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Doorway Orientation, Settlement Planning and Cosmology in Ancient Israel During Iron Age II
Author(s) -
Faust Avraham
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
oxford journal of archaeology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.382
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1468-0092
pISSN - 0262-5253
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0092.00127
Subject(s) - settlement (finance) , human settlement , israelites , connotation , iron age , history , archaeology , ethnography , cosmology , geography , ancient history , linguistics , philosophy , computer science , world wide web , payment , physics , quantum mechanics
An examination of Iron Age buildings and settlements in ancient Israel indicates that a large number of them were oriented toward the east, while the west was extremely under‐represented. An examination of various climatic and functional considerations does not seem to explain the phenomenon. Many ethnographic studies, however, have demonstrated the strong influence that cosmological principles can have on the planning of buildings and settlements, and that in many cases the east is preferred. In the present study, however, we have additional information. The common Biblical Hebrew word for east is qedma (forward), while the west is ahora (backward). Additional words for these directions indicate that the east had a good connotation while the west had a bad one. Thus, the archaeological pattern, along with language and texts (which are used as a substitute for human informants), seem to give an important insight into some of the cosmological principles of the ancient Israelites.