The second ATRIUM Sign of the week is “Temple”.
According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (2 ed.), a temple is a specialised building devoted to the worship, or regarded as the dwelling place, of a god or other deity. Styles, construction, and layout vary greatly between cultures, but amongst many include some kind of ceremonial entrance; an open courtyard sometimes with elaborate colonnades or statuary around the edges; a focal building in the courtyard; and a central sanctuary within the focal building. In many cases the temple may be enclosed within a temenos of some kind.
In the ARIADNE Catalogue, the Getty Thesaurus filter for “Temple” results in over 1,800 matches which are geographically spread across Europe, North Africa and Japan with a few in Martinique. These resources date from the prehistoric period onwards to the modern day with a peak between 0-200 AD. This coincides with the Roman empire period – many temples were built on existing places of worship leading to classifications such as Romano-Celtic. The Catalogue filters such as the map can provide insights such as where such practices were predominant, in this case the southern part of Great Britain. There are very few Roman temples in Scotland (north of Hadrian’s Wall), the notable exception being Arthurs’ O’on, Stenhouse.
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