Umayyad Arches, Vaults & Domes: Merging and Re-Creation. Contributions to Early Islamic Construction History

Umayyad Arches, Vaults & Domes: Merging and Re-creation. Contributions to Early Islamic Construction History
Ignacio Arce
INTRODUCTION Umayyad architecture and construction techniques are, up to a point, the result of a successful eclectic merging of Late Roman traditions and Partho-Sassanian ones, due to the need to establish new cities in the conquered territories and to create a new “aulic” imagery and an appropriate architectural framework for the new power. The seizing of key areas of the Byzantine empire (Syria, Egypt) and the whole of the Sassanian one (Mesopotamia, Persia and Central Asia), provided the new rulers with two endless sources of construction traditions, artisans and materials, that blended, and gave birth to new and idiosyncratic one. This merging process between eastern and western traditions, started much earlier, but gained momentum during two key periods that correspond to the disappearance of the Levant border between East and West that took place, respectively, under the rule of Alexander the Great and that of the Umayyads. The case of the structural roofing systems is a good example of this merging process that later became true hybridisation, with the translation of shapes and techniques into new building materials and vice-versa. Considered as a whole, they represent one of the most remarkable stages of technical development in the key transitional period from Late Antiquity to Early Medieval ages. For a general overview see Arce, 2006 [in press]. DIAPHRAGM ARCHES, RIBBED CROSS CEILINGS AND VAULTS. NEW ARCH TYPOLOGIES. Diaphragm arches A diaphragm arch consists of a self-standing arch placed transversally in a room, in order to reduce the span of the room ceiling. The resulting sections can be covered by a lintelled ceiling made of wooden or stone beams, trusses, or alternatively with barrel vaults resting on the arch and the perimetral walls. The widespread use of diaphragm arches with lintelled ceilings during the Nabatean and the

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