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Temples, ancient Near
East
DAVID A. WARBURTON
Temples are unique, being architectural forms
and social institutions dedicated to the gods,
reflecting the spirit – and interrelations – of the
various ancient Near Eastern civilizations.
They were symbols of the cities where they
lay and celebrated the kings who built them.
HISTORY AND DIVERSITY OF THE
BUILDINGS
Temples are basically shelters for the cult
images of divinities; they are generally distinct
from the chapels and shrines (where ancestors
and deities alike were worshipped) found in
domestic residences and palaces. Aside from
their specific purpose, they are usually physi-
cally separated from surrounding buildings by
a temenos wall. Individual temples could be
used for centuries – as at Tell Rimah in Iraq –
whereas palaces were frequently abandoned
and/or rebuilt. Objects could be maintained
in temples for millennia, as a third millennium
BCE clay vessel in the first millennium temple at
Sippar in Iraq shows.
Even after the appearance of palaces in the
third and second millennia BCE, temples usu-
ally dominated the urban layout and social
hierarchy. They were characterized by an archi-
tectural layout distinguishing them from
houses and palaces. Temples generally lay
beside the palaces – occasionally exactly, as at
Mittani Tell Brak in Syria (Oates, Oates, and
McDonald 1997: 4) and Old Babylonian
Alalakh in Anatolia (Woolley 1955: fig. 35).
The earliest buildings which can possibly
be viewed as the predecessors of temples (in
the sense of dedicated communal buildings)
are the early Neolithic shrines at Göbekli Tepe
in Anatolia and the special buildings at Ain
Ghazal in Jordan. By the end of the Ubaid
period, circular structures gave way to
The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,
and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 6588–6591.
© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah01191
rectangular forms. The most spectacular
example of the evolution of temples can be
seen at the site of Eridu in Iraq, which reveals
a sequence of rectangular mud-brick buildings
leading from a modest quadrangular room in
the early fifth millennium BCE to a massive
tripartite temple less than two millennia later.
During the Uruk period, the tripartite form
(Mittelsaalhaus) was dominant in both north-
ern and southern Mesopotamia. Henceforth,
cult buildings would exist as a separate cate-
gory, distinct from domestic architecture, but
the types also varied from region to region.
Ziqqurrats (see ZIQQURRAT) were dominant in
eastern Mesopotamia and Elam, while stone
and brick towers were typical of the Levant.
Neither structure served as an ordinary temple
alone; instead, they were usually associated with
a chapel or shrine where the cult image was
sheltered. Among the Mesopotamian chapels,
two dominant types were the “Babylonian”
broad and “Assyrian” long hall structures,
where the cult image stood in the middle of
a side or at an end, respectively. So-called
“bent-axis” shrines (effectively “long-hall”
buildings with an entrance on a long side,
near the end across from the cult image) were
typical on the eastern and northern periphery of
Mesopotamia (e.g., Tell Brak: Oates, Oates, and
McDonald 2000: 74). Megaron plans appear in
the third millennium at Troy in Anatolia,
Khuera in Syria, and Megiddo in Palestine –
on the western periphery of the Mesopotamian
heartland.
The temple buildings themselves were
never intended to be spaces accommodating
worshippers: offerings and similar ceremonies
took place in front of the temple in the court-
yard, where crowds may have been allowed to
gather on occasion. The divine images within
the shrines were made of precious materials,
and tended by priests in elaborate rituals; they
were not intended to be seen, although all
should have had an idea of them.
Some temples – such as the New Year’s
temples at Babylon and Assur – had their
own distinct architectural plans and were
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Figure 1 The Ziqqurat of Ur Namma of Ur (ca. 2100 BCE) during excavations in 1922–34. Image © Photo
Scala, Florence / BPK, Bildagentur für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte, Berlin.
only used for elaborate ceremonial purposes
on specific occasions. Others were parts of
the urban landscape (such as the temples
of the lesser divinities in residential Babylon)
and visited by the local population.
The construction of a major temple was
accompanied by ritual acts, led by the king
and high priests. During its lifetime a temple
would gradually be filled with offerings of all
kinds: statues of individuals and kings, as
well as offerings of different kinds.
POLITICS
At the beginning of the historical period, the
temple of Inanna at Uruk was probably the
most powerful single institution in the entire
world. In the following millennia, the major
temples of the main cities of southern Meso-
potamia became economic powers, but politi-
cal power shifted to kings, and the power of the
temples followed the destiny of the cities as
kingdoms and empires rose and fell.
ECONOMICS
Over time, in Mesopotamia, accumulated tem-
ple landholdings meant that priests, managers,
and temple dependants had interests differing
from those of the kings and their neighbors.
The god worshipped in a temple was a social
person in the sense of an institution, owning
land, receiving income, and offering credit.
In Mesopotamia, from the Uruk period
onwards, this phenomenon led to the formation
of a hereditary class of priests whose concerns
were generally in accord with the ruling powers –
but not to particular dynasties or rulers. In this
fashion, temples achieved a kind of indepen-
dence, but one which could lead to isolation as
kings chose more amenable gods.
In the Levant, temples were more immedi-
ately dependent upon the largesse of kings, as
traditions of independent temple wealth were
not as well established as in Mesopotamia.
However, in virtually all parts of the Near
East, the temples did nevertheless enjoy sub-
stantial economic wealth and maintained close

links with merchants who received credit and
guarantees from temples and were prepared
to make gifts as well. Wealthy families in
Babylonia exploited temple institutions to
dodge inheritance obligations, and similar
projects were widespread.
SCIENCE
Most temples had archives of some kind,
including – at a minimum – ritual and
economic texts; others such as that of Enlil in
Nippur or Baal in Ugarit will also have included
mythological texts with a nationalist bent, com-
posed in the native languages, Sumerian and
Ugaritic (rather than Akkadian), respectively.
Given the importance of astronomical observa-
tions for omens and astrological interpretations,
the temples will have been at the center of Bab-
ylonian science – and thus at the birth of mod-
ern science.
Teaching and the transmission of
knowledge – insofar as this took place in an
institutional rather than domestic context –
will have taken place in the temples.
SEE ALSO: Architecture, ancient Near East;
Ashur; Astrology, ancient Near East; Astronomy,
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ancient Near East; Babylon; Cults, divine,
Pharaonic Egypt; Enuma Elish; Jerusalem;
Libraries, ancient Near East; Megiddo; Nippur;
Sacrifice, ancient Near East; Ugarit; Uruk.
REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS
Englund, R. K. (1998) “Texts from the Late Uruk
period.” In P. Attinger and M. Wäfler, eds.,
Mesopotamien: Späturuk-Zeit und Frühdynastische
Zeit: 15–233. Freiburg.
Forest, J.-D. (1999) Les premiers temples de
Mésopotamie. Oxford.
Heinrich, E. (1982) Die Tempel und Heiligtümer
im alten Mesopotamien. Berlin.
Oates, D., Oates, J., and McDonald, H. (1997)
Excavations at Tell Brak, vol. 1. Oxford.
Oates, D., Oates, J., and McDonald, H. (2000)
Excavations at Tell Brak, vol. 2. Oxford.
Swerdlow, N. M., ed. (1999) Ancient astronomy
and celestial divination. Cambridge, MA.
Veenhof, K. R. (2004) “Trade with the blessing of
Šamaš in Old Babylonian Sippar.” In J. G.
Dercksen, ed., Assyria and beyond: 551–82. Leiden.
Warburton, D. A. (2007) “The architecture of
Israelite temples.” In L. L. Grabbe, ed., Ahab
Agonistes: 310–28. London.
Werner, P. (1994) Die Entwicklung der
Sakralarchitektur in Nordsyrien und
Südostkleinasien. Munich.
Woolley, L. (1955) Alalakh. Oxford.