New Perspectives on Middle Bronze Age Rural Cultic Architecture in the Southern Levant: A Case Study from a Late Middle Bronze Age Temple near el-Welegˇe (al-Walajah), West of Jerusalem
Temples of the 2nd mill. B.C.E. have been uncovered in many different contexts throughout the Southern Levant. This article addresses some fundamental issues with the accepted architectural definitions and categorizations of these temples, raising questions regarding the relationship between urban a...
| Authors: | ; |
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| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Harrassowitz
2022
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| In: |
Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins
Year: 2022, Volume: 138, Issue: 2, Pages: 153-177, Tafel 16-19 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Temple
/ Bronze Age
/ Cult
/ Levant (Süd)
/ Canaan
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| IxTheo Classification: | BC Ancient Orient; religion TC Pre-Christian history ; Ancient Near East |
| Further subjects: | B
Canaanite temples
B Religious architecture B Middle Bronze Age B rural cult B Southern Levant |
| Summary: | Temples of the 2nd mill. B.C.E. have been uncovered in many different contexts throughout the Southern Levant. This article addresses some fundamental issues with the accepted architectural definitions and categorizations of these temples, raising questions regarding the relationship between urban and rural cultic architecture. To explore these topics, a Middle Bronze Age (MB hereafter) rural temple, excavated west of Jerusalem in 2010-2011 near el-Welege (al-Walajah), will serve as a test case. The analysis of the temple, which includes a bipartite structure and courtyard surrounded by a temenos wall, emphasizes that while the temple resembles the general form of contemporary rectangular and symmetrical temples, there are nuanced architectural variations present as well, particularly the presence of freestanding piers. This study concludes that while there does appear to have been a general template for MB temple architecture, there was also a great deal of diversity and regional variation within the temple form. |
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| ISSN: | 0012-1169 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Deutscher Verein zur Erforschung Palästinas, Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins
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