The Archaeology Of Sacred Spaces

This volume focuses on the religious shrine in western India as an institution of cultural integration in the period spanning 200 BCE to 800 CE. It presents an analysis of religious architecture at multiple levels, both temporal and spatial, and distinguishes it as a ritual instrument that integrates individuals and communities into a cultural fabric. The work shows how these structures emphasise on communication with a host of audiences such as the lay worshipper, the ritual specialist, the royalty and the elite as well as the artisan and the sculptor. It also examines religious imagery, inscriptions, traditional lore and Sanskrit literature. The book will be of special interest to researchers and scholars of ancient Indian history, Hinduism, religious studies, architecture and South Asian studies.

Sacred Sites, Sacred Places explores the concept of 'sacred' and what it means and implies to people in differing cultures. It looks at why people regard some parts of the land as special and why this ascription remains constant in some cultures and changes in others. Archaeologists, legislators and those involved in heritage management sometimes encounter conflict with local populations over sacred sites. With the aid of over 70 illustrations the book examines the extreme importance of such sacred places in all cultures and the necessity of accommodating those intimate beliefs which are such a vital part of ongoing cultural identity. Sacred Sites, Sacred Places therefore will be of help to those who wish to be non-destructive in their conservation and excavation practices. This book is unique in attempting to describe the belief systems surrounding the existence of sacred sites, and at the same time bringing such beliefs and practices into relationship with the practical problems of everyday heritage management. The geographical coverage of the book is exceptionally wide and its variety of contributors, including indigenous peoples, archaeologists and heritage professionals, is unrivalled in any other publication.

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.

Thirteen essays from an ASOR symposium on the relationship among archaeology, text and our understanding of ancient Israelite religion. Contributors include: J. Z. Smith, W. G. Dever, Z. Zevit, K. van der Toorn, J. M. Sasson, E. Bloch-Smith, S. Gitin, B. A. Levine, W. T. Pitard, T. J. Lewis, and B. M. Gittlen.

Sacred spaces exemplify some of the most exciting and challenging architecture today. Designing Sacred Spaces tells the inside story of seven architecture firms and their approaches to designing churches, mosques, synagogues and temples, monasteries and retreats. Twenty beautifully illustrated case studies located in Asia, Europe, and North America are showcased alongside discussions with the designers into concept and design development, materiality, and spatial analysis. Complementing these are essays on the cultural, historical, and theoretical meaning and importance of sacred spaces. By exploring the way we see religion and how we understand secular and sacred space, Designing Sacred Spaces reveals how we see ourselves and how we see others. A tour-de-force of first-person narratives, research, and illustrations, this book is a vital desk reference.

This festschrift honors UCLA professor emerita Susan Downey and her meticulous scholarship on religious architecture and imagery in the Roman/Hellenistic world. The iconography of gods and goddesses, the analysis of sacred imagery in the context of ancient cult practices, and the design and decoration of sacred spaces are the main themes of the book. Authors examine such subjects as painting from Dura-Europos, Hellenistic sculpture at Saqqara in Egypt, Roman cameo glass, Pompeian fresco, and aspects of Venus in portrait sculpture. The essays on Dura-Europos are especially valuable in light of the present turmoil in the region. Professor Downey's influence shines through in these discussions, which echo her mentorship of several generations of art history and archaeology students and recognize her scholarly achievements. The broad temporal and geographic parameters of the volume are expansive, and the juxtaposition of images and analyses leads to surprising new conclusions.

In Memory Traces, art historians and archaeologists come together to examine the nature of sacred space in Mesoamerica. Through five well-known and important centers of political power and artistic invention in Mesoamerica—Tetitla at Teotihuacan, Tula Grande, the Mound of the Building Columns at El Tajín, the House of the Phalli at Chichén Itzá, and Tonina—contributors explore the process of recognizing and defining sacred space, how sacred spaces were viewed and used both physically and symbolically, and what theoretical approaches are most useful for art historians and archaeologists seeking to understand these places. Memory Traces acknowledges that the creation, use, abandonment, and reuse of sacred space have a strongly recursive relation to collective memory and meanings linked to the places in question and reconciles issues of continuity and discontinuity of memory in ancient Mesoamerican sacred spaces. It will be of interest to students and scholars of Mesoamerican studies and material culture, art historians, architectural historians, and cultural anthropologists. Contributors: Laura M. Amrhein, Nicholas P. Dunning, Rex Koontz, Cynthia Kristan-Graham, Matthew G. Looper, Travis Nygard, Keith M. Prufer, Matthew H. Robb, Patricia J. Sarro, Kaylee Spencer, Eric Weaver, Linnea Wren

"Provides new insights into how enslaved and freed Africans in the New World navigated racialized landscapes while honoring the memories of their dead."--Laurie A. Wilkie, coauthor of Sampling Many Pots: An Archaeology of Memory and Tradition at a Bahamian Plantation "Turner's unique hybrid approach makes this book a valuable resource in the study of the African diaspora."--Rosalyn Howard, author of Black Seminoles in the Bahamas The Anglican Church established St. Matthew's Parish on the eastern side of Nassau to accommodate a population increase after British Loyalists migrated to the Bahamas in the 1780s. The parish had three separate cemeteries: the churchyard cemetery and Centre Burial Ground were for whites, but the Northern Burial Ground was officially consecrated for nonwhites in 1826 by the Bishop of Jamaica. In Honoring Ancestors in Sacred Space, Grace Turner posits that the African-Bahamian community intentionally established this separate cemetery in order to observe non-European burial customs. Analyzing the landscape and artifacts found at the site, Turner shows how the community used this space to maintain a sense of social and cultural belonging despite the power of white planters and the colonial government. Although the Northern Burial Ground was covered by storm surges in the 1920s, and later a sidewalk was built through the site, Turner's fieldwork reveals a wealth of material culture. She points to the cemetery's location near water, trees planted at the heads of graves, personal items left with the dead, and remnants of food offerings as evidence of mortuary practices originating in West and Central Africa. According to Turner, these African-influenced ways of memorializing the dead illustrate W. E. B. Du Bois's idea of "double consciousness"--the experience of existing in two irreconcilable cultures at the same time. Comparing the burial ground with others in Great Britain and the American colonies, Turner demonstrates how Africans in the Atlantic diaspora did not always adopt European customs but often created a separate, parallel world for themselves. A volume in the Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series