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Aegeus Society For Aegean Prehistory

BOOKS | 2015

Mycenaean Wall Painting in Context. New Discoveries, Old Finds Reconsidered

Edited by Hariclia Brecoulaki, Jack L. Davis & Sharon R. Stocker Athens 2015

Mycenaean Wall Painting in Context. New Discoveries, Old Finds Reconsidered During the recent decades many new Mycenaean wall paintings have been brought to light and older finds have been restored and reconstructed afresh in light of newly found joining fragments. These paintings derive both from palatial and non-palatial contexts, from major centers on the mainland (including Mycenae, Tiryns, Argos, Pylos, Thebes, Orchomenos, and Gla) and from recently excavated sites, such as Iklaina in Messenia. However, in contrast to the corpora of Minoan and Cycladic wall paintings, Mycenaean paintings have survived in poor physical condition. For the most part, they are highly fragmentary and lack iconographic and contextual coherence.

A Mycenaean open-air cult place in Iklaina

Michael B. Cosmopoulos Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 7.3 (September 2015), 41-48

During the recent excavations at the Mycenaean settlement of Iklaina a pit was unearthed, containing burned animal bones, numerous drinking vases, plaster offering tables, and animal figurines.

Comments on Minoan beetle images

Phillip P. Betancourt & James D. Muhly Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 7.3 (September 2015), 24-28

Images of beetles begin to appear in Minoan Crete early in the Middle Bronze Age. Because one of the earliest manifestations of this phenomenon is in the form of scarab seals that reflect Egyptian prototypes, a natural question involves whether the meaning of this symbol was transferred to Crete along with the imagery.

Transformations and Crisis in the Mediterranean. “Identity” and Interculturality in the Levant and Phoenician West during the 12th-8th Centuries BCE

Edited by Giuseppe Garbati & Tatiana Pedrazzi Pisa, Rome

Questo libro presenta i risultati dell’Incontro di studi dedicato a ‘Trasformazioni e crisi nel Mediterraneo dal Levante all’Occidente fenicio fra XII e VIII sec. a.C.’, assumendo come ‘filo rosso’ le questioni dell'identità culturale e dell’interculturalità.

Here, there and everywhere?

Dirk Brandherm Antiquity 89 (February 2015), 217-218

Ling and Stos-Gale (Antiquity 2015) present some hitherto little-known rock art motifs from various locations in Sweden, and offer an intriguing interpretation for them that ties in with the recent realisation that some of the copper used in the earlier Bronze Age of southern Scandinavia may have originated from Cyprus.

Travellers’ tales and science-based archaeology: ex oriente lux revisited

A. Bernard Knapp Antiquity 89 (February 2015), 219-220

Ling and Stos-Gale (above, p. 206) end their study on a safe, if rather vague, note: “[w]e could, perhaps, consider the maritime-themed rock art depictions [of ships and copper oxide ingots] as records of travellers’ tales, where representations of reality mingle with myths, magic and sailors' stories”.

Oxhide ingots in the European North?

Anthony Harding Antiquity 89 (February 2015), 213-214

The paper by Ling and Stos-Gale (Antiquity 2015) raises interesting questions about the extent and effects of trans-continental trade and travel in the Bronze Age.

The hidden ruler: art and politics in Minoan Crete

Helène Whittaker Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 7.3 (September 2015), 90-94

Although there are numerous images that can be associated with the expression of the values and ideals of the ruling elites, the absence of overt ruler propaganda in Minoan official art is striking and has often been commented on.

Skylines: borders of materiality, thresholds to heaven

Clairy Palyvou Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 7.3 (September 2015), 65-75

Skylines partake in the “public image,” as symbols of an urban collective. They are urban signatures that present an abbreviated image of the city’s identity. In the Minoan world skylines can be approached only indirectly: firstly, by inferring how buildings emerged in the vertical and secondly, through the depictions of architectural compounds in Minoan art.

Reflections on Bronze Age travels

Kalle Sognnes Antiquity 89 (February 2015), 215-216

Johan Ling and Zofia Stos-Gale (Antiquity 2015) present results from a project comparing isotopes from Bronze Age artefacts with signatures from known Bronze Age mining localities.