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.