How to Cite

Günkel-Maschek, Ute et al. (Eds.): Gesture, Stance,and Movement: Communicating Bodies in the Aegean Bronze Age. Acts of the International Conference at the University of Heidelberg, 11–13 November 2021, Heidelberg: Propylaeum, 2024. https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.1309

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Free access – all rights reserved

Identifiers

https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.1309
ISBN 978-3-96929-270-9 (PDF)
ISBN 978-3-96929-271-6 (Hardcover)

Published

11/21/2024

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Authors

Ute Günkel-Maschek (Ed.), Céline Murphy (Ed.), Fritz Blakolmer (Ed.), Diamantis Panagiotopoulos (Ed.)

Gesture, Stance,and Movement

Communicating Bodies in the Aegean Bronze Age. Acts of the International Conference at the University of Heidelberg, 11–13 November 2021

The meaning of action in figurative imagery is conveyed through bodily posture, placing the depicted figures – humans, gods, or hybrids – in relation within coherent visual narratives. Especially for societies with few deciphered texts, the analysis of gesture, posture, movement, and facial expression is crucial for understanding ancient ‘webs of significance’. With 29 papers from a conference held in Heidelberg in 2021, this volume examines ‘body language’ in Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece and proposes new ways of interpreting non-verbal communication in Aegean Bronze Age iconography.

Ute Günkel-Maschek is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Classical Archaeology and Byzantine Archaeology at the University of Heidelberg. Her research interests include the archaeology of the Aegean Bronze Age, in particular the iconographic and contextual analysis of Minoan and Mycenaean images and their relation to life and society, religion and ritual.

Céline Murphy is a postdoctoral visiting research fellow at Trinity College Dublin. Her research focuses on Minoan peak sanctuary figurines and Aegean Bronze Age iconography. Working as an archaeological illustrator, she has contributed to a number major archaeological projects in the east Mediterranean, while also investigating the relationship between archaeology and contemporary art.

Fritz Blakolmer is Associate Professor at the Institute of Classical Archaeology at the University of Vienna where he teaches Minoan and Mycenaean Archaeology. His main research interests are the arts and iconography of the Aegean Bronze Age, religion and ritual iconography in the Aegean, the history of research and modern artistic reception, colour and its significance in antiquity, and tomb forms in Classical Lycia. He has published widely on all these topics.

Diamantis Panagiotopoulos is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Heidelberg. He has studied Archaeology, Art History, History, Egyptology, and Near Eastern Archaeology at the Universities of Athens and Heidelberg and published extensively on several aspects of Bronze Age Aegean societies and their interconnections with other cultural regions of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Chapters

Table of Contents
Pages
PDF
Titelei
Contents
Ute Günkel-Maschek, Céline Murphy, Fritz Blakolmer, Diamantis Panagiotopoulos
Preface
7
Ute Günkel-Maschek, Céline Murphy, Fritz Blakolmer, Diamantis Panagiotopoulos
Introduction
Communicating Bodies in Aegean Bronze Age Archaeology
9-19
I. Frameworks of Analysis for Communicating Bodies
Diamantis Panagiotopoulos
Powerless Images
(Mis-)Reading Gestures and Stances in Aegean Iconography
23-41
Anna Simandiraki-Grimshaw
Overt and Covert Bodily Communication in Bronze Age Crete
43-59
Katerina Giannaki
The Function of Minoan Cheironomy
61-75
II. Communication Through Expression and Movement
Fritz Blakolmer
Beyond the Body
Facial Expression, Human Interaction and Narrativity in Aegean Iconography
79-97
Lyvia Morgan
Gesture and Movement in Wall Paintings as Directives of Viewing
99-117
Lucie Valentinová
The ‘Seated Woman’ of the Adorants Fresco from Xeste 3 at Akrotiri, Thera
Female Initiation or Non-Narrative Absorption?
119-127
Maria Mina
Feeling Around in the Dark
Bodily Movement as Multisensorial Experience in Minoan Cavernous Spaces
129-139
III. Gesture, Posture, and Societal Matters
Céline Murphy
The Orientation and Posture of the Human Torso as a Convention in Neopalatial Iconography
143-164
Diana Wolf
“Ariadne’s Dance”
Staging Female Gesture in Neopalatial Soft-Stone Glyptic
165-181
Susan C. Ferrence, Philip P. Betancourt, Alessandra Giumlia-Mair, James D. Muhly, Metaxia Tsipopoulou, David W. Rupp
A Golden Embrace
Early Bronze Age Connection between Eastern Crete and Uruk?
183-202
IV. Of Deities and Humans
Eleni Drakaki
‘Hands to the Chest’
A Gesture of Power for Gods and Humans Alike?
205-216
Alexia Spiliotopoulou
The Gesture of the Male Bronze Figurine from Katsambas
217-233
Louise A. Hitchcock , Madaline Harris-Schober
From the Here and Now, to the There and Then
The Most Powerful Woman of Minoan Crete?
235-241
Bernice R. Jones
The Iconography of the Knossos Snake Goddesses Based on Their Gestures, Stances, Movements and Attributes
243-257
Philip P. Betancourt
Did the Goddess with Upraised Arms Have a Bench Shrine in the Inatos Cave?
259-265
V. Communication in Ritual Action
Stephanie Aulsebrook
Too Hot to Handle?
Vessel-Based Gestures in Aegean Bronze Age Iconography
269-274
Caroline Tully
Against Nature
Tree-Shaking Action in Minoan Glyptic Art as Agonistic Behaviour
275-289
Laetitia Phialon
A Simple Touch?
Reassessing Aegean Bronze Age Depictions of Human and Animal Figures Interacting with a Tree or a Column
291-305
Tina Boloti
do-ra pe-re
The Ritual Processions of the Aegean 2nd Millennium B.C. Re-visited
307-313
VI. Gesture, Posture, Sex, and Gender
Paz Ramirez-Valiente
Gesturing Age, Posturing Gender
The Neolithic Antecedents of Bodily Comportment in the Aegean
313-333
Christos Kekes
‘Hands on Abdomen’
Unveiling the Polysemy of an Aegean Gesture
335-350
Michele Mitrovich
Minoan Waist-to-Hip Ratios, Exposed Breasts, and Sexual Selection
Applying Sociobiology and Evolutionary Psychology to the Iconography of the Human Body in Bronze Age Crete
351-370
VII. Stances of Triumph, Defeat, and Combat
Filip Franković , Uroš Matić
The Last Man Standing
Body Poses of Victorious and Defeated Warriors in Late Bronze Age Aegean Iconography and Their Egyptian Comparanda
373-378
Nanno Marinatos
Gestures of Dominance in Minoan Art
The Influence of Egypt
379-388
Veronika Verešová
Triumph and Defeat
Emulating the Postures of Near Eastern Rulers and Deities in Aegean Bronze Age Iconography
389-404
Robert B. Koehl
The Mycenaean ‘Lunge and Thrust’
405-413
VIII. Death and the Communicative Body
Sotiria Kiorpe
Disarticulated Bones, Articulated Narratives
Exploring Mortuary Gestures and Their Meaning at the Petras Cemetery, Siteia, Crete
417-423
Jacob E. Heywood
Funeral or ‘Biography’?
Re-considering the Potential Identities of Figures on the LM III A2 Agia Triada Sarcophagus
425-430
Ute Günkel-Maschek
Adoration and Visionary Practices, or Expressions of Lamentation and Grief in Bronze Age Crete?
431-451

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