Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Palaces. Volume I

This collection of studies on palaces in Ancient Egypt is the result of a conference organised by the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the University of Würzburg and the Egypt Exploration Society from 12th to 14th of June 2013 in London. The result is a compilation of information – archaeological and textual – one can resort to in order to develop strategies to understand architectural and functional variations and recognise schemes of building canons for palaces in Ancient Egypt. In addition, the understanding of Ancient Egyptian palaces is amplified with specialised studies regarding architectural and administrative terminology. The combined evidence shows that there was indeed a variability in function, in architecture and in the physical situation of palaces in Ancient Egypt. Besides a common space program such as the succession of courtyard, portico, vestibule, throne room and the intimate part of the palace, one may observe a variability of the number of aisles or of columns present as well as in the thickness of walls. This fact points to hierarchical rules concerning the importance of the building. As the architecture is often preserved only in its foundations, it is important to learn what kind of walls were load-bearing, what the size of division walls is and which kind of walls once carried columns. All these first observations have to undergo an evaluation process before one can think of discovering a building canon. A general introducing section is followed by contributions covering Ancient Egyptian palaces from Predynastic times until the New Kingdom. More contributions on the subject will follow in the second volume, which will deal mainly with Ancient Near Eastern Palaces as outcome of a palace workshop at the 10th ICAANE, held in 2016 in Vienna. Together, these two volumes will contribute to a better understanding of the architectural canon and diversity of palaces in Ancient Egypt and the difference in concept to their Ancient Oriental counterparts.