Tripartite plan

A reference page linking a name, group, or concept to the materials that discuss it.

Architectural arrangement with an elongated central space and lateral sections or rooms. Describes spatial organization, not necessarily three rooms. Found in houses and ritual buildings; does not alone determine function.

Text

Form is not enough

Ubaid houses and later temples share this architectural language. Distinguishing them requires finds, installations, traces of use and location, rather than a plan alone.^[1]

Diagram

1 central hall, 2 side rooms. Modern conceptual illustration, not an excavation plan or reconstruction of a specific temple. Room counts and dimensions are illustrative choices, not measurements of Eridu.

References and notes

Samuel Lee Harris (2021). Public Works and Private Work on the Threshold of Complexity: The Production and Use of Space at Late Chalcolithic 1 Tell Surezha, Iraq. PhD dissertation, University of Chicago. doi:10.6082/uchicago.2971. Page 51 and pp. 72–74, especially 2.4.2 Sacred Space – Eridu & Uruk. Text and figure 2.20 visually checked; not the complete dissertation. XI assessment and excavation details accessed through Harris citing Safar, Mustafa and Lloyd 1981, not our independent reading of that report. XIV is not a preserved temple. Return to the text ↑

Research history

Substantive changes are retained here. Minor copy edits remain in the internal operational log.