Platform temple (proto-ziggurat)
Templo en plataforma elevada (antecedente del zigurat)
- Date
- c. 5300 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Eridu (Tell Abu Shahrain), Dhi Qar, Iraq
- Credited to
- Ubaid culture
- Field
- Tools
What it is
A sequence of eighteen superimposed temples at Eridu, from a single-room shrine to tripartite buildings with an altar and offerings on ever-higher terraces. It institutionalises the temple as an economic, redistributive centre.
What it led to
- The temple as landowner, storehouse and employer: the Sumerian redistributive economy
- The priesthood as an administrative, literate elite
- Vertical monumentality culminating in the ziggurat
Built on
- Monumental pillar sanctuaryc. 9500 BCE
- Mud brick (adobe)c. 9000 BCE
- Canal irrigationc. 6000 BCE
- Monumental temple of Göbekli Tepe