This paper investigates temple-building traditions using concepts of space and place, exploring various perspectives of temple placemaking in archaeological, textual and ethnographic data. The study first looks at temple-building practices in Mesopotamia and South Asia, before exploring the nature of temple-building traditions in the 2nd and 1st millennium BCE southern Levant. From Mesopotamia, a unique temple foundation ritual from the 1st millennium BCE is analyzed in order to provide one perspective on how a space is turned into sacred place. The study then focuses on the role that sacred models (mandalas) play in building and conceptualizing temples in South Asian traditions, as well as how ritual dances generate demarcated ritual places. Using and applying various ideas encountered in the first two case studies, the article then investigates the Bronze and Iron Age archaeological data of the Levant for traces of sacred placemaking. Amongst the various observations on how Levantine temples were conceptualized as places, the study identifies a fundamental distinction between institutionalized and non-institutionalized temple-building traditions.

中文翻译：

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从太空到地方：寺庙的建造


本文使用空间和地点的概念研究了寺庙建设传统，在考古学、文本和人种学数据中探讨了寺庙场所营造的各种观点。该研究首先考察了美索不达米亚和南亚的寺庙建造实践，然后探讨了公元前 2 世纪和 1 世纪黎凡特南部寺庙建造传统的性质。从美索不达米亚出发，分析了公元前 1 世纪一种独特的寺庙奠基仪式，以便提供一种关于空间如何变成圣地的观点。然后，该研究侧重于神圣模型（曼荼罗）在南亚传统中建造和概念化寺庙中的作用，以及仪式舞蹈如何产生划定的仪式场所。使用和应用前两个案例研究中遇到的各种想法，本文随后调查了黎凡特青铜和铁器时代的考古数据，以寻找神圣场所营造的痕迹。在对黎凡特神庙如何被概念化为场所的各种观察中，该研究确定了制度化和非制度化寺庙建造传统之间的根本区别。