THE ‘MINOAN’ EXPERIENCE OF SCHOOLCHILDREN IN CRETE

Minoan 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

ANTHROPOMORPHIC VESSELS AS RE-IMAGINED CORPOREALITIESIN BRONZE AGE CRETE

Anthropomorphic vessels form a special subcategory of the material culture from Bronze Age Crete. In previous studies, especially for Early Minoan specimens, emphasis was placed on their potential ritualistic/theological significance and/or gender. This paper offers a complementary approach to Minoan anthropomorphic vessels. Firstly, it brings together for the first time all published specimens, therefore drawing conclusions regarding their regional and diachronic characteristics. Secondly, it considers their potential and instrumental boundaries, agency and consumption. Thirdly, such vessels are recast as (re)conceptualised human bodies. In this way, they emerge as more than symbols, raising issues of locality, corporeality, as well as human and artefact corporeal entanglements

The Body Brand and Minoan Zonation

The human body abounds in the Minoan excavation record, from seals to frescoes to figurines to human remains. Nevertheless, it is usually approached mainly as an art object or as a collection of bones, and occupies the interpretational margins of Minoan archaeology, with the exception of its role in religion or society. Few luminous exceptions have attempted to go beyond such constraints, into thematic territories such as gender and embodiment.This paper, based on the author’s current researc..

The Body Brand and Minoan Zonation

The human body abounds in the Minoan excavation record, from seals to frescoes to figurines to human remains. Nevertheless, it is usually approached mainly as an art object or as a collection of bones, and occupies the interpretational margins of Minoan archaeology, with the exception of its role in religion or society. Few luminous exceptions have attempted to go beyond such constraints, into thematic territories such as gender and embodiment.This paper, based on the author’s current researc..

The Body Brand and Minoan Zonation

The human body abounds in the Minoan excavation record, from seals to frescoes to figurines to human remains. Nevertheless, it is usually approached mainly as an art object or as a collection of bones, and occupies the interpretational margins of Minoan archaeology, with the exception of its role in religion or society. Few luminous exceptions have attempted to go beyond such constraints, into thematic territories such as gender and embodiment.This paper, based on the author’s current researc..

Minoan Archaeology

More than 100 years ago Sir Arthur Evans' spade made the first cut into the earth above the now well-known Palace at Knossos. His research at the Kephala hill as well as contemporary fieldwork at further sites on Crete saw the birth of a new discipline: Minoan Archaeology. Since these beginnings in the first decades of the 20th century, the investigation of Bronze Age Crete has experienced fundamental progress. The impressive wealth of new data relating to the sites and material culture of this Bronze Age society and its impact beyond the island's shores, the refinement of its chronology, the constant development of hermeneutical approaches to social, religious or political issues, and new methods and instruments employed for the exploration and conservation of the archaeological remains have shaped the dynamic trajectory of this discipline for more than a century. In March 2011 - exactly 111 years after the beginning of Evans' work at Knossos - a conference on Minoan Archaeology took place at Heidelberg with the aim to outline current trends and prospects of this scientific field, by setting up an open dialogue between renowned scholars and the young generation of researchers. The present volume brings together most of the papers presented during the conference. They are subsumed under six chapters highlighting current key issues in the study of Bronze Age Crete with a pronounced focus on the broad subject of society

Minoan Archaeology

More than 100 years ago Sir Arthur Evans' spade made the first cut into the earth above the now well-known Palace at Knossos. His research at the Kephala hill as well as contemporary fieldwork at further sites on Crete saw the birth of a new discipline: Minoan Archaeology. Since these beginnings in the first decades of the 20th century, the investigation of Bronze Age Crete has experienced fundamental progress. The impressive wealth of new data relating to the sites and material culture of this Bronze Age society and its impact beyond the island's shores, the refinement of its chronology, the constant development of hermeneutical approaches to social, religious or political issues, and new methods and instruments employed for the exploration and conservation of the archaeological remains have shaped the dynamic trajectory of this discipline for more than a century. In March 2011 - exactly 111 years after the beginning of Evans' work at Knossos - a conference on Minoan Archaeology took place at Heidelberg with the aim to outline current trends and prospects of this scientific field, by setting up an open dialogue between renowned scholars and the young generation of researchers. The present volume brings together most of the papers presented during the conference. They are subsumed under six chapters highlighting current key issues in the study of Bronze Age Crete with a pronounced focus on the broad subject of society