True arch and brick vault
Arco verdadero y bóveda de ladrillo
- Date
- c. 3000 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Ur (royal tombs) and Nippur, Iraq; Helwan and Saqqara, Egypt
- Credited to
- Sumerians and Egyptians
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Mudbrick barrel vaults built of radial voussoirs in tombs at Helwan (1st Dynasty) and Ur (c. 2500 BCE), plus corbelled vaults without centring that transmit the load to the walls. Although used only underground and in storerooms, it is the structural principle that Rome would later exploit on a grand scale.
The corbelled (false) vault is Neolithic; the true voussoir arch appears in Egypt and Mesopotamia around 3000-2600 BCE, and Mycenae used the false dome (tholos).
What it led to
- Roofing of spaces without timber in deforested regions, essential for warehouses and drains
- Vaulted city gates (Ashkelon, c. 1850 BCE) and conduits
- Conceptual basis of Etruscan, Roman and Persian vaulted architecture
Built on
- Standardized fired brickc. 2600 BCE
- Moulded mudbrick
- Corbelled (false) vault
Made possible
- Squinch and dome on a square planc. 225
- Double-shell dome1067-1093
- Etruscan and Roman stone arch
- Vaulted city gate