No description available.

Sealstones are one of the most important types of artifacts discovered in the Aegean Bronze Age. Their practical use for recording and administrating purposes, their association with identity, prestige and social status, their possible religious or ritual connotations speak clearly for their importance and value. The fact that they are deposited, among other artifacts in tombs, accompanying their owners, demonstrate this value not only in life but also in death. Especially in the pre-palatial period in Crete a large number of seals have come to light, coming mostly from mixed contexts in the Mesara and Asterousia, in south Crete. The Minoan pre-palatial sealstones from Archanes-Phourni comprise an important corpus of artifacts for many reasons. They come from a site in the North of the island, in contrast to the majority of pre-palatial seals. The excavation and recording techniques used offer the opportunity to study the seals in their context, which is dated with relative certainty. The study of these seals, in comparison with the published ones from the south of the island, may offer significant information about important aspects of life in this period. The examination of materials, shapes, motifs, style groups and consumption patterns of seals may present us with useful insights about craft specialization and technology, internal and external exchange, economic organization and administration, religion and ritual, social differentiation and organization in the pre-palatial period. The study of this multiple and complex role of sealstones can offer us valuable information about the period before the first palaces.

The thesis discusses bird depictions in the Aegean Bronze Age. The iconographical study is based on a catalogue of almost 2000 objects showing bird images from Crete, the Cyclades, the Greek Mainland and the Dodecanese dating to EB I - LB IIIC. Three research aims are addressed. The first aim is the reliable and accurate identification of the depicted bird species by finding a middle ground between the two approaches that have prevailed in past scholarship, which either consisted of overambitious attempts at species identification or resorted to overgeneralised accounts of bird imagery. A systematic identification methodology, based on a combination of techniques from iconography, ornithology and in particular anthropological studies of folk taxonomies, is developed. The second aim is the interpretation of any specific symbolic functions and ideological roles of birds in different regions and periods. This analysis rests on the combined study of media and find contexts as well as the chosen bird species and iconographical associations. The third aim is the reconstruction of types of ontologies prevalent in different regions. Based on a structuralist model of ontologies developed by the anthropologist Descola, the bird depictions are studied by looking for features that are typical of analogical, naturalist, totemic or animist art. Each research aim has yielded numerous results, which deepen our understanding of biological knowledge and cultural diversity in the Aegean Bronze Age. First, the vast majority of bird depictions can be identified as belonging to one of the following folk-taxonomical groups: columbids (doves), birds of prey/corvids, waterbirds, wading birds, owls, hoopoes, galliformes, swallows and seabirds. Second, the existence of a multitude of particular functions and roles of birds is revealed. These vary significantly according to time and regions, mirroring historical developments and the presence of different cultural attitudes towards birds. Third, marked regional differences are detectable with regard to ontologies. Cretan and Cycladic bird art is consistent with animist iconography discernible because of a pronounced artistic naturalism, an emphasis on movement and agency, and the presence of shamanic imagery. The images from the Greek Mainland can be characterised as being consistent with an ontology termed analogical by Descola because of a preference of stylised and modular depictions and the persistence of symbolic functions through time. This work lays a foundation opening up a new perspective on interpreting iconography of the Aegean Bronze Age.

This thesis explores the phenomenon of intramural infant burial during Middle Helladic III–Late Helladic II during the Aegean Bronze Age. Intramural graves of children aged two years or less at Málthi and Ayios Stephanos, two settlements on the Greek mainland, are studied from a number of perspectives: the physical properties of the graves and the buried infants, the spatial and intramural context of the grave, and their relationship to their social and societal context. Some things found to be relevant in the analysis were the importance of kinship and group belonging, as well as shifting funerary practices in a time of large-scale socio-economic change in the region. / Denna kandidatuppsats utforskar fenomenet intramurala spädbarnsgravar under Mellanhelladisk III–Senhelladisk II under den egeiska bronsåldern. Intramurala gravar av barn som var två år gamla eller yngre vid Málthi och Ayios Stephanos, två boplatser på det grekiska fastlandet, studeras ur ett antal perspektiv: gravarna och de begravda spädbarnens fysiska egenskaper, gravens rumsliga och intramurala kontext, och dess relation till dess sociala och samhälleliga kontext. Några ting som visade sig vara relevanta i analysen var vikten av släktskap och grupptillhörighet, såväl som föränderliga begravningsskick under en tid med storskaliga socioekonomiska förändringar i regionen.

This research utilizes two analytical methods to examine the dental microwear of two skeletal samples from East Lokris, Greece. The samples are from the Bronze age/Early Iron age sites of Mitrou and Tragana Agia Triada. The samples were tested according to various temporal and geographic designations in an attempt to determine if any differences in dietary constituent could be discerned from their dental microwear signatures. Both traditional dental microwear analysis using a scanning electron microscope and dental microwear texture analysis employing scale sensitive fractal analysis and a Sensofar Plµ Confocal Profiler were used. The results of analysis for both methods differ in regards to their level of statistical significance but both suggest a general trend of coarsening of masticated materials during the Bronze/Iron age transition. Current evidence suggests that the changes in the dietary texture are due to changes in pottery production and are likely not due to dietary changes.

No description available.

Prehistoric Town Planning in Crete" was published in 1950 by Richard Hutchinson. He determined there was no evidence of town planning on Minoan Crete except for two instances. Hutchinson's approach compared the layout of the few excavated Minoan towns to other contemporary sites, such as Kahun, Egypt and Harrappa, India. These towns were laid out in grid-like squares, on flat, level ground. Compared to these sites the settlements on Crete appeared as an amalgamation of disorganized, organic growth. More than half a century has elapsed between Hutchinson's article and this study. Within that time many more Minoan sites and towns have been excavated and published. This greater corpus offers an opportunity to examine Minoan town planning with a new eye. This greater number of excavated Minoan towns allows for a study of town planning by comparing Minoan communities to one another. When an investigation is done comparing sites within Crete only, a pattern starts to emerge. To accomplish this analysis nine elements of Minoan town planning are defined, examined at individual sites, and compared among settlements. These nine elements are: 1. A street system adhering to the natural contours of the land 2. Buildings arranged in irregular, attached blocks defined by the street system 3. A large plateia or centrally located community court easily accessible from all parts of the town 4. Other open public spaces throughout the settlement 5. An elite building near the plateia 6. Public buildings in which there is no habitation 7. Semi-public buildings 8. Built fortifications 9. Extramural dependencies, which are structural features or natural areas outside the borders of the town proper but are an integral part of the community This comparison elucidates a very specific and existing type of Minoan town planning. It began at least as early as Early Minoan II and reached its apogee in Late Minoan I. What at first glance looks random, is not. Minoan towns were laid out within the constraints of the local landscape and with the desired aesthetic. The result was a lifestyle in LM I far beyond subsistence living. / Art History

This dissertation examines monkey and ape iconography in Minoan art during the Aegean Bronze Age (ca. 3,000–1,100 B.C.). Although a broad range of animals exist for depiction, Minoan artists carefully selected each subject in order to fulfill specific roles. Monkeys and apes appear to function differently than the other creatures that are depicted in art. Rather than subscribing to the general roles played by other animals, these primates may be shown outdoors, behaving like wild animals, or in a ceremonial context, participating in a ritual. Monkeys also imitate human activities. The deviation of primates from the typical roles of other animals found in Minoan art invites a deeper investigation of the role and iconography of apes and monkeys. In this study, three types of media that bear depictions of primates are considered. These media include figurines, glyptic art, and wall paintings. First, a review of the stylistic features of Minoan art and the possibility for the use of pattern books is discussed. Next, monkey and ape iconography in Egyptian art is explored. A thorough review of the creatures’ iconography in Minoan art follows, which includes the identification of figures as either ape or monkey, as well as a detailed description and conclusions about each type of representation. A new possible reconstruction of the Saffron Gatherer fresco is also included. Finally, the possible origins of Minoan primate iconography are considered, as well as the possible implications of the creature’s history, development, and roles. With this information in mind, the Offering to the Seated Goddess scene is then examined. The possible reconstruction of a crocus ceremony is proposed and explained, and the Levantine parallels for the compositional arrangement of the scene are also addressed. These conclusions may directly inform greater themes in Minoan culture, such as religion and cult practices. / Art History

The Mycenaeans used writing for a variety of administrative purposes. The archaeological evidence for writing suggests that it was a highly restricted technology. Mycenaeans used the Linear B script to write clay tablets, inscribe sealings, and paint on vessels. There is evidence to suggest that ephemeral documents of parchment or papyrus also were used for writing. In most of these instances, writing recorded economic transactions involving the material wealth of the state. The only exception is a small number of open-shaped vessels that are likely inscribed with personal names. The Linear B script is often blamed for the restriction of writing by the Mycenaeans. This open-syllabic script does not well represent the sound of spoken Greek, and requires the frequent use of dummy vowels and the omission of consonants at the end of syllables. Studies in literacy theory, however, suggest that script usage, reading, and writing are dictated by social factors and by need, rather than by forces supposedly inherent in the script itself. Writing was restricted because Mycenaean society dictated a restricted use. The sealings and tablets, which are found at several sites throughout mainland Greece and Crete, are small in size and are found almost exclusively in administrative contexts, in buildings that have functions in central administration. Writing is never found in public displays, as it is in the contemporary Near East. There was no intent to familiarize the Mycenaean populace with the technology of writing. Training in literacy likewise appears to have been highly restrictive, with new individuals being taught by scribes on an ad hoc, individualized basis. The loyalty of scribes to the king would have been essential. The sealings and tablets record the material wealth of the kingdom that was under the management of central administration. Furthermore, the contents of the tablets are not countermarked by seal impressions that would confirm their authenticity. Scribes would have been among the king’s closest administrators and members of the elite. The restriction of writing would ensure that all written words were legitimate, as they could only be written by the most trusted individuals in the kingdom. / text

This thesis sheds first light on the complex narrative behind the earliest appearance of writing in Europe. A radical new framework of interpretation, recognising art and writing as different ends of a single mode of graphic expression, is applied to the material culture of Early to Middle Bronze Age Crete as a context-conscious alternative to the strict and anachronistic divisions imposed by traditional models. This allows for a novel way of viewing and identifying structures of meaning embedded in otherwise familiar evidence. A comprehensive synthesis of the archaeological evidence for the undeciphered Bronze Age Cretan writing systems is offered, contextualising the thesis and its arguments within a new narrative of mostly autonomous script formation on Crete. Detailed analysis of the material record is started in the Early Bronze Age, where a previously unrecognised system of Prepalatial glyptic iconography is demonstrated to have maintained uniform distribution and presentation for roughly eight centuries, appearing in the exact contexts, and ostensibly fulfilling similar functions, as later writing. This newly identified system is argued to have provided the conceptual background against which later writing emerged. The thesis subsequently discusses the Archanes Script, the first accepted ‘true’ writing to appear west of Egypt, which has been severely understudied and highly ill-understood. Redefining the Archanes Script completely, a first signary is constructed, and new documents discovered. A further chapter argues for the possible existence of other, as of yet unidentified, linear writing systems on Crete. This is followed by a study of the Cretan Hieroglyphic writing system; the unjustified omission of supposedly ‘decorative’ signs in many of its documents is identified, the script’s corpus nearly doubled, and ‘a complete turnaround in the way in which we approach and define Cretan Hieroglyphic’ proposed.