Page 50 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

THE EARLY DYNASTIC PERIOD

Section of PG/779
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10 METRES
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5 • 10 20 30 FEET
Figure 11. Section through a tomb, Ur

build corbelled vaults over tomb chambers erected underground (Figure 11). In domes­
tic and sacred architecture the vault played no part, so far as we know. The arch, con­
structed of plano-convex bricks, was used over doorways in houses.12
hi their plans the buildings show continuity with the preceding age. The same temple
at Khafaje which illustrated how the original plan of a shrine - self-contained and open
on all sides - was modified when used in a built-up area (pp. 7 to 8 above) develops •
further during the Early Dynastic Period. We observe (Figure 10) that the court has
now become an established feature of the building. A monumental entrance,13 flanked
by two towers, gives access to it. hi the past one or two steps had led up to the plinth on
which the shrine was placed (Figure 6). Now an impressive stairway approaches the
entrance (Figure 10).
On the middle Euphrates Early Dynastic architecture showed some peculiarities not
found elsewhere. The temple of Ishtar, at Mari,14 had an oblong shrine with a * bent
axis’ approach, as in the south, and was founded on layers of untrimmed stones, like the
temple at Al ‘Ubaid. But the walls were built of bricks which are flat, not plano-convex.
Moreover,-the colonnades of the Protoliterate temple of Warka have a successor here, al­
though the columns are reduced to more reasonable proportions, about three and a half
feet iii diameter. There are five of them, forming a cloister on two sides of a court. In
the south, columns are found only once in Early Dynastic times, at Kish, where they are
five and a half feet in diameter and support the roof of a long hall, and the portico roof
over a parapet, in a secular building.15
The temples we have described retained to the end the irregular form, due to its
gradual extension within the town where adjoining properties limited the builders.
When a temple was newly planned in an open space, a regular square or oval form was
adopted. The square or oblong plan always remained in use; the oval (Plate 12) is dis­
tinctive of the Early Dynastic Period.16 It is well to remember that no merely utili-
tarian considerations determined the work. Before the foundations of the temple oval
were laid, the whole area, which had been occupied by private houses, was excavated
down to virgin soil, more than twenty feet below ground level. This huge excavation
was next filled with clean desert sand which must have been brought from some dis­
tance. On top of the clean - or, to use the ritual term, pure - soil the foundations were
built. They followed the outline of the building, but were packed in clay up to a height
of about three and a half feet, so that the whole oval actually stood on a platform of that
height, although only its upper part appeared above the ground. Stone steps led up to
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