Verticality, Part VI: Archetypes
Man’s initial attempts to get closer to the sky in each of the five cradles of civilization
This chapter is part of a series that compose the main verticality narrative. The full series is located here.
How does one achieve verticality? At the most basic level, we can get closer to the sky in two ways. First, we can recreate the human body with singular elements that express height on their own. These objects can be seen as proxies for our own bipedal bodies. Second, we can physically raise the surface under our feet in order to raise our bodies up closer to the sky. These constructions can be seen as recreations of mountains, which are the highest places we can reach in the natural landscape. As our ancestors set out to externalize their need for verticality, they experimented with both of these methods.
Also tied closely to these attempts at verticality were our ancestors’ nascent ideas about God. These ideas took many forms, but their roots were common all over the world. To illustrate this, we’ll look at each of the five cradles of civilization: The Fertile Crescent, including Mesopotamia, Sumer and Ancient Egypt; The Indus Valley, including India and Pakistan; Ancient China and Japan; The Andean Region, in present-day Peru; and Ancient Mesoamerica in present-day Mexico. Each of these regions had different approaches to verticality, and each would construct examples of re-created human bodies and mountains. First, we’ll take a look at recreations of our own upright bodies.
The Human Body
The bipedal human body is a singular object that represents a conquering of gravity through it’s vertical form. This vertical form contains its own axis-mundi, and is tied closely to our need for verticality. As such, some of our ancestors' earliest attempts at externalizing this need were to recreate this singular, vertical form.
Menhir drawing by Pierre Cornoise from 1908. Large, upright stones symbolize the upright human body and our inner need to escape the surface of the earth. Image source.
The most primitive of these recreations were megaliths. A megalith is a large stone, usually placed vertically upon the earth. These stones can be found all over the world in various forms. In Western Europe they’re called menhirs, and are most numerous in Great Britain, Ireland, France and Northern Spain. In Scotland, they’re called Pictish stones after the Pictish people. In Scandinavia they’re called bautastein. In Siberia and Mongolia, they’re called reindeer stones because many have carvings of flying deer on them. On the island of Sardinia in Italy, menhirs are carved with human elements, suggesting they were attempting to create statues. On Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean, megalithic statues called Moai were also attempts at recreating the human form in stone. In Peru, menhirs are called huanca, which means ‘standing stone’, and they’re commonly placed in relation to celestial events. Elsewhere, vertical megaliths can be found across India, the Horn of Africa, Iran, Israel, Armenia, Colombia and Argentina, among many others.
Megaliths can be seen as our first attempts to externalize our need for verticality without defense or survival in mind. Placing an upright stone on the earth wasn’t an act of defense or survival, it was an act to satisfy an innate need within us: the need for verticality. This act was not trivial; it no doubt took a lot of time and effort to move and place these stones, which suggests they were quite important to whomever was moving and placing them. Once placed, a vertical stone stands tall and upright, increasing it’s visibility from the surrounding landscape and marking the importance of a place.[1] This was a primal act; our species was territorializing the earth, and we usually did it in the service of some type of god or promise of an afterlife.
As time went on, these megaliths would evolve differently in each part of the world. One common evolution was the stele. A Stele is a vertical stone or wooden slab that was used to convey some sort of specific information. A common purpose was to commemorate a grave (a practice we still see today). The information conveyed by the stele was either religious or civic in nature, and took the form of sculptural ornamentation or inscriptions. Famous examples of ancient stelæ can be found the world over. In Babylonia, the Code of Hammurabi was inscribed on a stele in the 18th century BC. In Ethiopia, King Ezana’s Stela is an obelisk-like monument thought to mark a royal grave, erected sometime in the 4th century AD. In China, the Gwanggaeto Stele stands almost 7 meters tall and was erected in the early 5th century AD as a memorial for the tomb of King Gwanggaeto. In Ancient Ireland, Ogham Stones were used as vertical grave markers throughout the first millennium AD. In Peru, the Raimondi Stele of the Chavín culture is richly adorned with sculptural forms of plants and animals in a vertical arrangement, dating back to the first millennium BC.
The menhir and the stele would evolve into more sophisticated forms throughout the ancient world. Let’s take a look at each of the five cradles of civilization and how these forms evolved the vertical megalith to suit their needs.
In the Fertile Crescent, the major civilizations were the Ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians. The Ancient Egyptians developed the megalith into the obelisk, which is a tall, thin pillar of stone, square or rectangular in plan and slightly tapered, with a small pyramid at its summit. The Ancient Egyptians carved these monoliths from a single piece of stone and usually covered them in sculptural relief. Obelisks symbolized the sun god Ra, and they were most commonly erected in pairs at the entrance of a temple. Verticality is alive and well here; the Ancient Egyptians believed that a tower denoted height, as well as a rising up above common levels of life or society, so it makes sense that their obelisks symbolized a deity.[2] Furthermore, the form of the obelisk can be seen as a tall, slender platform that serves to raise up a pyramid to the sky, effectively removing it from the surface and placing it in the sky, which is also fitting for a deity. More on pyramids in the Mountains section below.
In Mesopotamia, megaliths evolved into the minaret, which is a tower form most commonly associated with mosques. They serve to provide a landmark and focal point for a place due to their height, which signals to the surrounding area that a place is important. They also provide a high place for the Muslim call to prayer, or the adhan. Five times a day the call to prayer is issued from the top of the tower. Minarets can take on many forms, but their main function is to symbolize a conquering of gravity, much like our bodies. This conquering of gravity served to display the power and influence of the Islamic faith to the surrounding landscape. The tower form also raises the adhan up high above the surface, making it more audible to the surrounding area.
In the Indus Valley, the Pillars of Ashoka are a series of free-standing columns erected by the Mauryan king Ashoka in the 3rd century BC. Each of the pillars had three major parts: the base, usually a shallow plinth of stone; the shaft, which usually sat directly upon the base; and the capital, which was heavily sculpted and topped with a representation of an animal. As with any vertical hierarchy, the top is most important. The capitals have been raised up by the supporting shaft, signifying their importance through their height, thus the animal sculpture becomes the focus of the work. This makes sense because each animal represented was sacred to ancient Buddhist culture in some way, and by raising them up above the surface the pillar is signifying their sacred status.
A 1994 stamp featuring the 11th century Iron Pagoda at Kaifeng, China. Image source.
In Ancient China and Japan, the pagoda developed as a Buddhist monument, originally built to house sacred relics. The pagoda most likely evolved as a fusion of a stupa and a watchtower, meaning that the previously discussed needs of Defense and God have here fused into a single structure. A pagoda’s vertical, tower-like form makes it a landmark, and its height symbolizes its importance and greatly increases its visibility from the surrounding landscape. A notable example is the Iron Pagoda, built in the 11th century AD. This structure is particularly tower-like, and has 13 stories rising to a height of nearly 57m (187ft). With its great height, one can easily see how this building could be used as a watchtower, but its use as part of a temple suggests that its relationship to God was more important to its builders.
In the Andes region, the chullpa funerary towers were a type of tomb built by the indigenous Aymara people. These structures were typically cylindrical or rectangular, and built of stone or adobe. Their vertical nature and the fact that they were tombs tie them closely with verticality. These structures stand tall and mark the earth for an individual who once lived there, and whose body remains inside. The upright form, much like a menhir, is more visible to the surroundings than an underground burial, and the fact that they were built up above the surface means the individual inside was too important to be buried in the underground.
Comparison of the Maya Campeche Towers. Image source.
In Mesoamerica, the Mayans had two types of tower-like constructions. The first were a well-known series of stelæ, richly adorned with sculpture depicting past kings’ deeds, calendrical cycles, or other mythical scenes. These stones served to convey important information related to Mayan culture, much like the stelæ mentioned above. Second, the Mayans built a series of peculiar towers in various locations, the most notable of which are Palenque Tower in the Palenque Temple Complex, Puerto Rico Tower near the archeological site of Xpuhil in Campeche, Mexico, and Nocuchich Tower, also in Campeche and part of the Nocuchich archeological site. Palenque Tower is square in plan, and it was most likely used as an observation tower, though its exact function is unknown. Puerto Rico Tower is located just north of the archeological site of Xpuhil in Campeche, Mexico. The tower is cylindrical, and sits on a square plinth. The function of this tower is also unknown, but most likely it served as some kind of watchtower. Nocuchich Tower is the tallest of the bunch, and the only one discussed here that wasn’t meant to be climbed, or at least it doesn’t have an interior means of ascending it.
Other notable tower-like constructions from ancient times can be found around the world. The Irish Round Towers are a series of cylindrical towers with conical tops, most likely constructed between the 9th and 12th centuries. These towers probably served as bell towers, since nearly all of them were built close to a church. In the Northwest Coast of North America, totem poles were wooden towers carved from tree trunks, heavily adorned with symbols, figures and/or animal forms. The exact function of these pillars is unknown, but most likely the figures represented were spiritual in nature or were meant to depict past leaders of the people who carved them. Throughout the Christian world, the campanile, also known as a bell tower or belfry, is a common structure built adjacent to a church. Campaniles can be found all over the world, and they take on myriad forms, but their common function is to mark the importance of a building through height and to provide a high place for bells to be more audible to the surrounding area.
Each of the preceding examples represents an evolution of the menhir and stele archetypes, and each symbolizes our upright bodies in some way. As such, these objects and structures have their roots in verticality, and the global distribution of their construction suggests that verticality is an innate human need, common to all our ancestors, and common to us today. Next, we’ll look at the second method for achieving verticality: raising up the ground beneath our feet to create our own mountains.
Mountains
Mountains are the highest places we can get to on the surface of the earth. As discussed previously, ascending a mountain is a symbolic act, and one that ties closely to our relationship with verticality. Once at the top, a mountain provides us with views, light, air, status, defense, etc.. Because of this, in landscapes with mountains we build on top of them, and in landscapes without mountains we create our own. Sometimes this was done for defensive purposes, but much more often it was done to get closer to the sky and to fuel our drive to escape the surface.
A graphic from Le Petit Larousse Illustré, called Man Vs. Nature from 1925. Mountains are the highest places we can get to in the natural world.
When a building is placed up high on a mountain or hill, what are the builders trying to say? First, they’re saying ‘this building and its functions are too important to reside down here with the rest of us.’ The surface is where we all live our lives, so important buildings and places must be raised up above the ground to signify their importance to others. Second, ‘either you must be important to enter, or you must put in an effort to enter.’ By making an important structure difficult to access, the journey to get there would be more meaningful, and usually was restricted to a certain group of people (royalty, priests, aristocracy, etc.). In addition, the ever-present concept of the sky as a place to aspire to was a great motivator for building as high as possible, thus the highest places in the natural world are usually thought to be sacred in some way.
Civilizations that developed in mountainous areas nearly always chose the highest places for their most important structures. In Ancient Greece, the Citadel of Mycenae was located on a hilltop, with evidence of human activity on the site dating back to the Neolithic age. In Yemen, the 12th century village of Al Hajjarah was built atop a plateau, with clusters of tall buildings perched above cliff-faces of rock. The Incas, in modern-day Peru, built Machu Picchu on top of a mountain with the same name. Machu Picchu was the spiritual and political center of the Inca civilization, and its height no doubt reflected that due to all the extra effort required to build up that high. In Mexico, the Aztec site of Monte Albán is located atop a mountain ridge that was leveled off in order to be built upon. Monte Albán was one of the earliest cities of Mesoamerica, and its high location is a testament to its importance. In the United States, Acoma Sky City Pueblo was built atop a mesa around 1150 AD, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the country. The Acoma people no doubt chose the site because it was the highest place around, and the name ‘Sky City’ suggests they were trying to get closer to the sky by settling there. In Sri Lanka, the Sigiriya Fortress was built atop a stone plateau and dates back to the 5th century AD. It is believed that a king chose the site for his capital, and placed his palace at the top of the rock.
Cairn in South Africa, marking the site of a mass grave. Image source.
The above examples each used existing topography to achieve verticality. Next, let’s dive into the man-made examples. When the natural landscape didn’t provide high places upon which to build, our ancestors created them. The oldest and most primitive example of a man-made mountain is the cairn, or a simple pile of stones. Cairns are similar to menhirs in that they serve to mark the landscape, and have a myriad of uses. In prehistoric times, they were often used to mark trails, graves, or places where valuable items were buried. Some were also built for ceremonial purposes, or were related to astronomy in some way. They also ranged in size from a few individual stones to massive piles. The largest of these could house a room inside or served as a platform for another structure. As time progressed, these last two functions would evolve throughout the ancient world into many different building types.
These large piles of stones first evolved into mounds. A mound is an artificial hill that serves to elevate the earth’s surface. In prehistoric times, mounds could be found all over the world, and like cairns, they most likely had a wide variety of uses. One thing they all had in common was the use of verticality in order to signify the importance of a place. By raising up the surface of the earth, one creates a high place above the surrounding landscape. This act of place-making must have been quite significant to those constructing it, due to the time and effort required to move all the earth required for the mound.
There were two major types of mounds that were built in the ancient world. The first was a tumulus, or a burial mound. Also referred to as kurgans or barrows, or mastabas in Ancient Egypt, these structures were built up over grave-sites as a way to mark the land for a deceased individual or family. Tumuli can be found all over the world and they come in many different forms, but all used verticality to mark the significance of the individuals buried beneath. The second type of mound is a platform mound, which serves as a platform for an important building or space. Most commonly found in North America, the structures built atop these mounds were usually reserved for important individuals (kings, chiefs, etc.) or for religious purposes (temples, mortuaries, etc.). There are certain examples that were used for both purposes, but most were for one or the other.
In each type of mound, our ancestors were raising up the surface of the earth in order to get closer to the sky. They were trying to escape the surface, and this act would evolve into many different types of more sophisticated structures around the world. Let’s take a look at each of the five cradles of civilization and see what they came up with.
In the Fertile Crescent, the Mesopotamians developed the ziggurat. A ziggurat is a stepped platform built by the Sumerians, Babylonians, Akkadians, Elamites and the Eblaites. The major elements of a ziggurat are multiple platforms stacked on top of one another and slightly tapered inward, creating the appearance of a stepped-pyramid. Long, straight staircases were placed at the front of the structure for access. It’s unclear what their exact function was, but most likely there was a temple or shrine on top of the highest platform. In many cases, it was believed that the gods resided in said temple or shrine.[3] This temple or holy place was placed up high in order to link between the surface and the sky. In fact, the Ziggurat at Larsa’s name means ‘The House of the Link between Heaven and Earth.’[4] Another example, and one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Most likely built around 600 BC, this structure was a terraced ziggurat planted with lush gardens and forests, most likely built by King Nebuchadnezzer for his queen or a concubine. According to Irving L. Finkel, the function of such a structure was ‘to bring man as near as possible to the gods.’[5] As we’ll see in the following examples, this link between the surface and the sky is a common theme among mountain-like constructions.
Also in the Fertile Crescent, the Ancient Egyptians developed the mastaba into the pyramids. Most likely built as tombs for pharaohs and kings, these artificial mountains began as stepped pyramids, but evolved into the simple, platonic forms that we know today. The basic form of a pyramid symbolizes the axis-mundi, and its apex points up to the sky and represents the highest possible spiritual attainment.[6] This link between the surface and the sky had a deep significance to the Ancient Egyptians, and they would spend untold amounts of time and effort to be as precise as possible in achieving it. As such, nearly all major pyramids had designs that were tied closely to astrological movements and alignments. Take the Great Pyramid of Giza for example (another of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World). It had an orientation that aligned with the stars down to a fraction of a degree of error. This was accomplished without the use of a compass, and the construction of its form was so precise that the deviation in length between the four sides of its base was less than 20 cm (7.9 in) across roughly 230 m (756 ft).[7] This amount of precision and effort suggests the pyramids and celestial cycles (the sky) were incredibly important to the builders of such structures.
In the Indus Valley, the Buddhist stupa developed from the tumuli as circular mounds of earth built to house sacred relics. Early stupas had a simple, dome-like appearance, but they would evolve into quite elaborate forms as they developed as a building type. Today they can be found all over the world, but are most common wherever Buddhism is the preferred religion. As with any mound-like construction, the structure of a stupa represents a link between the surface and the sky, and it uses verticality to do so. At its base, a stupa is placed on a square plinth of stone. This plinth represents earth (the surface), and serves to increase the importance of the dome by raising it up. At peak, a traditional stupa included a parasol-like element, meant to symbolize air (the sky).[8] Thus, the stupa itself is meant to represent a link between the two. The dome itself is not meant to be climbed, but rather to be walked around in a practice known as Pradakshina. Pradakshina means ‘the path surrounding something’, and is thought to imbibe an individual with the energy of the stupa. Throughout time, the form of the stupa has evolved differently in different regions of the world, but the principles of verticality inherent in its form still hold true.
The 10th century Izumo Grand Shrine in Japan. Raised up on massive pillars, the builders of this structure were trying to create a link between the earth and the sky.
In China and Japan, there is a rich history of building temples and monasteries atop mountains and hills. The natural landscape of both countries is mostly mountainous, so it makes sense that these civilizations would choose the highest places for their most important religious structures. Two notable examples include the Tayun Mountain Taoist Temple and a pair of Buddhist temples atop Mount Fanjing, all built around the 1500’s, and each delicately perched on top a slender pillar of rock in the mountains of China. These structures no doubt took much time and effort to construct, and the ascent to reach them is seen as a spiritual journey. Other examples of mountaintop constructions include Taung Kalat Monastery and Key Gompa Monastery. Another curious example not built up on a mountain is the Izumo Grand Shinto Shrine, built sometime around the 10th century AD in Shimane Prefecture of Japan. This small temple was raised up on massive pillars to a height of nearly 30m (98ft) above the surface, and was accessed by a long, straight staircase. At first glance, the temple’s brash use of verticality is startling, but the principles at work here are no different than any other examples discussed here. The building is raised up in order to get closer to the sky and to increase the amount of effort in order to access it.
El Castillo, built sometime between the 9th and 12th centuries. An example of a Mesoamerican teocalli, the structure serves to raise up a temple and create a link between the earth and the sky. Photo by Daniel Schwen. Image source.
In the Andes and in Mesoamerica, the Olmec, Maya, Toltec, Aztec and Inca civilizations developed the teocalli, which is a stepped pyramid whose name means ‘God-house’. These structures usually served as a platform for a temple, and many were used as a place for ritual human sacrifice. As with any recreation of a mountain, these structures were seen as a link between the surface and the sky (hence the name ‘God-house’). Because of this, the temples and rituals placed on top of them were seen as part of the above and sacred in some way. One iconic example is El Castillo in Chichen Itza, Mexico. Built sometime between the 9th and 12th centuries, the pyramid was a temple for the god Kukulkan. The structure has nine square platforms and a straight staircase at the center of each side. It was also designed with interior chambers, believed to be for offerings and sacrifices for Kukulkan. Additionally, each of the four sides was closely tied to celestial cycles, with the east and west sides aligning with the nadir sunrise and zenith sunset, respectively. Each of these aspects reinforces the idea that El Castillo was an attempt by the Mayans to connect the surface and the sky. Other sites with iconic teocalli include Caracol, Cholula, Palenque, Teotihuacan, Tikal, Uxmal and Xochicalco, among many others.
In each of the Five Cradles of Civilization, we can see some type of recreated mountain being built in an effort to get closer to the sky. Beginning with the primitive cairn, or pile of stones, we developed the mound into elaborate pyramids, ziggurats, stupas, and many other localized versions of the mountain-metaphor. These objects and structures have their roots in verticality, and each is tied closely to a belief about God in some way. As we’ll see in following sections, this connection to religion would come to dominate much of our history with verticality.
As these explorations have shown, the two archetypes of the upright human body and the mountain served as the basis for our first experiments with verticality. These concepts are universal and existed in all early civilizations, suggesting that the core principles of verticality are innate within our species. These urges are primal, and would continue to push progress and technology throughout history. Next, we’ll focus in on the thread that gave rise to Western civilization, which began with the Ancient Greeks and ultimately led to a globalized effort to escape the earth’s surface.
Keep reading: Verticality, Part VII: Heavens on Earth.
[1]: Kostof, Spiro. A History of Architecture. Second ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1995. 24, 30.
[2]: Cirlot, J. E. A Dictionary of Symbols. Translated by Jack Sage. Second ed. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1971. 344.
[3]: Crawford, Harriet. Sumer and the Sumerians. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1933. 85.
[4]: Chevalier, Jean, and Alain Gheerbrant. The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols. Translated by John Buchanan-Brown. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1996. 1146.
[5]: Finkel, Irving L.. “Hanging Gardens of Babylon.” In Clayton, Peter A., and Martin J. Price. The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. London: Routledge, 1988. 51.
[6]: Cooper, J. C. An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols. London: Thames and Hudson, 1978.
[7]: Clayton, Peter A.. "Great Pyramid." In Clayton, Peter A., and Martin J. Price. The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. London: Routledge, 1988. 51.
[8]: Beér, Robert. Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs. Boston: Shambhala, 1999.