Image Details

CHANG-HO JI

SACRED FIRE ROOM. In the innermost corner of the temple’s southwestern room was a square altar or hearth with a small niche behind it in the back wall of the chamber. Intriguingly, excavation of the altar did not yield animal bones; rather, its interior was filled with fine ash, suggesting that it was not used for sacrificial offerings but instead served as the site of an ever-burning flame. The fire, perhaps along with a figurine of some kind that stood in the recessed niche, may have signified the perpetual presence of the temple’s deity.