Roussos, P. M. and Logothetis, D. 2022. "Ars Ægyptiaca. Egyptian and Egyptianising Artefacts in Early Iron Age Crete". International Conference, "Nostoi II. Traveling in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea + Inland Routes from the EBA to the end of the EIA"

Abstract

In the Early Iron Age, especially from the middle of the 8th century BC onwards, the island of Crete developed into a cultural melting pot, a prominent intermediate station situated at the crossroads between the Near East, Egypt, mainland Greece, and the West. Traversing the sea routes of the wine-dark sea, sailors, merchants, artisans, immigrants, and mercenaries of diverse ethnicities travelled to and from Crete, leaving behind their distinctive traces, often both material and immaterial. In stark contrast with the Levantines, the Egyptians themselves seem to have never settled permanently or temporarily on the island, while even their commercial relations with the Aegean and the Near East have been predominantly thought of as indirect, facilitated through trading networks involving the Syro-Palestinian coast, Cyprus, Euboea, perhaps even Crete itself, and subsequently, in the 7th and 6th centuries BC, Samos and Rhodes. Faience figurines, both theomorphic and zoomorphic, vessels, jewellery, metal and ivory objects, scarabs and seals of varied materials, Egyptian and Egyptianising, flooded Crete and are widely attested to in the archaeological record, chiefly in the eastern (Arkades, Psychro cave, Praisos) and the northern (Knossos, Idaean cave, Amnisos, Eleutherna) and southern (Kommos, Gortyn, Inatos) central part of the island, whilst the western (Kisamos and Tarra) has, thus far, little to display. In this contribution, seeking to address a lacuna in the study of Creto-Egyptian relations in the Iron Age, the authors will engage with the aegyptiaca discovered in votive and funerary deposits throughout the island, attempting a critical re-examination of the available material, distinguishing between genuine Egyptian and Egyptianising artefacts, tracing their origins, and mapping out their distribution patterns. Furthermore, through a comprehensive contextual approach, these objects will be viewed against the backdrop of mercantile activity, cultic expression, and attitudes towards the afterlife, shedding light on the reception and consumption of Egyptian material and non-material culture on Iron Age Crete.

Full text

Nostoi II
Traveling in the Eastern Mediterranean
Sea + Inland Routes
from the Early Bronze to the End of the Early Iron Ages
11-13 November 2022
Acropolis Museum, Athens
Preliminary Program

All papers are intended to be 20 minutes long and
after all presentations there will be room for 10 minutes of discussion
Conference organized by
Nikolaos Stampolidis, Konstantinos Kopanias, Çiğdem Maner, Ioannis Fappas

Friday, 11 November
8:30
Registration
9:00
Welcome
STAMPOLIDIS Nikolaos, KOPANIAS Kostas, MANER Çiğdem, FAPPAS Ioannis
Morning session
Ideology: Beliefs, Cult, Customs
Aegean – Black Sea
9:10
H Ζώμινθος στέλνει το Ιδαίο δέχεται
SAPOUNA-SAKELLARAKI Efi
9:30
1. Violence and the Unwanted Dead
GEORGIADIS Mercourios
9:50
2. Ritually killed Weapons in Ancient Thrace in the Context of the Ritual
KALOYAN Petkov
10:10
3. In the Footsteps of Heroes: Ionian Migration and Cult in the Black Sea
KNIGHT John Brendan
10:30
4. Early Archaic Ivory Seals in the Ionian Islands and the Peloponnese: Ritual
Employment at (Inter)Regional Sanctuaries
FRAGKOPOULOU Florentia
10:50
Medical knowledge and its sharing in the Aegean and the neighbouring regions in the
Bronze and Early Iron Ages
ALUSIK Tomas
11:10
Discussion
11:40
1. Break
Mobility, Agency and Technology
2.
Eastern Mediterranean - Anatolia

12:10
3. Hearth-ΕΣΤΙΑ and Ancient Mariners in the Eastern Mediterranean (ca. 1200-500
BC): an overview
LAMAZE Jérémy
12:30
4. Cilicia as a Composite Landscape: Insularity and Interconnectivity through a
Historical and Archeological Perspective in the Late Bronze Age
KOZAL Ekin
12:50
Some remarks on the 5th year inscription of Ramses III in Medinet Habu and a possible
cause of the Sea peoples’ migration.
SAFRONOV Alexander
13:10
1. Peoples, Routes and Migrations between the Aegean and Southern Anatolia: Evidence
of Toponymy and Personal Onomastics.
2. ORESHKO Rostislav
13:30
3. Discussion
Afternoon session
4.
5. Aegean
16:00
The rock-art fleet of Astypalaia
VLACHOPOULOS Andreas G.
16:20
(Not) Spreading the News: How Did Information Move Around the Second Millennium
Aegean?
PAPADIMITRIOU Nikolas – FINLAYSON Sarah
16:40
Networks and island identities in the Aegean world from the Geometric to the Roman
period: The case study of Kasos
MASTROPAVLOS Giorgos
17:00
Clay balls, mud balls: the Influence of Egyptian Writing Practices on Cypro-Minoan
DONNELLY Cassandra
17:20
A Navy for a Non-Marine People? The Hittites and the Control of the Seas
JEAN Eric
17:40
‘O strangers, who are you?’ Homeric Piracy and Archaeology
SAMARAS Vangelis – GOUNELAS Panagiotis
18:00
Siphnian Post-palatial Nostoi: the Mycenaean acropolis tis Baronas to Froudi.
ZOGKOS Ioannis
18:20
Before cabotage? Interregional exchange in the Late Bronze Age
NAKASSIS Dimitri

18:40
Discussion
Saturday, 12 November
Morning session
Merchants, Commodities and Gift Exchange
Aegean
9:00
6. ‘Ars Ægyptiaca’. Egyptian and Egyptianising Artefacts in Early Iron Age Crete
LOGOTHETIS Dimitris – ROUSSOS Philippos-Michael
9:20
7. Iron Age and Archaic Pottery from Rhodes: Local Taste and Foreign Influxes between
East and West.
BOSSOLINO Isabella
9:40
A Mycenaean Storage/Transport Stirrup Jar in the Archaeological Museum of
Thessaloniki: The Northernmost Example in the Aegean?
TSANGARAKI Evangelia – FAPPAS Ioannis – KIRIATZI Evangelia
Eastern Mediterranean
10:00
The Amber in the Eastern Mediterranean
SGOURITSA Naya
10:20
Foreign, local, multicultural: 2nd Millennium BC seals from Western Anatolia
PIENIĄŻEK Magda
10:40
‘Eggstraordinary’ objects and Phoenician networks: interpreting decorated ostrich
eggs and their place in the global Mediterranean
HODOS Tamar – LOPEZ-RUIZ
11:00
Discussion
11:30
Break
12:00
Long-distance Transfer of Food from South and East Asia to the Eastern
Mediterranean in the 2nd millennium BCE (presented remotely)
STOCKHAMMER Philipp W. – SCOTT Ashley – ALTMANN-WENDLING
Victoria – WARINNER Christina

12:20
Trade, Mobility and Canaanite resilience before and after the Late Bronze Age
collapse
LANDAU Assaf Yasur
12:40
Naue II Swords, Germs, and Iron: The Potential of Pandemic as a Contributing Factor
to the Piratical Activities of the Sea Peoples
HITCHCOCK Louise A. – MAEIR Aren
13:00
Local Production and Imitation of Mycenaean Pottery in the Aegean and Eastern
Mediterranean: Regional Preferences
GÜR Barış - JANEWAY Brian
13:20
Anatolian Grey Ware in Eastern Mediterranean: 30 Years Later
PAVÚK Peter
13:40
Discussion
Afternoon session
Tracking and Mapping Sea and Inland Routes
Aegean - Eastern Mediterranean
16:00
«Κρήτη και Μυτιλήνη, Σάμο κι Iκαριά, Νάξο και Σαντορίνη …»: Interconnections of
Samos in the Aegean Middle Bronze Age
KOUKA Ourania – MENELAOU Sergios
16:20
“οὐδέ ποτ’ ἔσβη οὖρος”: An Interpretation of Nestor’s Nostos as a Possible Route
Between the Troad and the Peloponnese During the Late Bronze Age. (presented
remotely)
QUERCI Angiolo
16:40
Travelling North, Travelling South: The Role of Sea and Inland Routes in the
Mycenaean Religious Activity
ROUSIOTI Dimitra
17:00
Times alone Matter: Modelling Terrestrial Mobility on Crete during the Late Bronze
Age
GHEORGHIADE Paula
17:20
Beyond the Land/Sea Binary
GREAVES Alan M.
18:00
Palaepaphos-Marchello from the Kouklia Expedition (1950) to PULP (2006-2008,
2021-2022)
IAKOVOU Maria – KOPANIAS Konstantinos

Anatolia
18:20
Çeşme – Bağlararası: Exploring Transformations in the Sea and Inland Routes in the
First Half of the 2nd Millennium BC
ŞAHOĞLU Vasif, KIRIATZI Evangelia, ÇAYIR Ümit, GÜNDOĞAN Ümit,
VETTERS Melissa, CHOLEVA Maria, MALTAS Tom, İNCIRLILI Mustafa
18:40
Discussion
Sunday, 13 November
Morning session
9:00
Connecting Cultures in the Early Bronze Age: Acemhöyük and the Anatolian trade
networks
KAMIŞ Yalçin (presented remotely)
9:20
Over the Taurus Mountain Down to the Mediterranean: Connecting the Konya Plain
with the Mediterranean during the Bronze and Iron Ages
MANER Çiğdem
9:40
The Role of the Dardanelles in the North Aegean Communication Networks in the
Bronze Age (presented remotely)
MUTLU Üyesi Meral Başaran – SAZCI Göksel
10:00
Off the Beaten Tracks: Rough Cilicia as a Transit Zone during the Second Millennium
BCE
MATESSI Alvise - ŞERIFOĞLU Tevfik Emre
10:20
Discussion
10:40
Break
Economic, Cultural Interactions in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean
Aegean
11:00
Built Environment, Funerary Landscape, and Cultural Change: A Case Study from the
“Serraglio”, Eleona, and Langada on Kos During the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age
Periods
McNAMEE Calla – VITALE Salvatore – NANI Francesca

11:20
Post-palatial Mediterranean Networks: A View from the Ionian Islands Towards the
East
METAXAS Odysseas – VOSKOS Ioannis
11:40
Beyond Perati: Eastern Attica in Postpalatial times
SALAVOURA Eleni
12:00
The Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age Transition on Kos and the Wider SASCAR:
New Data and Preliminary Interpretations
VITALE Salvatore – BIANCHINI Federico
12:20
Burial Structure East of Dicte (Crete) in Late Minoan III
PSALLIDA Maria
Anatolia
12:40
Larisa (Buruncuk): an Aeolian Site at the Aegean Crossroads
KÜLEKÇI Ilgin – YILDIRIM Ozan
13:00
Early Iron Age dwellings at Pedasa: The first witnesses of the delicate balance between
life and death
DILER Adnan
13:20
Early Iron Age dwellings at Pedasa: The First Witnesses of the Delicate Balance
Between Life and Death (presented remotely)
DİLER Adnan
14:00
Discussion
16:00
The Cultural Evaluation and Interactions of Çine-Tepecik in the Aegean World
GÜNEL Sevinç
16:20
The “Region” of Southeastern Anatolia in the Late Bronze Age: An Evaluation of the
Communication Networks (presented remotely)
YILDIZ Sevilay Zeynep
16:40
The Eastern Mediterranean Economic Exchange: Sabuniye and the Delta Orontes and
Amuq Valley
MONTESANTO Mariacarmela
Crafts, Art and Iconography
Aegean
17:00
Koukounaries (Paros) during the Late Helladic IIIC middle period. The mycenaean
pottery of the Lower Plateau and a rare representation of a ship
SPANOS Stefanos

17:20
Entangled movements in the south Mediterranean- People and “things” in the early 12th
century BC.
KANTA Athanasia
17:40
Between East and West: The Adoption of the Warp-weighted Loom in the North-
Eastern Aegean During the Bronze Age
BOLOTI Tina
18:00
'Lost' Aegean finds in Asia Minor and their significance in the Aegean-Anatolian
relations
GEORGAKOPOULOS Kostas
Anatolia
18:20
Sphinx in Anatolia: Tracing the composite feline form in Hittite visual arts
PILAVCI Türkan
18:40
New Copper Sources Reflected in the Cape Gelidonya Ingot Cargo
KURUÇAYIRLI Emre, LEHNER Joseph, JANSEN Moritz, HIRSCHFELD Nicolle
19:00
Discussion
19:20
Final Discussion/Closing Remarks