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This dissertation attempts to approach the problem of function and organization of Minoan work places. The study and detailed presentation of the relevant material originating from the palatial complex of Zakros aims at presenting as clear a picture as possible of the work areas in one of the most important Minoan centres during the Late Bronze Age. In the Introduction, a short definition of the term 'Minoan workshops' is given and the object of this study is presented. The method of approach of the material from Zakros is selected and the limits of the present study are set. Chapter II contains a short criticism on the existing bibliography and criteria for identifying work places are sought and classified on the basis of the type of production. Chapter III presents the Zakros workshops. Part I presents the material, Part II contains descriptions and evaluations of each work place. Chapter IV contains comparative material - other Minoan workshops more or less contemporary as well as some Mycenaean and Aegean ones. The last chapter consists of a discussion of the workmen's socio-economic position, the work places' features and their organization as shown by their location, architectural form and their contents.

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This thesis analyzes the role of warfare on Crete during the Early and Middle Minoan periods (EM and MM). Defensive architecture and weaponry production, utilization and representation are used as evidence for warfare during these periods. Furthermore, this thesis builds upon the scholarship of Minoan warfare in order to define the limitations of the defensive capabilities of Minoan Crete. The EM and MM periods on Crete show a slow advancement towards more sophisticated warfare practices. This is demonstrated by the intensification of defensive architectural programs and advanced weaponry technology of the early MM period. At the same time, population increase and social complexity may have caused extensive tension within communities, perhaps causing an increase in small-scale warfare or violence. Additionally, trade with settlements in the Aegean and the Levant may have inspired and initialized new practices in defensive mechanisms. Thus, the archaeological record of EM and MM Crete provides enough evidence to suggest warfare not only existed, but continually advanced in strategy and tactics. / Art History

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My thesis tilled Feminist Poetics: Symbolism in an Emblematic Journey Reflecting Self and Vision, consists of thirty oil paintings on canvas, several preparatory sketches and drawings in different media on paper, and is supported and elucidated by an exegesis. The paintings on unframed canvases reveal mise en scènes and emblems that present to the viewer a drama about links between identities, differences, relationships and vision. Images of my daughter, friends and myself fill single canvases, suites of paintings, diptyches and triptychs. The impetus behind my research derives from my recognition of the cultural means by which women's experience is excluded from a representational norm or ideal. I use time-honoured devices, such as, illusionist imagery, aspects of portraiture, complex fractured atmospheric space, paintings and drawings within paintings, mirrors and reflective surfaces, shadows and architectural devices. They structure my compositions in a way that envelops the viewer in my internal world of ideas. Some of these features function symbolically, as emblems. A small part of the imagery relies on verisimilitude, such as my hands and their shadow and my single observing eye enclosed by my glasses. What remains is a fantasy world, ‘seen’ by the image of my other eye, or ‘faction’, based on memories and texts explaining the significance of ancient Minoan symbols. In my paintings, I base the subjects of this fantasy on my memories of the Knossos Labyrinth and matristic symbols, such as the pillar, snake, blood, eye and horn. They suggest the presence of a ritual where initiates descended into the adyton (holy of holies) or sunken areas in the labyrinth. The paintings attempt a ‘rewriting’ of sacrality and gender by adopting the symbolism of death, transformation and resurrection in the adyton. The significance of my emblematic imagery is that it constructs a foundation narrative about vision and insight. I sought symbolic attributes shared by European oil painting and Minoan antiquity. Both traditions share symbolic attributes with male dying gods in Greek myths and Medusa plays a central part in this linkage. I argue that her attributes seem identical to both those of the dying gods and Minoan goddesses. In the Minoan context these symbols suggest metaphors for the female body and the mother and daughter blood line. When the symbols align with the beheaded Medusa in a patriarchal context, both her image and her attributes represent cautionary tales about female sexuality that have repercussions for aspects of vision. In Renaissance and Baroque oil painting Medusa's image served as a vehicle for an allegory that personified the triumph of reason over the senses. In the twentieth century, the vagina dentata suggests her image, a personified image of irrational emotion that some male Surrealists celebrated as a muse. She is implicated in the male gaze as a site of castration and her representation suggests a symbolic form pertaining to perspective. Medusa's image, its negative sexual and violent connotations, seemed like a keystone linking iconographic codes in European oil painting to Minoan antiquity. I fused aspects of matristic Minoan antiquity with elements of European oil paintings in the form of disguised attribute gestures, objects and architectural environments. I selected three paintings, Dürer's Setf-Portrait, 1500, Gentileschi's Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting, 1630 and Velazquez's Las Meniruis, 1656 as models because 1 detected echoes of Minoan symbolism in the attributes of their subjects and backgrounds. My revision of Medusa's image by connecting it to Minoan antiquity established a feminist means of representation in the largely male-dominated tradition of oil painting. These paintings also suggested painting techniques that were useful to me. Through my representations of my emblematic journey I questioned the narrow focus placed on phallic symbols when I explored how their meanings may have been formed within a matricentric culture. I retained the key symbols of the patriarchal foundation narratives about vision but removed images of violence and their link to desire and replaced it with a ritual form of symbolic death. I challenged the binary oppositional defined Self as opposed to Other by constructing a complex, fluid Self that interacts with others. A multi-directional gaze between subjects, viewers and artist replaces the male gaze. Different qualities of paint, coagulation and random flow form a blood symbolism. Many layers of paint retaining some aspects of the Gaze and Glance, fuse and separate intermittently to construct and define form. The sense of motion and fluidity constructs a form of multi-faceted selves. The supporting document, the exegesis is in two parts. In the first part, I discuss the Minoan sources of my iconography and the symbolic gender specific meanings suggested by particular symbols and their changed meanings in European oil painting, I explain how I integrate Minoan symbols into European oil paintings as a form of disguised symbolism. In the second part I explain how my alternative use of symbolism and paint alludes to a feminist poetic.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Bristol, 2002. / This CD version includes both the author's thesis and the accompanying Chart A that was inserted in a pocket inside the back cover in the printed version. At head of title: University of Bristol, Faculty of Arts, Department of Archaeology. Includes folded chart ("Chart A") in pocket attached to inside back cover. Includes bibliographical references (p. 465-501). Also available in printed format and via the Internet.