Creta Antica (E-Journal - Università di Catania)
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KLEO’S CLAY: INSCRIBED INSTRUMENTA DOMESTICAFROM LAPPA (CRETE)
No full textThis article explores a range of possible interpretations for a collection of inscribed instrumenta domestica, largely found in stratified contexts during systematic excavations at modern Argyroupoli (ancient Lappa, Crete) between 1986 and 1990. These instrumenta domestica are examined in such a way as to address a series of fundamental questions about continuity and change in the material record of Lappa, beginning with (1) where inscribed instrumenta domestica have been found in the archaeological landscape of the city. The discussion then presents various categories of inscribed instrumenta domestica, and for imported goods analyzes (2) when these objects were produced or imported; (3) whence the imported objects made their way to the island; (4) how these imported goods came to Lappa and what that contributes to our knowledge of transit and trade patterns; and (5) why Lappaians imported fine wares and amphoras to supplement their own local production. Study of the inscribed instrumenta domestica from the Lappa sheds light on the commercial connections and contacts of the ancient city in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. These inscribed instrumenta domestica are then placed into possible historical contexts and used to illustrate changes in the use and distribution of these artefacts, changes attributed to multiple and overlapping phenomena
OSSERVAZIONI SULLA CRONOLOGIA DEL SECONDO PALAZZO DI FESTÒS
Full text linkThis article examines some assemblages that are almost certainly associated with the construction of the Second Palace, with a special focus on the one uncovered under room 18 of this Palace. Examination of the relevant contexts has allowed D. Levi’s hypothesis that there were two phases in the life of the Second Palace, documented by two floor levels in the rooms located along the west façade, to be dismissed. Comparison with the ceramic sequences identified at Kommos and Ayia Triada, has allowed the assemblages from Phaistos (and therefore the construction of the Second Palace) to be dated to a ripe phase of LM IB
A WALL-BRACKET FROM PHAISTOS
Full text linkThe article discusses the wall bracket found at Phaistos by Luigi Pernier. The object was dated to historical time and published by the excavator without proper description together with other prehistoric vessels. Wall brackets are extremely rare in Greece; however, the increasing number of wall brackets in the Aegean and Greek mainland (especially at Tiryns) allows speculating on the chronology and the function of this isolated item. It is argued that the Phaistian wall bracket arrived in Crete between the end of Late Minoan IIIB and the beginning of IIIC, when wall brackets spread in the Mycenaean world. Finally, the paper discusses the hypotheses that the object reached southern Crete directly via Cyprus or through a Greek mainland intermediate
A RE-EVALUATION OF ROCK-CUT FISH INSTALLATIONS IN ROMAN CRETE
Full text linkThe island of Crete preserves a series of rock-cut, coastal tanks that are thought to have been used for the holding and/or breeding of fish. These tanks seem to belong to the eastern Mediterranean tradition of fish tanks rather than the western Mediterranean, where masonry-built tanks are the norm. The Cretan examples, nonetheless, display ambiguous architectural elements that make their interpretation and precise usage unclear. Some of these tanks have been published, while others are relatively unknown. This article examines the evidence of rock-cut fish tanks from seven sites on Crete, and analyzes their physical remains, the probable mechanics of their use, and their chronology. Two broad categories of fish tank are identified, based on their relationship with the changes in sea level: those carved in the early Roman period and those fashioned after the serious seismic event of 365 CE. Finally, these fish tanks are considered within the context of such features at other eastern Mediterranean sites
Sommario
Full text linkCreta Antica 11Per il centenario della Scuola Archeologica Italiana di AteneV. La Rosa, Antonino Di Vita e CretaV. La Rosa, ‘Rhytoid’ digressions from the Mesara D. Puglisi, Dal ‘vassoio tripodato’ al kernos: un set di ceramiche da Haghia Triada e il suo contributo alla conoscenza del rituale minoico O. Palio, Osservazioni sulla cronologia del Secondo Palazzo di Festòs S. Privitera, Lineare B ki-ta-no e l’industria tessile a Knossos in età micenea L. Girella, A wall-bracket from Phaistos M. W. Bowsky - E. Gavrilaki, Kleo’s clay: Inscribed Instrumenta Domestica from Lappa (Crete) J. Francis, A re-evalutation of Rock-cut Fish Installations in Roman Crete I. Caloi, The reception of the ‹‹Minoans›› in the moder art of Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo
LINEARE B KI-TA-NO E L΄INDUSTRIA TESSILE A KNOSSOS IN ETÀ MICENEA
Full text linkThe interpretation of the Linear B term ki-ta-no, which is uniquely attested in the tablets belonging to the set Ga(5) at Knossos, has been much debated since the decipherment of Linear B and is still contentious. In this paper, the texts registering this term are analyzed anew and their major peculiarities are highlighted. Moreover, drawing on former studies by E. Foster and on a comparative analysis of the Linear B texts from Pylos referring to linen textiles and the SA commodity, a new interpretation is put forward, according to which ki-ta-no would represent the Mycenaean adaptation of the Minoan term for flax, possibly attested on a Linear A inscription incised on a pithos from Petras Sitias. If accepted, this identification would imply that flax bundles were measured by volume in litres at both Knossos and Pylos, rather than being weighed, as was formerly believed
‘RHYTOID’ DIGRESSIONS FROM THE MESARA
Full text linkThis paper focuses on some rhytà from Phaistos, Ayia Triada and Kommos, which date mainly to the MM III period. After a brief review aimed at clarifying some major typological and functional issues of this category of evidence, the various types identified in the three sites are contrasted with one other with the aim of identifying meaningful patterns in their geographic and chronological distribution. This comparison highlights (a) that rhytà are only scarcely attested in the MM II period, with a concentration of evidence at Phaistos, which was the location of a palace; and (b) that in MM IIIA Kommos is the only site where all the types known (globular, conical, ostrich-egg, alastroid/piriform, bull’s head) are attested, with an overall number of specimens that exceeds by far those of the other two sites, although the bull-head type seems to be specific to Ayia Triada and Phaistos. This pattern of distribution allows a relationship to be hypothesised between the rhytà and the structures of power, and suggests that during MM IIIA and the first part of MM IIIB Kommos and its building T became the administrative capital of the Mesara, while at the end of that period the baton was passed to the villa at Ayia Triada. A symbolic-psychoanalytic interpretation of the different types of rhytà is also proposed, assuming that their main function of pouring could somehow symbolise the vital course of the individual, from a perspective of gender representation
THE RECEPTION OF THE «MINOANS» IN THE MODERN ARTOF MARIANO FORTUNY Y MADRAZO
Full text linkThis paper deals with the Minoan inspired motifs in the textile production, mostly scarves and wall-hangings, of Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, known as «Knossos scarves» and dated between 1906 and 1930. Fortuny’s textile creations are examples of conscious reception of Minoan art, as his unpublished notes and some of his sketches have revealed: he wrote some notes about his purpose to print Minoan motifs, as well as he reproduced many sketches of Minoan decorative motifs, declaring his main sources of inspiration. These are various painted pottery and frescoes motifs known from British and Italian excavations (Phaistos, Knossos, Ayia Triada, Zakros, Gournia) and taken from archaeological publications such as the 1906 paper of Arthur Evans named Prehistoric Tombs of Knossos and the Escursioni nel Mediterraneo e gliscavi di Creta by A. Mosso (1907), but also archaeological periodicals such as BSA, JHS and MonAnt, to which Fortuny came across during his stay in Paris (1901-1906).Fortuny represents an exemplary case of Modern artist employing the Minoan art and «fashion» to satisfy his needs and desires. Since in the early 20th century, in the context of the Modern Style avant-garde, the recently discovered Minoan civilisation was characterized as a «new» and «modern» culture, Fortuny’s textile creations reflect his desire to remind to concepts of freedom and spontaneity, and mostly to the idea of elegance and «modernity»
ANTONINO DI VITA E CRETA
Full text linkThis paper aims at outlining A. Di. Vita as a man, as a scholar, as an excavator and as director of the Italian Archaeological School in Athens, stressing his privileged relationship with the Island of Crete, both due to the excavations conducted by him in Gortina (from 1977 to 2009) but also on account of the support which he provided, as Director of the Italian School, for the excavations conducted at Phaistos and Prinias. The last two relevant episodes of his activity as Director of the Italian School are also linked to Crete and regard the construction of the house and storerooms of the school in Gortina and the organization of the international conference on Roman and Proto-Byzantine Crete
THE ABSOLUTE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EGYPTIAN S.I.P.NEW KINGDOM TRANSITION AND ITS IMPLICATIONSFOR LATE MINOAN CRETE
Full text linkThe textual/archaeological based absolute chronology for the end of the Second Intermediate Period, and the first part of the Egyptian XVIII Dynasty, has been much refined in several studies over the last two decades, and offers a good chronological datum-line which reflects significantly on the absolute chronology of LM I - II Crete, through both direct and indirect archaeological arguments. This painstakingly built chronological framework has however been challenged by radiocarbon results collected in the last thirty years from a few key-sites in the Aegean. Thorough reanalysis of the archaeological contexts that have yielded reasonable proof to build a chronological framework for the Eastern Mediterranean Middle – to – Late Bronze Age shows that, if on the one hand this possibility is not definitely discardable, its acceptance is nonetheless questionable, since it can be based only on indirect archaeological evidence. On the other hand, the new radiocarbon chronology recently proposed for the Theran Eruption seems to rely on optimistic assumptions which lead to interpretative models that are not surely discardable in the absence of an unequivocal proof, but that are nonetheless not convincing enough to overcome the actual «traditional» interpretation of interrelated chronologies, at least until new unequivocal and widely attested archaeological elements could be found to support this completely different scenario also from an archaeological point of view