Palatial Problems

As society progressed during the Early Bronze Age, large administrative and religious centers began to appear across the ancient Greek world. I was confused in my readings this week of Chapters 1 and 2 of Greek Art and Archaeology by Richard Neer to learn that modern scholarship has labeled these architectural forms as “palaces,” blatantly disregarding their true function and the history of the word itself. In this blog post, I will explore my questionings of the usage of this term by academics, the true origin of the word, and why it should not be used.

These buildings, or collections of buildings provide no evidence leading to residential purposes; on the contrary they were collection and distribution centers for local produce and trade. While the “palaces” were central to regional societies, their functions as deeply economic in nature with some political and religious ones, do not fit with the usage of the word “palace” to describe them.

In my Roman Art and Archaeology class last year, I learned that the word “palace” actually comes from the Latin word palatium, meaning “the Palatine hill,” or in plural, “a palace.” The Mons Palatinus or “the Palatine Hill,” was one of the seven hills of ancient Rome, where Augustus Caesar’s house stood (the original “palace”), later the site of the massive Domus Aurea built Nero. The English, the general sense of “splendid dwelling place” is dated the late 14th century. While this is all background knowledge that many people may not have, it is important that when thinking about the history of places or societies, we, as historians represent ideas as accurately as we can, instead of projecting our own perceptions of the ancient world.

Naming such architectural forms as palaces is not only misleading to the academic and archaeological worlds; as well as the general public, but misrepresentative of the functions and history of the palaces and their associated art forms. Descriptions of art styles, such as the “Special Palace Tradition,” and time periods such as “Second Palace Period,” or “Post Palatial Period,” mistakenly buy into this verbiage, effectively distort the history of centuries of Hellenistic and Minoan culture and society. Ironically, we can find parallels to this type of literary error in the term “Minoan,” as well. Using the Minotaur myth that originated in Crete to describe the time period subconsciously promotes a false narrative of the region. While it may not always be possible to label such concepts correctly given the fractured nature of the archaeological record in many cases, it becomes so much more important for things we do know about, such as the Bronze Age “palaces,” to be presented truthfully.