Introduction To Education EDF 1005 Unit I Lesson II THE ORIGINS OF TEACHING -- J. McNair |
Study Notes
Egyptian Temples
An Egyptian temple was not a place of public worship. It was the shrine for the neter (wrongly translated as god), who represented some specific aspect of the One God. Only the priesthood had access to the inner sanctuaries, where the sacred rites and ceremonies were performed. In some instances, only the King himself or his authorized substitute had permission to enter.
The ancient Egyptian temple was built to facilitate the meeting between a specific supernatural/metaphysical force (neter/netert), and the physical/human, for the benefit of the people, land, and the universe. It was not intended to be an art gallery for academicians and tourists. Only a small part of it was open to the ancient Egyptian public, on annual festivities.
Therefore, every ancient Egyptian temple had/has a specific function. There is/was no temple more important or more interesting than another. They were all equally important.
The purpose and/or significance of the inscriptions on the walls of the temples, are unknown to us. As these temples are now open to the public, thousands of years later, understanding these private inscriptions is an illusive task.
Much of our knowledge about Egypt comes from temples which were reconstructed or built during the Ptolemics' rule of Egypt. The Ptolemics ruled Egypt and kept it independent through three centuries of turmoil, often murdering each other to acquire the throne.
The choice of location and design peculiarities of a temple were not based on economical considerations, but rather on a deeper knowledge, of which we are mostly still unaware. Great temples were not built quickly, or by one king alone. Such temples were built over the years, by successive kings.
In general, the Egyptian temple was surrounded by a massive wall of mud-brick.
This wall isolated the temple from its surroundings which, symbolically, represented the forces of chaos. Metaphorically, the mud resulted from the union of heaven and earth. The brick wall itself was therefore set in wavy courses to symbolize the primeval waters, representing the first stage of creation.
The exterior walls of the temple resembled a fortress, so as to defend it against all forms of evil. The temple was entered through two pylons, beyond which lay an open court. This court sometimes had colonnades along the sides and an altar in the middle. Next, along the temple-axis, came the hypostyle, a pillared hall often surrounded by small rooms which are used for the storage of temple equipment and for other secondary functions. Finally, there was the sanctuary, which was a dark room containing the shrine, where the figure of the neter was placed. The sanctuary's doors were shut and sealed all year long, and were open only for the great festivals. The sanctuary was called the "Great Seat". Outside the walls of the temple were the residences of the priestly staff, the workshops, storerooms, and other ancillary structures. (From http://www.egypt-tehuti.org/temples.html)
Temple Schools
In the Middle Kingdom the first indication of a house of instruction appears, on the tomb of Kheti, a nomarch at Asyut. He urges every scribe and every scholar who has been to school to behave properly when passing his monument ad to speak an offering formula for the deceased. The writer of the so-called Satire of the Trades in the 12th Dynasty brought his son to the school for scribes at "the Residence" of the King near el-Lisht. The author, named Khety, gives himself no rank. Perhaps he was a common man who found a place for his son at this elite school.
During the New Kingdom there were at least two schools in Thebes, one in the Mut Temple, the other at the back of the Ramesseum. There may have been a third near the Valley of Deir el-Medina, where the children of workmen were taught. http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/educate.htm
Mesopotamian Temples
The most elaborate of the Sumerian buildings
was the temple or ziggurat. Normally a huge platform or terrace was first
constructed, upon which the temple could be built; but in later times, as
the terraces grew to be like artificial mountains, they were built in huge
steps or levels mounted by an elaborate stairway clearly symbolizing the
ascent toward heaven. The purpose of these ziggurats is still unclear. We
do know that they were not burial chambers like the pyramids of Egypt ,
nor were they for human sacrifice like the pyramids of Aztec Mexico. It
has been suggested that they were a nostalgic re-creation of the mountains
the original settlers had left, or an at- tempt to raise the city's god
above the material life of the streets below, or an attempt to reach closer
to heaven. We do know that the creation of a temple was regarded as a god-imposed
task for every ruler of any ambition. Gudea, ruler of Lagash about 2000
B. c., built fifteen large temples with the aid of the gods: "Inscrutable
as the sky, the wisdom of the Lord, of Ningirsu, the son of Enlil, will
soothe thee," he was told. "He will reveal to thee the plan of
His temple, and the Warrior whose decrees are great will build it for thee."
The task proved enormous.
The Sumerian temple was a small brick house that the god was supposed to
visit periodically. It was ornamented so as to recall the reed houses built
by the earliest Sumerians in the valley. This house, however, was set on
a brick platform, which became larger and taller as time progressed until
the platform at Ur (built around 2100 BC) was 150 by 200 feet (45 by 60
meters) and 75 feet (23 meters) high.
These Mesopotamian temple platforms are called ziggurats, a word derived from the Assyrian ziqquratu, meaning "high." They were symbols in themselves; the ziggurat at Ur was planted with trees to make it represent a mountain. There the god visited Earth, and the priests climbed to its top to worship.
The ziggurat continued as the essential temple form of Mesopotamia during the later Assyrian and Babylonian eras. In these later times it became taller and more towerlike, perhaps with a spiral path leading up to the temple at the top. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that the main temple of Babylon, the famous Tower of Babel, was such a tower divided into seven diminishing stages,
The large Choghazanbil temple is one of the three ancient monuments in Iran which have been registered in the Index of World Human Heritage. The Elamites built the large Choghazanbil temple approximately 2500 years B.C.
The king, his queen and the crown prince accompanied by his courtiers approach ziggurat mounted on royal chariots. While a large congregation of common people are watching the procession, they disembark from their chariots and enter the ziggurat precincts from the royal gate. Inside the ziggurat Shaten, the chief priest pours water on the king's hands by a pitcher. The ceremony commences with the musicians playing religious melodies by harp, lute and flute. The animals chosen for sacrifice are killed in 14 platforms built like short headless pyramids beside the temple of In-Shushinak. Then the king and his companions ascend to the second floor of the building by stairs. Here the king pours a special syrup on the altar for the intended god and accompanied by the chief priest and a small number of his attendants he ascends to the third floor. In the third floor some of his attendants remain and only the chief priest and his close associates ascend to the fourth floor. In this flour the close associates remain and the king, accompanied only by the chief priest, ascends the main temple of the ziggurat in the fifth floor.
The Choghazanbil ziggurat (building by Dur-Untash) is the only surviving ziggurat in Iran and is one of the most important remnants of the Elamite civilization. The Elamite citizens were a nation who lived in Iran about 2500 years B.C. and succeeded to announce their existence at Awan (now called Shoushtar, a town in Khouzestan Province). According to the chronicles of the Old Testament, an ancient king named Kedor Laomer in Elam succeeded to extend his domain as far as Palestine (Genesis, Chapter 14). The significance of the scientific and cultural achievements of Elamites and their influence on other civilizations can be better understood when we learn that the first wheeled pitcher (the first wheeled roller) was apparently invented by human beings at Elam. On the other hand the first arched roof and its covering which is a very important technique in architecture was invented by the Elamite and used in the mausoleum of Tepti-ahar around 1360 B.C. (unearthed in the excavations made at Haft Tappeh) nearly 1,500 years before such arches were used by the Romans. http://www.netiran.com/Htdocs/Clippings/Social/970800XXSO02.html
Temple Schools
Cuneiform was difficult to learn. To master it children usually went to a temple school. Using a clay tablet as a textbook, the teacher wrote on the left-hand side, and the pupil copied the model on the right. Any mistakes could be smoothed out. The pupil began by making single wedges in various positions and then went on to groups of wedges. Thousands of groups had to be mastered. Finally the pupil was assigned a book to copy, but the work was slow and laborious. Many first chapters of all the important Sumerian works have been handed down from students' tablets, but only fragments of the rest of the books survive.
The pupils also studied arithmetic. The Sumerians based their number system on 10, but they multiplied 10 by 6 to get the next unit. They multiplied 60 by 10, then multiplied 600 by 6, and so on. (The number 60 has the advantage of being divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, and 30.) The Sumerians also divided the circle into 360 degrees. From these early people came the word dozen (a fifth of 60) and the division of the clock to measure hours, minutes, and seconds.
The Sumerians had standard measures, with units of length, area, and capacity. Their standard weight was the mina, made up of 60 shekels--about the same weight as a pound. There was no coined money. Standard weights of silver served as measures of value and as a means of exchange.
From the earliest times the Sumerians had a strong sense of private property. After they learned to write and figure, they kept documents about every acquired object, including such small items as shoes. Every business transaction had to be recorded. Near the gates of the cities, scribes would sit ready to sell their services. Their hands would move fast over a lump of clay, turning the stylus. Then the contracting parties added their signatures by means of seals. The usual seal was an engravedcylinder of stone or metal that could be rolled over wet clay.
In the course of time cuneiform was used for every purpose, just as writing is today--for letters, narratives, prayers and incantations, dictionaries, even mathematical and astronomical treatises. The Babylonians and Assyrians adapted cuneiform for their own Semitic languages and spread its use to neighboring Syria, Anatolia, Armenia, and Iran. (http://ragz-international.com/sumeria.htm)
Chinese Temples
[An]... example of Chinese architecture is the Buddhist temple which can be found scattered around China. Unfortunately, there are not many of these temples left. The reason being that most of them were torn down because the space was either needed for urban development, or others just fell apart because of many years of neglect. One tower which still remains is nearly 400 feet high which was erected in the Yung-ning-ssu dynasty. This temple is located at Toyang and was made at the beginning of the 6th century. However, there is not much information which can be found about these towers.
Information which is available says that the most distinctive kinds of Buddhist buildings in China are the stupa (t'a) or pagoda. The pagoda was mainly used to house sacred objects. As for the architecture, these temples can take the form of a storied tower, or, more rarely, a upturned bowl. As the centuries passed, however, the shape of these temples took new forms. In the second and third century, the structures were basically made out of wood. Their shape took the form of a tetragonal under Sung during the 10th Century. The next dynasty, Tang, decided to have their towers shaped into an octagon or diagonal. The number of stories varied with each of the buildings. The height demised regularly from the base to the summit but everything else remained the same.(http://library.thinkquest.org/10098/china1.htm#Temples)
No Chinese Temple Schools
The ancient Chinese did not "marry" education formally to religion as did the Ancient Egyptians and the Ancient Mesopotamians. When public schools emerged in the 11th century BCE, dyring the Chou dynasty, they were established by the Emperor and had little to do with the temples. The Chou ... had to contend with the validity of their rule. In order to convince their subject peoples, especially the nobles, of the legitimacy of their power, the Chou invented a new system of authority which they called t'ien ming, or "the Mandate of Heaven." This concept is still an integral aspect of Chinese theories of authority. The Chou defined the kingship as an intermediary position between heaven and earth; the Chinese character for emperor or lord, "ti," demonstrates this eloquently. The ideograph consists of three horizontal lines joined by a vertical line. This represents the connection between heaven (at the top) and the earth (at the bottom). This relationship is mediated by the lord or emperor (the center horizontal line). Heaven ("t'ien") desires that humans be provided for in all their needs, and the emperor, according to the idea of "t'ien ming" is appointed by heaven to see to the welfare of the people. This is the "Decree" or "Mandate" of heaven. If the emperor or king, having fallen into selfishness and corruption, fails to see to the welfare of the people, heaven withdraws its mandate and invests it in another. The only way to know that the mandate has passed is the overthrow of the king or emperor; if usurpation succeeds, then the mandate has passed to another, but if it fails, then the mandate still resides with the king.(http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/ANCCHINA/CHOU.HTM)
Schools were established for the sons of the nobility in the capital city of Chou and the capital cities of the feudal states. Schools for the common people were provided within the feudal states in villages and hamlets and were attended, according to written records, by men and women after their work in the fields. There were elementary and advanced schools for both the ruling classes and the common people. Separate studies for girls were concerned chiefly with homemaking and the feminine virtues that assured the stability of the family system.
The content of education for the nobility consisted of the "six arts"- rituals, music, archery, charioteering, writing, and mathematics. They constituted what may be called the "liberal education" of the period. Mere memory work was condemned. As Confucius said of the ancient spirit of education, "learning without thought is labour lost."
Almost all Indian art has been religious, and almost all forms of artistic tradition have been deeply conservative. The Hindu temple developed over two thousand years and its architectural evolution took place within the boundaries of strict models derived solely from religious considerations. Therefore the architect was obliged to keep to the ancient basic proportions and rigid forms which remained unaltered over many centuries.
Even particular architectural elements and decorative details which had originated long before in early timber and thatch buildings persisted for centuries in one form or another throughout the era of stone construction even though the original purpose and context was lost. The horseshoe shaped window is a good example. Its origins lie in the caitya arch doorway first seen in the third century B.C. at the Lomas Rishi cave in the Barbar Hills. Later it was transformed into a dormer window known as a gavaksha; and eventually it became an element in a purely decorative pattern of interlaced forms seen time and time again on the towers of medieval temples. So, in its essence, Indian architecture is extremely conservative. Likewise, the simplicity of building techniques like post and beam and corbelled vaulting were preferred not necessarily because of lack of knowledge or skill, but because of religious necessity and tradition.
On the other hand, the architect and sculptor were allowed a great deal of freedom in the embellishment and decoration of the prescribed underlying principles and formulae. The result was an overwhelming wealth of architectural elements, sculptural forms and decorative exuberance that is so characteristic of Indian temple architecture and which has few parallels in the artistic expression of the entire world.
It is not surprising that the broad geographical, climatic, cultural, racial, historical and linguistic differences between the northern plains and the southern peninsula of India resulted, from early on, in distinct architectural styles. The Shastras, the ancient texts on architecture, classify temples into three different orders; the Nagara or 'northern' style, the Dravida or 'southern ' style, and the Vesara or hybrid style which is seen in the Deccan between the other two. There are also dinsinct styles in peripheral areas such as Bengal, Kerala and the Himalayan valleys. But by far the most numerous buildings are in either the Nagara or the Dravida styles and the earliest surviving structural temples can already be seen as falling into the broad classifications of either one or the other.(http://www.templenet.com/temparc.html#The%20Nagara%20Style)