ABSTRACT
Palaces in the ancient Near East and the Aegean pose numerous challenges for an archaeological treatment. This is primarily because of their size and longevity, which provide startling amounts of synchronic and diachronic data concerning the same structure. It is hard enough to understand activities and behavioral patterns in a single three-dimensional structure. Add to that the numerous changes that long-lived palaces go through over time, and the archaeologist is left with a four-dimensional puzzle, from which most of the pieces are missing, as a result of the limitations of preservation and the extent of the excavated areas.
