Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T00:25:21.141Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Geometric templates used in the Akrotiri (Thera) wall-paintings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

C. Papaodysseus ,
M. Panagopoulos ,
P. Rousopoulos ,
G. Galanopoulos  and
C. Doumas
C. Papaodysseus*
Affiliation:
National Technical University of Athens, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Application of Computer Science to Archaeology Group, GR-15773 Athens, Greece
M. Panagopoulos
Affiliation:
National Technical University of Athens, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Application of Computer Science to Archaeology Group, GR-15773 Athens, Greece
P. Rousopoulos
Affiliation:
National Technical University of Athens, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Application of Computer Science to Archaeology Group, GR-15773 Athens, Greece
G. Galanopoulos
Affiliation:
National Technical University of Athens, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Application of Computer Science to Archaeology Group, GR-15773 Athens, Greece
C. Doumas
Affiliation:
Akrotiri Excavations, Santorini, Er. Professor, National University of Athens, Greece
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

A research team at Akrotiri, Thera, here examine the Bronze Age frescoes and show that the artists were making use of templates of well known geometric curves. Some of the spirals, hyperbolae and ellipses which all feature in the repertoire do not occur in nature and must have their origin in some still unknown human science or aesthetic.

Keywords

AegeanCreteTheraCycladesBronze Agewall-paintingfrescoimagesgeometry
Type
Research article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 82 , Issue 316 , June 2008 , pp. 401 - 408
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Birtacha, K. & Zacharioudakis, M.. 2000. Stereotypes in Thera wall-paintings: models and patterns in the procedure of painting, in Sherratt, S. (ed.) The wall-paintings of Thera (Proceedings of the first international symposium on the wall paintings of Thera): 159–72. Athens: Thera Foundation.Google Scholar
Bunt, L., Jones, Ph. & Bedient, J.. 1981. The historical roots of elementary mathematics. Englewood Cliffs (NJ): Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Chapin, A. 2000. Maidenhood and marriage: the reproductive lives of the girls and women from Xeste 3, Thera. Aegean Archaeology 4: 7–25.Google Scholar
Crawly, J. 1997. Geometry in Minoan design, in Laffineur, R. & Betancourt, P. (ed.) TEXNH: craftsmen, craftswomen and craftsmanship in the Aegean Bronze Age. Volume I (Aegaeum 16): 81–91. Liege: Universit´e de Liége.Google Scholar
Davis, H. 1986. Youth and age in the Thera frescoes. American Journal of Archaeology 90:399–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doumas, C. 1991. The Wall Paintings of Thera. Athens: Thera Foundation.Google Scholar
Doumas, C. 2002. Silent witnesses: early Cycladic art of the third millennium BC. New York: Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (USA).Google Scholar
Guralnick, E. 2000. Proportions of painted figures from Thera, in Sherratt, S. (ed.) The wall-paintings of Thera (Proceedings of the first international symposium on the wall paintings of Thera): 173–90. Athens: Thera Foundation.Google Scholar
Hood, S. 1978. The Arts in Prehistoric Greece. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Immerwahr, S. A. 1990. Aegean Painting in the Bronze Age. University Park (PA): Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Laffineur, R. 2000. Dress, hairstyle and jewellery in the Thera wall-paintings, in Sherratt, S. (ed.) The wall-paintings of Thera (Proceedings of the first international symposium on the wall paintings of Thera): 890–906. Athens: Thera Foundation.Google Scholar
Maass, M. & Horst, K. (ed.). 2000. Im Labyrinth des Minos: Kreta – die erste europ¨aische Hochkultur. Karlsuhe: Biering & Brinkmann.Google Scholar
Morgan, L. (ed.) 2005. Aegean Wall Painting (British School at Athens Studies 13). London: British School at Athens.Google Scholar
Murray, S. 2004. Reconsidering the Room of the Ladies at Akrotiri, in Chapin, A. (ed.) CHARIS: essays in honor of Sara A. Immerwahr (Hesperia Supplement 33): 101–30. Princeton (NJ): American School of Classical Studies at Athens.Google Scholar
Niemeier, W. 1992. Iconography and context: the Thera frescoes, in Laffineur, R. & Crowley, J. (ed.) EIKON: Aegean Bronze Age iconography: shaping a methodology (Aegaeum 8): 97–104. Li`ge: Universit´e de Li`ge.Google Scholar
Papaodysseus, C., Exarhos, M., Panagopoulos, Th., Triantafillou, C., Roussopoulos, G., Pantazi, Af.Loumos, V., Fragoulis, D. & Doumas, C.. 2005. Identification of geometrical shapes in paintings and its application to demonstrate the foundations of geometry in 1650 BC. IEEE Transactions on Image Processing 14(7):862–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rehak, P. 1999. The Aegean landscape and the body: a new interpretation of the Thera frescoes, in Wicker, N. & Arnold, B. (ed.) From the ground up: beyond gender theory in archaeology (British Archaeological Reports International Series 812): 11–22. Oxford: Archaeopresss.Google Scholar
Sapouna Sakellarakis, E. 1994. Minoan art, in Allamanis, E. (ed.) The Dawn of Greek Art: 131–217. Athens: Ekdotike Athenon.Google Scholar
Sherratt, S. (ed.) 2000. The wall-paintings of Thera (Proceedings of the first international symposium on the wall paintings of Thera). Athens: Thera Foundation.Google Scholar
Televantou, C. 1992. Theran wall-painting: artistic tendencies and painters, in Laffineur, R. & Crowley, J. (ed.) EIKON: Aegean Bronze Age iconography: shaping a methodology (Aegaeum 8): 145–59. Liege: Universit´e de Li`ge.Google Scholar