• Bone Cycladic-type female figurine



Bone Cycladic-type female figurine
Bone Cycladic-type female figurine

Bone Cycladic-type female figurine

Ο-Ε440
Bone
Almost intact, missing the toes of the left foot.
Height: 8.5 cm. Maximum width: 2 cm.
Phourni
Phourni, Tholos Tomb Gamma
Early Bronze Age. Prepalatial period, Early Minoan ΙI period.:
2700 - 2200 BC:
Gallery:
I
Case:
11
Exhibition thematic unit:
Early Bronze Age - Prepalatial period (3000 - 1900 BC). Settlements and cemeteries - the rise of ruling groups
The sea roads. Trade and foreign influences
Description
Standing naked female figure with arms folded under the breast. The nose is rendered in relief but the chest is not. The pubis is dotted with sixteen tiny holes. This detail, the fact that the legs are separately worked from the knees down, and the material of which the figurine is made, set it apart from the Cycladic glyptic tradition, which it otherwise follows. In the Cyclades such figurines were usually made of marble, whereas bone was widely used in Crete. The figurines would have been a funerary offering accompanying a burial in Tholos Tomb Gamma. Another fourteen Cycladic-type figurines, intact and fragmentary, were found in the same tomb, together with other objects of Cycladic origin or inspiration. The finds from the cemetery of Archanes Phourni generally and Tomb Gamma in particular provide a wealth of information on the extremely close relationship between Crete and the Cyclades, especially in the first half of the Early Bronze Age.
Bibliography:
Papadatos, Y. Tholos Tomb Gamma. A Prepalatial Tholos Tomb at Phourni, Archanes. Prehistory Monographs 17. Philadelphia, 2005, 30, 32, fig. 22, pl. 19. Sakellarakis, Y. "Ανασκαφή Αρχανών." Πρακτικά της εν Αθήναις Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας (1972): 310-353. Sapouna-Sakellaraki, E. "Cycladic Figurines from Archanes." In Ν. Chr. Stampolidis and P. Sotirakopoulou (eds), Κυκλαδικά στην Κρήτη. Κυκλαδικά και Κυκλαδίζοντα Ειδώλια - Οι συμβολισμοί της ανθρώπινης μορφής μέσα στην ανασκαφική τους συνάφεια. Πρακτικά Διεθνούς Συνεδρίου, Μουσείο Κυκλαδικής Τέχνης, Athens, 1-2 Οκτωβρίου 2015, Athens, 2017: 167-196.
Author:
E. S.


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