CLAS241 - Early Bronze Age (3000 - 2000 BCE)

Terracotta hedgehog. Early Bronze Age. 3000 - 2000 BCE.

• Humour

• Naturalism

• Good representational art (back grid = spikes, lines = fingers)

  • Representational art is a strength of the Cyclades

• Many terracotta figurines represented Mother Goddess, the giver of life to humans, showing religious beliefs were rooted in birth and death.

Plan of Myrtos. Early Bronze Age. 3000 - 2000 BCE.

• Like a little city

• Farmers and artisans lived in the village of myrtos

• Inhabitants grew plants (ex. barley, wheat, olives, vines), reared domesticated animals, and made pots/figurines

• Rooms devoted to living, religion, cooking, storage - surrounding an open courtyard in the middle

  • Storage area had rooms of pithoi (large clay containers)

• Defensible communal living space

• Architectural similarities with Minoans

  • Myrtos was a proto-urban Minoan society

Vasilike ware cup. Early Bronze Age. 3000 - 2000 BCE.

• Long spout

• Spout has a decorative eye, represents a bird as a whole

• Used burnt end of stick to paint decoration

• Dark floating forms arranged symmetrically on jug

• Influenced by Trojan material

• Greece traded with Troy and adopted forms of the Beak Spouted Jug

• Made of coiled clay

• Held liquids

Cycladic figurine. Early Bronze Age. 3000 - 2000 BCE.

• Interpreted as a Fertility symbol because of emphasis on areas that swell during pregnancy and arms folded over stomach 

• Geometric form due to series of triangles (head, body) and rectangles (neck, legs) * 

• First life-size human sculptures (before that, we got smaller scultures) 

• Used in burial contexts due to pointed down feet that suggests it’s supposed to lie down 

• Anthropomorphic (represents human body), which becomes more prevalent in Greek culture 

• Made of marble, which is why body parts don’t stick out 

• Cycladic islands have a lot of marble (people use material around them) 

• More detail added later on in paint 

• Most figurines are female

Cycladic figurine. Early Bronze Age. 3000 - 2000 BCE.

• Interpreted as a Fertility symbol because of emphasis on areas that swell during pregnancy and arms folded over stomach 

• Geometric form due to series of triangles (head, body) and rectangles (neck, legs) * 

• First life-size human sculptures (before that, we got smaller scultures) 

• Used in burial contexts due to pointed down feet that suggests it’s supposed to lie down 

• Anthropomorphic (represents human body), which becomes more prevalent in Greek culture 

• Made of marble, which is why body parts don’t stick out 

• Cycladic islands have a lot of marble (people use material around them) 

• More detail added later on in paint 

• Most figurines are female

• Musician figure (seated harpist)

• Most shocking exploration of marble

• Shows artistic freedom and virtuosity

Cycladic “Frying Pan”. Early Bronze Age. 3000-2000 BCE.

• Storage device? Mirror? Fertility symbol?

• Mixed perspective

  • Swirls (waves) viewed top-down

  • Boat viewed from side profile

  • Egyptian boat, shows similar technology

• Eyes on top of boat

  • Possibly represents animal

• Fertility symbol

  • Pan is the female body, two legs with vagina and hair (hair may be wheat - used in fertility)

• Overall, shows interest in nature and the world around them

House of Tiles - Lerna. Early Bronze Age. 2900 -2400 BCE (3000–2000 BCE).

• Two big buildings successively occupied the same spot

  • Former: Building BG

  • Successor: House of tiles

• Both buildings had similar construction techniques

  • Same tile roofs

  • Same shape of rooms and corridors

  • Similar proportions

• Building BG:

  • Associated with many surrounding houses with gravel streets with little sense of planning

  • Dense town was protecting by fortifications provided by towers

• House of Tiles:

  • Corridor type house

  • Basically a proto-megaron (with roof tiles):

    • A rectangular building with two rooms and an entrance and porch on the short side

  • Entrances on all four sides gave access to symmetrical rooms and corridors

  • Staircases at north and south led to an upper story

  • The house was destroyed (2200BC)

  • Palace? Chief’s house? Communal storage?

    • Might be centers of government, markers of social and political power, like a Chief’s house

    • Could be a Palace

    • Could be more practical and for communal storage/warehouses

• Next house with tiles doesn’t appear for a long time

• Clay bricks in house of tiles survived

• Several examples at this time (Lerna III 2600-2400 BCE)

House of Tiles - Lerna. Early Bronze Age. 2900 -2400 BCE (3000–2000 BCE).

• Two big buildings successively occupied the same spot

  • Former: Building BG

  • Successor: House of tiles

• Both buildings had similar construction techniques

  • Same tile roofs

  • Same shape of rooms and corridors

  • Similar proportions

• Building BG:

  • Associated with many surrounding houses with gravel streets with little sense of planning

  • Dense town was protecting by fortifications provided by towers

• House of Tiles:

  • Corridor type house
    Almost rectangular

  • Several examples at this time (Lerna III 2600-2400 BCE)

  • Entrances on all four sides gave access to symmetrical rooms and corridors

  • Staircases at north and south led to an upper story

  • The house was destroyed (2200BC)

  • Palace? Chief’s house? Communal storage?

    • Might be centers of government, markers of social and political power, like a Chief’s house

    • Could be a Palace

    • Could be more practical and for communal storage/warehouses

• Clay bricks in house of tiles survived

• Next house with tiles doesn’t appear for a long time