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Cylinder seal of Eastern origin

Σ-Κ3024
Stone (Steatite)
Intact
Length: 2.31 cm. Diameter: 1.11-1.17 cm.
Gouves
Kato Gouves
Late Bronze Age. Final Palatial - Postpalatial period, Late Minoan ΙΙ - IIIC period.:
1450 - 1050 BC:
Gallery:
XI
Case:
114
Exhibition thematic unit:
Late Bronze Age - Postpalatial period (1300-1100 BC). Settlements. Sanctuaries. Tombs
Postpalatial settlements
Description
Cylinder seal combining Aegean and non-Aegean elements of iconography and style. It depicts a standing, naked human figure with wings instead of arms, towards which are moving an agrimi (wild goat) on its hind legs, a Minoan genius and a lion. The space between the figures is filled with various motifs. The winged figure does not belong to the Minoan iconographic tradition, and nor does the style of the other figures, the lion in particular. The seal was collected from the Late Minoan IIIB settlement with potters’ workshops in Kato Gouves by the excavator. It was probably imported from somewhere in the Near East or Cyprus. It belongs to a category of seal often called “Cypro-Aegean”, combining Aegean with Cypriote and/or Syro-Babylonian elements. This truly intercultural craft of seal-carving flourished in the East Mediterranean and the Aegean in the Late Bronze III period, and the area of production of the seals is often impossible to identify.
Bibliography:
Aruz, J. Marks of Distinction. Seals and Cultural Exchange between the Aegean and the Orient. Corpus der Minoischen und Mykenischen Siegel Beiheft 7. Mainz, 2008, 202-212. Chatzi-Vallianou, D. "Gouves, the Potters' Quarter of LM III." In V. Karageorghis, A. Kanta, N. Stampolidis, Y. Sakellarakis (eds), Kypriaka in Crete. From the Bronze Age to the End of the Archaic Period. Nicosia, 2014, 67-68. Pini, I. "Cypriote and Cypro-Aegean Seals." In V. Karageorghis, A. Kanta, N. Stampolidis, Y. Sakellarakis (eds), Kypriaka in Crete. From the Bronze Age to the End of the Archaic Period. Nicosia, 2014, 325-330.
Author:
E. S.


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