Building Monumental Structures

The monumental buildings unearthed in Tall al-Hamidiya inspired some thoughts and calculations on the ideal proceedings to build huge structures in Ancient Near Eastern times.

Areas

• Residential terrace. Area: 176'000 m2

• Central Palace: floor area, including stairs: 38'645 m2

• Southwest Palace: floor space, including stairs: ± 14'000 m2

• Core building of the eastern complex: area: 8'100 m2

Cubatures of bricks

• Enclosing wall of the palace terrace 60'465 m3

• Central palace: 361'270 m3

• Southwest Palace: 29'065 m3

• Core building of the east building: 13'500 m3

Total: 464'300 m3, ± 37'800'000 bricks

Straw

• for chaff (brick and plaster): 6'116'843 m3

• covering the roofs: 90'000 m3

Total: 6,206,843 m3 ± 776 km2 cultivated area

Job/construction time, Costs

With 300 working days per year and a construction time of 10 years ± 1100 to 1200 workers.

With an average wage of 1/30 Shekel silver per man per day, this results in a total of about 974 kg of silver.

An optimized workspace arrangement for brick production, access to earth and water, and brick transport, is shown on the diagram.
For the calculations cf. TH 4, 67-78. TH 5, 70f.