Master's Thesis

DRAMA MARGINALITY SPACE
ARCHITECTURE OF RITUAL ACTION IN ARCHAIC GREECE
A HELLENISTIC PARADIGM: PERGAMUM

Ömür Harmansah

A thesis submitted to the Graduate School of Social Sciences of the Middle East Technical University (Ankara, Turkey) in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of the History of Architecture

Supervisor Prof. SUNA GUVEN Middle East Technical University Department of Architecture

September 1996, Ankara

Abstract:

This thesis aims to contribute to the history of architecture in the ancient Mediterranean by investigating the influence of the socio-economical and cultural transformations in the Archaic Greek society on the formation of art and architecture. In the same way, it reflects on the subsequent making of a self-definition of the polis society. Collaborating various data from different disciplines, the study aims to investigate the artisanal and architectural innovations in sphere of the polis and its mytho-religious environment. Departing from the Lefebvrian idea of the social production of space, the study primarily focuses on the production of cult spaces through ritual action that formed the fundamental set of social practices in Archaic Greece. Myths and rituals, which formed the collective memory and the basic ideology of the society, are traced within the hermeneutic structure of the architecture of the time-period. Modelled upon three distinct architectural scales; the formation of the peripteral temple, the sanctuary complex and the urban landscape are discussed in the framework of relevant social practices. The discussions throughout the thesis are exemplified in the interpretation of the urban architecture of the Hellenistic city of Pergamum on the north-west coast of Asia Minor.

Keywords: Poetics, Myth, Ritual, Social Space, Drama, Temple, Sanctuary, Urban Design, Pergamum.

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ViewAbstract (PDF)

Chapters

I. Download
ViewPrologos (PDF)

II. Download
ViewArchaic Age and Metamorphoses of Greek Culture I Xoanon and The Goddess Behind (PDF)

• II.1 Archaic Age: Transformations in Art and Culture
  
• II.2 Magic Poetry Craftsman
  
• II.3 Sacred Tree Sacred Pillar in Early Sanctuaries: Xoanon and Peripteros in Progress
  
• II.4 Images of Samian Hera: Idol and Temple
  
• II.5 Xoana Move Out: Archaic Temple as the Hub of Movement and the Idea of the Monumental
  
• II.6 Architecture and Sacrifice or the Binding of Ritual
  

III. Download
ViewArchaic Age and Metamorphoses of Greek Culture II Sacrificial Ritual and the Making of Social Space: The Sanctuary (PDF)

• III.1 Traces in the Places and God-Filled Bodies
  
• III.2 Laying the Foundations: Construction via Destruction
  
• III.3 Sacrifice On Display: Sanctuary is Anathemata
  
• III.4 Hieron Asylon: A Place to Take Refuge
  
• III.5 On the Threshold: Demeter, Marginality, Drama
  

IV. Download
ViewArchaic Age and Metamorphoses of Greek Culture III Archaic Polis and Its Identity (PDF)

• IV.1 Making of the Cultural Geography in the Ancient Mediterranean: Travelling Topoi
  
• IV.2 Elaboration of a Mythical Geography: Greeks and the Barbarians
  
• IV.3 Founding the City
  
• IV.4 Territory, Cult and the City
  
• IV.5 Theater of the Polis
  

V. Download
ViewEkstasis and Drama on the Pergamene Stage (PDF)

• V.1 A Hellenistic Epilogue
  
• V.2 Pre-Attalid Pergamum: The Land and the People
  
• V.3 Attalid Kings and Urban Topography of Pergamum
  
• V.4 The Urban Drama
  

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ViewBibliography (PDF)