layer of plaster and faced with stone. Teotihuacán apartment
complexes, built on top of raised platforms, were constructed
out of adobe and stone and then covered with plaster.
As in Mesoamerica, building materials used by the an-
cient Andeans ranged from simple structures made from per-
ishable materials to monumental structures built from stone
and adobe. During the period from around 3500–2000 b.c.e.
more permanent domestic and ceremonial structures began
to be created out of stone and clay or stone and adobe.
At the Chavín site called Cerro Sechín, in northern Peru
(ca. 800 b.c.e.), a style of temple construction developed. Aft er
a platform had been created from excavated earth, the temple
itself was built using a series of cone-shaped adobe bricks that
were arranged in rectangular form and then fi lled in with
mortar. Th e cones were laid out point to point so that their
round circular bases would form a roundel pattern on the
wall. Th is created a fl at, smooth wall surface. Th e structure
was then covered by a wood or straw roof. Some structures
were also faced with stone. Th is building technique would be
continued aft er the Chavín culture declined.
Ancient Andean burial mounds and other monumen-
tal structures were built primarily of adobe brick. Th e large
burial tombs of such north-coast cultures as the Moche (ca.
300 c.e.) consisted of low platforms as well as large adobe
mounds. In the Moche site Huaca del Sol, near the northern
coast of Peru, more than 143 million molded adobe bricks
were laid in columns to create a burial mound. On the south
coast the burial mounds and temples were smaller but still
utilized adobe.
Th e earliest North Americans, like the Mesoameri-
cans, built structures primarily from ephemeral materials,
but there is evidence that they used more permanent build-
ing techniques. Pit houses were the earliest style of building
in North America; they began to be built about 4300 b.c.e.
Round or oval-shaped pits would be dug into the earth, pro-
viding at least one wall of the structure, and mud-covered
vertical poles supplied the framework. Th e roof was made of
perishable materials supported by a single crossbeam or by
posts. Variations on the pit house were created in numerous
periods throughout ancient North America.
Perishable structures would have been built above
ground as well. Some were round and contained internal
hearths for winter use, while in the summer, rectangular
structures without hearths would have been occupied. On
the Northwest coast the construction of large, rectangu-
lar, wooden plank houses dates back to around 1100 b.c.e.
Th ese structures would have required a great deal of com-
munal labor to build and were most likely reused through-
out many generations.
Th e North Americans also built monumental structures
out of the existing landscape. Impressive mounds were con-
structed over burial and ceremonial sites and would have
required carrying massive amounts of soil to the site with
the aid of baskets and simple tools. One of the earliest great
examples of mound building is found at “Poverty Point” in
modern day Louisiana (dating to ca. 1500 b.c.e.) Here, six
semicircular ridges, divided into segments measuring 9.8
feet high and 131 feet wide, were constructed from excavated
earth to form a horseshoe shape. Mound sites would become
larger and more elaborate in later cultures, taking on more
complex geometric and curvilinear shapes. Th ese ceremonial
structures demonstrate the North American people’s propen-
sity for building on a monumental scale.See also architecture; art; borders and frontiers;
ceramics and pottery; cities; climate and geography;
death and burial practices; empires and dynasties;
employment and labor; foreigners and barbarians;
household goods; hunting, fishing, and gathering;
illumination; metallurgy; mining, quarrying, and salt
making; natural disasters; nomadic and pastoral
societies; religion and cosmology; roads and bridges;
sacred sites; settlement patterns; towns and villages;
transportation.FURTHER READING
Jean-Pierre Adam, Roman Building: Materials and Techniques
(London: Routledge, 2005).
Susan Toby Evans, Ancient Mexico and Central America: Archaeol-
ogy and Culture History (London: Th ames and Hudson, 2004).
Brian M. Fagan, Ancient North America: Th e Archaeology of a Con-
tinent, 3rd ed. (London: Th ames and Hudson, 2000).
Ron Fisher, Norman Hammond, Anne Nottingham Kelsall, et al.
Builders of the Ancient World: Marvels of Engineering (Wash-
ington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 1986).
Gwendolyn Leick, A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Architec-
ture (London: Routledge, 1988).
Richard Ernest Wycherley, How the Greeks Built Cities (New York:
Norton, 1962).162 building techniques and materials: further reading