Palaces in Egypt

How far do palaces as abodes of rulers represent a specific culture and how far are they tied into the general idea of kingship as a god given institution? Egyptian kingship is not the same as kingships in Syria, but its influence is felt in royal art and religious imagery very strongly. How is it with palatial architecture? How far was it adapted to the royal representation of power, household, accumulation of commodities and how far does it reflect ritual demands. What may we learn about administration, economy and commerce of palatial households and what can we gather by archaeological autopsy from the culture of ruling. There are not many palaces in Egypt which had been excavated and only few thus far adequately. This project intends to collect all available data of palaces in Egypt focussing on modern excavation records such as the Thutmosid palace at `Ezbet Helmy and the Khayan palace at Tell el-Dab`a. This project attempts, however, to complement by fieldwork in an exemplary fashion excavated palaces in Bubastis and Ballas and others in co- operation with teams of the SCA, the EES, the University of Würzburg/Goettingen, the Metropolitan Museum and the Atlanta University. It is furthermore projected within workshops, attended by all groups of researchers of palatial precincts, to find architectural rules for palaces, for the space programme, rules of the internal hierarchy and classification of palaces. The palaces of Egypt will be for the first time compared to palaces in the Near East, especially those in Syria in order to assess the difference and the mutual influence. It is especially in the Hyksos Period that features from Syria start to appear in palaces in Egypt. Such foreign features continued to stay from then onwards within the Egyptian corpus of palace concepts. While the palace of Khayan shows distinct Syrian characteristics, it is still unclear from where the concept of palaces constructed on enormous platforms such as at `Ezbet Helmy and Ballas originate. The study will also closely compare the relationship between palaces and contemporary houses and will resume the study on the relationship between palace and temple which can be found not only in general terms but in quite some detail. Although preserved only in minor quantities the programme of wall paintings in palaces will be assessed. Sizes of the whole precincts, sizes and percentage of representation quarters, apartments and attendant quarters will be compared with each other. It is especially the size of storage capacity which could, as we believe, be a yardstick to measure economic power and the importance of the kingdoms. This project will, however, also incorporate our knowledge in which way palaces are reflected in Egyptian texts in order to add more life into the archaeological evidence by mutual juxtaposition with written references. The innovativeness of this project is that never in depth studies on palaces of Egypt and the Near East have been made together, never the material culture found within the palaces was considered in an overall synthesis. Also the paleogeographic position of the palaces will be considered in assessing the importance of the place where the palace once stood. New vistas of the relationship between Egypt and the Near East will be achieved in an overall effort of international dimensions of co-operation.

Palaces as a study topic give you information on the ideology of the rulers, they were built for. They are embedded in the building tradition of a cultural setting and a part of the culture matrix. The size as well as the capacity of the palaces and its magazines tell about the economic power behind the sovereign. A comparison with the architecture of temples gives an insight to what extent the presentation of rulers in a throne room correlates to that of a divine epiphany in a temple. Equally, the comparison to domestic architecture of the period and its sizing, gives parameters of the proportion between the ruler to the hierarchy of his subjects. The abovementioned project was able to rely on numerous palaces excavated under the supervision of the PI: 1. The big Tuthmosid Palace district in Area H in Tell el-Daba with its three Palaces 2. The Hyksos Palace in Area F/II in Tell el-Daba, which originates from a Syrian building tradition 3. The tree garden of a not yet excavated late Hyksos Palace 4. A palatial mansion of the 13th Dynasty in Area F/I in Tell el-Daba 5. The palace of Middle Kingdom in Tell Basta 6. In cooperation with the Emory University in Atlanta, the South Palace of Deir el-Ballas In order to enlarge the data base of the architecture of other palaces in Egypt and to incorporate these data for comparative studies, a Palaces Workshop - organised together with the Egypt Exploration Society and the University Würzburg - took place in London in 2013. In addition, another workshop was organised within the ICAANE Conference 2016 in Vienna, both of which resulted in substantial publications (see publ. list). The project results can be summarised as follows: 1. To some extent the architectural canon for the New Kingdom Palaces could be established with the Tuthmosid Palace district and its comparanda, whereby the sizes of palaces, rooms, but in particular that of the throne rooms and the vestibules, the wall thicknesses and the number of columns used, give indication on the hierarchical structures. The canon shows besides the axial plan, the succession of a court, portico, vestibule, throne room and private apartments. However, there are some deviations in the plans, which seem to follow different rules and lead to believe that the palaces had different functions, such as can be seen at Bubastis 2. The continuation of work on the Minoan frescos and the identification of provenance of the Minoan artists that furnished the Tuthmosid Palace district (in cooperation with Univ. Bochum) 3. The preliminary identification of the Syrian origin of the Hyksos palace at Tell el-Daba 4. The determination of the royal and administrative dualism in the architecture of the Middle Kingdom palace at Tell Basta 5. Cooperation in the 3D-reconstruction of the palatial manor in Area F/I (together with OREA Institute). 6. Reassessment of the British Museum Papyri BM10058 on the dockyards of Peru- nefer 7. Participation on the reconstruction of the original/primeval landscape and harbour installations of T. el-Daba in cooperation with Univ. Lyon, Strasbourg and the Austrian Archaeological Institute. The palaces mentioned under 1-4 including their finds should be further investigated and published in follow up projects. The established contacts with other research group in relation to these architectural structures will continue with workshops and other activities.