Crossing the threshold : architecture, iconography and the sacred entrance / Madeleine Mumcuoglu and Yosef Garfinkel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mumcuoglu, Madeleine, author.

Garfinkel, Yosef, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Doorways--Design and construction.

Doorways.

Doorways--History.

Thresholds (Doorsills)--History.

Thresholds (Doorsills).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxxii, 176 pages) : illustrations, maps

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; Philadelphia : Oxbow Books, 2018.

Summary:

Every day millions of people enter public buildings of many forms and functions: Notre-Dame in Paris, Grand Central Station in New York, the British Museum in London, that are decorated with recessed doorways. None of them is likely to be aware that this style of decoration has been continuously employed for 6500 years in temples, royal palaces, tombs, churches, synagogues, and modern public buildings, becoming a symbol of the divine and of a place of worship. During this very long period, from the ancient Near East until today, the world has undergone immense changes, but the concept of the recessed opening was never forgotten or abandoned. What is the secret of its longevity? This unique cultural edifice is not only about architecture, but is a language that defines social order and relations with the ruling power and authorities. These, sometimes highly decorated and elaborate, sometimes simple and understated, thresholds in fact functioned on two communicative levels: first, as a liminal marker demarcating a sacred area and second, to emphasize the social order, as few were permitted to pass through. In this book the history of this eternal symbol is presented for the first time through text, figures, and photographs. The authors consider historical, anthropological, sociological, religious, and economic factors that reflect the significance of crossing these iconic thresholds according to the concept of the longue durée.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: pt. I Introduction, Methodology, Summarizing the Data, Discussion

ch. 1 Introduction

1.1.How Is this Study Organized?

1.2.The Research Questions

1.3.Definition of Recessed Openings

1.4.Recessed Openings: History of Research

ch. 2 Methodology

2.1.Identifying the Motif

2.2.Selection of Samples

2.3.Geographical and Chronological Boundaries

2.4.Dating the Samples

2.5.Presentation of the Data

2.6.Subdivision of the Data

ch. 3 Summarizing the Data

3.1.Categories of Representations

3.2.Chronology of Recessed Openings

3.3.Geography of Recessed Openings

ch. 4 Discussion

4.1.Local Developments or Diffusion?

4.2.The Adaptation of Recessed Openings

4.3.Recessed Openings as Decoration

4.4.Recessed Openings as an Icon of Social Order

4.5.Recessed Openings as a Liminal Marker

4.6.Conclusions

pt. II The Data: Recessed Openings in Architecture, Iconography and Text

Note continued: ch. 5 Recessed Openings from Late Prehistoric Mesopotamia (fifth and fourth millennia BCE)

ch. 6 Recessed Openings of the World's Earliest Cities (late fourth and third millennia BCE Mesopotamia)

ch. 7 Recessed Openings in Second Millennium BCE Mesopotamia and Adjacent Regions

ch. 8 Recessed Openings in First Millennium BCE Mesopotamia

ch. 9 Recessed Openings in the Iron Age and Persian Period in the Levant, Sardinia and Carthage (10th to fourth centuries BCE)

ch. 10 Recessed Openings in Late Antiquity Judaism

ch. 11 Recessed Openings in the Greek, Hellenistic and Roman Worlds (sixth century BCE to third century CE)

ch. 12 Recessed Openings in Early Christian Architecture: Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic (fourth century to 13th century CE)

ch. 13 Recessed Openings of Later Periods.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781789250794

178925079X

9781789250770

1789250773