The idea that societies and rulers express their power through monumental architecture is not a new one, but this collection of essays, the result of a 2002 conference in Leuven, takes the arguement back to the very beginnings of monumental architecture in the Bronze Age Near East and Aegean, to ask if this process can be linked to a particular stage in societal development. Particular focus is on Minoan building, but essays also look at mainland Greece, at Mesopotamia and Syria and specifically at Uruk.