ABSTRACT

This article investigates the applicability of the concept of liminality to the archaeological analysis of temple thresholds, with a primary focus on the Bronze Age southern Levant. Previously, studies on cultic spaces have emphasized temple cellae as the central focal point of ritual. In contrast, ritual performed at temple thresholds has largely been an ignored phenomenon. This study presents theoretical, textual, and archaeological data to support the argument that thresholds, in general, elicited ritual activity, and that within temple contexts, a wide range of rituals were conducted, and offerings presented. After investigating the topic of liminality in rites of passage, an array of ANE texts will be used to shed light on threshold rituals. This is followed by a presentation of archaeological studies that have attempted to apply the concept of liminality to the archaeological record. Bronze Age temples from two sites, Lachish and Hazor, will be used as case studies to investigate whether there is evidence from the southern Levant for ritual in entrances and thresholds. The results of this study demonstrate that temple thresholds in Canaan did in fact function as liminal spaces within which ritual was conducted. Additionally, this study identifies an important distinction between rituals that were performed in the liminal space of thresholds and those that were performed in the temple’s cella. Ritual in the cella was theocentric, with the primary focus on the deity, while ritual at thresholds was anthropocentric, concerned with humans and their status transformations.

摘要

本文研究了阈限概念在寺庙门槛考古分析中的适用性，主要关注青铜时代的黎凡特南部。此前，对祭祀空间的研究强调寺庙内殿是仪式的中心焦点。相比之下，在寺庙门槛处举行的仪式在很大程度上是一种被忽视的现象。这项研究提供了理论、文本和考古数据来支持这样的论点，即门槛一般会引发仪式活动，并且在寺庙环境中进行了广泛的仪式，并提供了祭品。在研究了通过仪式中的阈值主题之后，将使用一系列 ANE 文本来阐明阈值仪式。随后介绍了试图将阈限性概念应用于考古记录的考古研究。来自拉吉和夏琐两个地点的青铜时代寺庙将被用作案例研究，以调查是否有来自黎凡特南部的入口和门槛仪式的证据。这项研究的结果表明，迦南的圣殿门槛实际上确实起到了进行仪式的阈限空间的作用。此外，这项研究确定了在阈限空间中进行的仪式与在寺庙的内殿中进行的仪式之间的重要区别。地窖中的仪式以神为中心，主要关注神，而门槛处的仪式以人类为中心，关注人类及其地位的转变。