Suite
Central
Court-
yard
Eastern
Suite
Function of the
room
Corridor
0
Religious
3
Standard
Inscrip - Hunting
tion
1
0
Warfare
0
Tribute
0
Un-deter-
mined
0
Un-deco-
rated
0
U 0 0 16 0 0 0 0 0
Reception room G 13 30 1 0 0 0 0 0
Courtyard
Corridor
Y
Z
0
0
0
10
82
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
Total
4
16
83
10
31
Retiring room H 9 25 0 0 0 0 0 0 25
Storage room J 0 0 11 0 0 0 0 0 11
Bathroom
Storage room
Storage room
Storage room
Throne-
room
Suite
P
Representations
of the King
Storage room
Bathroom
King’s
Suite
Room
I
L
K
M
O
0
0
0
0
0
34
34
0
0
0
2
2
14
12
10
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
36
36
14
12
10
Storage room R 0 0 12 0 0 0 0 0 12
Hall T 0 9 1 0 0 0 0 0 10
Hall
Reception room
Bathroom
Bathroom
N
S
V
W
1
1
0
0
15
29
0
0
3
0
11
9
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
18
29
11
9
Retiring room X 0 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 24
Hall F
D/
ED/E 0 17 0 0 0 0 16 0 33
Reception room
Hall
Courtyard
B
C
19
1
1
18
13
5
0
0
0
2
0
0
Table 1. The amount of wall reliefs and depictions of the king per room.
had no direct relation to the function of these rooms
and the surrounding suites.
As for the religious scenes, these are often only
used as a way of decoration. In almost all rooms
where religious scenes are situated, the corners
are decorated with depictions of the sacred tree.
Moreover, genii are often depicted on both sides of
a doorway. However, this has been interpreted by
Kertai (2014) as a way of directing people through
the palace.
The removal of the reliefs in the Double-Sided
Reception suite is however a major drawback to
this research. Since it was also used as a reception
suite and narrative scenes were also present, it could
have given us more information on the use of these
types of reliefs. Furthermore, in several rooms
located in the Throneroom Suite (D/ED/D, B and
F) the number and type of the reliefs could not be
reconstructed. Therefore, only an estimation could
be made of the original number of the reliefs.
Conclusions and implications
This study shows that the wall reliefs had a strong
relation to their location in the palace. This is
10
0
0
2
0
12
10
0
2
0
0
0
42
13
19
The images were not only a means of propaganda,
but were used in a variety of ways. The reliefs
were used to impress the visitors of the palace, to
direct people through the palace, to designate the
function of a room, to inform its visitors, and lastly
to decorate the palace walls.
In future research, more attention should be
given to the spatial context of wall reliefs. When
studying these relief s in isolation, a large amount
of information is lost, while their contextualization
can help us to better understand their role within
human built space. Therefore, more research should
be carried out with a greater focus on the images
of the reliefs and their relationship to architectural
geographies.
Acknowledgements
First of all, I would like to thank Dr. B.S. Düring
for his support and guidance during this research
and my studies at Leiden University. Additionally,
I would like to thank the Editorial Board and the
peer reviewer for their feedback, and my family
and friends for their ongoing support.
2017 | INTER-SECTION | VOL III | p.19