Recent archaeological evidence discovered at the Morgantina site (in the province of Enna) shows that the aboveground barrel vault was known and used in Hellenistic Sicily in 3rd Century BC, indicating that the technique was also known to ancient Greeks.Īncient Romans most probably inherited their knowledge of barrel vaulting from Etruscans and the Near East. In these early instances, the barrel vault was chiefly used for underground structures such as drains and sewers, though several buildings of the great Late Egyptian mortuary palace- temple of Ramesseum were also vaulted in this way. These were built with sun-dried brick in three rings over passages descending to tombs with a span of only two metres. The earliest tunnel vaults in Egypt are found at Requagnah and Denderah, from around 3500 BC in the predynastic era. The earliest known example of a vault is a tunnel vault found under the Sumerian ziggurat at Nippur in Babylonia, ascribed to about 4000 BC, which was built from fired bricks amalgamated with clay mortar. The technique probably evolved out of necessity to roof buildings with masonry elements such as bricks or stone blocks in areas where timber and wood were scarce. The Persians and the Romans were the first to make significant architectural use of them. However, it apparently was not a very popular or common method of construction within these civilizations. Roman barrel vault at the villa rustica Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germany.īarrel vaulting was known and utilized by early civilizations, including ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. This form of design is observed in cellars, crypts, long hallways, cloisters and even great halls. In medieval Europe, the barrel vault was an important element of stone construction in monasteries, castles, tower houses and other structures. Other early barrel vault designs occur in northern Europe, Turkey, Morocco, and other regions. They were also used to replace the Cloaca Maxima with a system of underground sewers.
The third and most elegant mechanism to resist the lateral thrust was to create an intersection of two barrel vaults at right angles, thus forming a groin vault.īarrel vaults are known from Ancient Egypt, and were used extensively in Roman architecture. However, the outer walls of the outermost vault would still have to be quite strong or reinforced by buttressing. This method was most often used in construction of churches, where several vaulted naves ran parallel down the length of the building. A more elegant method is to build two or more vaults parallel to each other the forces of their outward thrusts will thus negate each other. One is to make the walls exceedingly thick and strong – this is a primitive and sometimes unacceptable method. There are several mechanisms for absorbing this thrust. It is a form of barrel roof.Īs with all arch-based constructions, there is an outward thrust generated against the walls underneath a barrel vault.
#Circular scaffolding design series
The barrel vault is the simplest form of a vault: effectively a series of arches placed side by side (i.e., one after another). The curves are typically circular in shape, lending a semi-cylindrical appearance to the total design. A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault or a wagon vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance.
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