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Chapter 30 - Other Mycenaean Relief Arts

Wood, Bone, Ivory, Stone, and Faience

from Part V - Aegean Art in the Cretan Second Palace Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2022

Jean-Claude Poursat
Translated by
Carl Knappett
Jean-Claude Poursat
Affiliation:
University of Clermont-Ferrand
Carl Knappett
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Summary

The Linear B tablets from the palace of Pylos make mention of pieces of wooden furniture: tables, thrones, and stools. But very few wooden objects have been found in Greece (O. Krzyszkowska, in Herrmann 1996, 85–103), and because there is such little evidence we have surely underestimated the importance of wood carving in Mycenaean art.

The best-preserved piece of evidence, from the Shaft Graves of Mycenae, is a sycamore box (Poursat 1977a, n° 215), whose sides are fixed with tenons and mortises. It is adorned with ivory plinths that represent stepped cornices, on which are placed relief dogs carved in wood (AE2, fig. 50). We should dismiss the hypothesis that this is an Egyptian import (Persson 1931, 179–81; contra Karo 1930–3, 319); this type of architectural cornice does not depict house roofs in the Egyptian style, but a form that does exist on Minoan relief frescoes.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Art and Archaeology of the Aegean Bronze Age
A History
 , pp. 307 - 313
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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References

Further Reading

Dickers, Dickers 1990: A., Steingefässe des griechischen Festlandes, SMEA 28, 125–223.Google Scholar
Foster, 1979: Foster, K., Aegean Faience of the Bronze Age, New Haven, CT.Google Scholar
Jackson, and Wager, 2008: Jackson, C. M., Wager, E. C. eds., Vitreous Materials in the Late Bronze Age Aegean, Oxford.Google Scholar
Krzyszkowska, 1990: Krzyszkowska, O., Ivory and Related Materials: An Illustrated Guide, London.Google Scholar

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