Marthari, M. 2021. From swallows to figure-of-eight shields: detecting the substrate of ideas behind the depiction of the swallow in Theran and South Aegean iconography (original) (raw)

2021, in C.C. Doumas and A. Devetzi (eds.), Akrotiri, Thera forty years of research (1967-2007), Athens: Society for the Promotion of Studies on Prehistoric Thera, p.p. 473-489

The swallow is a particularly popular subject at Akrotiri monumental painting and pictorial pottery. It is depicted in four LCI wall-paintings: the so-called Spring Fresco, the Swallows Frieze from Xeste 3, one of the two Procession Frescoes from Xeste 3, and a wall-painting from Room 2 of Building Beta. The swallow also appears on a series of late Middle Cycladic bird jugs and nippled ewers, as well as on a variety of LCI shapes. Ceramic vessels, wall-paintings, as well as gold-work with representations of swallows, have been found sporadically in other South Aegean sites too, in chronological horizons corresponding to those of the Akrotiri wall--paintings and ceramic vessels. From Phylakopi on Melos, there is a jug sherd and a wall-painting fragment with swallows. From the grave circles of Mycenae, there are two bird jugs and two gold-work pieces with swallows. At Miletus, sherds of a jug with the depiction of a swallow have been found. Beyond the Aegean, at Τel Kabri in Palestine, fragments of a miniature wall-painting of Aegean type with swallow have also come to light. As a rule, the jugs with swallow motifs have been considered imports from Thera, due to their striking similarity to their Theran counterparts. However, for the wall-paintings and the minor objects in gold, the local character of some is obvious. By the late 2000s, the only artifacts with representations of swallows known from Crete were three small ivory plaques, recovered from the LMI B level in the palace at Zakros. In an article published in 2009, I discussed the representation (bird and plant) on a Protopalatial metal seal from the Prophitis Ilias necropolis at Knossos. The comparisons with Theran compositions with swallows in both vase-painting and wall-painting leave no doubt that this is a swallow clinging to a reed. The seal is from a MM II/IIIA excavation context and is not later than the early ΜΜ ΙΙΙ period. Furthermore, it is certainly not of Theran manufacture, imported to Crete, since no high-quality Middle Cycladic seals and indeed of metal have been found at Akrotiri. Consequently, I suggested that there is no doubt that it is Minoan and that the thematic repertoire relating to the swallow, well-known from the Theran iconographic milieu, was in part at least known also in Crete and indeed from an early date. This suggestion is further confirmed by a recent and very interesting discovery, a swallow fresco recovered also in the area of Knossos (Bugadha Metochi), in a rescue excavation carried out in 2008-2009, and 2012. The fragments of this fresco were found along with Protopalatial fragmentary pottery (mainly MM II and a few sherds MM IIIA). What is hidden, however, behind the iconographic compositions that include swallows? It seems reasonable to assume the existence of a substrate of beliefs and concepts pertaining to the swallow, which was common, in large part, to Thera, Crete, and to the South Aegean world generally. Indeed, it is possible to approach certain aspects of this, by utilizing first all the rich iconographic data from Akrotiri. Some composite works of LC I Theran iconography that include the swallow, such as first the Spring Fresco from the east building of Building Complex Delta, second the wall-painting assemblage from Xeste 3, and the Swallows Strainer (inv. no. 3592) from the same building, and third the bathtub with figure-of-eight shields (inv. no. 8886) from Building Theta, complement each other in terms of content and allow us to posit some hypotheses; fourth the late Middle Cycladic and LC I nippled ewers with swallows generate further hypotheses.