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Chapels could have niches in which stelae and statues or images could be held. A niche is a shallow
recess, especially one in a wall, to display a statue or other ornament. The fact that the Taffeh
temple either had a niche or a fake door does support the theory that the temple actually
functioned as a chapel for common people who were not allowed into the temple to be able to
communicate with their god or goddess (Teeter 2011, 78-79; 93; Schneider 1979, 12; Wilkinson
2007, 27).
My interpretation would be that religiously the southern temple was the most important
structure. The reason for this is the size of the structure and the fact that it has two rooms of
which one was likely the sanctuary. Especially a sanctuary was the most important part of a temple
and was better protected when located further into the temple. The Taffeh temple only has one
room and therefore has no protected sanctuary like the southern temple does. Also the southern
temple was very likely surrounded by a wall, which could have functioned as a traditional wall
keeping the sacred temple hidden from the common people and protected from the ‘chaotic’
world outside.
This would mean that the Taffeh temple was not the most important religious structure of the
complex, but more likely functioned as a way for common people to commune with their
god(dess).
From a global perspective
It was common in the Roman culture to assimilate other religions into their own. In a way they
allowed other cultures to keep their own religion and traditions, but on the other hand the
Romans did force their own version of this religion onto them. This can be seen in the temples as
well. This can best be seen in the design of the columns. Even though ancient Egyptian traditions
were used, they were not used in a way that was common in the ancient Egyptian culture.
This shows the process of exchanging cultural characteristics, as well as glocalisation. Because of
the exchanging of characteristics the Romans were able to incorporate the Egyptian culture into
their own. When doing so however they shaped it into their own version, which can be seen as an
example of the process referred to as ‘glocalisation’. Glocalisation is the local adaption of a global
characteristic. This new mixed culture was exported back into Egypt. The temples show
characteristics of this mixed culture. Even though many temples still look very similar to the