Page 82 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

THE NEO-SUMERIAN PERIOD

the formerly independent city-states found manifest expression in an official cult. The
temple is a typical example of a sanctuary at the end of the third millennium b.c. The
outside is decorated with flat buttresses, but the entrance is emphasized by two towers
ornamented with stepped recesses (cf. Plate 55)* It leads into a lobby or porters’ room,
with stairs, on the right, leading to the roof. Beyond the lobby is a square court, with
the cclla at the far end. The statue of the god stood in a niche, with a pottery drain be­
fore it to dispose of the liquids poured in libation (cf. Plate 53). To the left of the cella
is a vestry or sacristy. The altar was not placed in the cclla (as in the Early Dynastic and
Protoliteratc shrines) but was erected in the court.
Against the temple, and joining it at an acute angle, stood the palace of the local
governors. At its extreme western end the Palace Chapel repeats, with a few modifica­
tions, the plan of the Temple of Gimilsin. It differs in the possession of an antecella, and
of a bathroom and other accommodation for resident priests from the larger temple,
but was, like the latter, accessible from the palace as well as from the street. This point
is of greater importance than has been realized. If the palace entrances are viewed as the
main entrances, both shrines show the traditional ‘bent axis approach’, and this view of
the lay-out is justified since the Gimilsin temple, as seat of the state-cult, no less than the
palace chapel was an accessory of the rulers’ palace. The official processions would use
the entrances which appear to us as side entrances. Gates towards the street were, how­
ever, required, since each temple was an important economic unit, where a great deal of
business was transacted. In practice the street entrances were much more frequented than
those connected with the palace, and so the bent-axis approach was superseded. We shall
see that a similar development took place also in temples not connected with palaces (see
p. 54 and plate 55); it explains the fact that in the second and first millennium B.c. the
cella generally lies in the axis of the main entrance, which, historically speaking, has
usurped this function.19
The palace was entered in the angle where it joins the Gimilsin temple. The visitor
had to pass through two long, narrow guardrooms after leaving the lobby. It was thus
impossible for enemies of the prince to force an entry by surprise. A path paved with
baked bricks marked the crossing of the main court and ensured dry passage to visitors
during the winter. The broad, narrow room facing the court was probably the throne
room, like the corresponding chamber at Mari. Behind it lay the Great Hall, used per­
haps for festivities, but probably also, and mainly, as a centre of the administration. It was
surrounded by government offices. The rulers’ residential quarters may have been on a
first floor to which stairs found north of the throne room gave access. Or he resided out­
side. But on the north side of die square palace courtyard there is a suite, consisting of
vestibule, ante-chamber, audience chamber, and cabinet, where the ruler (we presume)
normally transacted business, the throne room being used for ceremonial occasions only.
The appearance of such a complex can be imagined by analogy with plate 55, a recon­
struction of the temple at Ishchali. This building post-dates the fall of Ur, and we must
for a moment describe the sequel of that
event.

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