Mycenean society on mainland Greece started to decline with the collapse of the palatial system during the 13th century BC. Following the collapse was a big change in the ceramic repertoire of the Aegean area, this new period was later named the post-palatial period or late helladic IIIC which was based on the types of ceramics found during the period. The changes in the societies of the Aegean can be seen in the ceramics, which is one of the best-preserved materials from Mycenaean society. The changes are believed to have had a major impact on both the production and consumption of ceramic containers, which can be seen in the styles that were typical of the Greek mainland, but also in the spatial distribution and the use of ceramics. The purpose of this study is to analyze a ceramic object (an alabastron) from Uppsala University Museum Gustavianums antiquities collection and through the study find out how the object fits into the changes that took place in Mycenaean society around 1200 BC. The essay and the questions are mainly based on the ceramic object analyzed in the main part of the essay, where the purpose is to document and then analyze the vessel's manufacture, function, shape, decoration and the context. In this essay, theory and method is based on Panofskys’ framework for studies of iconography and iconology.

Since the turn of the millennium an extensive digitalisation of the European cultural heritage has been underway. The aim is to make the common cultural heritage accessible to everyone and promote developments in education, tourism and the creative industry, among others. Historically, archival documents and works of art have been closely related as archival documents has served as a proof of an artworks history and autheticity, its’ provinance. Since the turn of the millennium the archive has become a recurring theme in contemporary art. Informed by post structuralist theories of the archive as both a material place and a structure for power and history. In this paper the relation between archival documents and artworks are being examined. By studying the digitalisation project of Thielska Galleriet in Stockholm the aim is to answer how documents of Richard Bergh’s letter archive, preserved at Thielska Galleriet, are being affected when made digitally available together with the museum’s art collection. The study is framed by the archive science theory the accessparadigm. Occuring at the turn of the 21st century the paradigm correlated with the change from paper to digital information storage, changing the focus of the archive from custody to access. The analysis is taking an interdisciplinary approach in relation to the concepts provenance and authenticity, established in both archive science and art history and is further framed by the art historical dissertation The Archive Art Phenomenon: History and Critique at the turn of the Twenty-First Century by Sarah Callahan (Stockholm University 2018). The case study shows that the relation between archival documents and artworks at Thielska Galleriet has been blurred in different ways historically. Though faithful to concepts of provenance and authenticity, the digitalisation project faced some challenges regarding how the status of some archival documents changed when registered in correlation with the art collection in the database. Seen through the lens of the Archive Art Phenomenon, archival documents might be considered artworks if they are conceptualised as such. Access to the digitalised archives and art collection of Thielska Galleriet opens up for considering the archival documents in new ways. The use of Richard Berghs letter archive in artistic work and processes is one such potential.

The Gorgon is a creature described as terrible in ancient literature. It was depicted with glaring eyes, tusks and a hanging tongue and was a part of Greek antiquity from Archaic to Roman Period. The Gorgon motif has frequently been adorned on different materials. The reason as to why such a creature was depicted has been a subject of interest in earlier studies. The Gorgon motif has been elaborately studied in combination with buildings, armours and vases. A gap of knowledge that is still to be filled is a deeper examination of the Gorgon motifs on coins, which is the inspiration for this study in which the main aim is to approach an understanding of what function the Gorgon motif could have had on Archaic Greek coins. The study is based on a collection of 42 Archaic coins from Athens and Neapolis in Macedon. Through Panofsky's theory of iconography the material is analyzed and discussed via a series of sub-questions; ‘Did the Gorgon motifs differ depending on the location?’, ‘What combination of features appear on the coins?’, ‘To what extent was the Gorgon myth linked to the locations that used the motif and what other myths were used on coins during the same period? ’, ‘Is there a link between the use of Gorgon motifs on coins and on other material objects?’ The paper measures the possible explanations of the Gorgon motif with archaeological finds and ancient texts dealing with the Gorgon, many of which point to the fact that the Gorgon’s function generally served a purpose as an apotropaic symbol. Its function as a possible amulet is investigated using previous research that studies the symbolic significance of the Gorgon, as well as tracing its background and examination of the Gorgon myth to find possible connections with other mythical creatures. / Gorgonen är en varelse som beskrivs som fruktansvärd i den grekiska antikens litteratur. Den avbildas med stirrande ögon, betar och en hängande tunga. Gorgonen har varit en del av den grekiska antiken sedan dess början och har varit ett populärt motiv på olika material. Det har funnits stort intresse i tidigare studier kring anledningarna till att en sådan varelse valts att avbildas. Motivet har studerats omsorgsfullt när det har smyckat byggnader, rustningar och vaser. En lucka som inte har fyllts än inom ämnet är en djupare undersökning av gorgonmotiven på mynt, vilket även är ämnet för denna studie med syftet att närma sig en förståelse för de funktioner som Gorgonmotiven fyllde på mynt under arkaisk grekisk tid. Studien baseras på ett urval av 42 arkaiska mynt från Aten och Neapolis i Makedonien. Genom Panofskys trestegsmodell analyseras gorgonmotiv som framkommer på mynten och svarar på en rad viktiga underfrågor: Skiljer sig gorgonmotiv åt mellan platser Vilka kombinationer av gorgoner förekommer på mynten? I vilken utsträckning var gorgonmyten kopplad till de platser som använde motivet, vilka andra myter användes på mynten under samma period? Finns det ett samband mellan användningen av gorgonmotiv på mynt och på andra objekt? I uppsatsen bedöms möjliga förklaringar till gorgonmotivet med arkeologiska fynd och antika texter som behandlar gorgonen, varav många pekar mot att gorgonens funktion i allmänhet fyllde ett apotropeiskt syfte. Detta undersöks med hjälp av tidigare forskning av gorgonens symboliska betydelse samt kopplingen med andra mytiska varelser genom att spåra dess bakgrund och granskning av gorgonmyten.

This paper consists of a focused, formal, and iconographic analysis of a unique Late Archaic bronze hand mirror said to originate in Magna Graecia, now in the Getty Museum. Of particular interest is the way the object fuses and juxtaposes two semantically dense and interrelated devices from the ancient Greek world: the mirror and the severed head of the Medusa (gorgoneion). While gorgoneia are generally encountered as ornaments on Greek mirrors, the Getty example is the only extant case in which Medusa’s head occupies the entire backside of the mirror, effectively functioning as a Janus-faced counterpart to the user’s face reflected in the disc. Scholars tend to explain the significance of gorgoneia on objects like the Getty mirror with reference to apotropaic and/or humorous effects. Yet Fowler proposes that the mirror’s incorporation of the gorgoneion may be appreciated on deeper conceptual and phenomenological levels: as a visual “comment” on the nature of the image (representational and reflected) and of (female) beauty and ugliness, which is accomplished by, and experienced through, using the object. Close examination of the Getty mirror thus offers critical insights into the complex interplay between gender, aesthetics, image-making, and visual experience in ancient Greek culture.

Scenes involving the breaking or outright inversion of culinary and (com)mensal norms are frequent in Greek art of the Archaic and Classical periods. The most discussed group of such images involves the uncivilized act of binge drinking unmixed wine and, as a result, losing control of one’s mind and body. Far less studied from an iconographic perspective are scenes of cannibalism, the most extreme and unsettling of all Greek culinary taboos. This paper seeks to define the iconography and meaning of cannibalism in Greek art through an exploration of the individual and shared compositional features of anthropophagic scenes and their visual relationship to normative images of meat consumption. Analytical attention will also be given to the objects on which these scenes appear and the relationship between the scenes and any other decorative content. Of particular interest is the way in which the iconography reflects cannibalism’s association with other serious normative violations, for example, infanticide (e.g., Prokne slaying her son Itys) and inhospitality (e.g., the Egyptian pharaoh Bousiris attempting to sacrifice his guest-friend Herakles). [The manuscript is currently being developed into an article to be submitted for publication consideration, probably in winter 2021.]

No description available.

Studien undersöker gudinnan Ate för att bilda förståelse för de antika grekernas föreställning om distribution av agens. Nära förknippade med Ate är Moirai (ödesgudinnorna) och Litai som Ates antites och dessa undersöks för en överblick över krafter som kan påverka en individs agens. För ändamålet används Homeros Iliaden och Odysséen samt Aischylos trilogi Orestien för att kunna följa hur religiösa gestalter skildras och utvecklas över tid. Materialet analyseras med textanalys utifrån perspektivet att religiösa uppfattningar påverkar sociala uttryck. Analysen beskriver de gudomliga aktörerna och redovisar skillnader i hur de skildras utifrån detvå författarnas tolkningar samt hur de mänskliga aktörerna påverkas av de skadliga handlingar de utfört och hur de uppfattas av sin omgivning. Resultatet av analysen visar att ingripande av Ate framkallas av individens bristande moral och det gudomliga hävdas för att göra en svår situation uthärdlig. Moirai hävdas på liknande vis och Ate ses som ett instrument för Ödets vilja. Litai lindrar skadan som Ate åsamkat. Utanför den trojanska cykeln upphör omnämnanden av Litai vilket förändrar Ates funktion. / The study examines the goddess Ate to understand the ancient greek view on the distribution of agency. Other deities closely connected to Ate are Moirai (the Fates) and Litai as the antithesis of Ate and these are examined for an overview of forces that can influence agency. For this purpose Homers Iliad and Odyssey are used along with Aeschylus Orestia to follow how the deities are depicted and how they evolve over time. The material is examined using textual analysis from the perspective that religious views affect social expressions. The analysis addresses how the deities were expressed and accounts for differences in depiction identified between the two authors along with how the actors are impacted by the damaging actions they’ve performed. The results of the analyses show that interventions by Ate are brought upon by an actor's own deficient morals and the divine is claimed in an attempt to make a bad situation manageable. The will of Moirai is claimed with a similar goal and Ate is wielded as an instrument for Moirai. Litai is used to mitigate the damage caused by Ate and their disappearance outside the Trojan cycle alters the very function of Ate.

Denna text diskuterar antagonistisk graffiti i Pompeji ur ett rumsligt perspektiv för att analysera spridningen av graffiti. Texten ämnar även att undersöka ifall det är vanligare att skriva förolämpande graffiti på specifika platser i staden. Ytterligare ett mål med uppsatsen är att undersöka ifall modern teoribildning kan bidra till en bättre förståelse av graffitins spridning genom disinhibitionsteorin. Antik graffiti jämförs med moderna beteenden online och kring graffiti. Graffitin verkar skrivas på platser där den är synlig av andra människor och den är vanlig på både privata och offentliga byggnader. Disinhibition kan vara en möjlig förklaringsmodell angående förolämpande graffiti orsakad av exempelvis anonymitet. / This text discusses antagonistic graffiti in Pompeii from a spatial perspective to analyse the spread of graffiti. The text also aims to study whether it is more common to write offensive graffiti in certain areas of the city. Another goal with this thesis is to study whether modern sociological theory can help understand the spread of graffiti through the disinhibition theory. Ancient graffiti is compared to modern behaviours online and around graffiti. Graffiti seems to be written in places where it could be seen by other people, and it is common on both private and public buildings. Disinhibition could be a possible explanatory model when discussing offensive graffiti caused by, for example, anonymity.

This thesis discusses the differences in the descriptions of and the attitudes towards female courage in the literature of the Classical period. Male authors of this period wrote extensively of the martial and virtuous courage of men, andreíā, yet in some instances labelled courage instead as tólma or thrásos. Tólma and thrásos are even more commonly used in descriptions of female courage, audacity or rashness. How these three words could be used in relation to men and women is discussed, and the fundamental belief of the Classical period that women were not capable of courage is encountered. As courage was outside the nature, phúsis, of a woman, her actions were always more likely to be viewed as tólma or thrásos. To what extent the literature of the period can reflect the lived experience of the ancient Athenian is unknown. However, it is concluded that literary works both impact and are impacted by social and cultural values, such as the view that women should not or could not be courageous.

The focus of this thesis is Roman bird-shaped glass vessels from the 1 st and 2 nd centuries AD. The vessels were containers for cosmetics and distinguished themselves from other types of unguentaria in that once they had been filled with cosmetic powder, the vessels were reheated and sealed shut by fire. The only way to extract the content was to break the tip of the bird’s tail; only then could the powder be sprinkled out. While ancient glass is a well-established field of research, studies concerning bird-shaped vessels are scarce. The present study, situated in Roman age Greece, is concerned with the sensory experiences that these objects evoked in their users and attempts to reflect the ancient lived experience of the vessels. In order to speculate on possible sensory stimuli, contextual aspects concerning where, why, and by whom these vessels were used are explored. Based on these contextual aspects, the bird-shaped vessels are studied in hypothetical scenarios where potential multisensory experiences are explored.