Editing Impluvium (section)

=== Origins ===
[[File:Benin House Plan.jpg|thumb|left|Plan of a house from Southern [[Nigeria]], Benin country]]
19th and 20th century European travelers were often surprised to find parallels to classical culture in those architectural traditions that had clear ones:
"In the Bamum area there is an interesting type of hut. In referring to it Ankermann says: "The men's houses (Herrenhäuser) in Bamum, in contrast to those of the women, show a most complicated structure. I was very much astonished when I entered for the first time to find myself in an actual Roman atrium with an ''impluvium'' in the middle, with the roof sloping towards the middle, and supported by columns."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Malcolm |first1=L. W. G. |title=Huts and Villages in the Cameroon, West Africa |journal=Scottish Geographical Magazine |date=1923 |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=21–27 |doi=10.1080/00369222308734352}}</ref> This resulted in a number of theories attempting to tie West and Central African ''impluvium'' to Greco-Roman, [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian]], and [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] influences.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kalaous |first1=Milan |title=Leo Frobenius' Atlantic Theory: A Reconsideration |journal=Paideuma: Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde |date=1970 |page=16}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Denyer |first1=Susan |title=African Traditional Architecture |date=1978 |publisher=Africana Publishing Company |location=New York|pages=163–165}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ambe |first1=Njoh |title=Tradition, Culture and Development in Africa: Historical Lessons for Modern Development Planning |date=2016 |location=New York |pages=168–170}}</ref> While Kalaous rejects the possibility of Portuguese influence, he writes that "The Old Mediterranean influence seems to be more plausible but did not necessarily come via Egypt... Of course, this does not prove that there were contacts between the Etruscans and the peoples of what is now Southern Nigeria, but the existence of ''impluvium'' there (and elsewhere in West Africa) is certainly not easy to explain in terms of a quite independent origin."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kalaous |first1=Milan |title=Leo Frobenius' Atlantic Theory: A Reconsideration |journal=Paideuma: Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde |date=1970 |page=16}}</ref> Denyer, on the other hand, notes that "No really large settlement could have taken place in this area [Southern Nigeria] before a means of collecting water had been found", to save for the dry season and to manage erosion.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Denyer |first1=Susan |title=African Traditional Architecture |date=1978 |publisher=Africana Publishing Company |location=New York|page=164}}</ref> Most bluntly, Nevadomsky et al. write that "One need not postulate an external source for what was in all probability an independent evolution of space and form. The ''impluvium'' house could easily have arisen in a climate of hot sunshine and heavy seasonal rainfall."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nevadomsky |first1=Joseph |last2=Lawson |first2=Natalie |last3=Hazlett |first3=Ken |title=An Ethnographic and Space Syntax Analysis of Benin Kingdom Nobility Architecture |journal=African Archaeological Review |date=2014 |volume=31 |pages=59–85|doi=10.1007/s10437-014-9151-x |s2cid=254187721 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ambe |first1=Njoh |title=Tradition, Culture and Development in Africa: Historical Lessons for Modern Development Planning |date=2016 |location=New York |pages=168–170}}</ref>