Architecture and cultural memory

This study seeks to assess the impact of architecture on identity and experience in pre- exilic Israel and argues that crucial to this assessment is an interdisciplinary treatment of the iconographic system of the Temple of Solomon. It begins with a look to theoretical approaches to architecture generally and Israelite architecture specifically, approaches that move beyond singular meaning and builder's intent. The author's reconstruction of the Temple is set forth using primarily the description in 1 Kings 6-7 read together with extant archaeological material from the ancient Near East. It is argued at this point that the decoration of the architectural space was not piecemeal, but rather constituted a coherent system. This system is further argued to be clearly situated within intercultural iconographic traditions of the Iron Age and therefore is to be more carefully understood by reference to recent studies of similar construction projects. An understanding of the iconography is then sought via an examination of selected texts from the ancient Near East, including the Hebrew Bible. In many instances the Temple can be seen as both a receptacle for and attractor of important memories of Israel's corporate past. The performance of cultic and other dramas in this space concretized these memories and helped constitute corporate identity. From the results of these studies, it is argued, meaning in Temple architecture is appreciated best as a participant in the dynamic negotiation of cultural identities via commemorative memorialization, as a landscape on which such identities were made, challenged, and remade.