The Sumerian World (Routledge Worlds)

A short conclusion

The reflections on resource investment and resource control and the interpretation
of change in the material heritage of past societies of Uruk allowed for the recognition
of the so-called public buildings of Eanna,for the naming of specific functions of at
least one group of its buildings, for the identification of builders and even speculation
about the rise of competition between the traditional cultic elite and an emerging
political elite. Each of these groups represents themselves as those in power through
the medium of the built environment. The formal analysis of the built environment
and the spatial design of Eannafurthermore showed that the public architecture
served (at a minimum) the cultic needs and the political demands of the elites.
However, what the public buildings meant for the public of Uruk and its visitors, and
how these people participated in the use of Eanna, remains, at the moment, an
unsolved question.

KHAFAJAH IN THE DIYALA REGION

The city of Khafajah probably founded in the early years of the third millennium, a
time roughly equivalent to Uruk III, lay 250 kilometres north of Uruk and, viewed
from Uruk was situated rather at the edge of the Mesopotamian world. It was the
centre of the Diyala region and belonged culturally to the Sumerian world.
The town looks back on a long settlement history, during which the local tradition
of ‘public buildings’ underwent a series of changes and radical breaks (Heinrich 1982 a,
b; Delougaz 1940 , 1942 ). Throughout the settlement history the spatial design of
Khafajah shows a concentration of buildings in its western settlement area (Figure 9. 2 ),
built on top of the highest topographical point. Two phases in particular in the city’s
building history, layers VII and VIII (numbered according to the analysis of building
levels in the so-called ‘Sin-temple’ area) show an architectural progression in that area
that was characterised both by continuous development as well as by a sharp break in
the local building tradition. A discussion of three buildings will demonstrate the
development of a so-called cult district in Khafajah,

Khafajah, layers VII and VIII: public buildings – domestic housing,

fundamental contrasts?

Khafajah layer VII is recorded in several houses in the western settlement area (Figure
9. 3 ), all built directly adjacent to each other. The western part of that settlement sector
is characterised by houses of almost the same type. Rooms and thus the floor plans as
well as the outer forms of the houses are arranged irregularly. As a rule, the houses
comprise several rooms, with one exception: in the middle of the excavated area stood
a building consisting of only one room and an ante-room or entrance, which the
excavators called a temple. Narrow alleys run between the houses and these pathways
meander through the quarter, in some cases leading to a dead end. At the eastern edge
of this settlement area those responsible for the building activities in the area placed a
second building that evidently differs from the others, designated a temple by the
excavators. The northern outer wall of the building forms a straight line; so does its
western one – and its eastern outer wall is more or less the same. Thus the user of that
district immediately saw the difference: on the one hand, irregular by formed buildings;

–– Public buildings, palaces and temples ––