An archaeology of prehistoric bodies and embodied identities in the eastern Mediterranean
Maria Mina (Editor),Sevi Triantaphyllou (Editor),Giannēs Papadatos (Editor)
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
History
1 online resource
9781785702921, 9781785702938, 9781785702945, 9781785702914, 1785702920, 1785702939, 1785702947, 1785702912
961457755
Introduction: the archaeology of bodies and the eastern Mediterranean / John Robb
Part I. The represented body
Polydactyly in chalcolithic figurines from Cyprus / Michelle Gamble, Christine Winkelmann and Sherry Fox
Figurines, paint and the perception of the body in the early Bronze Age southern Aegean / Yiannis Papadatos
Thoughts on the funerary use of the early Bronze Age (EBA) cycladic figurines: iconography, form, context and embodied lives / Dimitra Goula
Composite, partial, created and floating bodies: a re-assessment of the Knossos Temple repositories assemblage / Fay Stevens and Anna Simandiraki-Grimshaw
Figurines and complex identities in late Bronze Age Cyprus / Daisy Knox
Handlers and viewers: some remarks on the process of perception of terracotta figurines on the example of Cypriot "goddesses with upraised arms" / Katarzyna Zeman-Wisniewska
Part II. Material culture and the construction of identities
Re-making the self: bodies, identities and materialities in chalcolithic Cyprus / Diane Bolger
Pots and people: an investigation of individual and collective identities in early Bronze Age Cyprus / Jennifer M. Webb
Dressed to impress: metal objects and embodied identities in early and middle Bronze Age Cyprus / Maria Mina
Placed with care: interaction with decorated Mycenaean metal vessels / Stephanie Aulsebrook
Part III. Ritualised practice and the performance of identities
The performative body and social identity in the room of the fresco at Mycenae / Anne P. Chapin
"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
Nuptial vases in female tombs: aspects of funerary behaviour during the late geometric period in Attica / Vicky Vlachou
Turning into stone: rock art and the construction of identities in ancient Thrace / Stella Pilavaki
Part IV. Embodied knowledge through technology and space
Lithics and identity at the middle Palaeolithic site of Lakonis Cave I, southern Peloponnese, Greece / Paraskevi Elefanti and Eleni Panagopoulou
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
The embodiment of land ownership in the Aegean early Bronze Age / Ourania Kouka
From potter's mark to the potter who marks / Kostis Christakis
Part V. The lived body and identities
Grasping identity: theoretically informed human bioarchaeology in or for the eastern Mediterranean? / Kirsi O. Lorentz
Headshaping and identity at Tell Nader / Konstantinos Kopanias and Sherry C. Fox
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
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
Bodies in a pickle: burial jars, individualism and group identities in middle Minoan Crete / Borja Legarra Herrero
Fire, fragmentation and the body in the late Bronze Age Aegean / Yannis Galanakis
Spatial and temporal variability in identity and representation within the bronze age cemeteries of knossos, crete / Eleni Hatzaki
Collective selves and funerary rituals: early Mycenaean Dromoi as spaces of negotiation and embodiment of social identities / Nikolas Papadimitriou
Burning people, breaking things: material entanglements, the Bronze Age/Iron Age transition and the Homeric dividual / James Whitley
Epilogue: bodies in the eastern Mediterranean / Kostas Kotsakis