Minoans in New York

AJA ONLINE PUBLICATIONS: MUSEUM REVIEW MINOANS IN NEW YORK BY roBERT B. KOEHL FROM THE LAND OF THE LABYRINTH: MINOAN CRETE, cently opened study collection of Greek and 3000–1100 B.C., ONASSIS CULTURAL CENTER, Roman art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art NEW YORK, 13 MARCH–13 SEPTEMBER, 2008, includes representative Minoan artifacts with curated by Maria Andreadaki-Vlazaki, provenances, which supplement the museum’s Vili Apostolakou, and Nota Dimopoulou- regular display of artifacts with and without Rethemiotaki. provenances.3 A small exhibition of Minoan and Mycenaean objects from various American and FROM THE LAND OF THE LABYRINTH: MINOAN CRETE, European collections was mounted in 1967 at 3000–1100 B.C., edited by Maria Andreadaki- Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, Vlazaki, Giorgos Rethemiotakis, and Nota in memory of Harriet Boyd Hawes, a pioneer of Dimopoulou-Rethemiotaki. Pp. 295, b&w figs. Minoan archaeology.4 A Minoan exhibition in 29, color figs. 257, maps 2. Alexander S. Karlsruhe, Germany, in 2001 was mired in con- Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (USA) troversy for displaying undocumented Minoan and Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Archaeo- artifacts from a private collection alongside ma- logical Museums of Crete, Greece, 2008. $20. terial from archaeological museums on Crete ISBN 978-0-9776598-2-1 (paper). and other European public institutions. None of these moral dilemmas or questions Since opening its doors in New York City of authenticity need trouble the visitor to the in October 2000, the Onassis Cultural Center exhibition reviewed here. Culled exclusively has been host to a stream of splendid exhibi- from the archaeological museums of Crete—in tions largely devoted to introducing the North Haghios Nikolaos, Herakleion, Hierapetra, American public to the rich cultural heritage Khania, Rethymnon, and Siteia—most of the of Greece, both ancient and modern. The cur- 281 artifacts on display derive from controlled rent exhibition, From the Land of the Labyrinth: excavations, and several others were chance Minoan Crete, 3000–1100 B.C., is the first one in finds made on the island. Some of the objects the United States devoted exclusively to the are relatively recent discoveries displayed Bronze Age civilization of Crete, coined “Mi- publicly for the first time. noan” by Sir Arthur Evans, doyen of Cretan The Onassis Cultural Center, located in the Bronze Age archaeology. Although collections basement of the Olympic Tower on Fifth Av- of Minoan artifacts exist in the United States, enue, is the gallery of the Alexander S. Onassis most of these comprise specimens that lack a Public Benefit Foundation (USA). This gallery merica A provenance and include some notorious pieces seems particularly well-suited to artifacts from of dubious authenticity.1 There are exceptions, Crete (fig. 1). Its large rear windows look onto nstitute of nstitute such as the collection in the University of a wall of falling water and a pool that distantly I Online Museum Review Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and echo Minoan pools and evoke the close connec- Anthropology in Philadelphia, which comes tion between Minoan culture and the sea. The from museum-sponsored excavations in east deep blue color selected for the gallery’s walls rchaeological rchaeological A Crete during the early 20th century.2 The re- likewise evokes the sea and also Minoan wall 1 Lapatin 2002. 3 Picón et al. 2007, 26–8, 38–9, figs. 14–21; 40, fig. 2 Betancourt 1983; Betancourt and Silverman 23; 411–12, cat. nos. 14–21, 23. opyright © 2008 by the © 2008 by opyright ssue 112.3 (July 2008) 4 I Journal of ArchaeologyAmerican C 1991. Chetham 1967. Fig. 1. View of the section, “Religion and Ritual” (J. Coscia, Jr.; © Onassis Cultural Center; Hellenic Ministry of Culture). painting. The gallery has low ceilings, recall- nied by a splendid catalogue that is full of stim- ing Minoan architecture; most extant Minoan ulating, up-to-date, and informative entries artifacts, which are small in scale, could easily and is sumptuously illustrated and modestly have been dwarfed by loftier surroundings. priced.6 Numbers on the object labels conve- Displayed in this intimate environment, the ob- niently correspond to the catalogue entries. A jects invite contemplation of their form, design, reference copy of the catalogue is displayed in and technique of manufacture. In fact, a glory the vestibule before the gallery’s entrance, as of the Onassis exhibition is the juxtaposition of are readable site maps of the Mediterranean finished products of the highest quality with and Crete; text panels highlight some of the tools used to make them. For those accustomed myths surrounding the island and outline its to looking at historical Greek art, which is so Bronze Age cultural development. Here the rich in images of people behaving in ways visitor can pick up a complimentary brochure, identifiable to modern eyes, the Minoan world which provides a succinct and well-informed might seem remote and obscure. The display introduction to Minoan culture and society. of tools humanizes the artifacts, leading one The title of the exhibition is well chosen. to imagine skilled Minoan artisans at work, Most people who have even a casual familiar- merica A artisans whose renown to their contemporaries ity with Greek mythology will have heard of in the eastern Mediterranean may be inferred the labyrinth, the great maze constructed by nstitute of nstitute I from the Ugaritic myth of Kothar-wa-Hasis, Daidalos for the Cretan King Minos of Knos- Online Museum Review their “Hephaistos,” or divine craftsman, who sos to house the Minotaur, the half-man, half- lived on Kaphtor, most likely their name for bull product of a sexual encounter between Crete.5 the king’s wife Pasiphaë and Poseidon (god rchaeological rchaeological A As in previous exhibitions at the Onassis of the sea) in the form of a bull. In addition, Cultural Center, the current show is accompa- many scholars will recall that the word labrys 5 opyright © 2008 by the © 2008 by opyright American Journal of ArchaeologyAmerican C Morris 1992, 93–5. September 2008 will be published in a companion 6 The proceedings of a symposium to be held in volume of essays. 2 occurs in classical Caria, of western Anatolia, as the word for double axe, and that labyrinth means “the house [or place] of the double axe.” Perhaps labyrinth was a name for the Minoan palace at Knossos itself, where images of double axes and bulls abound, and where a plethora of twisting right-angled corridors so much resembles a maze. It is thus appropriate that three bronze double axes confront the visitor entering the exhibition: one clearly is utilitarian, and two large, thin ones must originally have been mounted for ceremonial display.7 The recurrence of the double axe in bronze and gold (fig. 2) and in vase paintings and ceramic relief acts as a leitmotif throughout the exhibition, offering a familiar touchstone in the face of a seemingly bewildering spectrum of unintelligible symbols and images. A photographic blow-up of the tiny gold double axe from the sacred cave at Arkalochori (see fig. 2) graces the catalogue’s 8 back cover. Fig. 2. Gold votive axe from Arkalochori cave, Middle Minoan The visitor then begins to follow a seemingly IIIB (ca. 1650–1600 B.C.E.), lgth. of axe 4.8 cm, lgth. of haft 5.7 intentional labyrinthine route laid out by the cm. Herakleion, Herakleion Archaeological Museum, inv. no. HM 599 (© Hellenic Ministry of Culture). placement of the cases. This route is achieved by subdividing the main gallery into three areas with a centrally placed, Γ-shaped bank of adjoining cases containing two-sided, win- chronology. Based on the stratigraphic contexts dowlike vitrines (fig. 3). Cases are also placed of the pottery from the palace at Knossos, which along the walls, and others are freestanding was founded on a Neolithic mound, Evans di- (see figs. 1, 3, 4). Two well-known reconstruc- vided the development of Minoan civilization tions of Knossos—the Throne Room by Emile into a broad tripartite scheme of Early Minoan Gilliéron, Jr., and the interior facade of the west (EM), Middle Minoan (MM), and Late Minoan wing overlooking the central court by Thomas (LM), with each period further subdivided Phanourakis—are mounted on the walls. One into at least three subphases.10 The absolute of the flat alabastra from the Throne Room de- dates for these phases derive primarily from picted in the reconstruction is on display.9 Minoan synchronisms with Egypt. During the The exhibition and catalogue are organized 1960s, Nicholas Platon, excavator of the palace into 11 themes, chosen to illuminate important at Zakros, proposed a revised chronological aspects of Minoan culture as perceived by 20th-/ system based on the architectural develop- 21st-century scholars; however, the thematic se- ment of Minoan palaces, whose construction, quence presented in the exhibition differs from remodeling, and destruction were regarded the catalogue. Text panels, placed at a comfort- as seminal events. These periods are known able height, introduce each exhibition section as Prepalatial (EM I–MM IA, ca. 3000–1900 merica A with succinct and informative discussions. B.C.E.); Protopalatial (MM IB–MM IIB, ca. The first thematic section, “Pots and Potters” 1900–1700 B.C.E.); Neopalatial (MM III–LM (see fig. 3), outlines the history of Minoan ce- nstitute of nstitute IB, ca. 1700–1450 B.C.E.); Final Palatial (LM I Online Museum Review ramics, which has always formed the archaeo- II–IIIA2, ca. 1450–1300 B.C.E.); and Postpalatial logical backbone of Cretan Bronze Age relative (LM IIIB, ca. 1300–1100 B.C.E.). rchaeological rchaeological A 7 Herakleion Archaeological Museum, inv. nos. no. 194). HM 2049, 2418, 5829 (Andreadaki-Vlazaki et al.

Load more