Religious Architecture

• Published in: A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Art pp. 433 - 456
• Main Author: Evans, Jean M
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, NJ, USA John Wiley & Sons, Inc 29.10.2018
• Subjects: ancient Near Eastern art; bent‐axis approach; Early Dynastic Mesopotamia; Late Uruk period; Mesopotamian temple; regional distinctions; religious architecture; straight‐axis approach; temple planning
• ISBN: 1118301250; 9781118301258
• DOI: 10.1002/9781118336779.ch18

This chapter considers some of the debates surrounding the study of ancient Near Eastern temple architecture, proceeding chronologically. It examines the shifting criteria in modern scholarship for identifying temples from the Late Uruk through the Early Dynastic periods. The chapter then considers the significance scholars assign to the shift from the bent‐axis to the straight‐axis approach in the late third millennium BCE. The bent‐axis and straight‐axis approaches to the cella and its altar have always received special consideration because they are thought to reveal something about cult. Another fundamental distinction in temple architecture, between the broad‐room and long‐room plans, beginning in the early second millennium BCE, offers a counterpoint. Finally, the chapter discusses the great traditions of continuity in Mesopotamian temple building in order to suggest that, when considering aspects of the Mesopotamian temple, a balance must be maintained between the particular and the collective.