RITUAL BUILDINGS AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT IN BILAD AL-SHAM FROM THE PALEOLITHIC PERIOD TO THE END OF THE PRE-POTTERY NEOLITHIC “B” PERIOD: SELECTED SITES

Abstract

This article examines the types of excavated buildings and areas with ideological and religious features in Bilad al-Sham from the Paleolithic Period until the Pre-Pottery Neolithic “B” Period. Religion played an important role in reducing people’s fear and weakness towards other creatures, as they practiced religious rituals in a variety of forms, beginning in the Paleolithic Period with some caches of ritual objects made of various materials such as pieces of stone or bone, or in the form of architectural structures containing stones in human and animal form, representing what can be called ritual buildings. With further development of people’s religious thoughts and beliefs, religious features became more apparent, and their numbers and variety increased. In the Neolithic Period, ritual buildings became more rooted and show further development and cohesion of people’s thoughts and religious beliefs. As a result, the types of ritual buildings included independent buildings containing artistic and architectural religious elements; rooms within the residential buildings containing caches for flint, stone, bone or animal tools and art pieces and plastered skulls; or colorful drawings on the walls or floors of buildings, all connected to religious thought, which means that the buildings can be called ritual buildings.