Page 32 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

THE PROTOLITERATE PERIOD
tion of a utilitarian device to an art-form was completed, and down to the Hellenistic
Age Mesopotamian temples continued to be distinguished from secular buildings y
buttresses and recessed walls. The early stages of this development were not confined to
the south. At Tepe Gawra, in the north, a temple shows walls buttressed inside and
outside (Figure 2);7 the doorway opens between stepped recesses which effectively
emphasize an entrance in a facade. Yet the position of the buttresses is obviously related
to the problem of roofing the enclosed space. They occur where beams or rafters rest
upon the walls, and although spaced more or less regularly, they have not become pure
decoration.8

5 METRES

10 15 FEET
*
Figure 2. Temple in stratum XIII, Tepe Gawra

The temple of Tepe Gawra appears rather tentative and experimental when we corn-
pare it with the last temple built at Abu Shahrein (Eridu) during the Al ‘Ubaid Period.
This has left the earlier buildings far behind in its clear and purposeful plan9 (Figure 3).
The central space — the cella or actual shrine — is clearly set off from the subsidiary rooms
located in die corner bastions. The buttresses have become a regular feature of the outer
walls. An altar, placed against one of the short walls, is faced by an offering-table. The
building is entered dirough one of its long walls by means of stairs leading up to die plat-
form on which it is placed. All these features remain distinctive of Mesopotamian
temples in subsequent periods.
Since writing was unknown at die time, we cannot know what god was worshipped
in this shrine. But there is at least a likelihood that it was Ea, who was the chief deity of
n u in historical times. This god was manifest in the sweet waters (‘he has built his

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