Lintel

Structural uses

In worldwide architecture of different eras and many cultures, a lintel has been an element of post and lintel construction. Many different building materials have been used for lintels.

In classical Western architecture and construction methods, by Merriam-Webster definition, a lintel is a load-bearing member and is placed over an entranceway. The lintel may be called an architrave, but that term has alternative meanings that include more structure besides the lintel. The lintel is a structural element that is usually rested on stone pillars or stacked stone columns, over a portal or entranceway.

A lintel may support the chimney above a fireplace, or span the distance of a path or road, forming a stone lintel bridge.

Ornamental uses

The use of the lintel form as a decorative building element over portals, with no structural function, has been employed in the architectural traditions and styles of most cultures over the centuries.

Examples of the ornamental use of lintels are in the hypostyle halls and slab stelas in ancient Egypt and the Indian rock-cut architecture of Buddhist temples in caves. Preceding prehistoric and subsequent Indian Buddhist temples were wooden buildings with structural load-bearing wood lintels across openings. The rock-cut excavated cave temples were more durable, and the non-load-bearing carved stone lintels allowed creative ornamental uses of classical Buddhist elements. Highly skilled artisans were able to simulate the look of wood, imitating the nuances of a wooden structure and the wood grain in excavating cave temples from monolithic rock.{{cite book In freestanding Indian building examples, the Hoysala architecture tradition between the 11th and 14th centuries produced many elaborately carved non-structural stone lintels in the Southern Deccan Plateau region of southern India. The Hoysala Empire era was an important period in the development of art and architecture in the South Indian Kannadiga culture. It is remembered today primarily for its Hindu temples' mandapa, lintels, and other architectural elements, such as at the Chennakesava Temple.

The Maya civilization in the Americas was known for its sophisticated art and monumental architecture. The Mayan city of Yaxchilan, on the Usumacinta River in present-day southern Mexico, specialized in the stone carving of ornamental lintel elements within structural stone lintels. The earliest carved lintels were created in 723 CE. At the Yaxchilan archaeological site there are fifty-eight lintels with decorative pieces spanning the doorways of major structures. Among the finest Mayan carving to be excavated are three temple door lintels that feature narrative scenes of a queen celebrating the king's anointing by a god.{{cite book | url-access=registration

Radiation protection

Lintels may also be used to reduce scattered radiation in medical applications. For example, Medical linacs operating at high energies will produce activated neutrons which will be scattered outside the treatment bunker maze with a dose rate that depends on the maze cross section. Lintels may be visible or recessed in the roof of the facility, and reduce dose rate in publicly accessible areas by reducing the maze cross section.

Types

Decoration

• Atalburu – Basque decorative lintel
• Marriage stone – decorative (can be structural) lintel

Structure

• Architrave – structural lintel or beam resting on columns-pillars
• Dolmen – prehistoric megalithic tombs with structural stone lintels
• Dougong – traditional Chinese structural element
• I-beam – steel lintels and beams
• Post and lintel

Gallery

Image:Treasure_of_Atreus.jpg|Structural lintel over entrance, Treasury of Atreus, Mycenae, Greece File:Stonehenge trilithon.png|A trilithon at Stonehenge, showing a lintel stone supported by two large post stones File:20090727 mykines33.jpg|The lintel stone at the Treasury of Atreus (external view) File:Interior of theTreasury of Atreus.jpg|The lintel stone at the Treasury of Atreus (internal view) Image:Phimai Lintel.jpg|Structural lintel over the entry to main Buddhist shrine, Phimai historical park, Thailand Image:Silwan-inscr.jpg|Shebna Inscription on a lintel of a tomb cave near Jerusalem, 8th/7th century BCE Image:Atalburu_Mendiburua.jpg|Structural lintel with a lauburu and founders' names, above traditional Basque houses in Lower Navarre, Spain Image:Yaxchilan lintel 15 a.jpg|Non-structural Mayan ornamental lintel stone, from the Yaxchilan city site in Chiapas, southern Mexico. (Late Classic period, 600-900 CE). Image:Pedlintelsrei 2.JPG|Non-structural decorative lintel at Buddhist Banteay Srei, in Cambodia Image:Ellora_cave03_002.jpg|Non-structural lintel in Buddhist cave temple at Ellora Caves, India File:Elias tagger gerbergasse bz (3).jpg|Door lintel in Bozen-Bolzano from 1632 with Elias Tagger's coat of arms, South Tyrol, Italy Image:16JDBG92.JPG|Non-structural marriage stone lintel at 'The Hill' farm, Dunlop, East Ayrshire, Scotland File:16thC lintel, Edinburgh Old Town.jpg|One of many 16th century door lintels in Edinburgh's Old Town File:SimonsbathHouseFireplaceLintelDated1654.jpg|Simonsbath House, Simonsbath, Exmoor Parish, Devon. Wooden lintel over kitchen fireplace with carved date of 1654 File:Jagdschloß Grunewald-23.jpg|Lintel above the entrance to Jagdschloss Grunewald, Germany Linteau entrée 14 rue Larrey villa Lutétia.jpg|Lintel above a door from Paris

Notes

References

1. "Glossary of Medieval Art and Architecture - Lintel". University of Pittsburgh.
2. "Lintel Repair".
3. (2006). "NCRP Report 151 Structural shielding design and evaluation for megavoltage x-and gamma-ray radiotherapy facilities". Journal of Radiological Protection.