Masarykova univerzita Filozofická fakulta Ústav archeologie a muzeologie Klasická archeologie Bc. Eva Buchtová Meaning of dance in the Aegean Bronze Age in the context of the Eastern Mediterranean and Europe Význam tance v egejské době bronzové v kontextu východního Středomoří a Evropy Magisterská diplomová práce Vedoucí práce: Mgr. Věra Klontza, Ph.D. 2018 Affidavit I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the sources listed in the bibliography. This thesis was not used to obtain an academic degree at any other university. …………… Acknowledgements My great thanks belong to Mgr. Věra Klontza, Ph.D. for professional supervision over my thesis and mainly for her patience. Also support of other university staff was important for me, no less than support from classmates. This thesis would not be written without the encouragement of my husband and daughter. 3 Contents 1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 7 1.1 The goals of the thesis ................................................................................. 7 1.2 Sources and methodology ............................................................................ 8 1.2.1 Dance from the perspective of ancient authors ........................................ 9 1.2.2 History of the research ........................................................................... 12 1.3 Question of chronology and geographical borders .................................... 13 1.3.1 Aegean region ........................................................................................ 14 1.3.2 Europe .................................................................................................... 16 1.3.3 Egypt ...................................................................................................... 17 1.3.4 Near East ................................................................................................ 18 1.3.5 Geographical borders ............................................................................. 18 2 Cultural anthropology of dance ......................................................................... 19 2.1 Objectives .................................................................................................. 19 2.1.1 Definition of dance ................................................................................ 20 2.1.2 Biological anthropology: Influence of dance to the human body .......... 22 2.2 Brief history of dance ................................................................................ 23 2.3 Relationship between dance and society: general objectives .................... 27 2.4 Modern parallels ........................................................................................ 30 4 3 Meaning of dance in the Aegean ....................................................................... 34 3.1 Catalogue of images of dancing activities ................................................. 36 3.1.1 Protopalatial period in Crete and MH II ................................................ 36 3.1.2 Neopalatial period in Crete and MH III – LH IIA ................................. 40 3.1.3 Postpalatial period in Crete and LH II – LH IIIB .................................. 57 3.2 Interpretation .............................................................................................. 75 3.2.1 Objectives .............................................................................................. 75 3.3 Statistics ..................................................................................................... 78 3.3.1 Media of the dancing scenes depictions ................................................ 84 3.3.2 Contextual analyses ............................................................................... 88 3.3.3 Objects included in dancing scenes ....................................................... 90 3.3.4 Social categories and their expression on images .................................. 93 3.3.5 Bull dance ............................................................................................ 100 3.4 Evaluation ................................................................................................ 108 4 Egypt ................................................................................................................ 122 4.1 Introduction .............................................................................................. 122 4.1.1 Historical background .......................................................................... 122 4.1.2 Rules for painting and interpretation of dance ..................................... 123 4.2 Dance types .............................................................................................. 124 4.3 Dance and society .................................................................................... 132 5 Near East .......................................................................................................... 135 5.1 Introduction .............................................................................................. 135 5 5.1.1 History background .............................................................................. 135 5.2 Dance ....................................................................................................... 136 5.2.1 Archaeological remains ....................................................................... 136 5.2.2 Iconographic material .......................................................................... 137 5.3 The sun cult .............................................................................................. 143 5.4 Dance and society .................................................................................... 145 6 Europe .............................................................................................................. 148 6.1 Introduction .............................................................................................. 148 6.1.1 Historical background .......................................................................... 148 6.2 Egtved dancer .......................................................................................... 149 6.3 Solar disc and cult of sun ......................................................................... 155 6.4 Reconstruction of the Bronze Age dance ................................................ 156 6.5 Archaeological remains ........................................................................... 161 6.6 Dance and society in Bronze Age Europe ............................................... 162 7 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 164 8 Resumé ............................................................................................................. 170 9 References ........................................................................................................ 174 9.1 Bibliography ............................................................................................ 174 9.2 Online sources .......................................................................................... 194 9.3 Abbreviations and conventions ................................................................ 194 9.4 List of Figures .......................................................................................... 195 6 1 Introduction To study dance presents my personal need because I am an active dancer in my spare time for many years. The idea to deal with this topic at historical level was firstly realized in my bachelor thesis that deals with Dance in ancient Greece.1 I focused mainly on the types of dances and their illustrations, less on their significance. I decided to modify that approach because I became more interested in the deeper meaning of depictions of dance in connection with society. Dance has a tradition dating back to prehistory, and I have decided to study the Bronze Age because in this period there are various sources of illustrations of dance and it is historically interesting, while complicated era. I primarily focus on the Aegean region in comparison with the Eastern Mediterranean and Europe. 1.1 The goals of the thesis Studying the dance leads to the better understanding of the human behaviour. The reason, why people danced and why they illustrated it, can be relevant to the historical circumstances. Information gained from the study of dance could be helpful to prove or disprove some of the theoretical models of the organization of the society. The main aim of my thesis is to study the meaning of dance for the Aegean culture in the Bronze Age. Firstly, it is necessary to discuss the ways, how dance could reflect the state of the society, by using cultural anthropology of dance. Next step is to gain and systematize the archaeological and iconographic material related to dance. Those images are interpreted and evaluated statistically. The evaluation of the archaeological context or the type of used material will be included. I propose that there must be a reason why the specific number of artefacts was found in the particular context. On the basis of those analyses, I try to answer the question: 1 Benešová, Eva. Dance in ancient Greece [online]. Brno, 2012 [quoted 2018-02-16]. Available from: <https://is.muni.cz/th/361993/ff_b/>. Bachelor thesis. Masaryk University, Faculty of arts. Supervisor