An Archaeology of Prehistoric Bodies and Embodied Identities in the Eastern Mediterranean

✍ Scribed by Maria Mina; Sevi Triantaphyllou; Yiannis Papadatos

• Publisher: Oxbow Books Limited
• Year: 2016
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 294
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

In the long tradition of the archaeology of the eastern Mediterranean bodies have held a prominent role in the form of figurines, frescos, or skeletal remains, and have even been responsible for sparking captivating portrayals of the Mother-Goddess cult, the elegant women of Minoan Crete or the deeds of heroic men. Growing literature on the archaeology and anthropology of the body has raised awareness about the dynamic and multifaceted role of the body in experiencing the world and in the construction, performance and negotiation of social identity. In these 28 thematically arranged papers, specialists in the archaeology of the eastern Mediterranean confront the perceived invisibility of past bodies and ask new research questions. Contributors discuss new and old evidence; they examine how bodies intersect with the material world, and explore the role of body-situated experiences in creating distinct social and other identities. Papers range chronologically from the Palaeolithic to the Early Iron Age and cover the geographical regions of the Aegean, Cyprus and the Near East. They highlight the new possibilities that emerge for the interpretation of the prehistoric eastern Mediterranean through a combined use of body-focused methodological and theoretical perspectives that are nevertheless grounded in the archaeological record.

✦ Table of Contents

Frontcover
Title
Copyright
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction. The Archaeology of Bodies and the Eastern Mediterranean
John Robb
PART I: THE REPRESENTED BODY
1. Polydactyly in Chalcolithic Figurines from Cyprus
Michelle Gamble, Christine Winkelmann and Sherry C. Fox
2. Figurines, Paint and the Perception of the Body in the Early Bronze Age Southern Aegean
Yiannis Papadatos
3. Thoughts on the Funerary Use of the Early Bronze Age (EBA) Cycladic Figurines: Iconography, Form,
Context and Embodied Lives Dimitra Goula
4. Composite, Partial, Created and Floating Bodies: a Re-Assessment of the Knossos Temple Repositories
Assemblage Fay Stevens and Anna Simandiraki-Grimshaw
5. Figurines and Complex Identities in Late Bronze Age Cyprus
Daisy Knox
6. Handlers and Viewers: Some Remarks on the Process of Perception of Terracotta Figurines on the
Example of Cypriot “Goddesses with Upraised Arms” Katarzyna Zeman-Wiśniewska
PART II: MATERIAL CULTURE AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITIES
7. Re-Making the Self: Bodies, Identities and Materialities in Chalcolithic Cyprus
Diane Bolger
9. Dressed to Impress: Metal Objects and Embodied Identities in Early and Middle Bronze Age Cyprus
Maria Mina
10. Placed with Care: Interaction with Decorated Mycenaean Metal Vessels
Stephanie Aulsebrook
PART III: RITUALISED PRACTICE AND THE PERFORMANCE OF IDENTITIES
11. The Performative Body and Social Identity in the Room of the Fresco at Mycenae
Anne P. Chapin
12. “It’s War, not a Dance”: Polarising Embodied Identities in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean
from the End of the Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age, 1200–700 BC Manolis Mikrakis
13. Nuptial Vases in Female Tombs? Aspects of Funerary Behaviour during the Late Geometric Period in
Attica Vicky Vlachou
14. Turning into Stone: Rock Art and the Construction of Identities in Ancient Thrace
Stella Pilavaki
PART IV: EMBODIED KNOWLEDGE THROUGH TECHNOLOGY AND SPACE
15. Lithics and Identity at the Middle Palaeolithic site of Lakonis Cave I, Southern Peloponnese, Greece
Paraskevi Elefanti and Eleni Panagopoulou
16. Picrolite and Other Stone Beads and Pendants: New Forms in an Old Material during the Transition from
the Chalcolithic to the Cypriot Bronze Age Giorgos Georgiou
17. The Embodiment of Land Ownership in the Aegean Early Bronze Age
Ourania Kouka
18. From Potter’s Mark to the Potter Who Marks
Kostis Christakis
PART V: THE LIVED BODY AND IDENTITIES
19. Grasping Identity: Theoretically informed Human Bioarchaeology in or for the Eastern Mediterranean?
Kirsi O. Lorentz
20. Headshaping and Identity at Tell Nader Konstantinos Kopanias and Sherry C. Fox
21. Constructing Identities by Ageing the Body in the Prehistoric Aegean: the View through the Human
Remains Sevi Triantaphyllou
PART VI: INTERACTION WITH THE DEAD BODY
22. Secondary Burials and the Construction of Group Identities in Crete between the Second Half of the 4th
and 2nd Millennia BC Luca Girella and Simona Todaro
23. Bodies in a Pickle: Burial Jars, Individualism and Group Identities in Middle Minoan Crete
Borja Legarra Herrero
24. Fire, Fragmentation and the Body in the Late Bronze Age Aegean
Yannis Galanakis
25. Spatial and Temporal Variability in Identity and Representation within the Bronze Age Cemeteries of
Knossos, Crete Eleni Hatzaki
26. Collective Selves and Funerary Rituals. Early Mycenaean Dromoi as Spaces of Negotiation and
Embodiment of Social Identities Nikolas Papadimitriou
27. Burning People, Breaking Things: Material Entanglements, the Bronze Age/Iron Age Transition and the
Homeric Dividual James Whitley
28. Epilogue: Bodies in the Eastern Mediterranean
Kostas Kotsakis