Sacred Spaces
Religious Architecture in the Ancient World
by G.J. Wightman
Hardback (Out of print)
(December 2007)
ISBN: 9789042918030
Price: $150.00
On back order
A great deal has been written about religious architecture in ancient cultures, but the great bulk of the literature has tended to be culture-specific. Wightman’s volume offers for the first time a comprehensive synopsis of the rich manifestations of religious architecture throughout the ancient world. In addition, the book provides a conceptual framework within which cross-cultural comparisons of religious architecture may usefully take place, and tackles some fundamental issues in relation to the definition and characterisation of sacred space in ancient contexts. The last fifteen years have witnessed the focusing of a great deal of scholarly attention on the archaeology of religions, with the result that today researchers are able to make use of a broad armoury of theoretical and methodological approaches. Yet theory must at all times be tested against material evidence, and here Wightman’s volume is timely in laying out empirical data pertaining to all the major traditions of religious architecture in antiquity. The book is comprised of twenty-one chapters divided into five parts. Beginning around twelve thousand years ago at the transition of the Holocene, the book embarks on an explorative journey around the ancient globe, ending between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD. The first four parts of the book deal with broad regions of the ancient world: Western; Pre-Classical Europe and the Mediterranean; the Graeco-Roman world; South and East Asia; and the Americas. Part Five, covering about a quarter of the book, has three chapters, each dealing with aspects of sacred space (Identity and Meaning, Language of Sacred Space, Text and Image). The text is complemented by approximately 400 line drawings in colour – many of which are Wightman’s reconstructions of ancient temples and sanctuaries – and 200 photographic plates, most in colour. The volume is rounded off by a comprehensive bibliography with essential literature highlighted, benefiting both the general reader and specialists. Wightman’s book will become a work of reference to those interested in gaining or furthering an understanding of architecture, archaeology and religion in the ancient world.
- By (author) GJ Wightman
Other Titles in this Series
Old Aramaic Inscriptions and their Contexts
An Epigraphic, Archaeological, and Historical Synthesis
Volume 63
‘What Mean these Stones?’ (Joshua 4
6, 21): Essays on Texts, Philology, and Archaeology in Honour of Anthony J. Frendo
Volume 50
Archaeology at the North-East Anatolian Frontier, V
Iron Technology and Iron-making Communities of the First Millennium BC
Volume 13
Archaeozoology of the Near East X
Proceedings of the Tenth International Symposium on the Archaeozoology of South-Western Asia and Adjacent Areas
Volume 44
Ancient Nomads of the Aralo-Caspian Region
The Duana Archaeological Complex. University of Sydney Central Asian Programme
Volume 25
Of Vines and Wines
The Production and Consumption of Wine in Anatolian Civilizations through the Ages
Volume 51
Archaeology at the North-East Anatolian Frontier, I
An Historical Geography and a Field Survey of the Bayburt Province
Volume 14
Unearthing the Wilderness
Studies on the History and Archaeology of the Negev and Edom in the Iron Age
Volume 45
Anatolian Iron Ages 6
The Proceedings of the Sixth Anatolian Iron Ages Colloquium Held at Eskisehir, 16-20 August 2004
Volume 20
Metal Jewellery of the Southern Levant and its Western Neighbours
Cross-Cultural Influences in the Early Iron Age Eastern Mediterranean
Volume 53
Tas-Silg, Marsaxlokk (Malta) I
Archaeological Excavations Conducted by the University of Malta, 1996-2005
Volume 48
Yanik Tepe, Northwestern Iran: The Early Trans-Caucasian Period
Pottery, Artefacts, Animal Bones, Chronology and Conclusions
Volume 67
Tas-Silg, Marsaxlokk (Malta) II
Archaeological Excavations Conducted by the University of Malta, 1996-2005
Volume 49
Life in Palmyra, Life for Palmyra
Conference in Memory of Khaled al-As'ad, Warsaw, April 21st-22nd, 2016
Volume 64
Similar Books
Caesar’s Visions and Impact on the Roman Empire
Revisiting the Archaeological and Historical Record of the 40s BC
Volume 2
Connecting the Dots: Counting, Writing, and the Beginnings of Civilization
The Secret Lives of Clay Tokens: A Memoir
Etruscan and Roman Hellenistic Anatomical ex votos
Reassessing Popular Religious Expressions in Central Italy
Volume 8
Exploring Gender Dynamics across the Ancient Near East
Collected Essays of Gender and Methodology in the Ancient Near East (GeMANE) 4 and 5
Volume 7
Ḫattušaš utnē išḫameški
Hittite and Other Ancient Near Eastern Studies Presented to Piotr Taracha on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday
Invisible Labour in Antiquity
Visualizing Obscure Work in the Ancient Mediterannean and West Asia
Volume 1
Late Antique villae in the Balkans (3rd–7th c. AD): Current Research Questions and Perspectives
HAEMUS Companion to the Late Antique Balkans 1
Volume 4
New Research on Old Collections in Southwest Asian Archaeology
Proceedings of the Workshop Held at the British Museum, London, 31 July – 2 August, 2023
Old Aramaic Inscriptions and their Contexts
An Epigraphic, Archaeological, and Historical Synthesis
Volume 63
Portraying the Individual in the Roman East
Local–Imperial Entanglements in Sculpture, Mosaics, and Paintings (First–Fourth Centuries AD)
Volume 18
Pottery Traditions and Material Culture in Second Millennium BC Northern Mesopotamia
Contacts and New Horizons in the Land between the Tigris and the Zagros. Proceedings of a Workshop Held at the 12th ICAANE, University of Bologna, 7 April 2021
Volume 19
Punning in Odd or Elegant Constructions in Jeremiah
The Convergence of Linguistics, Rhetoric, and Textuality in the Hebrew Text of Jeremiah
Shame in the Worlds of the Hebrew Bible and Akkadian Texts
A Linguistic Study and Its Implications
Volume 33
Small Worlds and Relational Agencies: Local Societies in Early Medieval Iberia
Pequeños mundos y Agencias relacionales: Sociedades locales altomedievales en la Península Ibérica
Telling Contexts
Archaeological and Textual Studies in Honor of Elizabeth Bloch-Smith and Mark S. Smith
The Body
Lived, Cultured, Adorned: Essays on Dress and the Body in the Bible and Ancient Near East in Honor of Nili S. Fox