C. Knappett

• PhD
• Professor (Full) at University of Toronto

Network research has recently been adopted as one of the tools of the trade in archaeology, used to study a wide range of topics: interactions between island communities, movements through urban spaces, visibility in past landscapes, material culture similarity, exchange, and much more. This Oxford Handbook is the first authoritative reference work...

This volume presents the pottery from a series of deposits excavated by Sir Arthur Evans in the palace at Knossos and assigned by him to the last part of the Middle Bronze Age or Middle Minoan III.The substantial architectural modifications seen in this period are examined along with stratigraphy, where it exists, to give some context to the potter...

The Art and Archaeology of the Aegean Bronze Age offers a comprehensive chronological and geographical overview of one of the most important civilizations in human history. Jean-Claude Poursat's volume provides a clear path through the rich and varied art and archaeology of Aegean prehistory, from the Neolithic period down to the end of the Bronze...

Was there ever such a thing as Minoan monumental statuary? There is no direct evidence. The terracotta figures from Kea (see below, p. 218), as much as 1.6 m tall, have no real Cretan precursors: the largest Protopalatial figurines, from Petsophas and Sklaverochori, are fragmentary and hardly surpass 70 cm, while the mould for a life-size bronze ha...

Minoan Neopalatial art results in large part from the demands of the elites – those in power, leaders, or officials. The main artworks come from their residences – palaces and villas, the latter taking inspiration from the principles of ‘palatial’ architecture – and from the sanctuaries that are largely controlled by these same elites. Frescoes, iv...

Cosmetic articles and boxes with ivory plaques are among the offerings deposited in tombs; seats, footstools, and tables inlaid with ivory are mentioned in the furniture inventories from Pylos (Poursat 1977b, 246). The material from the ‘Ivory Houses’ of Mycenae in particular, as well as the remains of workshops from Thebes or Tiryns, attest to the...

The Art and Archaeology of the Aegean Bronze Age offers a comprehensive chronological and geographical overview of one of the most important civilizations in human history. Jean-Claude Poursat's volume provides a clear path through the rich and varied art and archaeology of Aegean prehistory, from the Neolithic period down to the end of the Bronze...

Around 1700 bc the reconstruction of the Knossos palace includes a fresco programme as never seen before. This new decorative fashion spreads rapidly to the grand urban residences and villas across numerous Cretan sites. The main buildings of the Cycladic towns, influenced by Minoan art, also adopt these wall paintings. In the Minoan colony of Kyth...

The establishment of a sedentary way of life in permanent villages; the beginnings of agriculture (cultivation of cereals and pulses) and animal domestication, which together replace hunting and gathering; and, not long after, the use of pottery: these are the profound changes that mark the shift from the hunter-gatherers of the Mesolithic to Neoli...

In imitation of the knossos palace, mainland Mycenaean palaces had wall paintings (Immerwahr 1990; Brecoulaki 2015). It remains unclear whether frescoes also existed in private dwellings. Beyond the palaces, the structures that are decorated are either sanctuaries or buildings directly tied to the palatial system. In total, a dozen sites have produ...

The transition from Early to Middle Bronze Age, around 2100 bc, is characterised by an apparent decline on the mainland and in the Cyclades. By contrast, Crete undergoes a rapid evolution at the beginning of the Middle Minoan (MM) period which results most spectacularly in the appearance of monumental buildings that are seats of political power. At...

Forgers of antiquities have been active across all domains of archaeology ever since artefacts unearthed through excavation, whether legal or illegal, generated publicity and attained significant market value. This happened very rapidly in the case of Aegean art (H.-G. Buchholz, Acta Praehistorica et Archaeologica 1, 113–35). Very shortly after Sch...

There have been imports, imitations, and artistic transfers between the Aegean world and its neighbouring powers, whether Egypt or the Near East, in all periods (Smith 1965; Crowley 1989; Davies and Schofield 1995 ; Aruz 2008b; Aruz 2013). What is new between around 1400 and 1200 bc is the appearance of hybrid artworks, made of precious or semi-pre...

Unlike crete and the cyclades during the Neopalatial period, where palaces, grand villas, and towns offer a picture of intense and innovative activity, Helladic architecture remains poorly known – with the exception of burial monuments. Only a handful of settlements have been investigated, and these only partially (Darcque 2005, 395). On the Aspis...

The Art and Archaeology of the Aegean Bronze Age offers a comprehensive chronological and geographical overview of one of the most important civilizations in human history. Jean-Claude Poursat's volume provides a clear path through the rich and varied art and archaeology of Aegean prehistory, from the Neolithic period down to the end of the Bronze...

Considerable quantities of human and animal figurines have been found on the peak sanctuaries of Crete. They are sometimes accompanied by clay models of anatomical parts, arms, and legs – healing offerings that occur in cult places of many periods. The peak sanctuary of Petsophas, next to Palaikastro, is one of the best known for this period (Rutko...

With the exception of the simplest jewellery, the decline in precious metal objects in both tombs and palaces stands out in relation both to the preceding tradition and to the gold riches found at contemporary Near Eastern sites: for example, the royal tomb of Qatna on the Orontes, or the treasures of Tell el-Ayyul in the Levant. On Cyprus, a piece...

The period of around a century that begins c.1450 bc with the destruction of the Second Palaces on Crete is a pivotal time when the foundations of a new palatial civilisation develop on the mainland. It encompasses the ceramic phases Late Helladic (LH) IIB (roughly contemporary with Late Minoan (LM) II) (C. Hershenson, in Mendoni and Mazarakis-Aini...

The Mycenaean palatial period can be compared to the peak of the Cretan Second Palace period of Late Minoan (LM) I, in terms of both its length and splendour. It lasts for around 150 years, from the appearance c.1350 bc of the palaces at Pylos, Mycenae, Tiryns, and Thebes until their disappearance c.1200 bc. In terms of relative chronology, it incl...

It is debatable whether we can really speak of Mycenaean glyptic during the Cretan Second Palace period. On the one hand, no trace of a workshop has been found in mainland Greece for this period; on the other hand, no seal impression has been preserved. There is nothing to indicate that seals could have had an administrative role on the mainland be...

It is paradoxically at the height of the Mycenaean palaces that glyptic art loses its status as the principal form of relief art. The making of gold signet rings, whether on Crete or the mainland, ceases around the moment when the palace of Knossos is destroyed in 1370 bc; that of hard semi-precious sealstones stops shortly after, and does not go b...

On Crete this is a period of development and transformation in figurines, under the influence of Knossian workshops. Since the previous period, Mesara workshops were making some figurines partly on the wheel, with a cylindrical lower part. It is this type of construction that becomes widespread after 1450 bc, at the expense of the naturalistic-type...

The first structures of the aegean world follow techniques known over a huge geographical area; the simplest houses are oblong huts or four-sided houses with floors of beaten earth (Treuil 1983). Reconstructions of houses of this type have been proposed on the basis of remains founds at Achilleion in Thessaly, Nea Nikomedeia in Macedonia, and Nea M...

The Art and Archaeology of the Aegean Bronze Age offers a comprehensive chronological and geographical overview of one of the most important civilizations in human history. Jean-Claude Poursat's volume provides a clear path through the rich and varied art and archaeology of Aegean prehistory, from the Neolithic period down to the end of the Bronze...

Bronze vessels become more and more common on the mainland. Previously limited to the main Peloponnesian centres (tombs at Mycenae, Sparta, Pylos), they now appear in the regions of Achaea, Attica, and Boeotia (Matthäus 1980, maps pl. 64 A and B). There are also many on Crete, in the palace of Knossos and in the warrior burials (M. Popham, H. Catli...

The Art and Archaeology of the Aegean Bronze Age offers a comprehensive chronological and geographical overview of one of the most important civilizations in human history. Jean-Claude Poursat's volume provides a clear path through the rich and varied art and archaeology of Aegean prehistory, from the Neolithic period down to the end of the Bronze...

In the aegean world, Mycenaean art is a new art. Unlike Minoan art, which developed over several centuries in the context of a palatial civilisation, it appeared suddenly c.1600 bc, in a Helladic world where works of art were previously extremely rare. Who were the artists and what were their sources of inspiration? How did it differ from contempor...

The period of the second palaces on Crete is one of intense architectural activity, both on Crete and on the main Aegean islands. We know more of Minoan and Cycladic architecture from this period than from the entire preceding period. The fact that most sites were destroyed once and for all c.1450 bc, without reoccupation, has facilitated their stu...

Several sites, and Mycenae and Lefkandi in particular, allow us to follow pottery development during this period through changes in shapes, decorative technique, and styles. The short initial phase of Late Helladic (LH) IIIC Early, in the twenty-five years following the destruction of the palaces, sees a temporary impoverishment in decoration (S. V...

Alongside cylinder and stamp seals designed for impressing decorative motifs into large jars or hearth rims, true seals – that is, those for imprinting signs into clay sealings – now make an appearance. Early Bronze Age (EBA) glyptic is best known from the sealings accidentally fired in the destructions at the end of Early Bronze (EB) II, as found,...

Ornaments (bracelets, pins, beads) undergo major development in the Neolithic. Aside from clay, stone, and bone, certain imported materials, including shells like Spondylus, and metals such as gold, silver (perhaps coming from Siphnos in the Cyclades), and copper, are used for necklace beads, earrings, or small hammered and polished pendants (Kypar...

The Second Palace period runs from the widespread destructions around 1700 bc, which bring an end to the Protopalatial period, to another major destruction horizon at the end of Late Minoan (LM) IB, c.1450 bc. The latter destructions, often accompanied by fire, have most often been attributed to war-like incursions linked to the arrival on Crete of...

The Linear B tablets from the palace of Pylos make mention of pieces of wooden furniture: tables, thrones, and stools. But very few wooden objects have been found in Greece (O. Krzyszkowska, in Herrmann 1996, 85–103), and because there is such little evidence we have surely underestimated the importance of wood carving in Mycenaean art. The best-pr...

The pottery of middle minoan (MM) IA is related in various ways to earlier traditions; from a technical standpoint, it is the last period in which all pots are still made only by hand. But there are new shapes (Betancourt 1985, 71–7). The teapots with long necks of Early Minoan (EM) III disappear; the range of amphoras, cups (globular, conical, or...

Figurines in bronze or ivory are rare during the period of the Mycenaean palaces. On the other hand, terracotta figures and figurines undergo considerable development and become one of the characteristic features of Mycenaean culture (seminal article by E. French, BSA 66, 1971, 101–87; see also Schallin 2009). Often very schematic, they are made in...

Small bronze, gold, or silver rings are not rare in tombs, even in the latest contexts – but they are generally simple bands. This is also the period when new types of fibula and pin appear. A series of rings with oval bezel appears to belong in Late Helladic (LH) IIIC. They are adorned with curvilinear meanders and spirals in gold wire highlighted...

The Art and Archaeology of the Aegean Bronze Age offers a comprehensive chronological and geographical overview of one of the most important civilizations in human history. Jean-Claude Poursat's volume provides a clear path through the rich and varied art and archaeology of Aegean prehistory, from the Neolithic period down to the end of the Bronze...

Throughout this period not a single seal seems to have been produced in mainland Greece or in the islands; the recent discovery of two clay cylinder seals on Aegina remains isolated and unparalleled (W. Gauss, R. Smetana, in Touchais 2010, 170–1). On Crete, on the contrary, the establishment of the palatial system brings with it, at the same time a...

As with the figurines, marble vases mostly come from burials: they too form part of the set of prestige goods interred with the deceased. The commonest type from the beginning of the Early Cycladic (EC) is the ‘kandyli’ (the name is borrowed from the hanging oil lamps in Orthodox churches); these vessels can vary from 7 to 37 cm in height with a ta...

The transition from the Neolithic to the beginning of the Early Bronze Age (EBA) does not see any major change in lifeways. Pottery and other forms of material culture carry on largely as before. The only significant development is in metallurgy, though it had already appeared in the Late Neolithic; and even here progress is somewhat slow, the east...

Who were the mycenaeans? Bronze Age Greeks. Conventionally, this name is given to the inhabitants of mainland Greece in the Late Bronze Age: it’s the period during which, following the apparent poverty of the preceding period (Middle Helladic (MH)), the Argolid (around Mycenae), but also other regions such as Messenia (around Pylos), sees a spectac...

Signet rings and seals become, in tholoi and chamber tombs, one of the principal indicators of the status of the deceased. It is sometimes difficult to determine exactly which products belong to this period. Pure Late Minoan (LM) II/Late Helladic (LH) IIB–IIIA1 contexts are rare, and the seals found in them could of course be antiques. Inversely, s...

At the beginning of the neolithic, pottery was much less common than in later periods, and some scholars maintain that it could have been reserved for ceremonial or ritual use; in any case, pottery seems to have rarely been used for cooking, even if it could have served for storage or movement of foodstuffs. In the Middle Neolithic (MN) period new...

The period that runs from the fall of the palaces until the end of the Bronze Age around 1050 bc is still, overall, a troubled one that is marked, on the mainland as in the islands of the Aegean, by multiple destructions. These have allowed for the differentiation of several phases, thanks to changes in pottery. The longest period, Late Helladic (L...

Aegean pottery’s most original styles date to this period. Wall paintings undoubtedly played a role in the transformation of pictorial techniques and the repertoire of motifs. Vase painting nonetheless stands apart: it is the only non-figurative art of this period. Octopuses, dolphins, and other marine animals, though present in the Protopalatial p...

The remodelling of the knossos palace, following the arrival of the Mycenaeans, goes hand in hand with the implementation of a new wall painting programme. Some frescoes from the previous period could perhaps have survived. Others, probably damaged, were removed from walls (two dumps have been found) and replaced with new ones. Hence the chronologi...

The many variations in vase shape and decorative syntax mean that several phases can be distinguished (IIIA2, IIIB1, IIIB2), at least in mainland Greece. The prolific output of workshops during this period brings about the development of ever more pronounced stylisation and abstraction. Still, it is not the case that this evolution is quite as line...

Along with frescoes, it is seals that best represent the Minoan art of this period: the richness of their iconographic repertoire is unmatched in the other arts. The growth in administrative activity entails an increase in their production; at Knossos, Zakros, and some villas like that of Haghia Triada this is reflected in the presence of archive d...

The middle of the third millennium bc sees a new phenomenon – the development of fortified settlements in mainland Greece and the Cyclades. The fortifications at Lerna, barely preserved, are built around 2500 bc; with a rubble foundation and a mudbrick superstructure, they have semi-circular towers protecting access (Figure 7.1) and include rooms c...

In mainland greece there is nothing comparable to the Early Helladic (EH) Corridor Houses during this period. All that has been discovered are villages or modest agglomerations (O. Polychronopoulou, in Darcque and Treuil 1990, 473–84). Houses lack regular plans, and the apsidal house type is the most common in the Peloponnese and central Greece, th...

The Art and Archaeology of the Aegean Bronze Age offers a comprehensive chronological and geographical overview of one of the most important civilizations in human history. Jean-Claude Poursat's volume provides a clear path through the rich and varied art and archaeology of Aegean prehistory, from the Neolithic period down to the end of the Bronze...

At the start of the Early Bronze Age (EBA) we see a lot of continuity with an earlier tradition of incised decoration on closed vessels such as cylindrical pyxides (globular or biconical), small jars with narrow necks (footed or footless), and kandylia. Such vases usually have lateral lugs, allowing for their suspension and attaching lids (Figure 1...

Cycladic marble figurines have generated so much interest that they have become the focus of a separate field of enquiry within Aegean art. This inflated interest is relatively recent: few marble figures were known before the end of the nineteenth century; the first museum acquisitions (British Museum, Dresden, and Karlsruhe) date from the 1840s, a...

Crowning plateaus or hilltops, close to the sea or inland, citadels are a characteristic feature of the Mycenaean landscape from the fourteenth century bc. With rare exceptions, fortified sites are absent from Crete (Nowicki 2000); only in the Cyclades, from the Early Bronze Age, has this type of landscape also featured. On the mainland some sites,...

On the mainland it is the palatial sites of the previous period that we know most about. Recent excavations have shown that, at least in the Argolid, at Mycenae, Tiryns, and Midea, fortifications were repaired and citadels continued to be occupied. At Tiryns, Building T, an assembly hall for the community, replaces the grand palatial megaron on the...

The reconstruction of minoan sites destroyed c.1450 bc does not always happen immediately and often is limited to a reuse of earlier walls, with partial refurbishment. This is the case at Malia, where House Epsilon, a large Neopalatial residence to the south of the palace, is reoccupied in Late Minoan (LM) II without major modifications (A. Farnoux...

As with glyptic, it is only on Crete that stone vases are made in the Middle Bronze Age – it seems that neither mainland Greece nor the Cyclades produced them. Stone vases are now made in a wider range of materials: not only serpentine, but also breccias and limestone chosen for their colours or texture. Gabbro, a local stone of white crystals with...

The Art and Archaeology of the Aegean Bronze Age offers a comprehensive chronological and geographical overview of one of the most important civilizations in human history. Jean-Claude Poursat's volume provides a clear path through the rich and varied art and archaeology of Aegean prehistory, from the Neolithic period down to the end of the Bronze...

The Art and Archaeology of the Aegean Bronze Age offers a comprehensive chronological and geographical overview of one of the most important civilizations in human history. Jean-Claude Poursat's volume provides a clear path through the rich and varied art and archaeology of Aegean prehistory, from the Neolithic period down to the end of the Bronze...

It is difficult to get a sense of the palaces’ overall plans because we only know them in patches. The best conserved group of rooms comes from Phaistos (Levi 1976; F. Carinci, 9th Cretological, 2006, vol. A2, 23–39). Neopalatial construction on the top of the acropolis has meant that an important section of the remains of the first building, at a...

During the neopalatial period, many stone vases are produced, much more elaborately than before, by highly specialised artisans working for the palatial elites, whether it is to do with prestige objects or vases for cult use, as with the zoomorphic rhyta mentioned in Chapter 23. This change is clear in the choice of materials, in the making of comp...

Later prehistory in Eurasia is characterised by a suite of radical new technologies that include metallurgy, writing, and the wheel. Their emergence has often been attributed to the dramatically improved efficiencies they offer. This paper argues that instrumental accounts underplay the aesthetic qualities of technical action that have considerable...

Cambridge Core - Classical Art and Architecture - Aegean Bronze Age Art - by Carl Knappett

The first volume examines Akrotiri stratigraphy and chronology, the typology and iconography of local and imported pottery and dedicates a section to ceramic weaving equipment and an inscribed loomweight. The second volume presents the catalogue of selected ceramic material by chronological phase and findspot, plates and drawings.

While network techniques are now used with some frequency in archaeology for tackling questions of connectivity and mobility at regional and inter-regional scales, they are still somewhat underexploited for more local scales. The considerable potential for multiscalar analysis has recently seen some progress, however, wedded to the idea of communit...

Agricultural production and the palatial redistribution of staples have played a key role in the debate concerning the emergence of social complexity in Minoan Crete. However, much of the focus has fallen on major settlements where such products were consumed, rather than on the landscape where agricultural surplus was produced. While there is no s...

On the east Mediterranean island of Crete, a hierarchical society centred on large palatial complexes emerges during the Bronze Age. The economic basis for this significant social change has long been debated, particularly concerning the role of olive cultivation in the island's agricultural system. With the aim of studying vegetation changes and h...

In this section we tackle individual buildings. For domestic structures, the scale is that of the household, whereas for more monumental buildings—such as the palaces or the so-called ‘villas’—the association with a particular social group is still a matter of great debate, although the term ‘corporate group’ has been recently put forward (Driessen...

Architecture and urbanism have been of constant interest to Minoan archaeologists since the beginning of the twentieth century. While there is some scholarly bias to this, with the field deeply affected by Sir Arthur Evans’s focus on the monumental architecture of Knossos, Minoan Crete continues to yield abundant evidence for a substantial built en...

Agglomerations of buildings, whether just a handful in a loose settlement, or a whole town with elaborate urban infrastructures (street system, drainage, open spaces, and other ‘public works’) constitute the meso-scale, the level of the community. Remarks on the variable quality of our data sets (see chapter 2) clearly apply to what we know of the...

Urban settlements are often presented as a prominent feature of Bronze Age Crete (McEnroe 2010). And yet, summarizing what is actually known about Minoan towns is much more challenging than one would expect, especially for non-palatial settlements. Many studies are narrowly focused and often take one urban element out of context in all communities...

Zooming out, we first reach the various regions that compose Crete (e.g. west Crete, Mesara, north-central Crete, Malia-Lasithi zone, Mirabello Bay area, east Crete) and then the whole island itself. This is the macro-scale where settlement patterns can be observed and ‘which may see low-level exchange, competition, close affiliations; a whole rang...

Minoan Crete is rightly famous for its idiosyncratic architecture, as well as its palaces and towns such as Knossos, Malia, Gournia, and Palaikastro. Indeed, these are often described as the first urban settlements of Bronze Age Europe. However, we still know relatively little about the dynamics of these early urban centres. How did they work? What...

Encountering Things brings together leading design scholars to explore the relationship between thing theory and design, exploring production processes and offering an engaging, theoretical perspective about the social and cultural lives of objects. Focusing on the themes of process and product, the contributors investigate the productive interplay...

The plentiful circulation of many kinds of materials across the southern Aegean is one of the hallmarks of Minoanisation that all scholars can agree upon. However, what this circulation means in terms of the mobility of people is still very much debated. Are we to think that entire groups of people migrated from Crete to set up colonies across the...

In this introduction to the volume we argue that the later prehistory of the Mediterranean has much to contribute to current debates in the humanities on the subject of mobilities. Although often avoided or maligned for its association with migration as an outmoded explanation for culture change, mobility is belatedly finding its way back into arch...

Running the full gamut of scholarship from physical science to philosophy, archaeology’s diversity can be a negative rather than a positive—when the same phenomena can attract such different approaches that archaeologists end up talking past one another. Take the example of archaeological landscape analysis: on the one hand, this has produced rich,...

One of the most exciting recent developments in archaeology and history has been the adoption of new perspectives which see human societies in the past--as in the present--as made up of networks of interlinked individuals. This view of people as always connected through physical and conceptual networks along which resources, information, and diseas...