Calculating the Building Volume: Time, Labor, & Socio-Political Organization

AI Thread Summary
The discussion focuses on calculating the building volume and the resources required for construction, including basketloads, mud bricks, and stone blocks. The building's volume is estimated at 400,000 cubic feet, prompting calculations for the number of materials needed based on their dimensions. Different sociopolitical organizations and population sizes are considered, affecting labor contributions and time estimates for construction. The exercise emphasizes the importance of understanding labor dynamics in historical contexts. Overall, the calculations aim to illustrate the relationship between population structure and construction feasibility in ancient societies.
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Homework Statement



Our class exercise in World Prehistory was to figure out the volume of the building we were in and answer the following:

How many a) basketloads, b) mud bricks, c) stone blocks would it take to build structure?
How many worker-hours would it take?
How many days/months/years would it take, given varying levels sociopolitical organization and population size?

Levels of sociopolitical organization and population size:
A. Complex chiefdom: population size 1000. Each adult owes 10% of his or her labor to the chief.
B. Neolithic town: population size 3500. Each adult owes 10% of his or her labor to the leader.
C. State/civilization: population size 100,000. 20% of the population is slaves of the state. 20% of the population is royal or noble and does not work. The other 60% pays taxes to support the state, but owes no labor.

Basketload: one cubic foot, requires 2/5 worker hour to collect, transport, and set.
Mud brick: 10x14x6 inches, requires 1/3 worker hour to manufacture, transport, and set.
Stone block: 1 cubit by 2 cubits, by 3 cubits, requires 4 worker hours to cut, transport, and set.
Structure is solid inside, no airspace.
Modern 8-hour work day, work estimate need not include, support workers, only actual builders.
For all populations, assume 40% ofthe population is adults.

Homework Equations



cubit = 1.5 feet

The Attempt at a Solution



The volume of our building was approximately 400,000 cubic feet
Volume of brick things: Mudbrick: .5 feet cubed; Stone block: 20.25 feet cubed
 
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So how many bricks or stones does it take to build the building? Clue: It involves a division. Once you get that, we can work on the other parts of the problem.
 
The volume of our building was approximately 400,000 cubic feet
Volume of brick things: Mudbrick: .5 feet cubed
So, how many mudbricks go into a pyramid?
 

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