SYSTEMATIC TYPOLOGIES OF NEOLITHIC CONSTRUCTIONS IN THE ROMANIAN BANAT, BASED ON A NEW METHOD OF ARCHITECTURAL RECASTING

Popovici-Donici Mihai-Corneliu
Arch. Drd., Politehnica University Timi?oara, Romania, mihai.donici@gmail.com

Abstract
In the history of art and architecture, the Neolithic Era is brushed over due to a lack of data and systematic studies thereof. Yet the Neolithic Era brought several major changes in the history of humanity, these transformations being reflected in the housing paradigm, which goes through a spectacular metamorphosis. The transition from the status of nomad hunter-gatherer to that of sedentary animal breeder / farmer generated the appearance of stable settlements and the evolution from free-shape structures to rectangular planes. Changes in trade generated counting and recording systems, which led to a new fundamental change: the transition from pre-history to history, due to the recording of information. After approximately 3 million years of slow evolution, in just 1000 years, after the last ice age, the history of humanity starts moving at a significantly greater pace. In order to study these changes as manifested in architecture, we started from the premise that, due to the insufficiency and inconsistency of the data found, the current method of architectural recasting is based on an approximate transmission of the archeological data regarding locations and traces of structures, to sketchers of uncertain qualification, who draw up axonometric projections or decomposed perspectives with unclear size references. We understand the need to facilitate spatial perception, but scientific rigor requires a systematic approach.  Thus, we started the study by drawing up a new method of architectural recasting, in two stages:
1- Systematic data recording by means of 6 sheets with data on geography, climate, technology, economy, society, culture.
2-  Interdisciplinary analysis of data in a team comprised of archaeologist, architect, structure engineer; establishment of a stable structural system and geometrically correct representation of the architectural volume by means of a set of drawings that cover all planes, characteristic sections and facades on a scale of 1:50, and an axonometric projection of 1:100.

The method was tested by analytic application on a Neolithic structure, by publication in specialized magazines and presentation during international conferences, and was completed subsequent to a consistent feedback of the academic community interested in the subject, by the addition of a textual description datasheet to the graphic language that is specific to architecture. With this method, sets of 3 architectural recasts from the Vinca  Neolithic culture and the local cultures in the Romanian Banat were systematically drawn up, which allowed for the establishment of local typologies. This paper establishes the first regional typologies by starting with a set of 3 local typologies from the same culture - the Uivar, Par?a and Foeni sites. We found the transition from an architectural form of parallelepipedic mono-block with a two-escarpment roof for the Uivar-Par?a sites, to a mono-block with a portico on the short side in the case of Foeni, which foreshadows the megaron plane.

Keywords: architecture, archaeology, Neolithic, Vinca culture, recasting, typology.