2012/11/01 by James F. Osborne · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · #Ancient Egypt and Archaeology #Ancient Near East History #Politics #Power (physics) #Ottoman empire #Iconography #Kingdom #State (computer science) #Capital (architecture) #Empire #Legitimacy #Ancient history #History #Interpretation (philosophy) #Art #Archaeology #Law #Political science #Philosophy #Linguistics
paper · doi:10.5615/bullamerschoorie.368.0029
openalex publication_date 2012/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/22
Little is known about how the Syro-Anatolian kingdoms of the Mediterranean and Near Eastern Iron Age (ca. 1200–720 b.c.e.) operated politically. This paper examines the nature and extent of royal political authority in one such kingdom, the city-state known as Patina, and its capital city of Kunulua. Political power in Patina is studied through space syntax analysis of Kunulua's bīt-ḫilāni palace, and through interpretation of the iconography that was used to portray palace furniture. Historical inscriptions and works of art made in the neighboring Assyrian Empire, with whom the Syro-Anatolian city-states had a great deal of cultural and political interaction, provide the bulk of our information regarding the visual makeup of the accoutrements within the bīt-ḫilāni. The architectural form of Kunulua's palace, and the furniture and objects that populated it, are shown to have been conceived together as a coherent and totalizing message emphasizing the legitimacy and power of the king.