Processions: Studies of Bronze Age Ritual and Ceremony Presented to Robert B. Koehl

Robert Koehl has long considered processions to have played an integral role in Aegean Bronze Age societies. Therefore, when assembling a volume to honor his retirement from Hunter College, contributing authors were asked to focus attention on this subject. Processions are a unique social phenomenon in that they engage large groups with a singular purpose or outcome, acting as a cohesive force in societies. Yet they are elusive both in Aegean art and texts, which has challenged the participants in this volume to approach the subject from various viewpoints, providing evidence of ritual and ceremonial places, pathways and practices, based on archaeological and, in one instance, textual evidence. Artistic depictions in a variety of media provide a means of identifying settings, participants and the possible roles they play, while specific ritual objects are the subject of some contributions, their context and imagery offering another means of enhancing our picture of processions. Papers concentrate mainly on evidence from Crete, the Cyclades and the Greek mainland, with additional perspectives from abroad, these geographic divisions forming the basic outline of the volume. Cover 1 Title Page 3 Copyright page 4 Contents Page 7 List of Contributors 10 Processions 13 Tributes 19 Robert B. Koehl: Publications 25 Crete 30 Processions Aplenty: From Elite Palatial Parades to Mass Population Pilgrimages in Middle and Late Minoan Crete1 31 Malcolm H. Wiener 31 Processions in Aegean Iconography III: Where did they Take Place? 36 Fritz Blakolmer 36 The Theatral Area of Knossos 47 Colin Macdonald 47 The Kilts on the ‘Cupbearer’ and Men on the Procession Fresco from Knossos 57 Bernice R. Jones and Valerie Bealle 57 Minoan Processions Leading to Marvelous Destinations at Mochlos 69 Jeffrey S. Soles 69 Dressed Bodies in Motion: Toward a Sensorial Understanding of Funerary Ritual in Prepalatial Crete 75 Cynthia S. Colburn 75 Dance or Procession? A Ritual Scene on a Fruit-stand from Protopalatial Phaistos, Crete 86 Luca Girella 86 Rhyton Clusters in Neopalatial East Crete: Identity and the Ceremonial Prerogatives of the House 95 Brian S. Kunkel 95 Reaper’s Rout or Mariner’s March? Reconsidering the ‘Harvester’ Vase from Ayia Triada 109 J. A. MacGillivray 109 Deimatic Display or Nature’s Apotropaia: The Meaning and Function of the Octopus Iconography in the Bronze Age Aegean1 119 Michele Mitrovich 119 From Deep Waters to High Places: Reassessing the Ceremonial Significance of Triton-shells at Neolithic Phaistos (Crete) 142 Simona V. Todaro 142 The Cyclades 156 The Armed Warriors Procession: 1000 Years of Iconographic Development1 157 Philip P. Betancourt 157 Jason W. Earle 162 Ocular Signs of Ecstatic Possession and Procession in Aegean Art 175 Karen Polinger Foster 175 Greek Mainland 188 Late Bronze Age Iklaina and Processional Architecture 189 Michael Nelson 189 Tribute from the Griffin Warrior at Pylos 199 Jack L. Davis and Sharon R. Stocker 199 Processions in non-palatial Contexts: Social Ambitions and Narrative Idioms in Mycenaean Greece 206 Iphiyenia Tournavitou 206 Processions, Participants, People, and the Palace: Musings from Fragments 222 James C. Wright 222 The Creature of the Rings: An Unusual Jug Rhyton from LH IIIC Tiryns 231 Eleftheria Kardamaki, Maria Kostoula, Joseph Maran, and Alkestis Papadimitriou 231 The Pylos Ta Series and the Process of Inventorying Ritual Objects for a Funerary Banquet 250 Thomas G. Palaima 250 Evoking the Deceased in Mycenaean Mortuary Ritual 262 Mary K. Dabney 262 ‘… For at this Place the Sea Comes Nearest to Athens.’ Funerary Processions in Archaic Athens 267 Stella Chryssoulaki and Ioannis Pappas 267 Cyprus, Syria, the Levant, and Egypt 280 From Stasis to Repetition: Tracing Processional Movements in Prehistoric Cyprus 281 Eleni Mantzourani 281 Approaching Divinity in the Near East and the Aegean: Animals, Monsters, Demons, and Masked Human Processions 293 Joan Aruz and Judith Weingarten 293 A Snapshot of a Victory Procession: A Winged Deity from Alalakh Wielding a Dagger 316 K. Aslıhan Yener 316 The Iron Age Adventures of the God with the Fenestrated Axe 321 Assaf Yasur-Landau 321 Offerings for Eternity: Egypt, Nubia, and the Puzzle of the Egyptian Faience Vessel from Alalakh 328 Morena Stefanova 328 A Courtly Affair: Proceeding from Keftiu and ‘all Islands in the Middle’ to the Theban Necropolis 339 Nisha Kumar 339 Italy 351 Clues of Bronze Age Processions in the Central Mediterranean 353 Marco Bettelli, Elisabetta Borgna and Sara Tiziana Levi 353 Aegean Prehistory,Bronze Age,Crete,Cyclades,Greece,Near East,Egypt