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 AEGAEUM 39
Annales liégeoises et PASPiennes d’archéologie égéenne

METAPHYSIS
RITUAL, MYTH AND SYMBOLISM
IN THE AEGEAN BRONZE AGE

Proceedings of the 15th International Aegean Conference, Vienna,

Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology,
Aegean and Anatolia Department, Austrian Academy of Sciences
and Institute of Classical Archaeology, University of Vienna,
22-25 April 2014

Edited by Eva ALRAM-STERN, Fritz BLAKOLMER, Sigrid DEGER-JALKOTZY,

Robert LAFFINEUR and Jörg WEILHARTNER

PEETERS
LEUVEN - LIEGE
2016

98738_Aegaeum 39 vwk.indd 1 25/03/16 08:06

 CONTENTS
Obituaries ix
Preface xiii
Abbreviations xv

KEYNOTE LECTURE

Nanno MARINATOS
Myth, Ritual, Symbolism and the Solar Goddess in Thera 3

A. FIGURINES

Eva ALRAM-STERN
Men with Caps: Chalcolithic Figurines from Aegina-Kolonna and their Ritual Use 15

Florence GAIGNEROT-DRIESSEN
The Lady of the House: Trying to Define the Meaning and Role of Ritual Figures with Upraised Arms
in Late Minoan III Crete 21

Reinhard JUNG and Marco PACCIARELLI

A Minoan Statuette from Punta di Zambrone in Southern Calabria (Italy) 29

Melissa VETTERS
All the Same yet not Identical? Mycenaean Terracotta Figurines in Context 37

Eleni KONSOLAKI-YANNOPOULOU
The Symbolic Significance of the Terracottas from the Mycenaean Sanctuary at Ayios Konstantinos,
Methana 49

B. HYBRID AND MYTHICAL CREATURES

Fritz BLAKOLMER
Hierarchy and Symbolism of Animals and Mythical Creatures in the Aegean Bronze Age: A Statistical
and Contextual Approach 61

Karen Polinger FOSTER

Animal Hybrids, Masks, and Masques in Aegean Ritual 69

Maria ANASTASIADOU
Wings, Heads, Tails: Small Puzzles at LM I Zakros 77

C. SYMBOLISM

Janice L. CROWLEY
In the Air Here or from the World Beyond? Enigmatic Symbols of the Late Bronze Age Aegean 89

Marianna NIKOLAIDOU
Materialised Myth and Ritualised Realities: Religious Symbolism on Minoan Pottery 97

Helène WHITTAKER
Horns and Axes 109

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 iv CONTENTS

Olga KRZYSZKOWSKA
Warding off Evil: Apotropaic Practice and Imagery in Minoan Crete 115

Emilia BANOU and Brent DAVIS

The Symbolism of the Scorpion in Minoan Religion: A Cosmological Approach on the Basis
of Votive Offerings from the Peak Sanctuary at Ayios Yeoryios Sto Vouno, Kythera 123

Nancy R. THOMAS
“Hair Stars” and “Sun Disks” on Bulls and Lions. A Reality Check on Movements
of Aegean Symbolic Motifs to Egypt, with Special Reference to the Palace at Malkata 129

Malcolm H. WIENER
Aegean Warfare at the Opening of the Late Bronze Age in Image and Reality 139

D. SPACE / LANDSCAPE

Santo PRIVITERA
The Tomb, the House, and the Double Axes: Late Minoan IIIA2 Hagia Triada as a Ritual
and ‘Mythical’ Place 149

Sam CROOKS, Caroline J. TULLY and Louise A. HITCHCOCK

Numinous Tree and Stone: Re-Animating the Minoan Landscape 157

Barbara MONTECCHI
The Labyrinth: Building, Myth, and Symbol 165

Birgitta EDER
Ideology in Space: Mycenaean Symbols in Action 175

Lyvia MORGAN
The Transformative Power of Mural Art: Ritual Space, Symbolism, and the Mythic Imagination 187

E. FUNERALS

Luca GIRELLA
Aspects of Ritual and Changes in Funerary Practices Between MM II and LM I on Crete 201

Anna Lucia D’AGATA and Sara DE ANGELIS

Funerals of Late Minoan III Crete: Ritual Acts, Special Vessels and Political Affiliations
in the 14th and 13th Centuries BC 213

Ann-Louise SCHALLIN
The Liminal Zone – The Evidence from the Late Bronze Age Dendra Cemetery 223

Mary K. DABNEY
Mycenaean Funerary Processions as Shared Ritual Experiences 229

Michael LINDBLOM and Gunnel EKROTH

Heroes, Ancestors or Just any Old Bones? Contextualizing the Consecration of Human Remains
from the Mycenaean Shaft Graves at Lerna in the Argolid 235

F. RELIGION / DEITIES

Jeffrey S. SOLES
Hero, Goddess, Priestess: New Evidence for Minoan Religion and Social Organization 247

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 CONTENTS v

Ute GÜNKEL-MASCHEK
Establishing the Minoan ‘Enthroned Goddess’ in the Neopalatial Period: Images, Architecture,
and Elitist Ambition 255

Veronika DUBCOVÁ
Divine Power from Abroad. Some New Thoughts about the Foreign Influences on the Aegean
Bronze Age Religious Iconography 263

Cynthia W. SHELMERDINE
Poseidon, pa-ki-ja-na and Horse-Taming Nestor 275

Irene SERRANO LAGUNA

di-u-ja 285

G. SANCTUARIES

Mercourios GEORGIADIS
Metaphysical Beliefs and Leska 295

Wolf-Dietrich NIEMEIER
Ritual in the Mycenaean Sanctuary at Abai (Kalapodi) 303

Olga PSYCHOYOS and Yannis KARATZIKOS

The Mycenaean Sanctuary at Prophitis Ilias on Mount Arachnaio within the Religious Context
of the 2nd Millennium B.C. 311

H. RITUALS / OFFERINGS

Barbara HOREJS and Alfred GALIK

Hunting the Beast. A Reconstructed Ritual in an EBA Metal Production Centre in Western Anatolia 323

Philip P. BETANCOURT, Thomas M. BROGAN and Vili APOSTOLAKOU

Rituals at Pefka 329

Alessandro SANAVIA and Judith WEINGARTEN

The Transformation of Tritons: Some Decorated Middle Minoan Triton Shells
and an Anatolian Counterpart 335

Artemis KARNAVA
On Sacred Vocabulary and Religious Dedications: The Minoan ‘Libation Formula’ 345

Monica NILSSON
Minoan Stairs as Ritual Scenes. The Monumental Staircases of Phaistos “66” and Knossos
“Theatral Area” under the Magnifying Glass 357

Bernice R. JONES
A New Reading of the Fresco Program and the Ritual in Xeste 3, Thera 365

Andreas G. VLACHOPOULOS
Images of Physis or Perceptions of Metaphysis? Some Thoughts on the Iconography
of the Xeste 3 Building at Akrotiri, Thera 375

Fanouria DAKORONIA
Sacrifice on Board 387

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 vi CONTENTS

Jörg WEILHARTNER
Textual Evidence for Burnt Animal Sacrifice and Other Rituals Involving the Use of Fire
in Mycenaean Greece 393

Chrysanthi GALLOU
Mycenaean Skulls: “ἀμενηνά κάρηνα” or Social Actors in Late Helladic Metaphysics and Society? 405

Assaf YASUR-LANDAU
The Baetyl and the Stele: Contact and Tradition in Levantine and Aegean Cult 415

I. MYTH / HEROES / ANCESTORS

Magda PIENIĄŻEK and Carolyn C. ASLAN

Heroic Past, Memory and Ritual at Troy 423

John G. YOUNGER
Identifying Myth in Minoan Art 433

Joanne M.A. MURPHY

The Power of the Ancestors at Pylos 439

Elisabetta BORGNA and Andreas G. VORDOS

Construction of Memory and the Making of a Ritual Landscape: the Role of Gods and Ancestors
at the Trapeza of Aigion, Achaea, at the LBA-EIA Transition 447

Anne P. CHAPIN
Mycenaean Mythologies in the Making: the Frescoes of Pylos Hall 64 and the Mycenae Megaron 459

J. METAPHYSIS

Robert B. KOEHL
The Ambiguity of the Minoan Mind 469

Thomas G. PALAIMA
The Metaphysical Mind in Mycenaean Times and in Homer 479

Alan PEATFIELD
A Metaphysical History of Minoan Religion 485

POSTERS

Eva ALRAM-STERN
A New Mycenaean Female Figure from Kynos, Locris 497

Katrin BERNHARDT
Absent Mycenaeans? On Mycenaean Figurines and their Imitations on Crete in LM IIIA–IIIB 501

Tina BOLOTI
A “Knot”-Bearing (?) Minoan Genius from Pylos. Contribution to the Cloth/Clothing Offering
Imagery of the Aegean Late Bronze Age 505

Dora CONSTANTINIDIS
Proximity Analysis of Metaphysical Aegean Ritual Spaces During the Bronze Age 511

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 CONTENTS vii

Stefanos GIMATZIDIS
The Tree of Life: The Materiality of a Ritual Symbol in Space and Time 515

Louise A. HITCHCOCK, Aren M. MAEIR and Amit DAGAN

Entangling Aegean Ritual in Philistine Culture 519

Petros KOUNOUKLAS
Griffin at Kynos. How, Why, and When? 527

Tobias KRAPF
Symbolic Value and Magical Power: Examples of Prehistoric Objects Reused in Later Contexts
in Euboea 531

Susan LUPACK
pu-ro, pa-ki-ja-ne, and the Worship of an Ancestral Wanax 537

Madelaine MILLER
The Boat – A Sacred Border-Crosser in Between Land and the Sea 543

Sylvie MÜLLER CELKA

Caring for the Dead in Minoan Crete: a Reassessment of the Evidence from Anemospilia 547

Marcia NUGENT
Portals to the Other: Stepping through a Botanic Door 557

Marco PIETROVITO
Beyond the Earthly Shell: the Minoan Pitcher Bearers. Anthropomorphic Rhyta
of the Pre- and Protopalatial Periods (Differentiating the Sacred from the Divine) 563

Jörg RAMBACH
Early Helladic Romanos/Messenia: Filling a Well 567

Caroline THURSTON
New Approaches to Mycenaean Figurines in LH IIIC 571

Michaela ZAVADIL
Souvenirs from Afar – Star Disk Pendants Reconsidered 575

ENDNOTE

Joseph MARAN
Towards an Anthropology of Religion in Minoan and Mycenaean Greece 581

TO CONCLUDE …

Thomas G. PALAIMA
WI Fc 2014: When is an Inscribed Cigar Just a Cigar? 595

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 NUMINOUS TREE AND STONE:
RE-ANIMATING THE MINOAN LANDSCAPE

Iconographic scenes of inferred cultic activity, including the hugging or leaning upon of aniconic
stones, and the apparent appearance of epiphanic figures in proximity to trees in Late Bronze Age
Aegean glyptic iconography, are suggestive of an animistic conception of the natural world. Scenes of
epiphanic ritual depicted within apparently natural settings – amongst trees and stones free from
architectural elaboration – are suggestive of elite interaction with perceived numinous elements within
the landscape, while images of envisioned epiphany may imply direct communication between human
ritual actors and elements of that animate landscape, achieved through interaction with tree or stone.
Architectonic elements referencing the natural world within urban contexts – through
iconographic representation, cultic paraphernalia, and architectural form – may advertise relational
associations between urban elites and numinous elements within a sacred landscape, reflecting
strategies for legitimising elite hierarchy. Stones erected within urban settings, as well as stepped cult
structures such as shrines and openwork platforms, which are set upon by female figures or
surmounted by trees, may have symbolised mountains, and facilitated the indexing of peak sanctuary
ritual in architecturally elaborated, possibly urban, settings.
Elements of the Minoan sacred landscape will here be analysed through the lens of ‘new’
animism, arguing that the landscape was not merely an inert backdrop to ritual performance, but was
rather sentient, numinous and contingent, functioning as a politicised, active agent in the enactment of
power.
At the turn of the 20th century, Arthur Evans laid the foundation for contemporary
reconstructions of Minoan religion.1 Heavily influenced by the Victorian comparative ethnologists,2
Evans proposed that Minoan religion was characterised by a cult of sacred trees and aniconic stones.
This model foregrounds Tylorian animism, positing that the natural world may be inhabited by
supernatural spirits  natural phenomena such as springs, groves, stones or mountains may be
perceived as being animated by spirits or forces inhering within  and that animistic religion
represents an early or ‘primitive’ stage in the evolution of culture.
In contrast with this primitivist evolutionary epistemology, animism drawn from cultural
anthropology posits a relational ontology, in which a reflexive relatedness exists between human agents
and elements within the natural environment, perceived as being sentient. This animistic ontology is
newly conceived as focusing not upon the question of whether an object is alive, but upon how it is
related to.3 Rather than thinking in terms of discrete spirits or supernatural beings that possess inert
objects, implying a separation between nature and the ‘super-natural’, new animism conceives of the
material world as sentient in itself. In this framework, Minoan stone and tree cult may not so much
involve the reverence of divine beings that are invoked into proximity, rather, such rituals may be

The authors wish to thank the organizers for inviting us to contribute a paper. L.A. Hitchcock also wishes
to acknowledge the support of the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Project funding scheme
(project number 1093713) and of the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens.
1 A.J. EVANS, “Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult and Its Mediterranean Relations,” JHS 21(1901) 99-204.
See also P. WARREN, “Of Baetyls.” OpAth 18 (1990) 193-206; S. CROOKS, What are these Queer Stones?
Baetyls: Epistemology of a Minoan Fetish (2013).
2 E.B. TYLOR, Primitive Culture. Researches into the development of mythology, philosophy, religion, art, and custom
(1871); W. ROBERTSON SMITH, Lectures on the Religion of the Semites. Fundamental Institutions. First Series
(1889); J. FRAZER, The Golden Bough. A study in magic and religion (1911-1915).
3 A.I. HALLOWELL, “Ojibwa ontology, behaviour, and worldview,” in S. DIAMOND (ed.) Culture in
History: Essays in Honor of Paul Radin (1960) 19-52; N. BIRD-DAVID, “‘Animism’ revisited: personhood,
environment, and relational epistemology,” Current Anthropology 40 (1999) 67-91; G. HARVEY, Animism:
Respecting the Living World (2005).
158 Sam CROOKS, Caroline J. TULLY and Louise A. HITCHCOCK

re-interpreted as events in which humans interacted with specific elements of an empowered and
empowering landscape.4
Minoan tree and stone cult will here be reconfigured within this lens of new animism.
Concentration of peak-sanctuary cult in proximity to settled areas during the Neopalatial period,
coupled with the increased representation of baetyls iconographically and within ‘palatial’
architectural contexts, may reflect strategies of elite status-legitimisation through indexing elements of
the sacred, animate landscape, advertising relational associations between Neopalatial elites and that
landscape, inscribed within ‘palatial’ contexts and iconographic schemes.
Extant baetyls are known in Crete from EM III Vasiliki (22002000BCE) through to LM IIIC
Kephala Vasiliki, and from the LH III sanctuary at the Mycenaean citadel at Phylakopi on the
Cycladic island of Melos.5 However, it is during the Neopalatial period that they are most commonly
identified, at the ‘palatial’ sites of Galatas, Gournia and Malia.
Interaction with baetyls in front of an audience or in a public context may have enhanced
claims to status and authority, while evidence of feasting in association with baetyls may suggest their
function within programs of social cohesion and the naturalisation of hierarchy in which elites
expressed status and generated ritual indebtedness through conspicuous generosity and display.
The earliest recorded baetyl in Crete, at the site of EM III Vasiliki, is a large, roughly dressed
white stone flanked by three smaller stones, standing upon a small, paved semi-circular construction
(Pl. LIVa), a short distance to the south of the so-called House-on-the-Hill.6 Architectural features at
Vasiliki are thought to represent antecedents to the ‘palatial’ architecture of the MM and subsequent
periods, including a small paved western court with inset kernos, a treated western exterior façade,
painted plaster walls and labyrinthine internal spaces, the site as a whole reflecting a level of social
stratification hitherto unseen on the island.7 The baetyl is prominently positioned within a curved wall
upon the paved surface of construction PB, the whole arrangement perhaps serving as an attention-
focusing device for public ritual.8 Despite the absence of recorded evidence of cultic activity in this
area, there is sufficient space in front of the construction to enable a modest gathering of people,
perhaps suggesting its function as a focal point in public cult.
The monumental Neopalatial complex at Galatas incorporates ashlar masonry and a central
court defined by multi-storeyed wings,9 the site providing views to the nearby peak sanctuaries of

4 For New Animism and Minoan religion, see V.-P. HERVA, “Flower lovers, after all? Rethinking Religion
and Human Environment in Minoan Crete,” World Archaeology 38.4 (2006) 586-598; L. GOODISON,
“‘Nature’, the Minoans and Embodied Spiritualities,” in K. ROUNTREE, C. MORRIS and A.D.
PEATFIELD (eds.) Archaeology of Spiritualities (2012).
5 S. CROOKS (supra n. 1). Aniconic stones are a common feature in several cultic traditions of the ancient
eastern Mediterranean world. In the Levant, cultic standing stones are known as masseboth – see C.F.
GRAESSER, “Standing Stones in Ancient Palestine,” BiblArch 35 (1972) 34-63; T. METTINGER, No
Graven Image? Israelite Aniconism in its Ancient Near East Context (1995); Z. ZEVIT, The Religions of Ancient Israel.
A Synthesis of Parallactic Approaches (2001). Phoenician expansion during the Iron Age sees an increased
distribution of stone cult throughout the ancient Mediterranean world, including in Cyprus, see S.
CROOKS, “Cult Stones of Ancient Cyprus,” JPR 23 (2012) 25-44. C. RENFREW, The Archaeology of Cult,
the Sanctuary at Phylakopi (1985) 44, 102, 368, 390-391, 430-431.
6 A. ZOIS, “ !   ‘,” Prakt (1978) 300-308; A. ZOIS, “ !
  ‘,” Prakt (1979) 323-330; A. ZOIS, “ !   ‘,” Prakt
(1981) 367-379; P. WARREN, Minoan Religion as Ritual Action (1988) 18; WARREN (supra n. 1) 202-203;
CROOKS (supra n. 1) 11-14.
7 K. BRANIGAN, The Foundations of Palatial Crete: A survey of Crete in the Early Bronze Age (1970) 48; D.
PREZIOSI and L.A. HITCHCOCK, Aegean Art and Architecture (1999) 48-49; J. DRIESSEN, “The
Central Court of the Palace at Knossos,” in G. CADOGAN, G. HATZAKI and A. VASILAKIS (eds.)
Knossos: Palace, City, State: proceedings of the conference in Herakleion organised by the British School at Athens and the
23rd Ephoreia of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of Herakleion, in November 2000, for the centenary of Sir Arthur
Evans’s excavations at Knossos (2004) 77-78.
8 WARREN (supra n. 1) 203.
9 D. BLACKMAN, “Archaeology in Greece 1999-2000,” AR 46 (1999-2000) 129-130.
 RE-ANIMATING THE MINOAN LANDSCAPE 159

Juktas to the north, Kofinas to the west, and Pediada to the east.10 Directly south of the ‘palace’, a large
limestone baetyl is set into the northern edge of an elevated rectangular platform of roughly hewn
stones before a paved court (Pl. LIVb), reminiscent of the setting depicted on the Arkhanes gold ring
(HM 989). This court may have served for the gathering of people before the stone, an aniconic cult
object and focus of ritual activity. Ritual performers may have engaged in activities upon the raised
platform behind the stone, while spectators looked on from the court below.
From as early as the Prepalatial Period, storage and preparation of foodstuffs are a primary
concern at Galatas, far exceeding domestic needs,11 and suggesting the centrally controlled collection
and distribution of resources.12 During the Neopalatial Period, a wealth of ceramic material indicates
large numbers of people engaged in the consumption of food and drink within the ‘Court of the
Baetyl’,13 while the area within and around the court, including the nearby Neopalatial Building 6,
suggests intense cultic activity, indicated by a lustral basin, libation pits, serpentine offering table, a
triton shell and miniature carinated cups.14 The ‘Court of the Baetyl’ and surrounding area may have
functioned within a broader program of social display, communicating elite identity and status through
feasting and ritual activity taking place in proximity to the stone.15
During the Neopalatial period, the town of Gournia resembles the larger urban centres at
Knossos, Malia and Galatas in features, if not in size.16 The large mansion, monumental in scale and
constructed of ashlar masonry, was likely the seat of political power in the immediate area, controlling
the collection, storage and redistribution of goods.
A large undressed limestone baetyl is embedded into the pavement at the centre of a small, open
courtyard flanking the southwest corner of the complex (Pl. LVa).17 An incomplete kernos is set into the
pavement just over a metre to the east of the baetyl,18 and a double axe, one of only two mason’s
marks known from the site, is incised into the south wall of Room G13.19 Soles argues that Room G15
may have served for performing libations which would flow through a terracotta channel passing
beneath the palace walls and out into the courtyard of the baetyl, though this channel may merely
have served for drainage. This nexus of cultic references – the baetyl, kernos, mason’s mark and libation

10 D. BLACKMAN, “Archaeology in Greece 1997-1998,” AR 44 (1997-1998) 120. B. DAVIS, Minoan Stone

Vessels with Linear A Inscriptions (2013) 415.
11 G. RETHEMIOTAKIS, “Evidence on Social and Economic Changes at Galatas and Pediada in the
New-Palace Period,” in J. DRIESSEN, I. SCHOEP, and R. LAFFINEUR (eds.) Monuments of Minos:
rethinking the Minoan Palaces. Proceedings of the International Workshop “Crete of the hundred palaces?” held at the
Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, 14-15 December 2001 (2002) 55-56.
12 G. RETHEMIOTAKIS, “Social Rank and Political Power. The Evidence from the Minoan Palace at
Galatas,” in Eliten in der Bronzezeit. Teil 1 (1999) 25; K.S. CHRISTAKIS, The Politics of Storage: Storage and
Sociopolitical Complexity in Neopalatial Crete (2008) 4.
13 A high volume of pottery sherds was recorded on the bedrock in the vicinity of the court, including
fragments from a wide range of vessel types, including plates and trays, tripod cooking-pots, libation and
bridge-spouted jugs, pithoi and pithoid jars, cups, cylindrical vessels and kalathoi. See D. BLACKMAN,
“Archaeological Reports for 2006-2007,” AR 53 (2006-2007) 105.
14 D. BLACKMAN, “Archaeological Reports for 2007-2008,” AR 54 (2007-2008) 104.
15 For feasting see DAIS.
16 H.B. HAWES, B.E. WILLIAMS, R.B. SEAGER, and E.H. HALL, Gournia, Vasiliki, and other prehistoric sites
on the Isthmus of Hierapetra, Crete: Excavations of the Wells-Houston-Cramp Expeditions, 1901, 1903, 1904 (1908);
S. HOOD, “A Baetyl at Gournia?” Ariadne 5 (1989) 20-21; WARREN (supra n. 1) 203 and Fig. 20; J.S.
SOLES, “The Gournia Palace,” AJA 95.1 (1991); J.C. McENROE, Architecture of Minoan Crete: Constructing
Identity in the Aegean Bronze Age (2010) 90-94; CROOKS (supra n. 1) 23-28; D. PREZIOSI, Minoan
Architectural Design (1983) 78-83, esp. 83 notes it is about a tenth the size of the ‘palace’ at Knossos, yet
contains many of the same features found in the major ‘palaces’.
17 L.A. HITCHCOCK, “Cult Corners in the Aegean and the Levant,” in A. YASSUR-LANDAU, J.
EBELING, and L. MAZOW (eds.) Household Archaeology in the Bronze and Iron Age Levant. Cultures and History
of the Ancient Near East (2011) 321-346.
18 HOOD (supra n. 16) 18. The presence of the kernos suggests that offerings of some kind were made in
proximity to the baetyl.
19 SOLES (supra n. 16) 49-50; L.A. HITCHCOCK, Minoan Architecture: A Contextual Analysis (2000) 149.
160 Sam CROOKS, Caroline J. TULLY and Louise A. HITCHCOCK

channel – is deliberately constructed within the fabric of the courtyard, itself representing an
augmentation of space along the ‘much-worn’ route between the central court of the complex and
both the west shrine to the north,20 and the coast beyond. We may infer from this augmentation of
space that any ritual involving the baetyl involved spectacle, where passers-by publically interacted
with the stone. Perhaps this route served for cultic processions, the baetyl functioning within a defined
ritual landscape.
The monumental Neopalatial complex of Malia (MM III–LM IB), with an extensive proportion
of space devoted to workshop and storage facilities – including silos to the south and storage magazines
to the west of the central court – suggests an important regional administrative centre, likely engaged
in the collection, storage and redistribution of surplus.21 In the northwest corner of the central court,
directly before a raised loggia, a relatively small baetyl with prominent cupule, reminiscent of a clay
sealing from Zakros (CMS II.7 Nno. 6), is embedded into the packed earth of the court (Pl. LVb).22
Marking the centre of the court is a sunken altar, and flanking the court’s western side, rooms of
various likely cultic function, including a pillar crypt and Room XVI-1 with stepped platform and
kernos. The raised loggia directly west of the baetyl may have served as a platform or stage upon which
prominent individuals stood, either observing activities taking place within the court and in the vicinity
of the baetyl, or themselves on display to observers within the court. A direct alignment may be traced
between the raised loggia, the baetyl and the mountainous landscape beyond the ‘palace,’ from which
we may infer an association between the resident ‘palatial’ elite and the landscape, the baetyl indexing
the mountain overlooking the ‘palace.’
Iconographic representation further implies an association between Neopalatial elites and the
mountainous landscape, possibly advertising to a select audience their involvement with peak
sanctuary ritual. Late Minoan glyptic imagery featuring cult scenes occurring within landscape settings
characterised by flowers, trees, and rocks, and free from architecture, typically feature epiphany.23
Rather than representing the manifestation of supernatural beings that appear from outside the
‘natural’ realm, such scenes are here interpreted as signifying interaction between human agents and
the numinous landscape.24 Other glyptic and fresco cult scenes depict built structures such as stepped
ashlar altars, tripartite shrines, and constructed openwork platforms, which may have evoked the
landscape.
Glyptic cult scenes set within the landscape feature all types of epiphany including envisioned
human figures, birds, insects, and floating objects, as well as enacted epiphany. In some cases the
epiphanic figure is closely associated with a tree situated within rocky ground. Hovering human figures
appear to emerge from the tree or materialise close by it, while enacted epiphanic figures sit beneath it.

20 This sanctuary contained a statuette of a Minoan goddess with upraised arms and the fragmentary
remains of several others, as well as five snake tubes, four bird figurines and two small terracotta snakes’
heads. See G.C. GESELL, Town, Palace, and House Cult in Minoan Crete (1985) 72.
21 F. CHAPOUTHIER, P. DEMARGNE, and A. DESSENNE, Fouilles exécutées à Mallia IV: Exploration du
Palais; bordure méridionale et recherches complémentaires (1929-1935 et 1946-1969) (1962); O. PELON, E.
ANDERSEN, and J.-P. OLIVIER, Le palais de Mallia V (1980); H. VAN EFFENTERRE, Le palais de
Mallia et la cité minoenne: étude de synthèse (1980); L.A. HITCHCOCK (supra n. 19); O. PELON,
“Contribution du palais de Malia à l’étude et à l’interprétation des “Palais” Minoens,” in DRIESSEN,
SCHOEP, and LAFFINEUR eds (supra n. 11) 111-121.
22 O. PELON, “Aspects de la vie religieuse minoenne à la lumière des recherches récentes au palais de
Malia (Crète),” CRAI 124.4 (1980) 665-669 and Figs. 6-7; PELON, ANDERSEN, and OLIVIER (supra n.
21) 128-130 and Pls. 84-85, 123; VAN EFFENTERRE (supra n. 21) 59, 353, 449, Figs. 80 and 484;
WARREN (supra n. 1) 203 and Figs. 18-19; CROOKS (supra n. 1) 28-32.
23 CMS II 3 no. 51; M.R. POPHAM, E.A. CATLING, and H.W. CATLING, “Sellopoulo Tombs 3 and 4,
Two Late Minoan Graves near Knossos,” BSA 69 (1974) 218, Fig. 14 d (J8); CMS II 6 no. 4; CMS II 7 no.
6; CMS II 3 no. 305; CMS II 6 no. 5; CMS II 6 no. 6; CMS I no. 17; CMS I no. 219; CMS I no. 114; CMS
XI no. 29.
24 C.J. TULLY, “The Sacred Life of Trees: What trees say about people in the prehistoric Aegean and Near
East,” in E. ANAGNOSTOU-LAOUTIDES (ed.) Proceedings of the 33rd Australian Society for Classical Studies
Conference (2012) 1-13. C.J. TULLY and S. CROOKS, “Dropping Ecstasy? Minoan Cult and the Tropes
of Shamanism,” Time and Mind: The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture 8.2 (2015) 129-158.
 RE-ANIMATING THE MINOAN LANDSCAPE 161

In other cases male and female figures lean over large baetylic stones and turn to face birds or insects
(Pl. LVIa-c).
These events may have occurred in various locations – a garden, meadow, cave, rural sanctuary,
or possibly even a wild or infrequently visited place. Given that during the Neopalatial period, Crete’s
natural vegetation ranged from steppe to woodland  including wooded mountains – such events may
also have occurred in sacred groves.25 Because of the small size of the glyptic field, we see only a
condensed or partial view of the landscape, its character implied.26 Just as a single tree may indicate a
wooded area or grove, so, too, rocks may function as artistic shorthand for mountains, and may evoke
peak sanctuaries.
Irrespective of the type of site, the activities illustrated in these scenes suggest that they occur
within specifically numinous locations or places of power. Considering the key motif represented in the
scenes – an epiphanic event within nature – we may infer that elements of the landscape were sentient,
and that these images depict ‘landscape epiphanies’, reconfigured as signifiers of the relationship
between ritual actors and the landscape.
The rocky seat upon which human figures in enacted epiphany sit, and the rocky ground in
which the trees in images of envisioned epiphany are situated, together may form a shorthand
representation of tree and mountain. This combination of tree and rocky mountain may be echoed in
tripartite and stepped cult structures such as the tripartite shrine, and the stepped ashlar altar and
openwork platform, both of which are either sat upon by female figures or surmounted by trees.27 Most
examples of stepped ashlar altars involve trees. Constructed openwork platforms alternately feature
trees, trees and female figures, or female figures without trees (Pl. LVId-f).28 Tripartite shrines do not
appear to be sat upon by human figures but do feature trees. 29
The forms of stepped ashlar shrines, constructed openwork platforms and tripartite shrines each
exhibit variations on the idea of triplicity, a triangular structure that may have evoked the ascending
mountain form. That such structures were linked to rock and possibly mountains may be suggested by
the image of the female figure depicted in the fresco at Xeste 3, on the northern wall of Room 3a,
thought to be a goddess, who is seated on a constructed platform. Directly below her a female figure

25 O. RACKHAM and J. MOODY, The Making of the Cretan Landscape (1996) 125-127.
26 O. KRZYSZKOWSKA, “Impressions of the Natural World: Landscape in Aegean Glyptic,” in O.
KRZYSZKOWSKA (ed.) Cretan Offerings: Studies in Honour of Peter Warren (2012) 169-187.
27 For stepped ashlar altars see K. KRATTENMAKER, Minoan Architectural Representation, unpublished PhD
dissertation, Bryn Mawr College (1991) 273; also T. ALUÍK, “Architecture in the Aghia Triada
Sarcophagus – Problems and Solutions,” in Eirene (XLI) Studia Graeca et Latina (2005) 26-44. Constructed
openwork platforms functioned as prefabricated stages that could be assembled, disassembled, and moved
around for use in the performance of religious spectacles. Palyvou has reconstructed such a structure in C.
PALYVOU, “    "      #:
 "
,” in T. KAZAZI, and N. PAPAETRPU (eds.)  2°   !
 
!. Proceedings: 2nd International Conference on Ancient Greek Technology (2006) 417-424. Tripartite Shrines
are structures consisting of a central vertical section flanked by two smaller ‘wings’ on either side, thus
forming a general stepped triangular shape. The three sections contain niches, which might harbour
columns or be decorated by spirals. This type of structure probably functioned as a façade, although if
freestanding, like the possible example at Vathypetro, it probably was not large enough to enter. J.W.
SHAW, “Evidence for the Minoan Tripartite Shrine,” AJA 82 (1978) 429–448; J. DRIESSEN and J.
SAKELLARAKIS, “The Vathypetro-Complex. Some Observations on its Architectural History and
Function,” in R. HÄGG and N. MARINATOS (eds.) The Function of the Minoan Palaces. Proceedings of the
Fourth International Symposium at the Swedish Institute at Athens, 10-16 June, 1984 (1987) 63-77. HITCHCOCK
(supra n. 19) 102-106.
28 See also the Mochlos Pyxis, J.S. SOLES and C. DAVARAS, “2010 Greek-American Excavations at
Mochlos,” Kentro 13 (2010) 1-3. Archaeological remnants of such a platform are evident at Archanes. J.
SAKELLARAKIS and E. SAKELLARAKIS, Archanes (1991) 32.
29 See HM 989. Three dimensional examples of tripartite shrines may be evident at the Knossos palace, and
the villas at Vathypetro and Nirou Khani. SHAW (supra n. 27) 446, n. 1; T. ALUÍK, “Minoan Tripartite
Shrine – the beginnings of its architectonic form and its relationship to the ancient cultures of the Near
East,” in J. BOUZEK, J. MUSIL, and I. ONDREJOVA (eds.) Studia Hercynia 6 (2002) 111-122.
162 Sam CROOKS, Caroline J. TULLY and Louise A. HITCHCOCK

with wounded foot is sitting upon rocks. The positioning of these two scenes may suggest a symbolic
correlation between the figures.30
A female figure upon a constructed platform also features in the central panel of the fresco on
the walls of Room 14 from Villa A at Ayia Triada. That this figure is associated with a mountainous
landscape is evident from the right hand panel in which cats stalk and agrimia leap within a rocky
setting, while the left hand panel may reflect an association between baetyls and mountains, appearing
to represent the enactment of baetylic ritual, possibly at or near a peak sanctuary (Pl. LVIg).31
During the Neopalatial Period, the number of peak sanctuaries reduces dramatically, decreasing
from 25 active sanctuaries during the MM to as few as eight, all of which are located in proximity to
settled areas.32 This suggests that peak sanctuaries and the cultic activities enacted within them, came
under direct control of the palatial elites during this period. The relief on the Peak Sanctuary Rhyton
from LM IB Zakros (Pl. LVIIa) depicts a baetyl flanked by agrimia and surmounting a tripartite shrine
within a mountainous setting. 33 The position of the baetyl between agrimia underscores the
significance of the stone, arrangements of central objects flanked by animals or fantastical composite
creatures symbolising the power or status of the central figure.34 The wavy-edged baetyl may itself
represent a stylised mountain.35
The arrangement of a central baetyl or mountain flanked by agrimia finds architectural parallel
within the LM IA–LMIIIA2 Throne Room at Knossos36 where a similarly wavy-edged baetyl or
stylised mountain, morphologically similar to the baetyls at Gournia and Galatas, forms the throne-
back, set into the wall of the room (Pl. LVIIb).37 A fresco decorates the wall surrounding the throne,
griffins flanking its baetylic back. 38 This wavy-edged baetyl or mountain form finds further
representation in elite costume at Knossos, where decoration on faience votive dresses from the
Temple Repositories appears likewise to depict a mountain (Pl. LVIIc).39 The possibility that these
structures and objects are emblematic or metonymic of natural forms foregrounds the importance that
the natural archetype may have had, making its reference in built form meaningful. If these abstracted

30 L. MORGAN, “Form and Meaning in Figurative Painting,” in S. SHERRATT (ed.) The Wall Paintings of
Thera. Vol. II (2000) 925-944, Fig. 1. As noted by P. REHAK. “Enthroned Figures in Aegean Art and the
Function of the Mycenaean Megaron,” in P. REHAK (ed.) The Role of the Ruler in the Prehistoric Aegean.
Proceedings of a Panel Discussion presented at the Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, New Orleans,
Louisiana, 28 December 1992. With Additions (1995) 106, Fig. XXXVIIc.
31 P. REHAK, “The Role of Religious Painting in the Function of the Minoan Villa: the case of Ayia
Triadha,” in R. HÄGG (ed.) The Function of the Minoan Villa. Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium at
the Swedish Institute at Athens, 6-8 June 1992 (1997) 172.
32 A. PEATFIELD, “Palace and peak: The political and religious relationship between palaces and peak
sanctuaries,” in R. HÄGG and N. MARINATOS (supra n. 27) 89-93.
33 N. PLATON, Zakros: The Discovery of a Lost Palace of Ancient Crete (1971) 166; B. RUTKOWSKI, “Minoan
Cults and History: Remarks on Professor B.C. Dietrich’s Paper,” Historia: Zeitschrift fur Alte Geschichte 20.1
(1971) 11; B. RUTKOWSKI, The Cult Places of the Aegean (1986) 89 and 142; SHAW (supra n. 27) 429-448;
HOOD (supra n. 16) 18; N. MARINATOS, Minoan Religion: ritual, image, and symbol (1993) 119-120.
34 J.L. CROWLEY, The Aegean and the East: An Investigation into the Transference of Artistic Motifs between the Aegean,
Egypt, and the Near East in the Bronze Age (1989) 19-22 and 64-69.
35 R.B. KOEHL, Aegean Bronze Age Rhyta (2006) 103.
36 GESELL (supra n. 20) 21-22, 88-89.
37 W.-D. NIEMEIER, “On the Function of the ‘Throne Room’ in the Palace at Knossos,” in R. HÄGG
and N. MARINATOS eds (supra n. 27) 163-168. J. YOUNGER “The Iconography of Rulership: A
Conspectus,” in: REHAK ed. (supra n. 30) 191, no. 262, Pls. LXXIIId, LXXIV.
38 RUTKOWSKI (supra n. 33). Cf. B.C. DIETRICH, “Minoan Peak Cult: A Reply.” Historia: Zeitschrift für
Alte Geschichte 20.5/6 (1971) 513-523. The intriguing remains from the Aptsipadhes Korakias peak
sanctuary may further indicate an association between baetyls and peak sanctuaries, a dense scatter of
water-worn pebbles marking the sanctuary area, at the centre of which is a depression entirely free from
finds, surrounded by an area rich in sherds including fragments of rhyta, leading the excavator to suggest
that within this depression there may have stood a focal cult object, perhaps a baetyl, see A.
PEATFIELD, “The Atsipadhes Korakias Peak Sanctuary Project,” Classics Ireland 1 (1994) 92-93.
39 EVANS, PM I 506 and Fig. 364, a-b.
 RE-ANIMATING THE MINOAN LANDSCAPE 163

forms evoke landscape, then the cultic activities associated with them may be equivalent to such events
occurring within the landscape itself.
Epiphanic scenes set in natural locations suggest that landscape was animate. The positioning of
baetyls within conspicuous public settings in elite urban centres, coupled with an iconographic
program associating baetyls, mountains and elite power, may reflect strategies for legitimising
hierarchy through indexing elements of the sacred, animate landscape, advertising relational
associations between Neopalatial elites and that landscape. The Minoan landscape was not merely an
inert backdrop to ritual performance, but was rather sentient and numinous, functioning as a
politicised, active agent in the enactment of power.

Sam CROOKS
Caroline J. TULLY
Louise A. HITCHCOCK
164 Sam CROOKS, Caroline J. TULLY and Louise A. HITCHCOCK

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Pl. LIVa Construction PB, EM III Vasiliki (photo by S. Crooks).

Pl. LIVb ‘Court of the Baetyl’, MM IIIA – LM IA Galatas (photo by S. Crooks).
Pl. LVa Abbreviated southwest court, LM I Gournia (photo by S. Crooks).
Pl. LVb Central court, MM III – LM IB Malia (photo by S. Crooks).
Pl. LVIa CMS II 6 no. 6, HM 522, clay sealing (reproduced by permission).
Pl. LVIb CMS II 6 no. 5, HM 576, clay sealing (reproduced by permission).
Pl. LVIc CMS II.7 no. 6, HM 1154, clay sealing (reproduced by permission).
Pl. LVId Ayia Triada Sarcophagus, Side A (photo by C. Tully)
Pl. LVIe CMS V S1A no. 176, clay sealing (reproduced by permission).
Pl. LVIf CMS V S1A no. 177, clay sealing (reproduced by permission).
Pl. LVIg Fresco, LM IA – LM IB Ayia Triada Villa A, HM 18 (reconstruction by V. STÜRMER,
“‘Naturkulträume’ auf Kreta und Thera: Ausstattung, Definition und Funktion,” in POTNIA, Pl.
XVIc, reproduced by permission).
Pl. LVIIa Peak sanctuary rhyton, relief, LM IB Zakros, HM 2764 (illustration by SHAW [supra n. 27] Fig. 8),
reproduced by permission).
Pl. LVIIb North wall, Throne Room, Palace of Knossos (illustration by A. Crooks after M.A.S. Cameron’s
reconstruction in HÄGG and MARINATOS eds [supra n. 27] 322, Fig. 3).
Pl. LVIIc Faience plaques, ‘Temple Repositories’ at Knossos (illustration by P. Rehak after EVANS, PM I
506, fig 364a-b, reproduced by permission).
 LIV

b
 LV

b
 LVI

a b

f
d

g
LVII