Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

welly asked in Arts & HumanitiesHistory · 1 decade ago

Why do eurocentrics claim that Romans/Etruscans invented the arch?

3 Answers

Relevance
  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    Rounded arches cannot easily be build with the sandstone found in Egypt. The Greeks also used arches, mainly for sewers and cellars.

    The difference with the Romans is they used arches almost everyhwere. They may not have invented arches, but where the first to use them on a massive scale.

  • 1 decade ago

    It was the arch as an architectural feature to support the weight of other parts of a building that the Romans invented,not the arch as such,and certainly not the shape in itself.

    Arches have to have a rounded apex requiring a keystone, and most of the buildings in your links don't. The few that do are free standing and are tunnels or storage facilities,not buildings incorporating the arch as an architectural feature in a load bearing role.

  • Jim L
    Lv 7
    1 decade ago

    All your pictures are way later than 3200 BC. In any case, the first arches were in Sumer, not Egypt.

Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.