Domitian's Palace: the Hill That Gave Us the Word "Palace"
A new city, and a new partnership. TimeLens is in Rome.
Together with Learning Sites Inc, we are bringing Domitian's Palace on the Palatine Hill into the app. It is our first step into Rome, and a remarkable place to start.
The hill that named a building type
In some ways, this hill was the centre of the Roman Empire. So many Roman rulers made their homes here, from Augustus onward, that its name, the Palatine, Palatium to the Romans, slowly became the word for any ruler's residence, in language after language. Palace in English, palazzo in Italian, palais in French, Palast in German, all of it traces back to this one piece of ground above the Roman Forum.
A palace finished by Domitian
The palace reconstructed in this TimeSpot was built for Domitian, youngest of the Flavian dynasty, and finished in 92 CE. It stood on a vast platform laid across the dip between the Palatine's two summits, over the older houses of the emperors who had lived there before him.
Built on decades of research
This reconstruction is the work of Learning Sites Inc, which describes itself as the oldest virtual heritage company working in the field, marking thirty years of archaeological visualisation. It rests on decades of research by the company's founder, Donald H. Sanders, into the palace and the wider Palatine Hill. It is exactly the kind of partnership TimeLens exists for: a deeply researched model, brought to a far wider audience than it could otherwise reach.
What you can see today, and what is coming
The reconstruction is mostly empty for now. It shows the palace shortly after it was completed, with marble brought in from across the empire, intricate stonework throughout, and walls in places polished to such a high shine that they worked almost like a mirror. We have already added these halls to the TimeLens app. Over the coming months, we will work with Donald H. Sanders and his team to bring them to life with full, populated scenes.
This is also only the beginning of TimeLens in Rome. Domitian's Palace is our first step into the Eternal City, and more locations are already on the way.
See it for yourself
Domitian's Palace is now in the TimeLens app. Look around the halls of the building that gave a word to the world, and watch this space as the scenes within it come to life.
If you would like to follow our work and support more reconstructions like this, you can join us on Patreon. And if you represent a museum or heritage site, or have a reconstruction of your own, we would love to hear from you.
