Creta Antica (E-Journal - Università di Catania)
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A COUNTRY IN A ‘STATE OF DESTITUTION’ LABOURING UNDER AN ‘UNFORTUNATE REGIME’: CRETE AT THE TURN OF THE 20TH CENTURY (1898-1906)
Full text linkAt the turn of the 20th century, Crete was ‘suspended between East and West’ in more ways than one. In the aftermath of numerous insurrections, intense ethno-communal strife, and a great deal of human and material destruction, the island passed from direct Ottoman rule to a regime of ‘semi-independence’. However, overt Great Power tutelage, a conservative constitution ‘with defects of infancy’, a weak and depleted economy, and an incessant predilection for the politics of enosis did little to enhance the island’s path to progress. Undoubtedly, the particular historical juncture that brought about the hybrid Cretan state and Prince George’s ‘unfortunate regime’ was instrumental in turning the island into an archaeological ‘El Dorado’, with the British at the helm. But the political contingency aside, ‘personal factors’, I argue, were of equal importance. In particular, the rapport that Chatzidakes and Xanthoudides had established with Evans facilitated the convergence of national (Cretan) archaeology as a means of incorporating the island into European modernity with colonial archaeology, which in turn has left its weighty imprint especially on the appropriation of the ‘Minoan’ past
HAPPY LITTLE EXTROVERTS AND BLOODTHIRSTY TYRANTS: MINOANS AND MYCENAEANS IN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH AFTER EVANS AND SCHLIEMANN
Full text linkIn literature in English, and in the popular imagination in English-speaking countries generally, the Minoan period is a kind of golden age, an Atlantis or Garden of Eden before the Fall. And, in such a construction, the Fall comes with the Mycenaeans, who are represented as a tough, militaristic people who destroyed Troy for trade reasons. This chapter traces the emergence of the idealistic depiction of the Minoans in response to the circumstances before, during, and after World War II. While some recent authors have begun to challenge the image of happy and peaceful Minoans, it suggests that the Minoans and Mycenaeans are still locked into antithetical perceptions that hinder real understanding of the cultures
THE COLONIAL, THE NATIONAL, AND THE LOCAL: LEGACIES OF THE ‘MINOAN’ PAST
Full text linkThe ‘Minoan’ past was constructed at the beginning of the 20th century by colonial and national processes as the first ‘European civilisation’. The remnants of the Cretan Bronze Age were recast, reordered, re-created, and forged to produce a world of objects, sites, and images that would satisfy the Eurocentric colonial imagination and its territorial aspirations as well as the national project of the Cretan intellectuals. The European imagination produced its ‘future anterior’ and, given the background of some of its architects, a mirror image of the British Empire. Local Cretan intellectuals saw in this construction an important resource in their struggle for the unification of Crete with Greece. Since then, the ‘Minoan’ past has been acting as a signifier of a strong and distinctive local and regional identity, a performative enterprise which is mediated by key apparatuses such as tourism and the State Archaeological Service. This local and regional identity is, at the same time, incorporated in the broader Hellenic narrative as an important precursor of the Hellenic Classical ‘civilisation’. This is, however, an ‘ambivalent incorporation’, for the local reserves the right to negotiate the terms of this process and affords multiple readings
MINOAN WANNABEES: THE RESURRECTION OF MINOAN INFLUENCES IN SCANDINAVIAN ARCHAEOLOGY
Full text linkIn this chapter I discuss recent attempts to link the Scandinavian Bronze Age with Minoan Crete. The current political agenda of Europeanism is one important incentive behind these efforts to search for a pan-European identity in the past. Evidence of contacts between northern and southern Europe is suggested mainly through the identification of similarities between Scandinavian images and motifs from the Mycenaean and Minoan world. This approach is not entirely new. In the late 19th century Oscar Montelius had already presented similar ideas on Bronze Age cultural contacts between the two regions. In fact, beside the pan-European discourse, the current neo-diffusionist trend could also be seen in the context of a reaction against a prevailing neo-evolutionary and processualist explanatory framework (which, in turn, could be seen as a reaction against a culture-historical diffusionist framework). The alleged contacts, however, are based on tenuous archaeological evidence: not only are the iconographic similarities often the result of arbitrary interpretations of the images in question, but there are also great chronological discrepancies. Moreover, Scandinavian archaeologists tend to accept obsolete ideas about Minoan culture and transfer these to a Scandinavian Bronze Age context in an uncritical manner
FROM IDEOLOGIES OF MOTHERHOOD TO ‘COLLECTING MOTHER GODDESSES’
Full text linkMention Minoans, and most people will call to mind vivid artistic images of Minoan females, from the formidable serpent-wielding figures known as the Snake Goddesses to elegantly clad ladies on frescos and gold rings. Imagery of this kind led Sir Arthur Evans to identify a Great or Mother Goddess at the heart of Minoan religion. The idea that each and every female figurine represents a ‘mother goddess’ concerned with fertility has been thoroughly critiqued by numerous scholars. Why then was the model of a mother goddess so attractive to early archaeologists such as Evans? Why were her powers deemed to be centred on fertility and motherhood, despite the evidence from many cultures that goddesses can and do also fulfil a host of other functions? It may be argued that this narrow view was strongly informed by the complex social and intellectual ideas of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including social evolutionary theory, Freudian psychology, and the construction of the female body in medicine. I suggest that another important factor was the contemporary idealisation of, and preoccupation with, motherhood as a conscious social strategy, in which motherhood was held to be crucial to the well-being of the imperial nation. This paper explores this ideology of motherhood and its role in shaping Evans’s concept of a Minoan mother goddess
KNOSSOS: SOCIAL USES OF A MONUMENTAL LANDSCAPE
Full text linkHow does the archaeological site of Knossos become a monumental landscape? What qualities and meanings are objectified in it? In what ways is it viewed and experienced by specific social groups? This chapter explores different (and sometimes conflicting) perspectives of the famous Minoan monument, the restoration of which has had a considerable impact on the tourist visit and the construction and performance of Cretan identity. It approaches the Knossian landscape as a powerful solid metaphor used by different collectivities performing their own social roles with respect to the past and present of Crete
MINOAN CRETE IN 20TH-CENTURY ITALIAN CULTURE
Full text linkThe discovery of Minoan civilisation has not produced the same impact in Italy as elsewhere. This is due to many factors, including the existence of other ancient cultures (above all Greek and Roman, but also Etruscan, Celtic, Sicanian, etc.) which could be incorporated in processes of use and appropriation of the past. Nonetheless, Minoan culture has at times been used (among others by non-specialists) in discourses regarding the existence of a Mediterranean identity, as in the publications by Mosso, Cipriani, and Pincherle. Minoan Crete is also present, albeit to a lesser extent, in the works of Italian writers (Cecchi, Bacchelli, Brandi, Montale, De Carlo) and painters (Campigli, Novelli, Nacci), in two contrasting ways: because of its links to classical mythology or as a completely foreign civilisation, which can be used in connection with themes such as pacifism, feminism, etc
THE ‘MINOAN’ EXPERIENCE OF SCHOOLCHILDREN IN CRETE
Full text linkMinoan Crete’ is currently taught in primary schools (at Third Grade, age 8) throughout Greece as part of the history curriculum. For Cretan children, however, the experience is different, because they are physically surrounded not only by the remains of the Minoan past but also by its modern constructions and appropriations. This physical environment plays (and, to some extent, even constitutes) a major part in this educational process and the development of Cretan and Greek identities. In this paper I discuss a specific case study in which the Minoan past is interpreted, constructed, and appropriated within and outside a Cretan school
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Full text linkCreta Antica 6S. Todaro, EM I-MM IA ceramic groups at Phaistos: towards the definition of a Prepalatial ceramic sequence in South Central Crete †M. Gallo, Per una riconsiderazione del betilo in ambito minoico I. Pini, Minoische und Helladische Metallsiegel und -Stempel (mit appendix von E. Pernicka) L. Rizzotto, I ‹‹servizi›› con decorazione a foliate-band da Festòs e da Knossòs: un’ultima competizione fra ‹‹entità statali››? †F. Scerra, I rapporti fra Creta e Keos nel periodo fra i Primi e i Secondi Palazzi Q. Letesson, Arpenter le labyrinthe. Approche analytique des modèles d’accès et de circulation en architecture minoenne. Le cas du ‘Palais’ de Malia M. Devolder, Hâte-toi de bâtir la demeure, hâte-toi d’édifier le Palais S. Privitera, The rhyton- hoards as evidence for feasting in Neopalatial Crete: the case of Gournia P. Militello, Segni incisi sulla scalinata del ‹‹Grande Propileo›› nel Palazzo di Festòs (con appendice di F. Monaco) V. La Rosa, Nuovi dati sulla via di ascesa alla collina del Palazzo festio dall’età minoica alla geometrica N. Cucuzza, Festòs ‹‹post-minoica››: note di topografia e di storia
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Full text linkCreta Antica 5O. Palio, «A graceful bowl resembling a bird’s nest»: il perdurare dell’uso simbolico di una forma vascolare in pietra al passaggio tra le età pre- e protopalaziale F. Carinci, Priests in action: considerazioni sulla fine dell’età prepalaziale ad Haghia Triada V. La Rosa, Perché il palazzo a Festòs? C. Ferrari - N. Cucuzza, I cosiddetti kernoi di Festòs E. Kaczynska, Cretan Ma-sa/Malla as a cult place in the Mycenaean times S. Privitera, Culti domestici a Creta nel TM IIIA2-TM IIIB: per un’analisi contestuale N. Cucuzza - N.H. Gale - Z.A. Stos-Gale, Il mezzo lingotto oxhide da Haghia Triada K. Perna, Karphì: Soltanto un sito di rifugio? D. Lefèvre Novaro, Les offrandes d’époque géométrique-orientalisante dans les tombes crétoises de l’âge du bronze: problèmes et hypothèses J.W. Shaw, Temple B at Kommos, Crete: A Response (con appendice di E. Pappalardo) E. Pappalardo, Avori orientali da Creta. Il ruolo di Creta nella distribuzione degli avori nel Mediterraneo Orientale G. Biondi - R. Gigli - D. Palermo - A. Pautasso, Lo scavo del 2003 sulla Patela di Priniàs. Relazione preliminare D. Palermo, Ancora sui kernoi dell’acropoli di Gortyna F. Ferruti, Un ginnasio a Gortina in un’iscrizione del V sec. a. C. M. Melfi - F. Camia, Un nuovo frammento epigrafico dall’Asklepieion di Lebena