone or with others, as in an alignment.

 

cyclopean masonry: a primitive style of masonry using massive stones of irregular shapes and sizes.

 

canon: the body of rules, principles, or standards accepted as universally binding in a field of study.

 

kylix: a shallow bowl with two handles, often used as a drinking cup.

 

lamassu: the monumental human-headed, winged bulls that guarded the entrances to Mesopotamian palaces and temples.

 

mortise-and-tenon fresco: a groove cut into stone or wood, called a mortise.

 

caryatid/atlantid: a sculptured male or female figure used as a column.

 

metope: any of the square spaces, either decorated or plain, between triglyphs in the Doric frieze.

 

negative space: the space around and between the subject(s) of an image.

 

post-and-lintel: a structure consisting of vertical beams (posts) supporting a horizontal beam (lintel).

 

megaron: a building or semi independent unit of a building, generally used as a living space and having a square or broadly rectangular principal chamber with a porch, often of columns in antis, and sometimes an antichamber or other small compartments.

 

cella: the principal enclosed chamber of a classical temple.

 

mosaic: a picture or decoration made of small, usually colored pieces of inlaid stone or glass.

 

apadana: the great hall in ancient Persian palaces.

 

capital: a city regarded as being of special eminence in some field of activity.

 

repousse: raised in relief by hammering on the reverse side.

 

contrapposto: a representation of the human body in which the forms are organized on a curving axis to provide an asymmetrical balance to the figure.

 

pediment: a low gable, typically triangular with a horizontal cornice and rakingcornices, surmounting a colonnade, an end wall, or a major division of a façade.

 

propylaeum: a vestibule or entrance to a temple area or other enclosure, especially when elaborate or of architectural importance.

 

peristyle: a colonnade surrounding a building or an open space. shaft: a long pole forming the body of various weapons, as lances, halberds, or arrows.

 

triglyph: a structural member of a Doric frieze, separating two consecutive metopes, and consisting of a rectangular block with two vertical grooves or glyphs, and two chamfers or half grooves at the sides, together counting as a third glyph, and leaving three flat vertical bands on the face of the block.

 

necropolis: a cemetery, especially one of large size and usually of an ancient city.

 

stucco: an exterior finish for masonry or frame walls, usually composed of cement, sand, and hydrated lime mixed with water and laid on wet surface.

 

terracotta: made of an orange-colored natural clay.

 

tumulus: an artificial mound, especially over a grave.

 

aqueduct: a bridgelike structure that carries a water conduit or canal across a valley or over a river.

 

ashlar masonry: a type of construction using rectangular blocks of stone.

 

atrium: the main or central room of an ancient Roman house, open to the sky at the center and usually having a pool for the collection of rain water.

 

basilica: characterized by a plan including a nave, two or four side aisles, a semicircular apse, and a narthex. bust: a portrait sculpture showing only the head and shoulders of the subject.

 

coffer: one of a number of sunken panels, usually square oroctagonal, in a vault, ceiling, or soffit.

 

cubilicum: a room.

 

cupola: a light structure on a dome or roof, serving as a belfry, lantern, or belvedere.

 

encaustic: painted with wax colors fixed with heat, or any process with which colors are burned.

 

foreshortening: to reduce or distort in order to convey the illusion of three-dimensional space as perceived by the human eye.

 

forum: the marketplace or public square of an ancient Roman city, the center of judicial and business affairs and a place of assembly for the people.

 

impluvium: a basin or tank within a compluvium.

 

keystone: the wedge-shaped piece at the summit of an arch holding the other pieces in place.

 

oculus: a circular opening, especially one at the apex of a dome.

 

coffered vault: a decorative sunken panel in a ceiling, dome, soffit, or vault.

 

perspective: a technique of depicting volumes and spatial relationships on a flat surface.

 

pier: a structure built on posts extending from land out over water.

 

spandrel: an area between the extradoses of two adjoining arches, or between the extrados of an arch and a perpendicular through the extrados at the springing line.

 

vault: an arched structure made of stones, concrete, or bricks, forming a ceiling or roof over a hall, room, sewer, or other wholly or partially enclosed construction.

 

barrel bault: a vault in the form of a half cylinder.

 

groined vault: two barrel vaults intersecting at right angles

 

veristic: the theory that rigid representation of truth and reality is essential to art and literature, and therefore the ugly and vulgar must be included