• Group of female figurines representing dancers and musician



Group of female figurines representing dancers and musician
Group of female figurines representing dancers and musician
Group of female figurines representing dancers and musician

Group of female figurines representing dancers and musician

Π3903
Clay
The figurines are preserved intact. The base on which they stood is missing.
Height of figurines: 13 cm. Current diameter of base: 24 cm.
Palaikastro
Block Δ, Room 44
Late Bronze Age. Final Palatial period, Late Minoan ΙΙΙA period.:
1400-1300 BC:
Gallery:
VI
Case:
59
Exhibition thematic unit:
Late Bronze Age - Neopalatial period (1700-1450 BC). Private and public life. Bread and circuses
Music
Description
Four female figurines have been restored in a circle dance. The three dancers and the musician are identically rendered, in bell-shaped flounced skirts and tight bodices indicated by vertical lines on the back and an angular opening in front. The hair is drawn up into a single plait on top of the head. The dancers extend their arms at shoulder height, palms just touching. The musician in the centre of the circle is playing the typical Minoan kithara or lyre, as indicated by the S-shaped, swan’s-head finials of the arms. The excavators originally identified the instrument, abstractly rendered without strings, as snakes similar to those seen on the famous faience “Snake Goddesses” from the Knossos Temple Repositories. However, the similarity of the stringed instrument to those seen in other Minoan depictions supports the identification of the figure as a musician. Small tenons at the edges of the dancers’ hollow shirts indicate that they were attached to a ring base, supporting their restoration as a single group. The absence of a similar tenon on the skirt of the musician probably shows that this figure was separate. Together with the necklaces which only she wears, this may echo the high status of musicians during the Final Palatial period. Circle dances were performed throughout the Minoan era in Crete. Men and women danced separately, while female circle dances differed from male ones in both execution and content. Female circle dances were usually performed on special dancing floors in the West Court of the palaces and in suitably arranged spaces in the settlements. They were so impressive that they were associated with the ingenious mythical architect Daedalus, who, according to Homer, constructed the dancing floor at Knossos for the princess Ariadne. The dance performed by this group from Palaikastro may have been associated with the offering of firstfruits to the goddess, as the figures were found together with composite offering vessels (kernoi) of the open bowl type with small cups on the rim.
Bibliography:
Dawkins, R.M. "Excavations at Palaikastro III". The Annual of the British School at Athens 10 (1903-04): 216-25, fig. 6. Xanthoudides, S. "Cretan Kernoi", ibid. 12 (1905-6), 18. Bosanquet, R.C. and R.M. Dawkins. "The Unpublished Objects from the Palaikastro Excavations 1902-1906". The Annual of the British School at Athens, Suppl. 1, London, 1923, 88-91, fig. 71. PM III, 72-73, fig. 41. Warren, P. "Circular Platforms at Minoan Knossos", ibid. 79 (1984), 318-19, pl. 35a. Younger, J.G. Music in the Aegean Bronze Age, SIMA Pocket-book 144, Jonsered, 1998, 23, 75 no. 54, pl. 1. Mandalaki, S. "Ο χορός στη Μινωική Κρήτη", Αρχαιολογία και Τέχνες, 90 (2004), 16-17, fig. 3. Mandalaki, S. "Ο Δαίδαλος και το χοροστάσι της Αριάδνης". In S. Mandalaki (ed.), Δαίδαλος. Στα ίχνη του μυθικού τεχνίτη, Κατάλογος Έκθεσης, Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο Ηρακλείου, Heraklion, 2019, 62-70 and cat. no. 82.
Author:
S. M.


Photographs' metadata