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A NEWLY DISCOVERED MINOAN FAIENCE PLAQUE FROM THE KNOSSOS TOWN MOSAIC IN THE BRISTOL CITY MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY: A TECHNOLOGICAL INSIGHT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 November 2014

Nicoletta Momigliano ,
Laura Phillips ,
Michela Spataro ,
Nigel Meeks  and
Andrew Meek
Nicoletta Momigliano*
Affiliation:
Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Bristol
Laura Phillips
Affiliation:
The Wolfsonian-Florida International University
Michela Spataro
Affiliation:
Department of Conservation and Scientific Research, The British Museum
Nigel Meeks
Affiliation:
Department of Conservation and Scientific Research, The British Museum
Andrew Meek
Affiliation:
Department of Conservation and Scientific Research, The British Museum
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

This article presents the curatorial context of a newly discovered fragment of Minoan faience, now in the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery (BCMAG), and the technological study conducted on this piece at the British Museum. It also discusses the British Museum study of comparable fragments, now in the Ashmolean Museum, belonging to the Town Mosaic from Knossos, an important and unique find brought to light during Sir Arthur Evans's excavations of the ‘Palace of Minos’ at the beginning of the twentieth century. Both the stylistic study and the analytical results suggest that the Bristol fragment is genuine, and most likely belonged to the Town Mosaic. The Bristol piece does not possess features that can advance our understanding of Crete in the Bronze Age, but its curious biography adds something to the history of collecting and the history of archaeology.

Ένα μινωικό πλακίδιο από φαγεντιανή από το «Μωσαϊκό της πόλεως» της Κνωσού που ανακαλύφθηκε πρόσφατα στο Μουσείο και Πινακοθήκη της Πόλης του Μπρίστολ: μια τεχνολογική διερεύνηση

Αυτό το άρθρο παρουσιάζει το πλαίσιο της επιμέλειας ενός θραύσματος μινωικής φαγεντιανής που ανακαλύφθηκε πρόσφατα και τώρα βρίσκεται στο Μουσείο και Πινακοθήκη της Πόλης του Μπρίστολ (BCMAG), καθώς και την τεχνολογική μελέτη που πραγματοποιήθηκε σε αυτό στο Βρετανικό Μουσείο. Επιπλέον, εξετάζεται η μελέτη συγκρίσιμων θραυσμάτων από το Βρετανικό Μουσείο, που τώρα βρίσκονται στο Μουσείο Ashmolean, τα οποία επίσης ανήκουν στο «Μωσαϊκό της πόλεως» από την Κνωσό, ένα σημαντικό και μοναδικό εύρημα που ήρθε στο φως στις αρχές του 20ου αιώνα κατά τις ανασκαφές του Σερ Άρθουρ Έβανς στο «Παλάτι του Μίνωα». Τόσο η μορφολογική μελέτη, όσο και τα αποτελέσματα της ανάλυσης, δείχνουν ότι το θραύσμα στο Μπρίστολ είναι γνήσιο και πιθανότατα ανήκε στο «Μωσαϊκό της πόλεως». Το αντικείμενο στο Μπρίστολ δεν διαθέτει χαρακτηριστικά που μπορούν να συμβάλλουν στην κατανόησή μας σχετικά με την Κρήτη κατά την Εποχή του Χαλκού, αλλά η περίεργη βιογραφία του προσθέτει κάτι στην ιστορία των συλλογών ή/και συλλεκτών, καθώς και στην ιστορία της αρχαιολογίας.

Type
Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 109 , November 2014 , pp. 97 - 110
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 2014 

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References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Waterhouse, H. 1994. ‘The Knossos “Town Mosaic” reconsidered’, Cretan Studies 4, 165–74.Google Scholar
Wiener, M. 1990. ‘The Isles of Crete?: The Minoan Thalassocracy revisited’, in Hardy, D.A., Doumas, C.G., Sakellarakis, J.A. and Warren, P.M. (eds.), Thera and the Aegean World III: Proceedings of the Third International Congress, Santorini, Greece 3–9 September 1989 vol. 1 (London), 128–61.Google Scholar
Mackenzie, D. 1902. Knossos Excavation Daybook, vol. I and II (Evans Archive, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford).Google Scholar
Anonymous 1961. Report of the Museum Committee: 1960–1961 (Bristol).Google Scholar
Bennet, J. 1997. ‘Homer and the Bronze Age. Framing the question’, in Morris, I. and Powell, B. (eds.), A New Companion to Homer (Leiden), 511–33.Google Scholar
Cleal, R., Walker, K. and Montague, R. 1995. Stonehenge in its Landscape: Twentieth Century Excavations (London).Google Scholar
Evans, A.J. 1902–3. ‘Knossos Excavations, 1903’, Annual of the British School at Athens 9, 1–153.Google Scholar
Evans, A.J. 1912. ‘The Minoan and Mycenaean element in Hellenic life’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 33: 277–97.Google Scholar
Evans, A.J. 1921. The Palace of Minos: A Comparative Account of the Successive Stages of the Early Cretan Civilization as Illustrated by the Discoveries at Knossos. Vol. I – The Neolithic and Early and Middle Minoan Ages (London).Google Scholar
Foster, K.P. 1979. Aegean Faience of the Bronze Age (New Haven and London).Google Scholar
Foster, K.P. 2008. ‘Minoan faience revisited’, in Jackson, C.M. and Wager, E.C. (eds.), Vitreous Materials in the Late Bronze Age Aegean (Sheffield Studies in Aegean Archaeology 9; Oxford), 173–86.Google Scholar
Gill, D.W. and Chippindale, C. 1993. ‘Material and intellectual consequences of esteem for Cycladic figurines’, American Journal of Archaeology 97(4), 601–59.Google Scholar
Grinsell, L.V. 1968. Guide Catalogue to the South Western British Prehistoric Collections (Bristol).Google Scholar
Kaczmarcyzk, A. and Hedges, R.E.M. 1983. Ancient Egyptian Faience (Warminster).Google Scholar
Karetsou, A. and Fotou, V. 2004. ‘Research in the Evans Archive of Arthur Evans's excavations at Knossos’, in Cadogan, G., Hatzaki, E. and Vasilakis, A. (eds.), Knossos: Palace, City, State. Proceedings of the Conference in Heraklion Organized by the British School at Athens and the 23rd Ephoreia of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of Heraklion, in November 2000, for the Centenary of Sir Arthur Evans's Excavations at Knossos (British School at Athens Studies vol. 12; London), 581–609.Google Scholar
Laffineur, R. 2007. ‘Homeric similes: A Bronze Age background?’, in Morris, S.P. and Laffineur, R. (eds.), Epos: Reconsidering Greek Epic and Aegean Bronze Age Archaeology. Proceedings of the 11th International Aegean Conference / 11e Rencontre égéenne internationale, Los Angeles, UCLA – The J. Paul Getty Villa, 20–23 April 2006 (Aegaeum 28; Liège and Austin), 79–85.Google Scholar
Levi, D. 1962. ‘La tomba a tholos di Kamilari presso a Festòs’, Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle missioni italiane in Oriente 39–40, 7–148.Google Scholar
Levi, D. 1963. ‘New discoveries at one of the greatest of Minoan sites: Part I. The Palace of Phaistos and the tholos tomb of Kamilari’, Illustrated London News 243:6469 (Archaeological Section No. 2142), 134–8.Google Scholar
MacGillivray, J.A. 1998. Knossos: Pottery Groups of the Old Palace Period (British School at Athens Studies vol. 5; London).Google Scholar
Morris, S.P. 1989. ‘A tale of two cities: The miniature frescoes from Thera and the origins of Greek poetry’, American Journal of Archaeology 93(4), 511–35.Google Scholar
Newton, R. and Davison, S. 1989. Conservation of Glass (Oxford).Google Scholar
Onassoglou, A. 1985. Corpus der minoischen und mykenischen Siegel: Beiheft 2: Die talismanischen Siegel (Berlin).Google Scholar
Panagiotaki, M. 2008. ‘The technological development of Aegean vitreous materials in the Bronze Age’, in Jackson, C.M. and Wager, E.C. (eds.), Vitreous Materials in the Late Bronze Age Aegean (Sheffield Studies in Aegean Archaeology 9; Oxford), 34–63.Google Scholar
Phillips, L. 2009. ‘Collecting the “Minoans” in 20th–21st Century Bristol’ (unpublished MPhil dissertation, University of Bristol).Google Scholar
Popham, M.R. 1977. ‘Notes from Knossos, Part I’, Annual of the British School at Athens 72, 185–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1968. ‘Wessex without Mycenae’, Annual of the British School at Athens 63, 277–86.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1993. ‘Collectors are the real looters’, Archaeology 46(3), 6–17.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 2002. Loot, Legitimacy and Ownership: The Ethical Crisis in Archaeology (London).Google Scholar
Roberts, P. 2006. ‘Barriers or bridges? Museums and acquisitions in the light of new legal and voluntary codes’, in Robson, E., Treadwell, L. and Gosden, C. (eds.), ‘Who Owns Objects? The Ethics and Politics of Collecting Cultural Artefacts: Proceedings of the First St Cross–All Souls Seminar Series and Workshop (Oxford), 47–60.Google Scholar
Sherratt, S. 2010. ‘The Trojan War: History or bricolage’, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 53(2), 1–33.Google Scholar
Spataro, M. 2011. ‘A comparison of chemical and petrographic analyses of Neolithic pottery from south-eastern Europe’, Journal of Archaeological Science 38(2), 255–69.Google Scholar
Spataro, M., Meeks, N., Meek, A.S. and Shapland, A.J. 2013. ‘Scientific investigation of faience fragments attributed to the Town Mosaic at Knossos’, Archaeometry 55(5), 910–22. DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4754.2012.00721.x Google Scholar
Tite, M.S., Maniatis, Y., Kavoussanaki, D., Panagiotaki, M., Shortland, A.J. and Kirk, S.F. 2009. ‘Colour in Minoan faience’, Journal of Archaeological Science 36, 370–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walton, K.M. 1980. 75 Years of Bristol Art Gallery: The Gift of Sir William Henry Wills, Bart. to his Fellow Citizens, 1905 (Beaconsfield).Google Scholar
Waterhouse, H. 1994. ‘The Knossos “Town Mosaic” reconsidered’, Cretan Studies 4, 165–74.Google Scholar
Wiener, M. 1990. ‘The Isles of Crete?: The Minoan Thalassocracy revisited’, in Hardy, D.A., Doumas, C.G., Sakellarakis, J.A. and Warren, P.M. (eds.), Thera and the Aegean World III: Proceedings of the Third International Congress, Santorini, Greece 3–9 September 1989 vol. 1 (London), 128–61.Google Scholar