Kotsonas, A. 2019. “The iconography of a Protoarchaic cup from Kommos: Myth and ritual in early Cretan art”. Hesperia 88.4, 595-624. (original) (raw)
Related papers
During the First Palace or Protopalatial period (M(iddle) M(inoan) IB-IIB: 19th-18th c. BC) on Crete the communal consumption activities undertaken at palatial sites seem to prefer the use of specific cups, which are very different from one palatial site to another. The plain handleless conical cup is the typical shape of Phaistos, well attested in the palatial centre since Prepalatial times. It is also present in the nearby sites sharing the ceramic tradition of Phaistos (e.g. Ayia Triada, Kommos), but absent or rarely attested in the rest of the island at least until MM III. The footed goblet is the drinking cup par excellence of the palatial site of Knossos, from Prepalatial times until MM IIA. The footed goblet is well attested in the Knossian region, but quite rare outside it. At Malia, the one-handled conical cup is the main drinking cup in use at the palatial site, especially in MM II. It is present also in the nearby sites (e.g. Sissi), as well as in eastern Crete, but absent in the rest of the island. All these cups have in common the following characteristics: production in crude ware, plainness or a very simple decoration, presence in massive quantity only in one palatial site and respective region. On the contrary, there are some shapes that seem uniformly attested across the island in Protopalatial times, like the carinated, the straight-sided and the rounded cups in Polychrome Ware. In this paper I will argue that in Protopalatial Crete there existed some cups that are characteristic of specific palatial sites and their area of influence (ideological and/or political), and likely connected to ceremonial activities that took place under the auspices of the palaces or with the purpose of evoking palatial ceremonies, and others that are instead more uniformly attested across the island because representative of interconnected elites of Crete.
Cretan Hellenistic Pottery : between Modernity and Tradition
I. Kamenjarin et M. Ugarković (éd.), Proceedings of the 3rd IARPotHP Conference: Exploring The Neighborhood: The Role of Ceramics in Understanding Place in the Hellenistic World, Vienne, Phoibos Verlag, 2020, p. 517-531, 2020
The island of Crete is generally perceived as very traditional. Cretan Hellenistic pottery is used as a test case here to determine whether this impression is justified. After a general presentation of Cretan Hellenistic pottery, two groups of highly decorated vases are studied in detail. In the first group (ca. 270-190 BCE), we find Cretan olpae and Hadra hydriae bearing developed, sometimes baroque mythological scenes. The scenes are painted in white and brown, with red highlights, on a black-gloss background. The second group (ca. 290-175 BCE) consists mainly of phialae (the so-called Medusa bowls), hydriae and jugs. The decorations include ribbing and applied moulded heads or other ornaments. The palette is broader, comprised of pink, blue and yellow on a black-gloss or light background. Only very few figurative scenes are depicted. The decoration consists mainly of rosebuds and bucrania, though often combined with new three-dimensional designs, such as meanders and denticules. In both groups, the decorated shapes belong to a wine set, possibly reserved for some ritual use. They were probably painted by two related craftsmen who were master and pupil. They exhibit original, modern designs on traditional Cretan shapes, revealing the complexity of Cretan Hellenistic society. * For providing information, access to vases or images, I would like to thank Chr.
An Inscribed Stirrup Jar of Cretan Origin from Bamboula, Cyprus
Kadmos, 1984
for helpful observations and references. TGP wishes to thank the American Council of Learned Socieries for a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Institute for Research in the Humanities of the University of Wisconsin-Madison which made possible the completion of this paper.
Oversized Athenian Drinking Vessels in Context: Their Role in Etruscan Ritual Performances
American Journal of Archaeology, 2020
This article discusses a distinctive class of Athenian figure-decorated vases consisting of a few black-figure and red-figure cups and some phialai that are dated to the sixth and fifth centuries BCE. All are large, and some are huge, with diameters varying between about 35 and 56 cm. After tracking the shift in the distribution of these vessels from the late sixth century on, from Greek contexts to a concentration in southern Etruria, the article examines several case studies based on reconstructed material assemblages from Etruscan sanctuaries and graves in order to better understand the part played by the purchasers in the local reception and use of these monumental Athenian vases. I attempt to go beyond earlier explanations that see these objects as exchange gifts reflecting the prestige of the aristocratic owners and to demonstrate how this distinctive class of pottery responded to a variety of indigenous needs, practices, and interpretations. 1 introduction Athenian pottery imports in the Italian peninsula, especially southern Etruria, have been the subject of scholarship since the early 19th century, when excavations undertaken in the necropoleis of Vulci yielded thousands of these vessels. 2 While initially focused on the analysis of shapes, iconographical subjects, and painters' styles, scholars gradually began to concentrate on the actions of traders and the effects of this foreign market on Athenian potters, though, until recently, from a Hellenocentric point of view. 3 Since the late 1990s, studies have shown a new interest in purchasers, networks, and markets for figure-decorated pottery with keen attention to the choices of Italic consumers. 4 These studies have discussed how indigenous populations used Greek vases, 5 often relating material culture to the construction of 1 Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Oxford graduate seminars on Greek Pots Abroad in 2008 and at the Pottery Research Group meeting in 2012 (Institute of Classical Studies, University College London). I greatly benefited from discussions with A. Johnston, E. Langridge-Noti, M. Stansbury-O'Donnell, and T. Carpenter and, on Etruscan matters, with B. van der Meer and C. Riva. Many thanks are also due to M. Mendonça and S. Sarti. Also extremely helpful were the reviews of S. Bundrick and two anonymous reviewers for the AJA, and the comments of AJA Editor-in-Chief Jane B. Carter. Remaining errors are mine. I am very grateful to C. Johnston and B. Simpson, AJA editorial staff, for help in practical and editing matters. For assistance in obtaining photographs and copyright permits, I acknowledge R.
Images and symbols of 12th century BC pictorial pottery from Cyprus.
Archaeology of Symbols ICAS 1. Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Archaeology of Symbols, edited by G. Guarducci, N. Laneri and St. Valentini, 205-228. Oxford: Oxbow books., 2024
This third volume in the Material Religion in Antiquity series stems from the First International Congress on the Archaeology of Symbols (ICAS I) that took place in Florence in May 2022. The archaeological process of reconstructing and understanding our past has undergone several reassessments in the last century, producing an equal number of new perspectives and approaches. The recent materiality turn emphasises the necessity to ground those achievements in order to build fresh avenues of interpretation and reach new boundaries in the study of the human kind and its ecology. Symbols must not be conceived only as allegory but also, and perhaps mainly, as reason (raison d'être) and meaning (culture). They may be considered key elements leading to interpretation, not only in their physical manifestation but by being infused with the gestures, beliefs and intentions of their creators, created in a specifi c context and with a specifi c chaîne opératoire. In this volume a variety of case studies is offered, representing disparate ancient cultures in the Mediterranean and central Europe and the Near East. The thread that connects them revolves around the prominence of symbols and allegorical aspects in archaeology, whether they are considered as expressions of iconographic evidence, material culture or ritual ceremonies, seen from a multicultural perspective. This (and subsequent ICAS) volumes, therefore, aims to embrace all the different aspects pertaining to symbols in archaeology in a specific 'place', allowing the reader to deepen their knowledge of such a fascinating and multifaceted topic, by looking at it from a multicultural perspective.