Minoan art and archaeology

This thesis presents a re-evaluation of the talismanic seal stones of Crete. Its purpose is to present previous scholarship on these seal stones, introduce the reader to a new way of recording and viewing seal stones through Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), and to offer the data from a study on 384 talismanic seal stones.
Seals were small stones or pieces of wood or ivory with intaglio, meaning designs were cut into their surface in order to create a relief when stamped in wet clay or a similar substance. They served several purposes: as identification, as a way of showing ownership, as a magical charm, and as portable art or jewelry. By around 2500 BCE, seal stones were in use on the island of Crete. Most of these seal stones were used for their sphragistic properties – that is, authenticating documents or otherwise securing property. The talismanic stones, categorized by Sir Arthur Evans, were rarely used in this way. Evans believed these stones were worn as magical charms or talismans. His idea has been criticized, but today we are no closer to ascertaining how this type of seal stone was used.
For this study, the data on 384 talismanic seal stones was collected and organized. RTI was performed on 12 seal stones, as a new way of making digital surrogates and learning more information about the stone surface. The results of this study are presented here to clear up some of the confusion surrounding the talismanic seal stone of Crete.

¿Una puerta al Más Allá?: Tumbas y cultos funerarios a través del arte antiguo. CURSO ONLINE, DIRECTO Y DIFERIDO, 5 y 6 abril 2019
UNED. Les Illes Balears
El mundo funerario en las civilizaciones de la Antigüedad es un tema complejo y atractivo, que en este curso se aborda desde la perspectiva de la Historia del Arte. Las tumbas pueden ser consideradas como un espacio de comunicación entre dos mundos, sin olvidar que son elementos arquitectónicos que reflejan el desarrollo artístico de un pueblo, pero que también nos revelan sus creencias religiosas, sus tradiciones y sus cultos funerarios. Del mismo modo, el estudio de los objetos que forman parte de los ajuares funerarios nos puede llevar a descubrir verdaderas obras de arte, pero también mostrarnos sencillas piezas con una función protectora, que en última instancia revelan su miedo a lo que encontrarían en el Más Allá. A lo largo de las ponencias se analizan de modo riguroso las tumbas y los cultos funerarios de las civilizaciones prehelénicas, minoica y micénica fundamentalmente, mostrando la evolución cronológica que se desarrolla durante la etapa del arte griego. Por otro lado, el arte funerario del complejo mundo fenicio-púnico será también objeto de análisis, mostrando la transmisión o pervivencia de prácticas funerarias tomadas de otros pueblos.

After an introduction with the main references to the use of the mask in Prehistoric Europe and Near East,
the paper aims to investigate the presence and use of masks and masquerades in the Aegean Bronze Age. The
first part is devoted to the use of the gold masks in the funerary rituals at Mycenae Circles A and B. After
the analysis of the contexts and the chronology, it is argued that the use of the funerary masks at Mycenae
developed from local culture with possible external stimuli from the Aegean. The second part evaluates the
evidence of Late Bronze Age masks in Cyprus and argues that the masks functioned as symbolic medium
in constructing social identities among restricted groups practicing rituals in sanctuaries. The third part
explores the evidence of masks in palatial Crete. Minor evidence for the Prepalatial and Postpalatial Crete is
also investigated. In particular, the indirect evidence of mask and masquerades is suggested after analysing
frontal faces as well as animal-human hybrids encountered especially in Aegean glyptic. These could refer to
special rituals in which restricted groups were involved for negotiating identity and social power.

Sacred sites in Minoan Crete are known from both archaeological remains and iconography. Glyptic art is the most extensive body of Aegean Bronze Age representational art and consists of carved seals in the form of engraved metal signet rings, stone seals, and the clay impressions (sealings) that these were used to produce. Gold signet rings from the Cretan Neopalatial period (1750–1490 BCE) depict various types of sacred site including mountain, rural, cave, and urban sanctuaries. How should we understand the built structures depicted in these miniature cult scenes? Do they all depict variations of walls or buildings, or are they altars? This paper differentiates the built structures depicted in cult scenes on Minoan gold rings, correlates them to archaeological remains at Minoan sacred sites, and proposes an explanation of ephemeral cult structures now only recorded in the iconographic evidence. It will be demonstrated that these miniature art forms represent Minoan sacred sites in three ways: as natural places characterised by the presence of trees and stones and the absence of architecture; as outdoor sanctuaries surrounded by ashlar stone walls; and as shrines and altars, the shapes of which evoke natural cult locations such as mountains and sacred groves through abstract form. It will be argued that representation of Minoan cult structures that evoked the natural landscape within prestigious art forms was a method whereby Neopalatial elites naturalised their authority by depicting themselves in special relationship with the animate landscape.

Here I have used findings to discuss a small portion of a very ambitious question, and my selection of exemplary sites will not lead to any final answers, however I aim to make a significant contribution to the ongoing discussion of Minoan Palaces and their level of control over religious activity using lustral basins as a focal point. That being said, I eschew the enormous topic of probable use here and endeavor to rethink the accessibility of these lustral basins using diachronic methods based on Quentin Letesson’s research, among others, and how that may reflect a manipulation of religion by those in power.