Page 64 - AC-2-4

Arts & Communication

ARTICLE
Culture as a drive for art and architecture:

Ugarit’s religious architecture as cultural and
societal manifestations

Tarek Teba*

School of Architecture, Art and Design, Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries,
University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom

Abstract

Religious buildings are representatives of the cultural and ritual dimensions of
ancient civilization, contributing to city morphology and systems. Their architecture
provides interpretations and information about past societies’ experiences of place,
space, and everyday social and cultural practices. Therefore, this paper focuses on
the city of Ugarit, the capital city of a Bronze Age civilization that occupied the
northwest part of present-day Syria, and explores the relationship between Ugaritic
people’s ritual and cultural dimensions and the architecture of their central and local
religious building (temples and sanctuaries). Through an in-depth investigation of
archeological reports and text excavated in the city, as well as onsite architectural
analysis and observation, this article investigates how the architectural forms and
planning of large and small religious buildings in Ugarit were informed by Ugaritic
people’s religious practices and cults. The work points out that the Ugaritic people
*Corresponding author: carefully planned their religious buildings on both architectural and urban scales. To
Tarek Teba
(tarek.teba@port.ac.uk) fulfill their rituals, the Ugaritic people designed the architecture, structure, and form
of their religious buildings based on their religious practices and beliefs rather than
Citation: Teba T. Culture as a drive being influenced by temple design principles shared in the region. This approach
for art and architecture: Ugarit’s
religious architecture as cultural resulted in building forms and architectural/interior arrangements that are distinctive
and societal manifestations. Arts & from those of surrounding civilizations and regions.
Communication. 2024;2(4):3132.
doi: 10.36922/ac.3132
Received: March 11, 2024 Keywords: Religious architecture; Ugarit; Bronze Age; Architecture and rituals; Meaning
of architecture; Ancient temples; Sanctuaries
Accepted: May 17, 2024
Published Online: September 5,
2024
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). 1. Introduction
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms Architecture and the built environment are representations of people’s indigenous
of the Creative Commons values, culture, and beliefs. In his book The Meaning of Built Environment, Amos
AttributionNoncommercial License, Rapoport explored the links between different architectural, landscape, and urban
permitting all non-commercial use,
1
distribution, and reproduction in any scales and people’s culture, everyday life, and practices. It is important to highlight
medium, provided the original work that the meanings derived from the built environment can inform our understanding
is properly cited. of ancient cultures and civilizations where architecture was not intentionally designed;
Publisher’s Note: AccScience rather, it was a spontaneous response to the civilization’s political, economic, social/
Publishing remains neutral with cultural, and religious dimensions. Furthermore, Christian Norberg-Schulz identified
2
3
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional four levels of existential space: geographical and landscape, urban, the house, and the
affiliations. thing. He emphasized that a comprehensive understanding of space, regardless of its
Volume 2 Issue 4 (2024) 1 doi: 10.36922/ac.3132