Massive religious buildings are thought to reflect the ideology and legitimacy of ruling classes. The earliest example of this in the world is seen at _________.

Question

Massive religious buildings are thought to reflect the ideology and legitimacy of ruling classes.  The earliest example of this in the world is seen at _________.

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

We start by identifying what the question is asking: the earliest example in the world where massive religious buildings reflected the ideology and legitimacy of ruling classes.
Option 1: Uruk. This is the Mesopotamian city famous for early monumental architecture (such as temple precincts at the Eanna and stability of the king’s authority) that embodied the ruling class’s ideology. Given the urban and state-building context of Uruk in the 4th millennium BCE, it is widely cited as an early instance of monumental religious architecture used to legitimize rule.
Option 2: Ubaid. The Ubaid culture predates Uruk and lays the groundwork for village-based and temple-centered life, but it is not typically cited as the earliest example where massive religious buildings explicitly symbolize ruling-class legitimacy on a city-wide scale.
Option 3: Hierakonpolis. This is an important early Egyptian urban center with monumental religious architecture, yet its prominence is in Egypt rather than Mesopotamia, and it is not commonly presented as the world’s earliest example of monumental religious buildings linked to ruling classes in the broader sense asked by this question.
Option 4: Huaca de los Sacrificios. Located in Peru, this site reflects Andean monumental architecture but belongs to a later, distinct cultural development and does not represent the earliest known instance globally of religious buildings used to legitimize rulers.
Option 5: Ur. While Ur is a major early city with its own monumental projects, the canonical early instance described is usually associated with Uruk, where the iconography and urban planning more directly illustrate the link between monumental religious structures and the ideology of governing elites.
Overall, the reasoning points to Uruk as the best-supported earliest example among the choices, with the others either preceding in a different cultural context or not representing the specific linkage between massive religious buildings and ruling-class legitimacy as prominently or as early in world history.

ARCH100 OL01 Midterm Exam # 2 - March 17-23, 2025

Massive religious buildings are thought to reflect the ideology and legitimacy of ruling classes. The earliest example of this in the world is seen at _________.

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