Every day millions of people enter public buildings of many forms and functions: Notre-Dame in Paris, Central Station in New York; the British Museum in London, that are decorated with recessed doorways. None of them is likely to be aware that this style of decoration has been continuously employed for 6500 years in temples, royal palaces, tombs, churches, synagogues and modern public buildings, becoming a symbol of the divine and of a place of worship. During this very long period, from the ancient Near East until today, the world has undergone immense changes, but the concept of the recessed opening was never forgotten or abandoned. What is the secret of its longevity? This unique cultural edifice is not only about architecture, but is a language that defines social order and relations with the ruling power and authorities. These, sometimes highly decorated and elaborate, sometimes simple and understated, thresholds in fact functioned on two communicative levels: first, as a liminal marker demarcating a sacred area and second, to emphasize the social order, as few were permitted to pass through. In this book the history of this eternal symbol is presented for the first time through text, figures and photographs. The authors consider historical, anthropological, sociological, religious and economic factors that reflect the significance of crossing these iconic thresholds according to the concept of the longue durée.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• List of Color Plates, Figures and Tables
• Part I: Introduction, Methodology, Summarizing the Data, Discussion
  • Chapter 1: Introduction
    • 1.1. How Is this Study Organized?
    • 1.2. The Research Questions
    • 1.3. Definition of Recessed Openings
    • 1.4. Recessed Openings: History of Research
  • Chapter 2: Methodology
    • 2.1. Identifying the Motif
    • 2.2. Selection of Samples
    • 2.3. Geographical and Chronological Boundaries
    • 2.4. Dating the Samples
    • 2.5. Presentation of the Data
    • 2.6. Subdivision of the Data
  • Chapter 3: Summarizing the Data
    • 3.1. Categories of Representations
    • 3.2. Chronology of Recessed Openings
    • 3.3. Geography of Recessed Openings
  • Chapter 4: Discussion
    • 4.1. Local Developments or Diffusion?
    • 4.2. The Adaptation of Recessed Openings
    • 4.3. Recessed Openings as Decoration
    • 4.4. Recessed Openings as an Icon of Social Order
    • 4.5. Recessed Openings as a Liminal Marker
    • 4.6. Conclusions
• Part II: The Data: Recessed Openings in Architecture, Iconography and Text
  • Chapter 5: Recessed Openings from Late Prehistoric Mesopotamia (fifth and fourth millennia BCE)
  • Chapter 6: Recessed Openings of the World’s Earliest Cities (late fourth and third millennia BCE Mesopotamia)
  • Chapter 7: Recessed Openings in Second Millennium BCE Mesopotamia and Adjacent Regions
  • Chapter 8: Recessed Openings in First Millennium BCE Mesopotamia
  • Chapter 9: Recessed Openings in the Iron Age and Persian Period in the Levant, Sardinia and Carthage (10th to fourth centuries BCE)
  • Chapter 10: Recessed Openings in Late Antiquity Judaism
  • Chapter 11: Recessed Openings in the Greek, Hellenistic and Roman Worlds (sixth century BCE to third century CE)
  • Chapter 12: Recessed Openings in Early Christian Architecture: Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic (fourth century to 13th century CE)
  • Chapter 13: Recessed Openings of Later Periods
• References
• Plate section