RELIGIOUS INNOVATION AND ELITE IDEOLOGY AT BRONZE AGE HAZOR

Summary Hazor was the largest Bronze Age site in the southern Levant, established as an urban centre with many temples. This study explores how Hazor's elites used religion as an ideological tool to promote their legitimacy, to reinforce social hierarchy, and to maintain control over the popula...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Oxford journal of archaeology 2022-05, Vol.41 (2), p.152-171
Main Author: Susnow, Matthew
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Archaeology
Bronze Age
Elites
Ideology
Innovations
Legitimacy
Religion
Rites & ceremonies
Spatial analysis
Temples
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Summary:Summary Hazor was the largest Bronze Age site in the southern Levant, established as an urban centre with many temples. This study explores how Hazor's elites used religion as an ideological tool to promote their legitimacy, to reinforce social hierarchy, and to maintain control over the populace. Accordingly, a methodology employing the spatial analysis of temple assemblages will be used to show that the use patterns of many of Hazor's temples diverge from other contemporary temples in the region. These anomalies, it is argued, resulted from Hazor's elites actively controlling and manipulating the performance of ritual throughout the site. Hazor's elites also made use of highly recognizable forms of cultic space so as to engage the non‐elite sectors of society while altering the manner in which those spaces were used and who had access to them. This religious innovation at Hazor was directly related to an elite ideology that strived to maintain control over non‐elites, while also aiming to integrate the various socially stratified groups into a community joined together in a sacred landscape.
ISSN:0262-5253
1468-0092
DOI:10.1111/ojoa.12242