Marble Cycladic-type figurine
Γ1065
Stone (Marble)
Excellent
Height: 21.8 cm. Width: 9.1 cm.
Phourni
Tholos Tomb Gamma
Early-Middle Bronze Age. Prepalatial period. Early Minoan ΙΙΙ-Middle Minoan ΙΑ period:
2300-1900 BC:
Gallery:
IICase:
18Exhibition thematic unit:
Middle Bronze Age - Late Prepalatial-Protopalatial period (2200-1700 BC). From small communities to townsThe Archanes Cemetery
Description
Marble figurine of the popular Cycladic type with folded arms. This is the Koumasa variant, which is only found in Crete and is probably of local manufacture. It represents a standing female figure in rigidly frontal posture. Her arms are folded under the chest in the usual attitude of these figurines. Cycladic-type figurines constitute a special category in Prepalatial Crete, reflecting the attested contacts between Crete and the Cyclades in the Early Bronze Age. It is usually difficult to distinguish between Cycladic imports and the products of local workshops, indicating the assimilation of non-Cretan models to meet local conditions and needs. This particular figurine was found in Tholos Tomb Gamma in one of the most important Cretan Bronze Age cemeteries, on the hill of Phourni in Archanes. It was preserved in excellent condition because it had been placed, together with another figurine, between two stones in the wall of the tomb. The group of people who used Tholos Tomb Gamma buried their dead with numerous objects indicating links with the Cyclades, perhaps in an attempt to mark a particular social identity. The role of these figurines in people’s lives in 3rd-millennium Crete remains unclear, but they obviously had a ritual significance in the complex funerary rituals of the Cretan Early Bronze Age.Bibliography:
Papadatos, Y. 2005. Tholos Tomb Gamma: A Prepalatial Tholos Tomb at Phourni, Archanes. INSTAP Academic Press (Institute for Aegean Prehistory). Sakellarakis J. and E. Sapouna-Sakellaraki, 1997. Αρχάνες: Μία Νέα Ματιά Στη Μινωική Κρήτη, Ammos, vol. Ι, p.338-349. Sapouna-Sakellaraki, E. 2015. Cycladic figurines from Archanes [167-196] in Stampolidis, N. and Sotirakopoulou, P. (eds) Κυκλαδικά στην Κρήτη. Κυκλαδικά και κυκλαδίζοντα ειδώλια μέσα στην ανασκαφική τους συνάφεια. University of Crete. Papadatos, Y. 2018. Mortuary variability, social differentiation and ranking in Prepalatial Crete: The evidence from the cemetery of Phourni, Archanes, in M. Relaki & Y. Papadatos (eds), From the Foundations to the Legacy of Minoan Archaeology: Studies in honour of Professor Keith Branigan, (Sheffield Studies in Aegean Archaeology 12), Oxford & Philadelphia (2018), 96-114.Author:
I. G.Photographs' metadata