Ritual Buildings Research Articles

『오주연문장전산고』 사전(祀典)의 건축 관련부분 해석과 연구

"Ohju Yeonmun Jangjeon Sango" written by Lee, Gyu-gyeng is one of the most important encyclopedias in the period of Chosun-Dynasty. There are two chapters related to architecture in this book, one is "ancestral rite governance·human"chapter, and the other is "architecture·human" chapter. Both of them are hard to understand because they are written in ancient Chinese and consist of various quotations in ambiguous way. This paper as a partial study is deal with the former. It makes difference between writter's original texts and quotations through textual research, and translates to modern Korean, and analyze information about ancient architecture in texts. The texts can divide to three sections. The first introduces three Chinese architectural theory books as "Gogonggi(考工記)", "Yeongjo Beopsik(營造法式)" and "Mokgyeng(木經)", and mentions about the prototype of the royal ancestral ritual building in "Gogonggi Toju(考工記圖注)". The second quotes "Seoyeong(書影)" to introduce "Yeongjo Beopsik". The third quotes "PaePyeon(稗編)" to introduce "Yeongjo Beopsik" and "Mokgyeng", and mentions about the counting unit of columns of the royal ancestral ritual building. Although the purpose for these quotations is not directly mentioned, but we can find it is intended to explain the architectural prototype and lay-out of the royal ancestral ritual building.

So Fair a House

Archaeologists have proposed that quite a number of structures dating to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and B in southwest Asia were nondomestic ritual buildings, sometimes described specifically as temples or shrines, and these figure large in some interpretations of social change in the Near Eastern Neolithic. Yet the evidence supporting the identification of cult buildings is often equivocal or depends on ethnocentric distinctions between sacred and profane spaces. This paper explores the case of Gobekli Tepe, a large Pre-Pottery Neolithic site in Turkey that its excavator claims consisted only of temples, to illustrate weaknesses in some kinds of claims about Neolithic sacred spaces and to explore some of the problems of identifying prehistoric ritual. Consideration of the evidence suggests the alternative hypothesis that the buildings at Gobekli Tepe may actually be houses, albeit ones that are rich in symbolic content.

Architecture, sedentism, and social complexity at Pre-Pottery Neolithic A WF16, Southern Jordan

Recent excavations at Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) WF16 in southern Jordan have revealed remarkable evidence of architectural developments in the early Neolithic. This sheds light on both special purpose structures and "domestic" settlement, allowing fresh insights into the development of increasingly sedentary communities and the social systems they supported. The development of sedentary communities is a central part of the Neolithic process in Southwest Asia. Architecture and ideas of homes and households have been important to the debate, although there has also been considerable discussion on the role of communal buildings and the organization of early sedentarizing communities since the discovery of the tower at Jericho. Recently, the focus has been on either northern Levantine PPNA sites, such as Jerf el Ahmar, or the emergence of ritual buildings in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B of the southern Levant. Much of the debate revolves around a division between what is interpreted as domestic space, contrasted with "special purpose" buildings. Our recent evidence allows a fresh examination of the nature of early Neolithic communities.

COLOUR SYMBOLISM IN THE PREHISTORIC ARCHITECTURE OF CENTRAL ANATOLIA AND RAMAN SPECTROSCOPIC INVESTIGATION OF RED OCHRE IN CHALCOLITHIC ÇATALHÖYÜK

SummaryThe use of red ochre in the prehistoric architecture of Central Anatolia has long been recognized. Scholars have often argued that its use in architecture has a symbolic role, and that it has been used in sacred parts of ritual buildings. This paper examines red‐painted buildings in the prehistoric settlements of Central Anatolia. Recently, a building with red‐coloured plastered walls and floors was found in Chalcolithic Çatalhöyük West. The technique of Raman Spectroscopy has been applied to identify the red pigment and results show that it is red ochre, which contains predominantly hematite, Fe2O3.

The Cultural Context Model: How Does it Facilitate Couples’ Therapeutic Change?

This study examines how therapeutic change in couples is facilitated in the Cultural Context Model based on the model's identified family processes: critical consciousness, empowerment, and accountability. Participants included four female therapists and three couples who sought treatment voluntarily, two heterosexual couples, and one lesbian couple with diverse class and ethnic backgrounds who had spent at least 12 months receiving services at the Institute for Family Services and who were compliant with treatment. Videotaped sessions were analyzed by coding descriptive data using a constant comparative analysis method. An analysis of therapeutic interventions and clients' changes showed that the model works in four realms: conversational, behavioral, ritual, and community building.

TEXTILES AND THE MAYA ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD

AbstractTextiles formed a major part of any ancient Mesoamerican economy. Based on ethnohistory and iconography, the Maya were great producers of cloth for both internal and external use. However, the archaeological identification of textile production is difficult in any tropical area because of issues of preservation. This paper examines the evidence for the production and distribution of cloth that is found in the pre-Columbian Maya area and then focuses on archaeological data relative to textiles from the ancient Maya city of Caracol, Belize. Archaeology at Caracol has been carried out annually from 1985 to the present and has resulted in the collection of data that permits insight into the economic production and social distribution of cloth at the site. This is accomplished through examining the contexts and distributions of spindle whorls, bone needles, bone pins and hairpins, bone awls, and limestone bars. All of these artifacts can be related to weaving, netting, or cloth in some way. Importantly, perforated ceramic disks are not included in this grouping because of contextual information from the archaeological record that these artifacts likely functioned as backings for ear assemblages. Spindle whorls are the artifacts most clearly associated with textile production and 57 of these have been recovered at Caracol, 38 of them in 20 different burials. Several of these interments are of high-status women placed in the most important architectural constructions at the site. The contextual placement of these burials stresses not only the link between women and weaving, but also the high status associated with such an activity, thus signaling the importance of cloth and spinning in ancient Maya society. The prevalence of female interments in the major ritual buildings at Caracol also reflects the importance of women to Maya social structure during the Classic period (a.d.250–900), pointing to difficulties in hieroglyphically based interpretations of ancient Maya social organization and suggesting that the traditional focus on males in the sociopolitical organization of the Classic Maya is incorrect.

The Iron Age ritual building at Uppåkra, southern Sweden

Six years ago we reported the discovery of a central place at Uppåkra in southern Sweden which promised to be unusually rich and informative (Hårdh 2000). At 40ha it already stood out as the largest concentration of residual phosphate in the whole province of Scania, with surface finds of Roman and late Iron Age metalwork (second-tenth century AD). Following this thorough evaluation, the project moved into its excavation phase which has brought to light several buildings of the first millennium AD, among them one that has proved truly exceptional. Its tall structure and numerous ornamented finds suggest an elaborate timber cult house. This is the first Scandinavian building for which the term ‘temple’ can be justly claimed and it is already sign-posting new directions for the early middle ages in northern Europe.

»Momentaufnahmen« of Israelite Religion: The Importance of the Communal Meal in Narrative Texts in I/II Regum and Their Ritual Dimension

Narrative texts containing descriptions of ritual or ritualized actions are useful and important building blocks for the reconstruction of ancient Israelite reality and religion. Since these texts generally are to be classified as descriptive ritual texts, attention should be paid to specific categories of ritual (such as time, action[s], sequence, objects, space, intention, etc.), which may or may not be present in the text. For the ancient Israelite, ritual was such an integral part of his/her life that the narrator did not always supply the most detailed or complete description of the ritual, because knowledge of the social and religious dimensions of the specific ritual or action was presupposed. Modern readers and interpreters of the Hebrew Bible record do not always pay sufficient attention to these important ritual markers (and building blocks) or simply do not understand their socio-ritual dimension. After providing a brief introduction to recent work on ritual in the context of narrative historiographical literature, the important ritual building block of the communal meal will be studied in the context of I/II Regum and its importance for our understanding of Israelite religion will be highlighted.

The coevolution of ritual and society: New 14 C dates from ancient Mexico

New (14)C dates from Oaxaca, Mexico, document changes in religious ritual that accompanied the evolution of society from hunting and gathering to the archaic state. Before 4000 B.P. in conventional radiocarbon years, a nomadic egalitarian lifeway selected for unscheduled (ad hoc) ritual from which no one was excluded. With the establishment of permanent villages (4000-3000 B.P.), certain rituals were scheduled by solar or astral events and restricted to initiates/social achievers. After state formation (2050 B.P.), many important rituals were performed only by trained full-time priests using religious calendars and occupying temples built by corvee labor. Only 1,300-1,400 years seem to have elapsed between the oldest known ritual building and the first standardized state temple.

A cluster and spatial analysis of ceremonial architecture at Late Postclassic Mayapán

Mayapán, Yucatan, Mexico is the largest and best-known Late Postclassic archaeological site in the Maya lowlands. Ethnohistoric sources describe Mayapán as a cosmopolitan city with an extremely diverse population. This paper uses cluster and spatial analyses of ceremonial buildings called ‘oratorios’ to discern architectural analogues to the social complexity of Mayapán. Researchers supported by the Carnegie Institution of Washington in 1938 and from 1949 until 1955 collected the data evaluated in the present study. The cluster analysis revealed four major types of oratorio, two within the site's central ceremonial group and two outside the group. Each type within the ceremonial core is associated with a specific configuration of ritual buildings suggesting that the analysis has revealed ‘real’ sets of building types. Most of the oratorios in the two types of outside the core stood in residential groups. Variation between these two types appears to have been the result of varying investments of labor and materials in the construction of oratorios.

Las armas-trofeo en la cultura ibérica: pautas de identificación e interpretación

The archaeometalllurgical study of some iron celtic style swords and a celtiberian dagger found in iberian residential nucleus from Catalonia (NE Spain) verifies that they were intentionally made useless in order to be shown, nailed on a stand. These items belong to levels from the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C., located outdoors and indoors of ritual buildings, as well as in some storage-pits, often with animal offerings, human skulls pierced by nails and jaws. The association with cutheads shows that the closest cultural parallels are in the celtic world, specially between southern gal communities from the end of the Iron Age, although possible connections with greek spoils are also pointed out in this paper.

Jewels of Ceren

AbstractThe discovery at Joya de Cerén of the remains of a prehistoric village has presented archaeologists with an unprecedented view of pre-Columbian southern Mesoamerican earthen architecture. Twelve of the 17 known structures at the site have been partially or completely excavated to date. They include domestic dwellings, storehouses, and kitchens, as well as public and ritual buildings. These structures shared many architectural characteristics, yet each was unique. This paper draws upon the Cerén literature and personal field experience in order to present, in words and drawings, a comparison of form and function for these remarkably well-preserved structures, and suggests directions for further inquiry at Cerén.

Russia in the Era of NEP: Explorations in Soviet Society and Culture

Preface I. Introduction: NEP Russia as a Transitional Society William G. Rosenberg II. The Problem of Class Identity in NEP Society Sheila Fitzpatrick III. Class and Consciousness in a Socialist Society: Workers in the Printing Trades during NEP Diane P. Koenker IV. Labor Conflict in Moscow, 1921-1925 John B. Hatch V. WorkersO Artels and Soviet Production Relations Hiroaki Kuromiya VI. Private Trade and Traders during NEP R.E. Johnson VII. Family Life in Moscow during NEP VIII. Working-Class Women and the Withering Away of the Family: Popular Responses to Family Policy Wendy Z. Goldman IX. Razmychka? Urban Unemployment and Peasant In-migration as Sources of Social Conflict Douglas R. Weiner X. Soldiers in the Proletarian Dictatorship: From Defending the Revolution to Building Socialism Mark von Hagen XI. Policing the NEP Countryside Neil Weissman XII. Insoluble Conflicts: Villiage Life Between Revolution and Collectivization Helmut Altrichter XIII. The Quiet Revolution in Soviet Intellectual Life Katrina Clark XIV. The Press and Its Message: Images of America in the 1920s and 1930s Jeffrey Brooks XV. Popular Literature of the 1920s: Russian Peasants as Readers Regine Robin XVI. Popular Song in the NEP Era Robert A. Rothstein XVII. Bolshevik Ritual Building in the 1920s Richard Stites XVIII. Conclusion: Understanding NEP Society and Culture in the Light of New Research William G. Rosenberg Selected Bibliography Lori A. Citti Contributors Index

The Second Season of Investigations at the Initial Period Center of Cardal, Peru

AbstractThe 1987/1988 field season at the U-shaped civic ceremonial center of Cardal in the Lurin Valley, Peru, included mapping and excavation of public and domestic architecture. Occupied from 1150 to 800 b.c., Cardal provides evidence of a more elaborate ground plan than was previously recognized, including dual causewayed plazas, and 10 semisubterranean circular courts. Excavations of the public architecture revealed the periodic burial and construction of ritual buildings, including a steep central stairway and an atrium whose exterior wall was decorated with a polychrome mural of a gigantic mouth band with massive fangs and interlocking teeth. The investigations on the pyramid summit also yielded evidence of a free-standing building with a dual altar, and a burial area. Information on domestic architecture and subsistence recovered from behind the public complex is also discussed. Finally, Cardal is compared to Garagay, a coeval U-shaped center in the neighboring Rimac Valley, and it is argued that ...

Religion and ritual in sixth‐millennium B.C. Mesopotamia

Abstract Surprisingly little evidence that can be interpreted in terms of religious ritual or beliefs has survived from sixth‐millennium B.C. Mesopotamia. From the Hassuna phase there are virtually no relevant data, and only the cemeteries of Sawwan and Samarra reveal the existence of ‘religious’ beliefs among Samarran communities. Halaf settlements have yielded evidence of both ritual activity and buildings, but there is no persuasive evidence for either a ‘bull cult’ or that of a universal ‘Mother‐Goddess’. Only with the earliest ‘Ubaid villages in Sumer do we find buildings that can be described unequivocally as ‘shrines’.