Palatial Architecture in Egypt and its Spatial Semiotics

Recent anthropological theories favour the investigation of households of average people and not palatial evidence for the assessment of culture in archaeology. One could assume, however, that thus far the cultural, architectural and political testimony of palaces have not been sufficiently appreciated in research. This has recently led to a reverse in Near-Eastern archaeology as can be seen in the carefully researched recent publications of palaces in North Syria and Mesopotamia. In Egyptian archaeology, most of the palace excavations were undertaken nearly one hundred years ago. The architecture has been published mostly in overviews and the enclosed finds were only insufficiently documented and published, if at all. Exceptions were works of art. From the eastern Nile Delta at Tell el-Daba, former capital of the Hyksos, we have the evidence of a palatial mansion of the 13th Dynasty (c. 1800-1750 BCE), a Near-Eastern type of palace from the Hyksos Period (c. 1650-1550 BCE), a palace garden (c. 1600-1550 BCE) and an enormous precinct of the Tuthmosid Period which would only make sense at this location if one connects it with the location of Peru-nefer, the Tuthmosid naval stronghold of the 15th century BCE. All three objects have been excavated according to modern archaeological standards but have only been published in preliminary reports. What results could be expected from a full analysis? With a top-down strategy one may expect that palatial households in context with their architecture, their outfit and their finds are much more suitable than ordinary households to show the results of international trade relationships and the results of diplomatic strategies. The imports and the embellishment of the palace such as the Minoan frescos in the Tuthmosid palace quarter represent more likely the whole spectre of foreign relationship and possibly of the diplomacy. Private households with their reduced outfit will give only restrictive or even no information in this respect. A comparison between these two realms will reveal what had gradually reached the lower echelons.