Academic literature on the topic 'North-western inner Syria'

The Mersin Melange underlies the intact Mersin Ophiolite and its metamorphic sole to the south of the Mesozoic Tauride Carbonate Platform in southern Turkey. The Melange varies from chaotic melange to broken formation, in which some stratigraphic continuity can be recognized. Based on study of the broken formation, four lithological associations are recognized: (1) shallow-water platform association, dominated by Upper Palaeozoic–Lower Cretaceous neritic carbonates; (2) rift-related volcanogenic–terrigenous–pelagic association, mainly Upper Triassic andesitic–acidic volcanogenic rocks, siliciclastic gravity flows, basinal carbonates and radiolarites; (3) within-plate-type basalt–radiolarite–pelagic limestone association, interpreted as Upper Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous seamounts with associated radiolarian sediments and Upper Cretaceous pelagic carbonates; (4) ophiolite-derived association, including fragments of the Upper Cretaceous Mersin Ophiolite and its metamorphic sole. Locally, the ophiolitic melange includes granite that yielded a K/Ar radiometric age of 375.7±10.5 Ma (Late Devonian). This granite appears to be subduction influenced based on ‘immobile’ element composition.The Mersin Melange documents the following history: (1) Triassic rifting of the Tauride continent; (2) Jurassic–Cretaceous passive margin subsidence; (3) oceanic seamount genesis; (4) Cretaceous supra-subduction zone ophiolite genesis; (5) Late Cretaceous intra-oceanic convergence-metamorphic sole formation, and (6) latest Cretaceous emplacement onto the Tauride microcontinent and related backthrusting.Regional comparisons show that the restored Mersin Melange is similar to the Beyşehir–Hoyran Nappes further northwest and a northerly origin best fits the regional geological picture. These remnants of a North-Neotethys (Inner Tauride Ocean) were formed and emplaced to the north of the Tauride Carbonate Platform. They are dissimilar to melanges and related units in northern Syria, western Cyprus and southwestern Turkey, which are interpreted as remnants of a South-Neotethys. Early high-temperature ductile transport lineations within amphibolites of the metamorphic sole of the Mersin ophiolite are generally orientated E–W, possibly resulting from vertical-axis rotation of the ophiolite while still in an oceanic setting. By contrast, the commonly northward-facing later stage brittle structures are explained by backthrusting of the ophiolite and melange related to exhumation of the partially subducted northern leading edge of the Tauride continent.

This is one of the most eventful periods in the early history of preliterate Anatolia. Urban and rural settlements in western Anatolia, in the central Anatolian plateau including the Pontus region and in the eastern highlands show signs of conflagration. Archaeological surveys carried out in north-central Anatolia and in the Konya plain suggest that in some cases permanent settlements were abandoned at different phases of the EB III. These destructions were no doubt caused by unrecorded events such as inter-regional rivalry between city-states, intruding pastoralists, incursions by foreign armies (e.g. from Mesopotamia/N. Syria), invasions by nomadic hordes and natural catastrophes (Yakar 1981a: 106–7). On the basis of field surveys and a few excavations of limited scope alone one cannot establish a pattern of destructions which could be attributed to one particular factor described above. I prefer to refer to this period as “emerging dynasties” because monumental architecture in some of the major sites points to centrally located administrative complexes (palaces?) which, taken together with unprecedented mortuary practices (e.g. Alacahöyük Royal Tombs), may confirm the existence of ruling aristocracies in Anatolia.

Three Paleocene-Eocene (P-E) stratigraphic transect sections namely, from the north to south, Ain Maqfi, Farafra-Ain Dalla road, and El-Quess Abu Said in the northern Farafra Oasis,Western Desert (Egypt) are described and interpreted based upon field observations, microfacies analysis, chronostratigraphy and foraminiferal paleobathymetry, to detect the effect of the Syrian Arc Fold System (SAFS) on the lateral and vertical facies changes, various stratigraphic breaks and to reconstruct the depositional paleoenvironments. Lithostratigraphically, the P-E successions are composed of the upper part of the Dakhla Formation, Tarawan Chalk and Esna Shale Formation. Vertical and lateral facies changes are noted between tectonic paleo-highs and paleo-lows in the Farafra Oasis. Eight microfacies types are recognized. The larger benthic and planktonic foraminiferal zones are here used to correlate the shallow and deeper facies. Two larger benthic (SBZ4 and SBZ6), six planktonic foraminiferal (P4–E4) and one calcareous nannofossil (NP9b) biozones are identified. The recorded basal Eocene Dababiya Quarry Member (DQM) within the Esna Shale Formation in the central Farafra Oasis is represented by units 4 and 5 of the DQMat its GSSPwith a neritic facies types. Towards the northern part of the Farafra Oasis, the P-E interval occurs within the base of the Maqfi Limestone Member that contains the larger benthic foraminiferal SBZ6 Zone and is correlated with the DQM.Amajor sea-level fall near the upper part of P5 Zone, followed by a prominent sea-level risewith a minor hiatus across the P-E interval in the Farafra Oasis reflects the complex interplay between sea level changes and tectonic signatures. Two inferred paleoenvironments, namely inner neritic and mid-outer neritic shelf have been identified.

As Muslims live side by side with Christians in a globalizing world has made it imperative for Muslims to wrestle seriously with the Christian tradition. One of the branches of science investigating this confrontation is the history of religions. Because this discipline examines religious creeds, their historical process as much as the relationships of religous people in the context of their history and theology. It can be said that Muslim-Christian relations have a positive history when taken into account the Christians of Najran, the migration of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and the Christians living under the rule of Muslim sultans. However, especially after the crusades, Islam has been regarded as the object of fear in the West. On the other hand, factors such as the Crusades, studies of orientalism,the increasing Islamophobia and Zionism in the West after 9/11 have influenced Muslims’ views on Western civilization. The history of Protestant Christians is an important area in Muslim-Christian relations. It is evaluated in this article the approach of Anabaptists, a Protestant sect, towards Muslim Turks in the early period and their relations with Shia and Sunni Muslims in the modern period. Firstly we state that the names of Mennonite and Anabaptist are used interchangeably in the article but in fact, the name of Anabaptist is an umbrella term. Protestantism basically accepts the doctrines and rituals based on the Bible, and by criticizing the religious authority of the papacy, adopts everyone to be clergy. Anabaptism, which means “re-baptizing” (ἀναβαπτισμός) in Greek, has been separated from Protestantism over time and became an independent church. Anabaptists agree with Luther about rejecting the authority of the Papacy and other Roman Catholic leaders and advocating that only the Bible is valid in the religious field. However, at some points, they have dissent towards him. For example, Andreas Karlstadt (d. 1541), who is regarded as the first leader of the Anabaptists, refused religious vows, accepted the eucharist just is a symbol to remember that Jesus’ moments on the cross. Also, he banned to addressing Luther as a “doctor”, since all the people who believed in Jesus would be equal. Anabaptists stated that the teachings of Jesus are the centrepiece and the church and state affairs should be separated since politics is not in line with him. Also, they advocated staying away from violence, just like Jesus. The main difference that distinguishes Anabaptists from other Protestant groups is that they accept adult baptism, not baby baptism. Anabaptists have been subjected to oppression by both the Protestant and Catholic Church because of this kind of believes. Many Anabaptists, like Thomas Müntzer (1489-1525), who is one of the important leaders of the Anabaptists, were executed during the Peasant Wars (1524-1525). The most striking point in the relations of the Anabaptists with the Muslims is that they refused to fight against the Turks. Michael Sattler (1490-1527), one of the first leaders of the Anabaptists, was tried in 1527 because he refused to fight against the Turks. Other examples of Anabaptists did not use weapons against the Turks are the Mohac Square Battle (1526) and the 1st Siege of Vienna (1529). Upon the arrival of the Ottomans to the Moravian region that remained within the boundaries of Austria (now the Czech Republic), Hutterites, an Anabaptist group living in that region, had stated that they would not fight against the Turks even if they had the power. In our opinion, the main reason oppression against the Anabaptists by their co-religionists is that they did not fight against the Turks. Because opposing infant baptism points to a theological separation, while opposing the idea of uniting against Turks supported by even a reformer like Luther is a political revolt against the church. Therefore, Anabaptists were considered by others as traitors who opposed the defence policies of their own countries. Anabaptist migrated to regions such as Ukraine, Central Asia and Russia as a result of the pressures by their co-religionist. It is known that Anabaptists migrated to Russia and Central Asia after the 1880s. The information in the Ottoman archives that some Anabaptists passed from the Danube region to Russia confirms this immigration. Remarkably, the Mennonites today living in the Hive region (Uzbekistan) organize various exhibitions and organizations to keep these memories alive. Anabaptists claim that do not adopt policies based on violence and prejudices unlike Evangelists and believe that it is necessary to interact with Muslims for the solution of problems. For example, it is emphasized that anti-Islamic rhetoric that started after the 9/11 attacks prevented communication between the two religions and that American hegemony and strict national policies do not represent Christianity in the Anabaptist-Muslim Symposium book (2005). Although Anabaptists criticize Evangelical policies and have an indulgence towards Muslims, this does not mean that Anabaptists have abandoned their missionary goals. Because it draws attention to Anabaptists’ activities in different Islamic countries. For example, it is known that they work with Muslims in different parts of Indonesia and Africa on education, agricultural research and technology. It can be said that the dialogue efforts between Anabaptists and Muslims are mostly from America, Canada and Iran. The activities of Anabaptists in Turkey carried out by Rosedale Mennonite Missions. The two groups that outstanding with inter-institutional studies in contacts between anabaptists and Muslims are Iranian Shiites and American and Canadian Mennonites. These relations started after the visits of four Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) members who came to the region after the earthquake occurred in Manjil-Rudbar city of Iran in 1990. These relations have continued with Imam Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute going to Toronto and North American Mennonite students came to Kum city. Relations between Iranian Shiites and Canadian Mennonites have continued thanks to symposiums until today. Although Anabaptists aim to establish positive relations with Muslims, we think that these contacts have some problems similar to interfaith dialogue. It is a fact that there are similarities between Christian teachings and Islam but it is problematic to express that both traditions are fed from the same source and that a dialogue can be established on Jesus, which is the common point of both religions. It is also standing out that Anabaptists distort some information and deflect the meaning of Islamic terms with the idea of establishing a dialogue between the two religions. Remarkably, they choose the title “The Kingdom of God in Islam and the Gospel” in the first paper of the Anabaptist-Muslim Conference book in 2005 and this affirms our thoughts. It is also another problem to emphasize that the belief of sunnah in Islam and the lifestyle stated in the Bible are similar. Undoubtedly, this attempt to establish similarity carries the danger of the disappearance of meaning and terminology that the religions belong to. Although it is admirable that Anabaptists keep in touch with Muslims, stand against Islamophobia, distance from Evangelism, and help Syrian immigrants, there are some hesitations that if they have pure intentions, because Anabaptists give importance missionary activities and adopt inter-religious dialogue that means to reconcile Islam with Christianity.

Tell Afis is located in north-western inner Syria. The occupation of the site dates back to Late Neolithic and expanded in the Bronze Age, when the area was also exposed to Hittite political and cultural influence. The site, however, reached its peak in the Iron Age I-II, when the city became an Aramaean capital city named Hazrek (known as Hatarikka in the Assyrian sources and as Hadrach in the Bible). The ethnic components of the site population are difficult to identify, but probably included individuals of Aramaean, Luwian, and Phoenician origin. Several massive buildings of a probably religious character arose on its acropolis, and it is from this context that comes the Aramaic inscription of king Zakkur (ca. 790 BCE), now in the Louvre. Zakkur was a king of Hamath and Luath, whose homeland was possibly 'Anah, on the middle Euphrates. In his inscription the king reports how the god Baalshamayn had saved him from the siege carried out by an enemy league led by the king of Damascus, Barhadad II. Zakkur may have been a supporter of the Assyrian power who refused to join the anti-Assyrian coalition. Although mainly concerned with the favour shown to him by the god Baalshamayn (divination is also hinted to), Zakkur's inscription appears to have been placed in the temple of the god Ilwer, who therefore is likely to be considered the main god of the town. Consequently, it is to his worship that the massive temple on the top of the Iron Age acropolis was probably dedicated. Although not much is known about Ilwer's nature, he probably was a weather-god. Perhaps it was represented by a bronze statuette found during the excavations. The function of other buildings on the acropolis is debatable, but the acropolis seems to have been now reserved for ceremonial buildings. In 738 BC the town was conquered by the Assyrians and turned into a provincial centre, thus being intensely exposed to Assyrian cultural influence: findings from the site might point to a spread of the worship of the god Sin. Dog depositions seem to anticipate a phenomenon which reached its peak on the Levantine coast in the Persian age, a period which in Tell Afis is scarcely attested.

The Red Temple (Temple D2) is a monumental temple building erected in the ancient city of Ebla (present-day Tell Mardikh). It dates back to the age of the Royal Archives of the great Early Syrian town, c. 2400–2300 BCE (in the traditional conventional chronology), that is the Early Bronze IVA of north-western inland Syria chronology: it must have been built in an advanced phase of Early Bronze IVA, around 2350 BCE, as it was erected after a north peripheral sector of the West Unit of the Royal Palace had been dismissed and razed. It is so far the only identified cult building belonging to the age of the Archives, along with the Temple of the Rock in the Lower Town South-East: together with the Archive' texts, these two sanctuaries offer crucial insights into the religious phenomena in Ebla and Syria in the mature Early Syrian Period; and provide evidence of the unity and specificity of the religious architectural tradition of inland Syria in the central part of the third millennium BCE, when the in-antis temple model spreads. The Red Temple has been excavated in Area D, underneath the imposing Old Syrian lshtar's Temple dating to the Middle Bronze I–II. The temple was built on the western edge of the Acropolis and near the Royal Palace G, overlooking from the north the imposing ceremonial and administrative wings of the palace itself. It has certainly to be identified with the Temple of Kura within the SA.ZA (the central palatine administrative complex of the mature Early Syrian town) and represented the dynastic sanctuary of the lords of Ebla. Kura was, in fact, the patron god of the city and the main divinity of Ebla in the second half of the third millennium BCE. For this reason, the dynastic temple of the Old Syrian Period, dedicated to the great goddess Ishtar, new patron deity of the Eblaite dynasty, was built over its ruins. As described in the text of the "Ritual of Kingship", the elaborate ritual of the renewal of kingship, which began at the Temple of Kura near the town wall and the Kura Gate (now identified with the Temple of the Rock), and which involved a series of ritual acts and pilgrimages performed together by the king and queen, concluded in this temple with the enthronement of the royal couple. At the same time as the king and the queen entered the temple, the cult statues of Kura and Barama (the supreme divine couple) entered the building. The temple (some 24.20 m long and 17 m wide) takes its name from the dark red colour of its bricks. It was oriented with the entrance towards south, like the later Middle Bronze I–II Ishtar's Temple on the same place. It adheres to the typology of the in antis temple, well attested in the Syro-Levantine religious architecture from the mid-third millennium BCE. It has a moderately longroom – almost square – cella (L.9980), nearly 10.20 m long by 9.40 m wide, and a rather deep vestibule (L.9990), 6.70 m long by 9.40 m wide, delimitated by projecting antae. The building features strong similarities with the Temple of the Rock for its typology, size, and proportions. However, in the Red Temple four columns divided the cella into three small naves and two further columns formed a porch in the vestibule; the column bases were massive limestone cylinders. Finally, three steps of accurately worked limestone slabs formed a short entrance staircase to the vestibule porch. The temple had thick walls (about 3.60/3.80 m); while at all four corners of the building there were low buttresses, approximately 0.20/0.30 m. The Red Temple was destroyed at the same time as the whole settlement of the age of the Royal Archives, at the end of Early Bronze IVA, around 2300 BCE (Matthiae 2021, pp. 65–83, 301–303).

Abstract A new distribution map is provided for Tilletia caries (DC.) Tul. & C. Tul. Ustilaginomycetes: Tilletiales: Tilletiaceae. Host: wheat (Triticale). Information is given on the geographical distribution in Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, South Africa, Tunisia), Asia (Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, China, Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Tibet, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Zheijiang, India, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyztan, Lebanon, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan), Europe (Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Crete, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Sicily, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland), North America (Canada, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, USA, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming), Oceania (New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, New Zealand), South America (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela).

Temple D on the Acropolis is an imposing temple building erected in the ancient city of Ebla (present-day Tell Mardikh), the most important cult building within the Citadel of the Old Syrian town. It dates back to c. 2000–1600 BCE (in the traditional middle chronology), the Middle Bronze I–II of north-western inland Syria chronology. It was the dynastic sanctuary dedicated to the great Ishtar, the city goddess and the patron goddess of the Old Syrian kings of Ebla during the age of the Amorite Dynasties. This is testified by fragments of monumental furniture that portray the great goddess and her attributes, found inside and outside the temple: a limestone double basin still in place within the temple, with mythical and ritual depictions in relief on three of the sides; a second fragmentary basalt basin from inside the temple; and two basalt votive monuments which probably stood in the open air in front of the sanctuary, the lshtar's Stele discovered in 1986 and the lshtar's Obelisk, partially recovered and reconstructed from two large fragments in 2006. As far as written evidence is concerned, Temple D on the Acropolis is the one mentioned in the inscription carved on lbbit-Lim's basalt statue (found reused at a short distance from the facade of the temple), which commemorates the dedication to the goddess Ishtar of a basin (perhaps one of the two found inside the temple). The temple was probably erected during the first decades of the second millennium BCE. It stood along the western edge of the fortified Acropolis, over a large mudbrick terrace which enclosed the levelled ruins of the previous Early Bronze IVA Kura's Temple in the SA.ZA. The building (some 30 m long and 11.50 m wide), facing south, had a longitudinal, axial, tripartite structure (with vestibule, antecella and cella), with an entrance delimitated by projecting antae: a layout that from now on will characterize the palatine and dynastic temples in the Levant, erected in the citadels close to royal palaces. It featured a quite short vestibule preceded by two steps (L.213), an equally short antecella (L.211), and a marked longroom cella (L.202), 12.40 m long and 7.20 m wide; such a marked longitudinal development of the cella is canonical in the Middle Bronze Age temples in Ebla and inland Syria (a few exceptions can be mentioned, as the Alalakh VII Temple and the MBA Hadad's Temple in Aleppo). The cella had a low bench against the back wall, onto which opened a quite deep, almost square niche for the cult image. Several remains of important basalt and limestone cult fittings (e.g., two basins and an offering table) were found inside the cella. Moreover, the entrance to the cella probably featured basalt jambs decorated with two big carved images of lying lions. In front of the temple there was a large open space, gradually sloping towards the south, which housed monumental cult fittings, including a big limestone round basin found in situ. Ishtar's Temple on the Citadel was destroyed around 1600 BCE, when the whole Old Syrian city was devastated by a Hittite-Hurrian coalition headed by Mursili I of Hatti and Pizikarra of Nineveh (Matthiae 1981, 114–116, 130–132; 2021, pp. 198–203, 322–325).

The Temple of the Rock (Temple HH1) is a monumental temple building erected in the ancient city of Ebla (present-day Tell Mardikh). It dates back to the age of the Royal Archives of the great Early Syrian town, c. 2400–2300 BCE (in the traditional conventional chronology), that is the Early Bronze IVA of north-western inland Syria chronology. It is so far the only identified cult building belonging to the age of the Archives, along with the Red Temple on the Acropolis: together with the Archive' texts, these two sanctuaries offer crucial insights into the religious phenomena in Ebla and Syria in the mature Early Syrian Period; and provide evidence of the unity and specificity of the religious architectural tradition of inland Syria in the central part of the third millennium BCE, when the in-antis temple model spreads. The temple is located in the south-eastern Lower Town, west of the mighty Middle Bronze Age ramparts and not far from the south-east city-gate (the Steppe Gate). It occupied a peripheral position in the mature Early Syrian urban layout. In this sector (Area HH), a huge sacred area developed from the mid-third millennium BCE and remained continuously in use up to the final destruction of the Middle Bronze Age city around 1600 BCE. Five superimposed temples were excavated. The Temple of the Rock was the first building to be erected. We can identify this cult building with the Temple of Kura which stood close to the town wall and the Gate of Kura: the place where, according to the text of the "Ritual of Kingship", the elaborate ritual of the renewal of kingship began with the queen entering the city after waiting for sunrise in the fields outside the town wall. A series of ceremonial acts and pilgrimages performed together by the king and queen followed, until the royal couple entered the second Temple of Kura within the SA.ZA on the Acropolis (now identified with the Red Temple) and concluded the ritual. The temple is an imposing building (28 m long and some 21.50 m wide), facing east, still more than 3.50 m high, which featured a façade with projecting antae, a latitudinal cella, and a deep vestibule of the same size as the cella. The temple belongs to the in antis typology, well attested in the Syro-Levantine religious architecture from the mid-third millennium BCE, and exhibits strong similarities with the Red Temple on the Acropolis for its typology, size, and proportions. However, in the Temple of the Rock the cella (L.9190), to the west, and the vestibule (L.9495), to the east, had the same size (a peculiar feature not found elsewhere): both are moderately broad rooms, wider (10 m) than long (8.30 m). Based on the considerable thickness of the outer walls (about 6 m), the temple may have risen to over 15 m. It had stone foundations, mostly great basalt and limestone blocks of an average height of 0.80/1.20 m, and a mudbrick superstructure; the bricks belong to the rectangular type used in the mature Early Syrian Period, that is, 0.60 by 0.40 by 0.10 m. The building was founded directly over a low emergence of the bedrock (hence its name), which was not completely levelled at this point: the irregularities and cavities in the rock were left visible in the floor of the cella and the vestibule, as they allegedly had a special meaning for the builders. In particular, the cella was built in a spot marked by a large ellipsoid cavity with three wells (P.9713, P.9717, P.9719), descending into the depths of the rock to the water-bearing stratum. These wells had probably been springs with special mythical, natural, or historical significance, presumably as the place from which the subterranean waters over which Kura presided sprang to the surface, or as the place from which the mythical divine residence of the lord of the pantheon could be reached. Therefore, the cavity and the wells would have been the reason which supported the choice of this peripheral site for the erection of the temple, both for the physical nature of the place (presence of fresh water) and for its mythical association with the residence of a great god in the abyss below. The temple was destroyed at the end of the Early Bronze IVA, around 2300 BCE, when the whole city of the Royal Palace of the Archives was sacked and destroyed. It then underwent a sort of termination ritual, including the clearing of nearly all traces of destruction, the deposition of a great amount of fine vessels (more than 200) in two of the wells (P.9717 and P.9719) inside the cavity in the cella, and the ritual sealing of the cella and antecella by means of several mudbrick courses, at the beginning of the Early Bronze IVB. The inner space of the temple was, finally, filled up with a 3.5 m high filling of crushed limestone and chalky pebble, carried out to make the place inviolable after its abandonment. The location of the remains of the temple (which formed a small hillock), however, maintained its sacrality for the inhabitants of the later cities. In fact, during an advanced phase of the Early Bronze IVB (late Early Syrian Period) two adjacent temples were built to the east, in the open space in front of the oldest temple: Temple HH4 and Temple HH5; while two large, superimposed tripartite temples (HH3 and HH2) would have been erected in the same spot during the Middle Bronze Age (Old Syrian Period) (Matthiae 2021, pp. 65–83, 297–300).

The Silk Route Between Past and Present. A Paradigm Beyond Space and Time. On the threshold of the third millennium, in an atmosphere of anachronisms and contradictions, dominated and conditioned by scientific and technological discoveries, new ideas seem to take flight whilst regional barriers and territorial boundaries are collapsing to give way to a new form of comprehensiveness. Sharing ideas and intellectual stimuli, amalgamating cultural elements circulating along its intertwining branches, the Silk Route has more than once given life to new scientific forms, cultural and intellectual systems and, amongst these, artistic shapes and religious syncretism. The “Silk Route”, which, with its articulated network of twisting routes and sub-routes, even now well represents the challenging paradigm of a new age yet standing at its threshold.
 A paradigm beyond time and space. The following paper aims at focusing on the Silk Route’s Religious-Cultural dimension in the middle-inner Asia of the 13th-15th Centuries, when, whatever may have happened regarding local realms and rulers, it played the role of junction and meeting point of different worlds and their civilisations. Even now we are confronted with a political trend that is at once and the same time a cultural current; emanating from the past, it is re-linking Europe and Asia and, re-uniting territories with their individual and traditional cultural forms, is shaping a renewed kaleidoscopic framework. We are confronted with new forces deeply rooted in the past, which, emanating from the far eastern fringes of Asia, by the second decade of the 21st century have reached the far western fringes of Europe, dynamics that are not only ‘economics’ and ‘scientific technologies’ but also thought, religion, and other intellectual values. These forces are heir of past times, nevertheless they endure in the present and are the active lively projection of a future time…though still largely to be understood and matured. A vision of life and universe where speculative and religious values coexist with astounding technological and scientific discoveries in a global dimension without space and time.
 At the verge of this millennium, the Information and Communication Revolution has given life with its advanced technologies to a new space conditioned and dominated by no-distances. And this space with its always-evolving scientific discoveries today involves the society in its entirety (what is commonly named as “global space” actually symbolised by the Silk Route), endeavours to amalgamate it creating new links between civil and political society and positioning them in a new military dimension. New forms and structures that are rapidly evolving in search of some balance between technological development and preservation of ancient traditions, which might make possible social and economic justice, yet an utopia more than a reality. However, both (social and economic justice) form the ideological basis of order and stability, anxiously pursued by the young generation in search of an economic and speculative order where stability, security (hard and soft security) and religious structures should in their turn become the platform of new political-institutional structures.
 Be that as it may, this is not a new phenomenon. Technological advancements are astoundingly new, but not the process and its aims. We are confronted with a phenomenon that has already occurred in more than one historic phase. Epochal phases. That is the human search for economic and social justice, and their framing into new conceptual schemes. And within this ratio, it would be unrealistic to ignore an additional key-factor. It would be unrealistic to deny that Religion has always been a major player. It has been at the basis of more than one revolution, it has represented the culturalpolitical response to foreign challenges, it has legitimised military action, it has given life to new spaces and political systems, it has filled with its pathos cultural and political voids. It has given to Mankind and Universe a new centrality, creating a new space within which Man and Mankind, History and Philosophy, Cosmos and Universe with their laws meet and merge in new systems and structural orders. The World and its Destiny, core of lively debates, conditioned by the eternal dialectic between economics and society, between society and religion, between science and technology on the one hand, and religion on the other, between formal ratio and ideologies or myths, which underline with their voice the eternal antithesis between cultures and civilisations.
 At the verge of the third millennium, the intellectual world is facing a new historiographical debate, into which the Religious Factor has also entered. Knowledge and the vision of the world and its new order/disorder are translated into a new philosophy of culture and history, of society and religion. Rationality, historicity of scientific knowledge, nature and experience, nature and human ‘ratio’, science and ethics, science and its language, science and its new aims and objectives are amongst some of the major themes of this debate. But not only this: which aims, which objectives? And within which new order that might ensure security and stability, social and economic justice? Thence, revolution and power are coming to the fore with another factor: Force and its use…a stage that, however, does not disregard dialogue and tolerance, or, as recently stated by Francesco Bergoglio, more than tolerance, “reciprocal respect”. These are only ‘some’ amongst the main issues discussed and heard of also in the traditional culture of ordinary people.
 Undoubtedly, the end of the Cold War and the well-known “global village” dealt with by Samuel Huntington, the global village with its technological revolutions, have induced to re-think our own speculative parameters, traditional paradigms and models of society and power, mankind and statehood. And once again we have been confronted with elements that might bring to new forms of sharp opposition and a global disorder. However, beyond and behind the Huntingtonian cliché of the “clash of civilizations”, a new cultural current seems to take flight spurring from the roots of a traditional past, which however has not yet disappeared. The Silk Route stems out emanating from the far-eastern lands of Asia as the conceptual image, the paradigm of a conceivable new order. By merging the material, scientific-technological and economic dimension of life with a new cultural (or neo-cultural) vocation it seeks (and seems to be able) to give life to a new social body and new systemic-structural answers, a comprehensive order capable of tackling the challenges opened by the collapse of the traditional cultural parameters and the dramatic backdrop of a mere clash of civilisations.
 Middle-Inner Asia of the 13th -15th Centuries: the Silk Route and its Reflection on Painting and Architectonic Forms. As just pointed out, nothing is new in the course of History. Professor Axel Berkowsky has authoritatively lingered on the Silk Route – or better “the New Silk Route” – with specific regard on practical aspects of these last decades. In the following text, I wish to linger on a past historic period, particularly fertile when confronted with the collapse of traditional values and the challenges posed by new fearful forces and their dynamics: the Mongols with their hordes (ulus) and, some later, Tamerlane with his terrible Army. Sons of the steppe and its culture, these people suddenly appeared on the stage, raced it from Mesopotamia to the north-eastern corner of Asia with their hordes and their allied tribal groups, shattered previous civilisations and imposed a new dominion, a new political-military order and new models of life. But, with their Military superiority, they also brought the codes and the ancient traditional knowledge of the nomadic world. It is misleading to watch to this epochal phase only as a phase of devastation and horrors. With their codes, Mongols and Timurids brought with them the Chinese algebraic, mathematical and scientific knowledge, and fused it with Mesopotamian mathematical and medical sciences reaching peaks of astronomical, arithmetical, numerical, geometric, algebraic theoretical and practical knowledge. They also brought with them from vital centres of religious scholarship and life a large number of theologians, pirs, traditionists and legal religious scholars with their individual religious features and systems. Shamanism, Buddhism, Muslim forms, Nestorianism and other cults vigorously practised in the mobile world of the steppe gave life to an important phase of religious culture and multifarious practices largely imbued with mystic feelings and traditional emotional states.
 Then, and once again, within the global space created by the military conquests of the new-comers, the Silk Route – or more precisely, the Silk and its Routes – reorganised and revitalised trades and business, gave life to close diplomatic connections and matrimonial allegiances reinforced by a vigorous traditional chancery and official correspondence, that tightly linked Asia with Europe. Within this new global order, the Silk and its routes played the crucial role, shaped new political, institutional, scientific and intellectual formulae, gave life to new conceptual forms that – at their core – had Man and Mankind as centre of the entire Universe. We are confronted with a cultural development begun at a time when the sons of the steppe were taking over lands of the classical Arabic civilisation (like Syria, Iraq and al-Jaszīra), at a time when the Iranian world was still centre of intellectual life and its social norms were still spreading over large spaces of Inner Asian territories. Visual Arts wonderfully mirror this phenomenon.
 We witness a process that renovated itself ‘from within’ in the course of three centuries and did not stop even when the arrival of the European Powers on the Asian markets seemed to sign, with the decay and end of the traditional market economy, also the closing of the cultural interactions created by the Silk Routes of the time. Once again, Visual Arts wonderfully mirror this phenomenon: a dramatic transitional, fluid period, marked by a distinctive timeless reality, which had no longer territories well delimited by frontiers to conquer or defend.
 Herewith I have dealt, as an example, with the reflection of the new conceptions of Life and Universe on visual Fine Arts in the 13th-15th centuries, specifically painting and architectonic forms. Ideological values that aimed to forge new relationships among different peoples and their individual human values, religious thinking, moral codes…and economic, scientific, technological achievements.
 ‘Fine Arts’. Visual fine arts, in my case painting and architecture, are the mirror of feelings shared by the Lords of the time, registered by painters and architects in plastic forms, the signal of these stances to an often confused Humanity. Here, I linger on two pictorial themes: Nature and Landscape on the one hand, and Religion with its very images on the other. With regard to architectonic forms, these reflect the same conceptual paradigm shaped through technical features. By those ages, Nature and Landscape were perceived by contemporary painters and architects with formal, stylistic and technical characteristics which strongly reflected the impact with a world which lived its life in close, intimate contact with nature, a world and a culture which observed Nature and the Cosmos, and perceived them in every detail over the slow rhythmical march of days and nights, of seasons and the lunar cycles. These artistic features depict a precise image, that of a world which lives its life often at odds with nature for its very survival, a world which conditions nature or is conditioned in its turn. At that time, it was a world and a cosmic order which were often perceived by the artist in their tension with uncertainty and the blind recklessness of modern-contemporary times. However, to a closer analysis, these same artistic forms shape a celestial order which was at one and the same time a culture and a religion.
 In the vast borderless space of the Euro-Asiatic steppes, cut by great rivers, broken by steep rocky mountainous chains and inhospitable desert fig.aux, the Silk succeeded in building and organising its own network of twisting routes and sub-routes, along which transited (albeit, yet still transit) caravans with their goods…but also cultural elements and their conceptual-philosophical forms. Of these latter and their syncretic imageries and dreams, the fine arts have left evocative pictures and architectonic images, which depicted a world that is the projection of a precise social and political reality and its underlying factors, such as the restlessness of a nomadic pattern of life and the culture of the Town and its urban life. Little is changed today despite the collapse of the Soviet empire and its order. Features and forms change, but in both cases they announce a different world with its order built on a robust syncretism, which is at the same time science, knowledge, harmony and religion (divine or human, or both). A world that is the projection of a precise political, social and economic reality. A reality that, at one and the same time, is the silent voice of a humanity often disregarded by contemporary writers, an ‘underground world’ that echoes traditional forms and their dynamics, and a no less authoritative de facto power that politically, economically and militarily conditions and dominates its times. A reality that finds an authoritative voice through the Silk Route.