Posted on 02/07/2015 9:14:38 AM PST by SunkenCiv
...In the Egyptian religious architecture of the Old Kingdom (2686 - 2181 BC), the builders... mirrored less durable materials in stone buildings -- including wood and mud bricks... made on regular, rectangular plan, with an area of tens of square meters. Structures were built tightly next to each other. The windows were small and located in the upper part of the wall...
Lintels and window had support beams -- their task was to relieve the empty space, and to protect mud bricks against erosion of and mechanical damage. As is clear from contemporary analogies and archaeological documentation, the lower part of the door had a doorstep, probably placed above the ground level. This type of solution... results from the need to protect homes from water during the periodic river flooding... Houses did not have a door -- Egyptians used mats to cover door openings instead...
In addition to the mud brick buildings, a number of other elements can be found in modern cities in the Nile Delta that have analogies in the historic materials and archaeological documentation. An example can be of various types of fences made of organic materials and property walls made of mud bricks. These elements completed the virtual reconstruction...
The settlement functioned in this place for almost 1000 years, from approx. 3700 to 2700 BC First, there was a strong Lower Egypt local culture centre, then an important centre of power during the formation of a unified Pharaonic state. Tell el-Farcha became famous a few years ago after the discovery of one of the world's oldest brewing centres, two gold statues of rulers dating back more than 5 thousand years, extremely rich temple deposits, which included masterpieces of early Egyptian art -- some of them can be seen today in the famous Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
(Excerpt) Read more at scienceinpoland.pap.pl ...
Maybe the open door and windows were a kind of air-conditioning.
JT
When I read the title in the header, I thought it was talking about “poles” and the not “Polish”...
Some people put Christmas lights in them for the holidays.
Much longer trend than just lately. I remember seeing them since I was little and I’m not admitting how long that’s been. My grandfather started one but didn’t drink so dumped that idea. However, he had all sorts of whirly gigs made out of plastic jugs and other homemade yard art.
I like yards full of gee-gaws.
I think the important color for bottle trees was blue glass - blue was considered very good luck, and many of the slaves and later African Americans painted the doors to their houses blue.
There’s a whole thread on the GardenWeb forum, on how to find blue bottles:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/junk/msg0112175112905.html
I just like the sun shining through them, and the sound they possibly make when the wind blows. In a previous apartment, I kept an empty wine bottle in front of the kitchen window, and it would wail when the wind was just right. (A free ‘Aeolian Harp’ ;-)
-JT
Even the Pharaohs lived in Adobe houses—Palaces yes, but still mud brick-—Stone was reserved for tombs and temples. They were not slaves in our sense of the word—Labor was sort of like a tax done for a set time—and they got perks for their efforts—Like Meat every day! All the beer you could drink, and a pizza like flat breat with cheese and onions. Workers got free health care and the real kicker-—one always good-—Eternal life in the life-to-come.
Same here!
Pretty nice digs for 5,000 years ago.
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