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Conceptualising Processes of Monumental Architectural Creation in the Eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age

Project description

Monuments beyond appearances

Monuments can be more than attributes of centralised, hierarchical political economies and top-down power structures. That’s what the EU-funded DAEDALOS project wants to explore. Taking the Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean societies as an example, researchers will challenge the predominant narrative surrounding architecture from 35 sites in Mainland Greece, Western Anatolia, Crete, Cyprus and the Cyclades, where ‘palatial’ monuments were built and, so far, seen as a symbol of centralised control over the population. DAEDALOS questions this assumption by investigating the organisational centralisation of the societies that managed the labour and material resources invested in construction. In this way, the project aims at a more nuanced view of history.

Objective

DAEDALOS aims to challenge the predominant metanarrative that uniformly sees monuments as an attribute of centralised, hierarchical political economies and top-down power structures, a view that exerts a strong influence on our understanding of the organisation of Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean societies. In the 2nd mill. BCE, Mainland Greece, Western Anatolia and the islands of Crete, Cyprus and the Cyclades witness a growing architectural elaboration. Impressive ‘palatial’ monuments are built, which are often interpreted as the seat of rulers exerting centralised control over the population. The surmised political power necessary for the mobilisation and management of the human and material resources invested in monumental construction is taken as further evidence for the leading function of these edifices, and for the position of their commissioners at the top of hierarchical socio-political systems. Taking into consideration the ability for human groups with no centralised leadership to efficiently manage and control resources, DAEDALOS questions the preconceived conflation of monumental architecture and centralised hierarchical power. To assess this, the project will analyse integration and segmentation patterns in 2nd mill. BCE monumental building projects of the Aegean and Cyprus, and investigate the organisational centralisation of the societies that managed the labour and material resources invested in construction. Based on the architectural study of monuments distributed over 35 sites and their examination through new, specially devised analytical parameters, DAEDALOS will explore the possibility for grassroots, bottom-up building processes and their impact on architectural creation. By doing so, the project aims to trigger a paradigm shift in the ways we approach and interpret monumental architecture while producing nuanced and compelling definitions of Eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age socio-political systems.

Host institution

UNIVERSITEIT GENT
Net EU contribution
€ 1 876 640,00
Address
SINT PIETERSNIEUWSTRAAT 25
9000 Gent
Belgium

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Region
Vlaams Gewest Prov. Oost-Vlaanderen Arr. Gent
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
€ 1 876 640,00

Beneficiaries (1)