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Cycladic Figurines and their Derivatives in Crete

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Keith Branigan
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Extract

With the publication of Dr. Renfrew's most valuable study of the development and chronology of the Early Cycladic figurines it is now possible for us to study both the distribution and the influence of these figurines in the regions bordering the Aegean—in the Troad, Dodecanese, northern Greece, the Peloponnese, and Crete. This paper is concerned with Cycladic figurines in Crete, and with the influence which the Cycladic figures had upon the development of the indigenous Cretan types. It begins with a brief description of the Neolithic figurines of Crete, and proceeds to a discussion of Cycladic and indigenous types, and an examination of three types which appear to be hybrids, peculiar to the island. The concluding section discusses the significance of the Cycladic figurines and their derivatives in Crete as evidence for cultural contact in the Aegean Early Bronze Age.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 66 , November 1971 , pp. 57 - 78
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1971

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References

1 Renfrew, C., ‘The development and chronology of the Early Cycladic figurines’, AJA lxxiii (1969) 1–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Hereafter, Renfrew.

Further abbreviations other than those normally used in the Annual:

Banti = Banti, L., ‘La grande tomba a tholos di Hagia Triadha’, Ann. 13–14 (1933) 155 f.Google Scholar

Branigan = Branigan, K., ‘Silver and lead in Prepalatial Crete’, AJA lxxii (1968) 219 f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Daggers = Branigan, K., ‘The Early Bronze Age daggers of Crete’, BSA lxii (1967) 211 f.Google Scholar

Evans = Evans, J. D., ‘Excavations in the Neolithic settlement of Knossos, 1958–1960. Pt. 1’, BSA lix (1964) 132 f.Google Scholar

FAF = Folded-arm figurine.

Foundations = Branigan, K., The Foundations of Palatial Crete (London, 1970).Google Scholar

Grèce = Zervos, C., La Naissance de la civilisation en Grèce (Paris, 1963).Google Scholar

Majewski = Majewski, K., Figuralna plastyka cykladzka geneza i rozwój form (Lwów, 1935).Google Scholar

Metallurgy = Renfrew, C., ‘Cycladic metallurgy and the Aegean Early Bronze Age’, AJA lxxi (1967) 1 f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Pendlebury = Pendlebury, J. D. S., The Archaeology of Crete (London, 1939).Google Scholar

Pictographs = Evans, A. J., Cretan Pictographs and Pre-Phoenician Script (London, 1895).Google Scholar

PM = Evans, A. J., The Palace of Minos at Knossos (London, i, 1921, ii 1928).Google Scholar

Pyrgos = Xanthoudides, S., ‘Μέγας Πρωτομινωϊκὸς Τάφος Πύργου’ ADelt iv (1918) 136 f.Google Scholar

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Troy = Blegen, C. W., Troy. Excavations conducted by the University of Cincinnati, 1932–1938 (Princeton, i, 1950; ii, 1951).Google Scholar

Ucko = Ucko, P. J., Anthropomorphic Figurines of Predynastic Egypt and Néolithic Crete (London, 1968).Google Scholar

VTM = Xanthoudides, S., The Vaulted Tombs of Mesara (London, 1924).Google Scholar

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2 PM i. 83, 115; Banti 244–5; Pendlebury 52, 71, 86; Renfrew 18–20, 27.

3 Foundations 98–101, 145–6.

4 Evans, fig. 63, 15; fig. 62, 8, 10, 12.

5 I have in mind the many examples from Nea Nikomedeia, Tsangli, Elateia, and other sites in Thessaly and Phocis.

6 Evans, fig. 64, 33. For other examples of the type see figs. 62, 6; 63, 25; 64, 31.

7 Chapouthier, F. and Charbonneaux, J., Fouilles exécutées à Mallia (Études Crétoises i, 1928) 56Google Scholar, fig. 14.

8 PM i, fig. 13, 8–9, 20; see also Ucko, fig. 155, 85.

9 Ucko, Catalogue of Cretan figurines, nos. 57, 93, 94, 95, 98. The provenance of the last is uncertain.

10 e.g. Grèce, figs. 119, 139.

11 Renfrew 29.

12 Weinberg, S., The Stone Age in the Aegean (Cambridge, 1965), 58.Google Scholar

13 Branigan 225–6.

14 Renfrew 8 n. 31.

15 e.g. Troy ii, pl. 48, 34–318; pl. 147, 36–265.

16 Metallurgy, pl. 12.

17 Renfrew 19 n. 65.

18 The date of the material in the Tekes deposit is difficult to ascertain, but the metal daggers are probably not earlier than E.M. III and could be as late as M.M. I–II (see Branigan, K., Copper and Bronze Working in Early Bronze Age Crete (Lund, 1968) 15–17Google Scholar).

19 See Foundations, chapters 2, 8, 10.

20 Alexiou, S., ‘New light on Minoan dating’, ILN (6 Aug. 1960) 227.Google Scholar

21 Zoes, A., ‘Ὑπάρχει ΠΜ ΙΙΙ Ἐποχή;', Proc. Second Cretological Congress i (Athens, 1967) 141 f.Google Scholar

22 For the date of the knife see Daggers 238, for the silver daggers see Branigan, K., ‘Prehistoric relations between Italy and the Aegean’, BPI N.S. xvii (1966) 104, 108.Google Scholar The kernoi are briefly discussed in The Tombs of Mesara (London, 1970) 79–80.

23 Metallurgy 15–18, Branigan 227–8.

24 Renfrew 22–3.

25 Renfrew 20.

26 Renfrew 14.

27 Branigan 226.

28 Renfrew 24.

29 VTM 122.

30 If Xanthoudides refers to the earth inside the tomb, then the figurine would have come from the upper stratum (the lower produced no figurines) and would date either from E.M. IIB or (more probably) from E.M. III to M.M. IB/IIA.

31 Foundations 204.

32 See above, n. 12.

33 Ucko, fig. 106, 36.

34 Troy iv. 14, pl. 220, 37–429.

35 Troy ii, pl. 48, 34–61.

36 Foundations 186, 189; Branigan 226.

37 Ucko, fig. 163, 93.

38 Ucko, fig. 134, 64.

39 Renfrew 26–7.

40 Renfrew 26–7, and 111. 4.

41 Renfrew 20.

42 See above, p. 62.

43 Renfrew 14–15, 111. 4.

44 Troy i, pl. 360, 36–297.

45 Ucko, fig. 166, 96; pl. lii, 96.

46 Troy i, pl. 216, 37–321, 37–705.

47 Renfrew 24–6.

48 Trapeza 86.

49 Caskey, J. L., Greece, Crete and the Aegean Islands in the Early Bronze Age (CAH 2, 1964) 34–5.Google Scholar

50 Renfrew 9–11.

51 Renfrew 17–18.

52 Renfrew 18.

53 Renfrew 17.

54 Renfrew 22–3.

55 Renfrew 18, 22.

56 Metallurgy 17.

57 Branigan 226, and see also my articles in AJA lxx (1966) 123 f.; lxxi (1967) 117 f.

58 The principal grounds on which I distinguish E.M. IIB from E.M. IIA are first, the appearance of whitepainted Vasiliki ware; secondly, the complete or almost complete abandonment of the Ay. Onouphrios II (crosshatched) ware and of Fine Grey Ware; thirdly, the clear report on the stratification at Vasiliki given by Seager in the Trans. Free Museum Science and Art i. 215.

59 Renfrew, pl. 8d.

60 See above, p. 64.

61 Xanthoudides, S., ADelt i (1915) Parartema, 60 f.Google Scholar; VTM 89, 106, 110, 111.

62 PM i. 83–4; Pendlebury 119; VTM 25. Renfrew too is inclined to follow Pendlebury, and hence Evans, on this point (Renfrew 20 n. 67).

63 e.g. Ucko, Catalogue of Egyptian figurines, nos. 5, 32, 37, 83. The closest parallels are, in fact, two bought figurines of uncertain provenance, nos. 88, 94.

64 Banti 244–5.

65 A brief discussion of these is in Foundations 94–7, 142–4.

66 Renfrew, C. and Springer-Peacey, J., ‘Aegean marble, a petrological study’, BSA lxiii (1968) 277 f.Google Scholar

67 Ucko, chapters 11–13.

68 Branigan 227–8; Foundations 118 f., 202–4; Metallurgy 15–18.

69 cf. Metallurgy 14, 17.

70 Branigan 225–6.

71 Branigan 227–8. I hope to examine this question in more detail in a monograph now in preparation, Aegean Metalwork of the Early and Middle Bronze Ages.

72 Warren, P., ‘The first Minoan stone vases and Early Minoan chronology’, Kret. Chron, xix (1965) 25–6.Google Scholar

73 Daggers 218.

74 Warren, op. cit. (n. 72) 13.

75 See above, p. 60.

76 Zervos, pl. 128.

77 See Branigan, K., ‘Minoan foot amulets and their Near Eastern counterparts’, Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici xi (1970) 7 f.Google Scholar

78 Mylonas, G. E., Aghios Kosmas, an Early Bronze Age Settlement in Attica (Princeton, 1959) pl. 166.Google Scholar

79 Schliemann, H., Ilios (London, 1880) 601, no. 1407Google Scholar; Troy i, pl. 408.

80 Renfrew 12.

81 Metallurgy, pl. 9, 64.

82 Zervos, pl. 167; Huxley, G. and Coldstream, N., ‘Kythera, first Minoan colony’, ILN (27 Aug. 1966) fig. 3.Google Scholar

83 Foundations 79 f., 204.

84 Branigan 219–22.

85 There are reports of cist graves, of uncertain date, at Arvi on the south coast. The graves at Mochlos, Sphoungaras, and Zakro are all of certain Early Bronze Age construction and usage.

86 These, of course, point towards Troadic rather than Cycladic connections.

87 The cemetery excavated by Levi has yielded globular funnel-necked bottles, silver jewellery, and cist graves.

88 Renfrew 27 n. 111.

89 Trapeza, fig. 6; Zervos, pls. 89, 119.

90 See above, nn. 80, 81.

91 Branigan, op. cit. (n. 22); Daggers 218, 235–6; Foundations 182–4.

92 Metallurgy 13, 17; Antiquity xli (1967).

93 Renfrew 23.

94 e.g. from Senorbi; see Guido, M., Sardinia (1963) pl. 5.Google Scholar

95 e.g. from Porto Ferro; see Guido, op. cit. (n. 94) pl. 6.

96 Renfrew 19.