ABSTRACT
This chapter pursues the relationship between temple ritual practices in ancient Mesopotamia, particularly the third millennium bce, and the multiple senses that are awakened in the course of ritual performance. This move is reflected in recent scholarship as art historians, historians, and archaeologists have charted a path from object history to social history to the reconstruction of experience across the ancient world. It is argued that by rigorous application of analogy with living or better-documented cultural traditions one can amplify aspects of experience missing from the historical record under study. It is further argued that multisensory stimuli serve to underscore the special locus and power of confrontation with the divine that is said to take place as rituals are performed. The audiences for such experiences are several, including resident deity or deities, officiating priesthood, and devotees. And finally, a direct relationship is suggested between the heightened sensory experience generated in the course of ritual performance and attendant aesthetic experience as a bridge to the sacred.
