Professor Jack L. Davis
Director of the American School of Classical Studies
Carl W. Blegen Professor of Greek Archaeology, University of Cincinnati
Reconstructing Iconographies of Power at the Palace of Nestor
Wednesday, 15 February 2012, 7 pm
Saratsis Amphitheater, University of Thessaly
Since 1997, an interdisciplinary and international group of scholars has been involved
in the restudy of finds from the excavations of Carl Blegen at the Palace of Nestor. In
my talk I summarize some of the principal discoveries made in the past 15 years. One
of the most significant of these has been the realization that only a fraction of the
fragments of wall-paintings from the palace had been restored. Study of the
unpublished fragments is permitting for the first time the reliable restoration of entire
iconographical programs in various rooms of the palace. Examination of those from
Hall 64 of the so-called Southwest Building is nearly complete, and allows a
preliminary consideration of the role of wall-paintings in spaces employed to host
large-scale, state-sponsored feasts.