Painted floor plasters with seascape



Painted floor plasters with seascape

Τ24Α
Plaster
Fragmentary-Restored
193Χ226 cm.
Hagia Triada
Sanctuary
Late Bronze Age, Final Palatial period. Late Minoan IIIA1 period:
1400- 1370 BC:
Gallery:
XIII
Case:
149
Exhibition thematic unit:
Minoan wall paintings
The world of nature
Description
The painted plaster floor of the shrine of Agia Triada was decorated with a seascape depicting sea creatures such as an octopus, dolphins and fish, which are also seen in a similar decorative composition. According to the cosmographic beliefs of the time, as they are represented on some rings and larnakes, the world of the sea lay below or deeper than the world of the land, and marine themes had to be placed under the viewer’s feet rather than around the viewer, as is the case with scenes from the terrestrial natural world and cult scenes. This is probably why marine themes decorated Minoan floors rather than walls, later extending, in a more conventional style, to the floors of Mycenaean palaces.
Bibliography:
M. Guarducci, Missione archaeologica Italiana in Creta (Lavori dell’Anno 1939), Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene 1-2 N.S. (1939-1940), (231-239) 232. L. Banti, “I culti minoici e greci di Haghia Triada (Creta),” Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene 3-5 (1941-43) 9-74. E. Hirsch, Painted Decoration on the Floors of Bronze Age Structures on Crete and the Greek Mainland, Göteborg 1977, 7-22. E. S. Hirsch, "Another Look at Minoan and Mycenaean Interrelationships in Floor Decoration," American Journal of Archaeology 84, 1980 (453-462), 453,458.
Author:
K. A.


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