Tully, C. J. 2016. Virtual Reality: Tree Cult and Epiphanic Ritual in Aegean Glyptic Iconography. Journal of Prehistoric Religion. Vol. XXV. Robin Hägg memorial issue. 19-30. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Iconographic scenes of inferred cultic activity, including the hugging or leaning upon of aniconic stones and the apparent appearance of epiphanic figures in proximity to trees, are suggestive of an animistic conception of the natural world. Architectonic evocations of the numinous sacred landscape, through iconographic representation, cultic paraphernalia, palatial architectural features, extant baetyls and peak sanctuaries, reflect strategies of elite status legitimisation through advertisement of relational associations with landscape. Scenes of epiphanic ritual depicted within apparently natural settings – amongst trees and stones free from architectural elaboration – are suggestive of elite interaction with perceived numinous elements within the landscape, while images of envisioned epiphany imply direct communication between human ritual actors and the animate landscape, achieved through interaction with tree or stone. Stepped cult structures such as shrines and openwork platforms, which may be sat upon by women or surmounted by trees, may have symbolised mountains and facilitated the replication of peak sanctuary ritual in an architecturally elaborated, possibly urban, setting. Interaction with baetyls may appropriate qualities of solidity and permanence, while also enhancing claims to status and authority through evoking ancestor veneration. Evidence of feasting in association with baetyls may suggest their function within programs of social cohesion and the naturalisation of hierarchy in which elites expressed status and generated ritual indebtedness through conspicuous generosity and display. These elements of the Minoan sacred landscape will here be analysed through the lens of animism. In contrast with the influential primitivist evolutionary epistemology expounded by the Victorian comparative ethnologists, animism drawn from cultural anthropology posits a relational epistemology, in which a reflexive relatedness exists between people and the natural environment, which is perceived as being sentient. Rather than providing inert backdrops to ritual performance, the landscape is here reconfigured as sentient and numinous, functioning as a politicised, active agent in the enactment of power.
Iconographic scenes of inferred cultic activity, including the hugging or leaning upon of aniconic stones and the apparent appearance of epiphanic figures in proximity to trees, are suggestive of an animistic conception of the natural world. Architectonic evocations of the numinous sacred landscape, through iconographic representation, cultic paraphernalia, palatial architectural features, extant baetyls and peak sanctuaries, reflect strategies of elite status legitimisation through advertisement of relational associations with landscape. Scenes of epiphanic ritual depicted within apparently natural settings – amongst trees and stones free from architectural elaboration – are suggestive of elite interaction with perceived numinous elements within the landscape, while images of envisioned epiphany imply direct communication between human ritual actors and the animate landscape, achieved through interaction with tree or stone. Stepped cult structures such as shrines and openwork platforms, which may be sat upon by women or surmounted by trees, may have symbolised mountains and facilitated the replication of peak sanctuary ritual in an architecturally elaborated, possibly urban, setting. Interaction with baetyls may appropriate qualities of solidity and permanence, while also enhancing claims to status and authority through evoking ancestor veneration. Evidence of feasting in association with baetyls may suggest their function within programs of social cohesion and the naturalisation of hierarchy in which elites expressed status and generated ritual indebtedness through conspicuous generosity and display. These elements of the Minoan sacred landscape will here be analysed through the lens of animism. In contrast with the influential primitivist evolutionary epistemology expounded by the Victorian comparative ethnologists, animism drawn from cultural anthropology posits a relational epistemology, in which a reflexive relatedness exists between people and the natural environment, which is perceived as being sentient. Rather than providing inert backdrops to ritual performance, the landscape is here reconfigured as sentient and numinous, functioning as a politicised, active agent in the enactment of power.
From the beginning of the Shaft Grave period, leading people on the mainland were in the position to acquire foreign luxuries and valuable raw materials in growing quantities. Some of these prestige goods clearly served as cult equipment in Minoan Crete; others display a complex system of religious figurative scenes and motifs of undoubtedly Minoan inspiration. Such scenes and motifs were virtually unknown in the preceding periods of MH Greece. Despite their foreign background, these objects had some impact on the formation of Mycenaean cult practices. It is argued that within this process of appropriation mainland inhabitants made a deliberate choice of the available ceremonial equipment and cult symbols. It seems that only those cult implements such as rhyta and tripod offering tables were borrowed from Crete, which could be incorporated in indigenous MH religious traditions. Significantly, such objects were produced until the end of the Palatial period. Correspondingly, Mycenaeans were interested in only those representations of ritual actions and symbols which had a meaning in terms of their own religious conceptions. Along these lines, Minoan forms of artistic expression had a strong impact on the development of Mycenaean religious figurative art and symbolism.
AN ANALYSIS OF LATE BRONZE AGE AEGEAN GLYPTIC MOTIFS OF A RELIGIOUS NATURE
This thesis presents an analysis of glyptic motifs of a religious nature attested on the Greek mainland in the Late Helladic period and on Crete post Late Minoan IB. Its purpose is to ascertain to what extent such an analysis can, firstly, expand our knowledge of religious practices in the Late Bronze Age Aegean, and, secondly, elucidate the nature of the relationship between Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece. This was achieved through the classification and analysis of five glyptic themes generally regarded as possessing religious significance in scholarship. These are anthropomorphic figures and non-anthropomorphic elements flanked by animals, seated women, figures with architecture, and animal sacrifice. This contention was critically appraised by developing a widely applicable methodology that demonstrated that many possessed religious aspects. The comparative analysis between the glyptic iconography of the Cretan Neopalatial Period and that of the Greek mainland and post-Late Minoan IB Crete identified specific changes that occurred from circa 1470 BCE onwards and established which of these originated on the mainland. As a result, I have defined a group of iconographic representations that provide specific information regarding religious practices in the Late Bronze Age Aegean and clarified the relationship between religious iconography and reality.
ASCS 33 Selected Proceedings (2012). Refereed papers from the 33rd Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Classical Studies
Abstract: Iconographic evidence, primarily glyptic and fresco, is the main source of information about tree cult in the Aegean Bronze Age. Such images are widely considered to depict rural sanctuaries of various levels of architectural sophistication; three dimensional examples of which have been sought within the physical landscapes of Crete and mainland Greece. Poor archaeological preservation of vegetation from the Aegean Bronze Age means that the presence of trees at such sites can only ever be theoretically determined; any potential locations being dependent upon suggestions derived from architectural configurations. This paper abandons the wild goose-chase of seeking out the fugitive sacred tree, instead focusing upon its two dimensional representation upon gold signet rings and its probable politico-religious function. It argues that whilst the Minoan glyptic idiom appears realistic, the miniaturisation process characteristic of glyptic art means that such images are not scenes but signs, analogous to minimalist Near Eastern examples. Essentially depicting a heterotopic space, Minoan glyptic images of tree cult are promoted within the Neopalatial administrative network as utopic through the verbosity of sphragistic multiplicity.
Four Minoan glyptic images from the Neopalatial period portray sacred trees in conjunction with boats and seascape. The Mochlos Ring depicts an elite female figure seated upon a stepped ashlar altar that includes a tree, inside a self-propelled hippocamp-headed boat. The Makrygialos Seal depicts a female figure performing a cultic salute toward a tree situated inside a boat. In the Amnissos Ring elite figures communicate with a hovering epiphanic tree deity in the vicinity of a boat. A female figure in a hippocamp-headed boat upon the sea is surrounded by three cult structures in the Ring of Minos. These images have traditionally been interpreted in three main ways: as a representation of Minoan cosmological concepts; as depicting a vague “Goddess from the sea” who is either a metaphor for a Minoan “thalassocracy” or else symbolic of a sequence of seasonal festivals; and as a ritual scene involving the literal transport of a tree in a ship from one cult site to another. While each of these interpretations incorporates degrees of validity, they are only partial explanations of these images. This paper proposes that the religious aspects of the images can be understood through the examination of their iconography in light of both Minoan religion and contemporary Canaanite seafaring religion. In his early analysis of Minoan culture, Arthur Evans attributed Minoan religious concepts to cultural diffusion from the Levant and Egypt. Acculturation is often discernible within art and material culture connected to cult and such evidence can provide information on the imitation or adoption of foreign religious concepts. It is argued here that the four Minoan glyptic images that combine trees, human figures, boats and the sea represent a combination of native Minoan with Canaanite religious ideas concerning a tree goddess who also had power over the sea. Each image is thus a glyph of the protective power of the Minoan tree deity over maritime voyaging, whether to a nearby Cycladic trading partner, a colony, or to a distant eastern Mediterranean destination. The empowerment of the expedition through supernatural patronage emphasises Minoan land-based power over the sea and extends the Cretan landscape outward to incorporate the seascape. It is further proposed that the images functioned in a protective talismanic capacity and that the containment of the iconographic motifs within the confines of gold rings and a stone seal linked the Minoan elites who owned these objects with the exotic aura of transculturality and power associated with overseas trade. [Kindly read at the conference by Louise A. Hitchcock Now available here: https://12iccs.proceedings.gr/el/proceedings/category/38/32/381