The mirror appears frequently in funerary contexts in the Greek colonies Locri Epizefiri and Metaponto and this thesis endeavours to rebuild the contexts of these mirrors using the approach of contextual archaeology. To explore the mirror’s contemporary function and meaning within the burial record and to discern why mirrors appear within a funerary setting, a chain of contexts is followed from the archaeological material to iconographical analysis, to comparative archaeological data, widening the contextual circles step by step. In the first part, the appearance of the graves with mirrors in Locri Epiezefiri and Metaponto is examined. The result is then compared with the iconographical evidence and the comparative archaeological data. The thesis further examines the mirror’s female association and discusses how the colonies of Magna Graecia should be studied as a third culture in accordance with the middle ground. Based on the results from the analysis, the discussion argues for a connection between mirrors and the Orphic-Dionysiac-Pythagorean cult, especially pronounced in Magna Graecia during this period, but also possible ritualistic functions such as divination and the notion of “female knowledge”.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The sites of rock art, term conventionally defined and used by a great number of researchers, about this subject, are expressed since the Paleolithic. The developed studies aimed to understand the presence of these archeological sites are not notorious in Sergipe State. In these terms, there was a concern to develop a more detailed research on rock art and the symbolic universe of its producer, since the Canindé de São Francisco is pointing as a place of great archaeological potential and raises discussions about it. When analyzing the figures applying the semiotic method, it was noticed that the sites with rock art inserted into the Mundo Novo Farm can be read as signs that communicate. Each has its own peculiarities and similarities in the types of signs displayed in a color of the symbolic elements shared among individuals living in the area. The semiotic approach to rock art was made possible by the establishment of subdisciplinary fields in Arqueologica, consolidated in the last decade. / Os sítios de arte rupestre, termo convencionalmente definido e utilizado por um grande número de pesquisadores, são manifestados desde o período Paleolítico. Os estudos desenvolvidos que buscam entender a presença desses sítios arqueológicos não são notórios no estado de Sergipe. Nesses termos, houve a preocupação em desenvolver uma pesquisa mais detalhada sobre a arte rupestre e o universo simbólico de seu produtor, visto que o município de Canindé de São Francisco é apontando como local de grande potencial arqueológico e suscita discussões a respeito. Ao analisar as figuras aplicando o método semiótico, percebeu-se que os sítios com arte rupestre inseridos na Fazenda Mundo Novo, podem ser lidos como signos que comunicam. Cada qual possui particularidades e similaridades quanto aos tipos de signos expostos, sendo a cor um dos elementos simbólicos compartilhado entre os indivíduos vivendo na área. A abordagem semiótica para a arte rupestre foi possível devido o estabelecimento dos campos subdisciplinares na Arqueologica, consolidados na última década.

The contextual study of the oriental imports and their local imitations discovered in the Early Iron Age cemeteries at Knossos is of great importance, as it reveals the attitude of the Knossian society towards imports coming from the Near East during a period that lasted more than four centuries. Another important part of this study is a coherent analysis of the distribution of the fully published tombs and cemeteries. The main argument of this thesis is that there were different elite groups at Knossos which were in competition with each other and, for this reason, used different clusters of tombs and/or cemeteries. It is argued that the oriental imports and their close copies were used by those different elite groups in order to mark political and ideologies differences. / El estudio contextual de las importaciones orientales y sus imitaciones producidas en Creta, descubiertas en los cementerios de la Edad del Hierro temprana de Cnosós, es de gran importancia porque nos revela cómo la sociedad de Cnosós reaccionó a las importaciones procedentes de Oriente Próximo durante un período que duró más de cuatro siglos. Otra parte importante de este estudio es un análisis coherente de la distribución de las tumbas y los cementerios cuyos datos han sido publicados en su totalidad y su asociación con las importaciones. El argumento principal de esta tesis es que hubo distintos grupos de élite que competían unos con otros y por eso utilizaron tumbas y cementerios distintos. Estos grupos también utilizaron las importaciones orientales y sus imitaciones con el fin de marcar sus diferencias, políticas e ideológicas.