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Arts & Communication Culture as a drive for art and architecture

and urban settings started to reflect a strong relationship these aspects should be among the key principles that
between the people and their cults, as well as the relationship inform the site’s conservation and development, due to
between the buildings’ enclosures and the surrounding the strong architectural and urban representations of these
domestic fabric of the city. This strongly highlights the dimensions in the ruined site. The understanding of the
importance of these two temples for the city’s structure religious and ritual aspects of the city has brought to light a
and its people across different social classes. Furthermore, new way of reading the City’s religious architecture, both as
cultural and religious dimensions resulted in an interesting individual buildings or as part of the city structure. Due to
horizontal and vertical hierarchy of sacred spaces, starting the fragility of the ruins and dense vegetation, some areas
with the courtyards and ending with the temple’s summit, were inaccessible during the in situ architectural analyses
which, in turn, shaped the buildings’ architectural form and observations carried out in May 2013. However, the
and planning. extensive archeological and excavation reports made it
possible to understand these areas, with reference to other
Although the massive volume of the two temples on
the acropolis represents their importance to the Ugaritic accessible areas that share similar fabric and architectural
principles.
people, local sanctuaries were also carefully considered and
planned to fulfill the community’s cultic and ritual needs. The exploration of the relationships between cultural
As a result, certain architectural planning principles were and religious dimensions, and the architectural and urban
followed and refined over time. This provides an important principles in Ugarit, provides a framework for further
clue about the planning skills that the Ugaritic people had, research on the site. Other architects could adopt new
not only for central and massive religious structures but approaches and compare their findings with those of this
also considering the neighborhood-scale cultic and social study, which would further enhance the credibility of the
centers. These developments are quite significant for the findings of this study and contribute to future preservation
overall understanding of the city and disclose substantial and interpretation strategies of the site. Furthermore, further
knowledge about the urban structure and the morphology analysis of the inaccessible areas could reinforce, support,
of Ugarit. or clarify the conclusions of this work. Considering the fact
that only 35% of the site has been excavated, this line of
Since the discovered religious structures do not
represent all dominant gods in Ugarit during the Bronze research will continue to develop as new findings related to
religious buildings emerge. In addition, the methodological
Age period, it is fundamental to point out that future and analysis framework of this article can contribute to the
excavations will definitely uncover other (large or small) analysis and interpretations of future excavation at much
religious buildings, as only 35% of the town has been earlier stages. This is crucial because the analysis of the
excavated so far. For now, it is essential to carry out excavated religious buildings by the mission’s archeologists,
comprehensive analyses of the discovered parts of the architects, and the author of this article was conducted
city to identify other local sanctuaries, if any exist. The on structures that had been exposed for a long time after
main focus should be on structures that have not been excavation, resulting in the loss of archeological evidence
fully determined, especially in the South City, where over time. Aligning new archeological excavations with
many structures remain incompletely excavated or meaningful analysis of the links between Ugaritic social/
identified. This initial effort will significantly contribute cultural aspects and architecture could yield interesting
to understanding each area and to establishing a clearer findings and interpretations that would support the site’s
picture of the different forms in which local sanctuaries management and musealization strategies.
might be represented in Ugarit. The results of this
preliminary analysis will constitute a good trigger for Acknowledgments
guiding the planning strategy for future excavations and
analysis in the city. This aspect should be further explored None.
through an urban reading of the excavated parts of the city Funding
of Ugarit, in which the primary temples on the Acropolis
are pivotal in comprehending and admiring the city’s None.
urban principles and structure.
Conflict of interest
4. Conclusion The author declares that there are no competing interests.
This study is an original attempt to highlight how the ritual
and religious aspects of Ugaritic life informed the creation Author contributions
of the city, its buildings, and its open spaces. Therefore, This is a single-authored article.

Volume 2 Issue 4 (2024) 13 doi: 10.36922/ac.3132