Elcoat, Daniel
Dissertationsthema:
"IN SEARCH OF THE EGYPTIAN PALACE: A Comprehensive Investigation of Late Old Kingdom to Late New Kingdom Palaces Integrating Archaeological and Textual Evidence."
Kontaktadresse an der Universität Würzburg:
Lehrstuhl für Ägyptologie
Residenzplatz 2, Tor A
97070 Würzburg
Erstbetreuerin: PD Dr. Eva Lange-Athinodorou
Zweitbetreuende:
Klasse in der Graduiertenschule: "Environmental Humanities"
Promotion in der Graduiertenschule ab SS 2025.
Abstract:
As centres and residences of the king and highest elites, palaces represent an essential cornerstone of our modern understanding of Egyptian civilisation. However, there have been relatively few attempts to comprehensively analyse these important entities beyond their basic architectural components. Aside from manifestations of power, palaces provided physical and abstract spaces for representation, administration and social interaction, conveyed in terms of their design, their decoration and the people who were able (or unable) to access to them. Therefore, by thoroughly examining their architectural remains and textual evidence we can learn much about their original functions, including nuanced aspects which do not necessarily manifest in clear archaeological forms.
The doctoral project seeks to consider these factors in detail, starting with the investigation of standards and variation in the architecture of archaeologically preserved palaces from the Late Old Kingdom to the Late New Kingdom, with special emphasis on their development and differing functions, which varied between royal palaces and palaces serving the governors of provincial cities. This research will serve as a basis to further explore palaces as manifestations of abstract dealings and concepts: the need of representing the power of the king and high officials as well as key junctions in administrative and social networks. Evidence of possible influence of architectural and ideological concepts of palaces from the Near East and the Minoan world shall also be explored. All this shall be achieved through the rigorous analysis of an unprecedented synthesis of all available archaeological and textual data to establish, above all, the fundamental, yet possibly changeable nature of palaces in ancient Egypt and the role they played for the society in which they were embedded.
