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Places of Sacrifice (‘Opferstätten’)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

E. Douglas van Buren
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Extract

It was not only in temples and upon tables of offerings that sacrifices were performed in early times in Mesopotamia, for certain detached areas were hallowed, and in them sacrifices were offered, constantly repeated on precisely the same spot. The ritual directions for the preparation for these ceremonies must have been both explicit and stringent, for the evidence reveals a scrupulous adherence to every detail, perpetually repeated every time the place was used. These particular places of sacrifice are known as “Opferstätten”, the designation given them by the excavators at Uruk-Warka, who were the first to interpret the evidence correctly; it is, indeed, to Dr. Lenzen's perspicuity and detailed observations that we owe most of the information we possess concerning them.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , Autumn 1952 , pp. 76 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1952

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References

page 76 note 1 This brief account of the subject has been prepared in compliance with a request from Professor Mallowan who thought that a summary of what is known about the places of sacrifice would be useful to scholars who have not time themselves to search fot the scattered information. My utmost thanks are due to Dr. Heinrich Lenzen, who most generously put at my disposal the photographs for Plates XXVI-XXIX, and to the Director of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago for permission to reproduce the two figutes on Plate XXX.

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page 87 note 1 op. cit., 45, Pl. 8.

page 87 note 2 op. cit., 45-6, Fig. 43.

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page 87 note 5 op. cit., 109, Pl. 17, F.

page 87 note 6 op. cit., 111, Pl. 17, H.

page 87 note 7 op. cit., 111, Pl. 17, I.

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page 89 note 3 Delougaz, op. cit., 37.

page 89 note 4 Frankfort, O.I.C. No. 20, Fig, 13.

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