Open spaces around the temples and their ritual use: archaeological evidence from the Bronze and Iron Age Levant
Archaeological materials found in the city temples constitute primary evidence for documenting rites and reconstructing the religious behaviour of Near Eastern communities. One of the intentions of the Tübingen Conference on “Temple Building and Temple Cult in the Levant” (Kamlah 2012) was, in fact, to present and compare architecture and cultic paraphernalia, which can illustrate ritual activities related to the cult. The Colloquium of the Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft held in München in 2009 on “Tempel im Alten Orient” (Kaniut et al. 2013) was also aimed at exploring both archaeological and textual sources concerning rituals and temples of the Near East. The interest in temples and the religious behaviour of ancient societies is certainly not new in our field, as shown by the extensive literature on the subject (Heinrich 1982; Wightman 2006) but the recent discovery of new temples with their often outstanding cultic materials in place has prompted once again a reappraisal of the debate on the many open questions relating to cult practices. The archaeological evidence obtained in recent years alone from the cult places and temples of the Levant is quite impressive and concerns a great variety of cases and practices, connected with the many social components interrelating, and occasionally intermingling, in the area. Furthermore, the new data document a process of notable continuity of architectural models, organisation of spaces and types of materials and installations used for the cult over nearly two millennia. The most recent case of Temple XVI at Tell Tainat of Iron Age III, corresponding to the neo-Assyrian period, can be cited as exemplary for the abundance of its well stratified materials found in a primary context inside the cella (Harrison 2012; Harrison and Osborne 2012).
Whilst temples and especially city temples, thanks to their institutional role and the popularity of their tutelary dynastic and state gods, were pre-eminent places of cultic activities, archaeological and textual sources and art monuments give a clear indication of the fact that cults were officiated and rites performed in a variety of spaces and structures, in external spaces adjoining the temples, inside but also outside the towns, in the countryside, near rivers and springs, or on the mountains. The belief that gods embodied natural phenomena and that their epiphany and manifestation occurred in distinct geographical place prompted the emergence and diffusion of regional cult places in the countryside. This is well known and investigated for the case of the Hittite cults officiated in the open-air and in the countryside, in rock sanctuaries, near springs and ponds, and documented by literary and archaeological sources (Taracha 2009, 71; Harmanşah 2011; Ökse 2011). The rich textual and archaeological evidence from Sarissa and its Huwasi sanctuary (Müller-Karpe 2002, 148–149) has provided consistent data regarding this aspect of the Hittite rites. Furthermore, we know that cults in the open-air frequently involved motion: processions were made around the temples, outside their sacred precincts, such ritual circuits often being an essential stage of the rite and also documented by the texts.
On the basis of the textual and archaeological evidence, we can single out different cases of rituals performed in open-air locations and in the countryside: rituals which involved travelling within a territory, such as ritual circuits and processions across the land, rituals performed in sacred open-air settings in the countryside, rituals and processions performed in the plazas and passageways of the citadels, rituals located in spaces outside and around the temples. These might have constituted single occasions or, instead, been interrelated with complex performance including stages spanning a more or less long period of time.
The presence of copious textual evidence and art monuments resulted in great emphasis being placed on investigating the first two cases, and especially the processions and rituals performed in the countryside. Moreover, the impact of Symbolic Landscape Archaeology (Cosgrove 1984; Tilley 1994) has had a great influence on the scope of these cases of research, exploring how the environment may have been exploited for ideological purposes and consequentely transformed into a cultural landscape. Ritual travelling and the emergence of a network of pilgrimage sites in Early Bronze Age Syria and north-Mesopotamia have been explored as a manifestation of regional cultural and political identity (Ristvet 2011).1 In the same vein, the case of the Hittite open-air cult places and monuments with their images as well as the many festivals documented by the texts with their processions (Ökse 2011) have been variously addressed both as being the result of political manifestations and in relation to the construction of identity (Bonatz 2007; Glatz 2011; Harmanşah 2011; 2012).
The third case, rituals and processions performed in the cores of the ceremonial citadels, is well documented in the Syro-Hittite towns of the Iron Age. Furthermore, the interpretative model of the Archaeology of Performance (Inomata and Coben 2006) has also enabled us to reassess successfully the ideological relevance of the architectural reliefs of the Syro-Hittite citadels in connection with the religious and kingship rites officiated in the open-air (Gilibert 2011).
The evidence for the fourth case, rituals performed outside the temples, is also appealing for a reconstruction of religious behaviour and ritual performance. The many and various cultic structures and installations found in the sacred compounds with their related offerings can supply reliable data on the nature of the rites; nevertheless, one has to admit that they rarely provide sufficient information for understanding how the rites were carried out, whether they included different stages and times or entailed motion in the space, ritual circuits and trajectories outside and around the temples.
A few case-studies can, however, provide data useful in addressing this problem on an archaeological basis and assessing the ritual use of open spaces around the temples; these concern the traditional free-standing long room temples of the Levant and Northern Mesopotamia that were the prevailing form of sacred building from the 3rd millennium BC on. Temples of this type could be found within walled enclosures or stand in isolation, but they were always provided with adjoining open-areas furnished with cult installations; these outer spaces housed different ritual activities and celebrations for the cult, as has recently been suggested on the basis of a wealth of cogent textual and archaeological documentation (Otto 2013).
I will begin with the case of the Iron Age III Temple AI in Tell Afis, which is, in fact, together with all its materials found in the adjacent open spaces, the occasion for my investigation. Temple AI was a tripartite long room in antis temple, provided with side rooms and towers framing the façade, dating to Iron III and the Neo-Assyrian period (Fig. 10.1).2 The interior was largely demolished and excavated by often deep trenches for quarrying stones; the foundations of Temples AI (Iron Age III) as well as those poorly preserved of the preceding Temple AII (Iron Age II, Aramaean Period) were formed of massive stonework which were levelled by a strata of cobblestone over which the brick walls were laid (this latter, however, only being documented in the left, western side of the AI temple). The interior of Temple AI–II did not, consequently, furnish documents in a primary context. The outer open spaces were, instead, by their very nature, saved from the destructive activities of demolition and quarrying and were, moreover, well preserved under the accumulation of the bricks that had fallen from the outer walls of the building of the last phase of the AI temple.
The outer areas of the temple in both phases included different open air spaces and cultic installations (Fig. 10.2): Plaza F in front, and the streets on the sides of the temple, annex H to the south, terrace J to the east, all provided rich evidence of cultic paraphernalia, basalt vats, incense burners, pedestalled vases, ex-voto figurines, astragali, ashes and burnt bones of sheep and turtle-doves. They testify to the variety of rites taking place outside the temple, in the open-air, along its sides and front. The terrace on the eastern side of the temple was in use in Iron II and gave evidence of cultic installations with ashes and animal bones, for offerings and consumption; it is clear that rituals were performed on its summit in the open air (Cecchini 2014; Carenti 2012). To the south a large plastered altar in the earliest level of Plaza F also furnishes evidence of an open air cultic installation.
Noteworthy among the many find is the presence of funnels, glazed on the rim of one end and furnished with a horn-like handle (Fig. 10.3); they are uncommon and intriguing objects which have been interpreted as decorations of the outer walls (Soldi 2009; 2010), or cultic horned stands (Zukerman 2014 comparing four similar vessels from Hazor). They have been found on the whole circuit of the phase AI temple; a few of them were grouped on the floor of the western and the rear side. Some smaller and unglazed funnels were also found in the Iron II eastern outer areas of Temple AII of that period, in relation with Street D which during this phase separated Terrace J and Temple AII. If we maintain the interpretation of the funnels as a decoration on the façades of the temple, we may infer from their distribution that the whole temple was decorated and that, accordingly, the related spaces were all destined for visual fruition and public circulation; if, instead, they were vases for some as yet undetermined function, it follows that activities requiring their use were performed on the whole circuit of the temple. This quite peculiar documentary case finds a unique comparison in the sacred architecture of Emar.
In the Late Bronze Age Emar was a regional capital being rebuilt and provided with different temples in antis, all surrounded by open spaces used for ritual activities. The most interesting case for the purpose of our investigation is offered by the temple in antis of Area M (Fig. 10.4), standing 30 m to the southwest of the Temple du Devin, across a square (Werner 1994, 108). A group of architectural clous was found in front of the façade of the temple (Fig. 10.5); these long ceramic “nails” were of two types, a trumpet-like type with a pointed closed base and a long funnel open instead at the base, similar to the glazed funnels from Tell Afis (Margueron 1980, 304–308, figs 9–10; 1982, 32–34, figs 9–10) (Fig. 10.6).3 They were identified as architectural components of the façade of the temple and associated with the decorative nails of the Sumerian temples and the glazed nails from Tchoga Zanbil in southwestern Iran and Nuzi in eastern Mesopotamia; this last comparison suggested to J.-Cl. Margueron a possible Mitannian origin for the Emar examples (Margueron 1980, 305). The nails from Nuzi include two groups or types, one with a broad flat head and one with a protruding knob glazed in green colour; this last type was found in the northern room of Temple A and in the palace chapel (L5–L8); two were found inserted in the southeastern wall 1.60 m above the floor and one in the northeastern wall 1.90 m above the floor of the antechamber L5 leading to the palace chapel L6 (Starr 1939, 150, fig. 21; 407–409, pls 97 D–K, 98). The context of the finds at Nuzi indicate that these nails decorated the inner walls of the temples, there apparently being no evidence to suggest that they decorated the façades. It has also been proposed that they could have been architectural elements or some kind of locking or closing devices (Baffi 1990, 143–145). As for the Emar and Afis nails and funnels, it is to be noted that they are of a large size with a long body and are without the large convex or flat pommel that constitutes the visible and protruding element, often glazed and coloured, decorating the walls of the Middle- and Neo-Assyrian palaces (Moorey 1985, 177–180). Moreover, comparison with the Emar types may indicate a similar function for the funnels of Tell Afis, though whether they were functional architectural elements or decorative components remains open to debate. The fact, in any case, that at Afis they were found along the whole perimeter of the temple, indicates that the entire circuit of the building was open to circulation, fruition and use.
Fig. 10.1: Tell Afis, Temple AI, Iron Age III (drawn by Corrado Alvaro).
Fig. 10.2: Tell Afis, Tell Afis, the acropolis in the Iron Age (graphics by Silvia Bernardoni and Raffaele Trojanis).
The other three temples of Emar offer further clues for detecting the cultic use of the open spaces surrounding the cultic buildings. The Temple du Devin in Area M with its archive of tablets is well known and investigated; it was also a temple in antis but of a distinct plan, being provided with an annex with a row of three rooms on the left and eastern side and a three-room house adjoining its south-eastern corner and rear side (Werner 1994, 108–109) (Fig. 10.4). A further distinct trait is the presence of a terrasse cultuelle, built on the rear side of the temple and also adjacent to the three-room house. (Margueron 1984, 28–29, fig. 2). It is important to underline in this case that the terrace lay to the rear of the temple but also midway between it and Temple M. The position of the terrace indicates that it may have served as a cultic installation for both temples, while certainly serving primarily the Temple du Devin; this implies also a ritual circulation across the open spaces connecting these structures.
Fig. 10.3: Tell Afis, funnels with glazed rim, Iron Age III (drawn by Sergio Martelli).
Fig. 10.4: Emar, Temple of Area M and Temple du Devin, Late Bronze Age II (drawn by S. Martelli, after Margueron 1984, fig. 2).
The twin temples of Area E, built on the summit of the mound over the natural south-western hilltop of Emar (Werner 1994, 106–107), were free-standing in antis long room buildings (Fig. 10.7). The southern temple was dedicated to Baal, as we know from the texts found inside the temple whilst the attribution of the northern building to the cult of Astarte is more hypothetical (Sakal 2012, 79). The southern temple was built over an older building, also of a long room in antis type, dating to an earlier phase of the Late Bronze Age or to the Middle Bronze Age (Sakal 2012, 88); furthermore, the discovery of a bronze bull and a bronze figurine of a god wearing the horned tiara on one of the installations in the rear part of the cella, behind the central podium, has also provided consistent support for the attribution of this temple to a Storm-god (Margueron 1975, 72–73, figs 7–8).4
Both temples stood at the sides of a street giving access onto an open space to the rear of the buildings; this was a plaza, or “esplanade”, as J.-Cl. Margueron called it, measuring 23 m east–west and 13/15 m south–north in its state of preservation. This open space was provided with cuvettes or small circular pits and a stone dais or altar (Margueron 1975, fig. 3; 1984, fig. 1); this altar has been reinterpreted by the new Syrian-German excavations as an older structure belonging to a tower of the Middle Bronze Age fortifications (Sakal 2012, 90–91, fig. 5, pl. 20B). Remains of thick walls at different elevations provide evidence of the presence of a walled enclosure surrounding the sanctuary (Sakal 2012, 83–85, fig. 5); this could be approached by a processional route leading to the front court of both temples which may also have been built on with monumental structures (Sakal 2012, 92). The court in front of the temples was a place for performing rites and it has been postulated that the ceremony of enthroning the Entu-priestess with its communal meals consumed at the gate of the temple of Ba‘al may have been performed in this area, in front of the temple and inside the sacred enclosure; and that the enclosure may have included rooms and open spaces housing the personnel belonging to and the activities carried out in the sanctuary (Otto 2013, 367–368). Although the new excavations have reinterpreted the data concerning the presence of the altar and the pits and have consequently dismissed the hypothesis of a use of the rear side of the southern temple for cultic activities, we can still maintain that the distinct position and nature of this open space on the rear side may have accommodated activities and a ritual circulation around these imposing buildings that topped the highest point of the town of Emar.
Fig. 10.5: Emar, “Clous” in place in front of the façade of the Temple in antis in Area M, Late Bronze Age II (drawn by S. Martelli, after Margueron 1980, fig. 9).
Fig. 10.6: Emar, “Clous” (drawn by S. Martelli, after Margueron 1980, fig. 10).
Fig. 10.7: Emar, the Twin Temples of Area E, Late Bronze Age II (drawn by S. Martelli, after Margueron 1980, fig. 11).
It is interesting to note that in Tell Munbaqa/Ekalte four temples have been documented of the long room in antis type, of large size and massive stone construction (Steinbau) (I–IV) and that three of them stood on the summit of the town, in a clearly visible and dominating position above the Euphrates valley (Werner 1994, 102–106), like the twin temple of Emar. The fourth temple, built south of the town gate, was a complex structure (Blocher et al. 2007), which included annexes and rooms for meals and ritual activities as the rich pottery evidence and residuals found in place have clearly documented. The presence of an installation with stone elements and a betyle in front of the staircase leading to the temple (Blocher et al. 2007, 104–110: room f) and a further betyle outside the outer wall surrounding the front court (Blocher et al. 2007, 111–116) have led to the hypothesis that the open space between the enclosure and the northern gate may also have served as a plaza for ritual activities (Blocher et al. 2007, 118–119, room h). It has also been suggested that this might represent a further document for the setting of the festival for the enthronement of the Entu known at Emar (Otto 2013, 369–371) which included a rite of ointment at the betyle.
A similar dominating position over the Euphrates was held by the temple on the high plateau of the citadel at Tell Bazi (Tempel 1) (Otto and Einwag 2007; Einwag und Otto 2012, 91–96; Otto 2013, 372–374), built in the Late Bronze Age over Middle and Early Bronze Age antecedents (Fig. 10.8). Similarly to the temple of Baal in Emar, Tempel 1 was decorated by portal lions (Einwag und Otto 2012, Tab. 1, 110). A large buttress marked the rear side of the cella to the south. In front of the temple the finding of heaps of animal bones and sherds has given evidence of the practice of slaughtering animals and possibly also of communal consumption; in the same place the remains were then ritually discarded (Otto 2012, 188–189).
In Tell Fray two temples of different plans and type have been brought to light (Matthiae 1980), Temple North with its entrance on the long wall and two small rooms on the opposite side, as in the Temple du Devin in Emar, and Temple South (Werner 1994, 109–110) which had a plan similar to the temple of Tell Bazi, with a long room leading to the cella, but being more than half its size (Fig. 10.8). Noteworthy is the fact that, as in the temple of Tell Bazi, the rear side of the temple South of Tell Fray presented a thick buttress in correspondence with the space for the altar, framed by two antae. This was not only a structural feature for strengthening the outer wall, but more probably a device for protecting the most sacred part of the temple with a thicker curtain as well as making it visible from the outside. This lends further support to the hypothesis of the use of and circulation along the rear outer spaces of these freestanding temples, even though we do not possess evidence of installations in place.
Fig. 10.8: Tell Bazi, Temple 1 on the citadel, Late Bronze II (drawn by S. Martelli, after Otto 2013, fig. 2m).
Fig. 10.9: Tell Fray, Temple South, Late Bronze II (drawn by S. Martelli, after Matthiae 1980, fig. 4).
J.-Cl. Margueron, comparing the temples of Emar with the Alalakh level II temple, which following his interpretation was provided with a terrace on its side, noted that the use of the open spaces furnished with terraces and other installations was a distinct trait of the ceremonial and sacred architecture of Syria in the Bronze Age (Margueron 1984, p. 29).5 A. Otto recently (2013) has again pointed out that open spaces, annexes and temples were all destined to cultic activities, being included into the sacred enclosures. We may also note that the rear sides of the free-standing temples more often enjoyed a prominent position over the summit of the cliffs or mounds, while the façades opened towards the gates and routes connecting the sanctuaries to the lower towns. In the case of the twin temple of Emar, the position above the cliff and the exposure and view of the countryside were more probably at the origin of the functional use also of the rear side. This may also be the case for the temples of Tell Bazi and Munbaqa/Ekalte which enjoyed a dominant position over the Euphrates valley and could be looked upon from afar as marked features of the landscape and recognised as places of communal ritual activities.
According to the archaeological evidence, along the perimeter of the free-standing temples there were various installations for performing rites, especially animal sacrifices and the consumption of meals. The courts and plazas in front of the temples, but also the streets and the spaces behind the temples housed terraces and pits and were open to the circulation of people and the fruition of the rites. Although we cannot, on archaeological grounds, document practices of circumambulation as a distinct ritual, the presence of different installations set in various spaces hint at least at different stages, timing and location of the ritual performance which most probably necessitated movement through space as is, in fact, documented by the texts.
The cases of Afis and Emar offer a rather distinctive and unique documentation for the use of the whole perimeter of the temples for ritual, open-air activities. In fact, the available archaeological evidence mostly concerns activities documented in the front of the temples, as the residuals found in the front of the temple of Tell Bazi and the presence of betyles in the front and outer space at Tall Munbaqa/Ekalte have clearly shown. This use, however, was a Levantine well documented trait that goes back to the Middle Bronze Age, as already noted (Pinnock 2008; Otto 2013, 360–365); in this period the free-standing temples in antis were often included in sacred precincts which were furnished with a variety of rooms and spaces for different functions. A few exemplary cases with rich materials in context present, in fact, copious and variegated evidence that help to reconstruct the organisation of the open spaces of the temple enclosures; furthermore, they illustrate clearly the long-lasting tradition of architectural models, functional use of spaces and classes of cultic paraphernalia in the Levant throughout the whole Bronze Age.
Among the many temples known from Middle Bronze Age II Palestine, the temple from Tell Haror, in the north-western Negev, is certainly exemplary to our purpose. The temple was in antis and surrounded by an enclosure; this contained an open area furnished with many cultic installations, an altar in mud-bricks, favissae and an annex. Material was abundant and spread everywhere, documenting various activities carried out in different places: deposits with human and animal figurines, pedestalled vases, incense burners, and a great quantity of offering residuals, especially bones of birds, puppies ritually killed and buried, and an equid buried with its bit (Oren 1997; Klenck 2002; Katz 2009).6 This rich evidence provides a vivid illustration of the many and various rites performed in the open-air spaces of this sacred precinct.
It is noteworthy that a comparison for the presence of open areas with cultic installations adjoining the temple is offered by the Hyksos Avaris/Tell el-Dab‘a. The plan of the temples, many features of the cultic equipment and the rituals performed in the open-air with the offerings buried in the area clearly point to a shared Levantine tradition: in AreaA/II, the plazas between Temples II and III, and their numerous installations and the court in front of the temple of Area F/I, with its burial of two equids (Bietak 2003; 2008; Müller 1998) find comparisons in the above mentioned temple of Tell Haror.
Two relevant cases, Byblos and Ebla, offer extensive materials of use in reconstructing the organisation of the open areas adjoining the temples during the Middle Bronze Age, as recently suggested (Pinnock 2008); both centres were in fact provided with open cult areas, temples and rich offerings related to these. In Byblos, the sacred compound included the temples of the Obelisk and the Baalat Gebal, the Champ des Offrandes and the Enceinte Sacrée, with their adjoining open-air spaces. They were all furnished with installations and paraphernalia for the rites; besides, numerous and variegated deposits of offerings were spread and buried over the whole area testifying to some ritual circulation among the temples.
At Ebla, a large area of the north-western lower town was dedicated to religious functions and included Temple P2, a monumental long room in antis building, Monument P3, a large terrace with an inner hall to the south-western side of the temple,7 and a service annexed to the eastern side of the temple (priests’ barracks). This sacred precinct was walled up and was located in an area between the two palaces of the lower town of Ebla, facing, across a street to the south, the rear side of Palace Q and instead presenting the rear side of the terrace and temple, also across a street, to one side of Palace P, to the north. This position may be indicative of the fact that the sanctuary had to serve primarily the cult activities of the local rulers and their entourage; the presence of statues of rulers and a queen buried in a pit near to the entrance of the temple (possibly for protection after the sack and destruction of the temple) may indicate that the temple housed rituals for the cult of the ancestors and kingship. Moreover, in between the façade of the temple and the terrace, a wide open-air plaza, the Square of the Cisterns, extended to the base of the slope of the walled acropolis. The square was a multi-functional open-area provided with buried and surface installations: three favissae, with their rich offerings, facilities, basins and votive pits. They contained residuals of ritual activities; a burial of a dog and probably a human deposition are also documented.8 The destination of this area to the cult of Ishtar and to rituals connected with the exaltation and legitimacy of kingship has been proposed on the basis of consistent materials found in the favissae, such as figurines and vases decorated with nude females, residuals of dove bones, and the finding of the head of a basalt statue attributed to Ishtar.9 Whilst this remains a matter for speculation, far clearer is the fact that distinct and diverse rituals were certainly performed in different spaces of this area: above and below ground, in enclosed and open spaces. We can, therefore, raise the issue of whether some sort of ritual procession among the cultic pits and installations and around the terrace and temple might have been performed to fulfill the ritual duties. This is, of course, also a matter of speculation.
Fig. 10.10: Ebla, The Square of the Cisterns, Middle Bronze II (drawn by S. Martelli, after Marchetti, Nigro 1997, fig. 1).
Moreover, other temples at Ebla show the presence of cultic areas adjoining the main building and consequently illustrate how deeply embedded in the local context was the practice of using and structuring the areas external to the temples for ritual performance often of a very different nature. The temple of the Rock, on the southeastern side of the the city, near the South-East Steppe Gate (Matthiae 2008; 2009; 2010, 387–391; 2011, 752–762) and the smaller temples HH4 and HH5 built in a mature phase of Early Bronze IVB, and HH3 and HH2 of the Middle Bronze Age I–II, were all long room and in antis buildings which overlapped the EB IVA temple, which was in antis but of a broad room type. Bothroi and favissae with deposits and offerings were also associated with the HH2 temple (Matthiae 2009, 719; 2011) and give evidence of a distinct ritual practice with more than 200 unbaked clay figurines deposited as well as other materials. The area was, in fact, a limestone rock terrace with natural caves; these had been used during the Early Bronze and destined to underground cults as indicated by three pits and their offerings dating to the EB IVB that cut into the floor of the cella of the EB IVA temple, connected with a large cavity to the south (Matthiae 2011, 756–758).
Even with its variety of cases, the documentation of the Levantine temples offers quite a homogeneous picture: different rituals were performed in the open-air spaces adjoining the temples, provided with functional installations used during the rites. The variety of these installations, built in an elevated position, such as on terraces or, instead, buried in the ground, in favissae or pits, reflected and responded to the variety of rituals and the finalities of the cult and belong to a common tradition of the Levant. There is apparently no clear evidence of a functional use of the entirety of the perimetral spaces of the temples including the rear sides; only the spaces in front of the temples, squares and courts were clearly used for ritual practices. This missing datum does not completely rule out the possibility that the rear sides could also have been used, but we have no consistent elements to prove this. We have instead in the textual sources references to processions across the sacred areas, more often linking the institutional and ceremonial buildings, but this is, as mentioned above in the introductory paragraph, a further case of ritual manifestation which lies outside the scope of our present investigation.10
A further case of open-air cultic settings around the temples is offered by Mari and its sacred compound; this was built and continuously redesigned over a lengthy period during the Early and Middle Bronze Ages, and included, in both Ville II and Ville III, temples, terraces and various open spaces provided with cultic installations. The unit of the period of Ville III (Shakkanakku-Amorite Period) consisted of the Temple of the Lions (Temple of Dagan) with its Terrace, the Sahuru, the temple of Ninhursag, and the temple of Shamash (Margueron 2004, 374–393, 501–507). The Esplanade du temple de Dagan, and the square connecting these temples contained various installations for the cult, bases for stelae and statues, basins and ritual deposits. Furthermore, the Voie Sacrée from the east and the Grand Voie from the west both gave access to the compound and constituted a ritual trajectory around the temples. Also in this case, the documentation concentrates in the squares and courts in front of the entrances to the temples; the outer spaces are apparently divided into single compounds which enclose distinct sanctuaries. The whole sacred precinct could apparently be approached by two routes and was open to easy circulation inside, but the organisation of grouping successive open spaces follows the traditional Mesopotamian concentric arrangement of the courts. This is evident with the Temple of Dagan with its terrace and Esplanade on its northern side which finds, however, a comparison in Monument P3 with its terrace and the Square of the Cisterns adjoning it on one side.11 Ritual circuits may have been performed among the various temples of the sacred precinct and the Grand Voie running along on the rear side of the Temple of Dagan may have fitted this purpose (Margueron 2004, 375–393). Besides, the approach to the Haute Terrasse was not by the gate of the Temple of Dagan, nor via the Esplanade, but from the north, following the orientation of the Grand Voie and accessible from it through the northern gate (Margueron 2004, 388–392, fig. 379). It is also notable that the rear side of the temple was marked by a large buttress built in correspondence with the centre of the two shrines inside the building. We have seen that this feature also characterised the temple of Tell Bazi and the South Temple of Tell Fray; in Mari, as in the other cases, this was not, or not only, a structural feature, but rather an element of symbolic significance; the Grand Voie, in fact, skirted the rear of the temple and ran along the terrace before reaching the northern gate of the sanctuary.
To conclude, these cases of temples with their adjacent open areas, from Tell Haror in the southern Levant, to Mari in northwestern Mesopotamia, despite their distinct plans and their being dedicated to the cult of different gods, do share a few general characters. Their precincts included the free-standing temples in antis with annexes and installations located in front and on the sides of the temples, consisting of terraces of different heights, altars and underground spaces opening onto the floors of the open-air plazas and courts. Also when offerings were deposited in fact in bothroi, favissae and pits, the rites concerning these offerings had, in fact, to be celebrated outside the entrances of the underground structures, in the open-air.
Fig. 10.11: Mari, Sacred Compound, Ville III, Middle Bronze I (drawn by S. Martelli, after Margueron 2004, fig. 379).
It is certainly noteworthy that these sanctuaries all enjoyed a long life, certainly consistent with the political and economic role of the urban centres to which they belonged; the persistence of architectural models and organisation of the outside and inside spaces reflects the strong tradition of ritual behaviour across both time and geo-political borders. This same aspect of continuity is also revealed by other factors, such as by the diffusion of special containers (pedestalled vases, incense burners, theriomorphic vases, kernoi, askoi, rhyta) for liquid and burnt offerings, which have been found in the sacred precincts of the Bronze Age; from these Bronze antecedents descend the Iron Age cultic paraphernalia of similar types.
This continuity is evident in the fact that special sectors of towns were destined for temples and their related religious ceremonies, according to different requirements of the cult, the identity of the deities worshipped and the distinct physical characteristics of the places. This tradition starts in the Early Bronze Age. According to the present archaeological evidence, Mari documents a long period of use of the same area from the Early Dynastic (Ville II) to the Amorite period (Ville III). Ebla documents this same continuous use of the sacred area throughout the Early and Middle Bronze Ages; the sacred compound of Area P was, in fact, founded probably in the final Early Bronze Age (IVB); the EB IV Red Temple in Area D precedes the MB temple and the Temple of the Rock in Area HH, built in an area of natural caves and limestone hillocks, was rebuilt during these periods (Matthiae 2010, 108). Emar and Tell Bazi enjoyed an even longer continuity from the Early to the Late Bronze Age. Concerning instead the documentation of the use of the open areas outside the temples, we have to admit that for the Early Bronze Age this is still uneven and fragmentary; it is only from the Middle Bronze Age on that we have sufficient data documenting a regular use of the open spaces for rituals and cult. We may ask if this use of the open spaces for the cult was due to practical reasons, to prevent polluting elements from entering the temples as in the case of bloody sacrifices, or whether it mirrored, instead, a social process, and the concern for wider participation in celebrations of the cult by an increasing number of components of the institutional milieu. This fact might also be confirmed by the strategic position of the temples on a high and clearly-visible point of the town so that the free-standing and often high buildings could be easily seen from afar. Their surrounding open spaces may have become appealing areas for public ritual performance allowing the participation of a large number of people, or simply the possibility to observe them from a distance. In Emar, as noted (Sallaberger 2012, 171–172) on the occasion of the main festivals of the tutelary deities of Emar, Išhara and Ninurta, two or three thousand people celebrated the feast and received the bread.
To conclude, the archaeological documentation gives evidence of open spaces furnished with a variety of installations for performing cult rituals, mainly in front of the temples, but also on the sides of the entire perimeter, especially in the case of the free-standing long-room in antis type of building. The rear side was also an area for ritual circulation and performance, provided with installations, decorated and furnished with cult paraphernalia and also marked by architectural devices, such as buttresses that not only gave protection but also offered a view of the cella within and its altar. Whether or not rituals were carried out in different stages and at different times, moving amongst the temples, and possibly also circumambulating them, is open to speculation; archaeology, in fact, can only provide us with contexts, fixed in time and space.
Notes
1 The conclusion that these provided ideological justification for the economic network of tribute and gift circulation and that eventually they could serve the interests of both political authority but as well as political resistance (Ritvet 2011, 23–24) is certainly speculative (as admitted by the A., 23), but perfectly matches Tilley’s paradigm.
2 Discussion and bibliography in Mazzoni 2000b, 146–148, 152–153; Mazzoni 2010c, 28, with comparisons with the Stadtempel of Tell Halaf (Werner 1994, pl. 10) and Assyrianized Levantine temples such as the 7th century sanctuary 650 at Tell Miqneh/Ekron, see 28, note 1. See now Gitin 2012. Note that Werner 1994, 76–81 connected the outer corridor of Ain Dara to the Assyrian model. For the diffusion of the Assyrian models in the temple architecture of Palestine see Spreafico 2010. As for the towers framing the entrance, the similarity with the tower or migdal-temples of the Middle Bronze Age Palestine is only fortuitous owing to the difference of time: see Ottosson 1980, 53–62; Wightman 2007, 150-151, 162–164.
3 Margueron 1980, 305 compares the clous of Emar with the glazed ones from Tchoga Zanbil.
4 It is interesting to note that the figurine of the god presents two tenons under the feet for insertion into a base. Dealing with a cylinder seal from Temple AIII.1 at Tell Afis, of Iron I date, which shows a Storm-god on his bull, I noted this particular element of the wedge-shaped end under his feet and compared it with the figurines of smiting gods in metal that have tenons under their feet. The image on the seal should therefore relate to a cult statue of the god: Mazzoni in press.
5 Margueron in 2004, 392 speaks of the level III temple of Alalakh as being furnished with a terrace, quoting Woolley 1955, 73. However Woolley 1955, 74–75, identified the solid structure of the groundwork of temple III (fig. 31) as the base for the stairs (see reconstruction in fig. 32).
6 The practice of sacrificing and burying dogs and equids is documented in Syria from the Early Bronze Age on; deposits of equids are present at Tell Brak and, in particular, at Umm el Marra in a funerary context (Schwartz et al. 2006, 624–627, 633–634); the sacrifice of equids is also known from treaties (Schwartz et al. 2006, 634) and was established in Middle Bronze Age Palestine as a practice linked to the Hyksos (Wapnish 1997).
7 The interpretation of the function of the large hall and the structure on the western side of the terrace of Monument P is still unclear. There are, in fact, elements that indicate that the construction of this massive building was not achieved before the destruction of Mardikh IIIB, which brought to an end the settlement of the Middle Bronze Age II. Matthiae (2010, 271–275) calls this monument “the Terrace of the lions”, the animals sacred to Ishtar which were kept in the large open-air court of this building.
8 See Marchetti, Nigro 1997. The pits have yielded human and animal remains, including caprids, bovines and one or two dogs, as well as small pottery deposits. One pit, in particular, contained both a human and a sheep skull. These would appear to be ritual burials, the animals being sacrificed either to then be consumed as part of the cult or for symbolic purposes as in the case of the dogs, and the human skull probably being a victory trophy or the remains of a possibly ritual sacrifice (Nigro 1998). The area of the square, therefore, functioned as the scene for ritual representations including cruel sacrifices that involved the spilling and pouring of blood and liquids and the burning of varying substances, as well as being the area where ritual deposits of the remains from sacrifical offerings were interred. Comparison with the iconography of two individuals attacking a third, often from either side, in Old Syrian seals and on the reverse of the stela of Ishtar from Ebla, has lead to the hypothesis of ritual human sacrifice, possibly of vanquished enemies and, hence, that these representations formed part of royal propaganda. The exceptional finds from the Square of the Cistern would thus furnish direct archaeological support for this idea (Nigro 1998).
9 Matthiae 2001; 2010: 269–275, 291–293, pl. xxv. Pinnock 2008 has hypothesised that the rituals performed in this square may have been dedicated to the exaltation of kinship so as to ensure protection of the city and its dynasty, which were under the patronage of the goddess in the Middle Bronze Age. She has also proposed, on the basis of comparisons between the materials in the deposit of jar 16694 at Byblos and documents from Ebla, that similar rituals were addressed to the Baalat Gebal and Ishtar with the same aim in both cities.
10 P. Matthiae (2010, 109–110) has suggested that the Temple of the Rock may be identified as the temple of Kura, the main deity of the pantheon of Ebla; in the “ritual of the kingship”, the queen performs rituals probably related to the renovation of kingship celebrating the sunset outside the city and then entering into the temple of Kura, near the Gate of Kura.
11 Margueron (2004, 392), compared the terrace with the terraces of Emar, Alalakh III and Ebla.
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