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expressed their affiliation to other areas, including inland Anatolia and the Dodecanese (168–70). Momigliano uses the material from Iasos to argue that we should reconsider the cultural labels placed on some objects and to suggest that at least some interaction between the Aegean and Anatolia in the Bronze Age may have taken the form of ‘small world’ networks. NAOÍSE MAC SWEENEY University of Leicester
[email protected]
MÜLLER (W.) Ed. Die Bedeutung der minoischen und mykenischen Glyptik VI. internationales Siegel-Symposium aus Anlass des 50 jährigen Bestehens des CMS, Marburg, 9.–12. Oktober 2008 (Corpus der minoischen und mykenischen Siegel Beiheft 8). Mainz am Rhein: Phillip von Zabern, 2010. Pp. xxvi + 446, illus. €130. 9783805342605. ANASTASIADOU (M.) The Middle Minoan Three-Sided Soft Stone Prism: A Study of Style and Iconography (Corpus der minoischen und mykenischen Siegel Beiheft 9). Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern, 2011. Pp. xxii + 802, illus. €210. 9783805343466. doi:10.1017/S0075426914002213
Founded in 1958 by Friedrich Matz, the Corpus der minoischen und mykenischen Siegel (CMS) is intended to document systematically all Aegean seal devices known from extant seals or ancient impressions. Twenty five volumes cover ca. 10,000 examples, housed in museums around the world. In addition, nine Beihefte have appeared, devoted to monographs on specific aspects of Aegean glyptic or to the proceedings of specialist seal symposia, as in the two volumes here under review. The 2008 symposium, published in Beiheft 8, celebrated the 50th anniversary of the CMS project in Marburg, while sadly acknowledging that funding by the Akademie der Wissenschaften und Literatur in Mainz would end in December 2011. Thus the overriding themes of the symposium were to evaluate the past and current contributions of the CMS to glyptic studies and to Aegean prehistory more generally, and to highlight challenges for the future – subjects addressed in the introductory contributions by I. Pini (3–10), W.-D. Niemeier (11–25) and W. Müller (27–30, 31–33). A further 28 papers by invited specialists cover an astonishing range of
topics, a testament to the many facets of glyptic studies and their wider application. Space here precludes little more than a summary of the themes covered. Important new finds from tholos tombs in Thessaly are presented by V. Adrimi-Sismani (37–55) and B.G. Inteziloglou (239–47), lavishly illustrated in colour, while Niemeier offers two seals (one a MM II ‘antique’) from the sanctuary of Kalapodi (277–85). Aspects of Aegean glyptic form the subjects of papers by M. Anastasiadou (MM II prisms; 57–72), J.L. Crowley (complex scenes; 131–47), Müller (ornaments; 259-76), Pini (motifs on hard and soft stone seals; 325–39) and K. Sbonias (prepalatial seal consumption and use; 349–62). F. Blakolmer (91–108) and J.-C. Poursat (341–47) offer important observations on the link between glyptic and other artistic media. Sealing practices and administration are the focus of papers by E. Fiandra (Phaistos; 177–86), E. Hallager (neopalatial; 205–12), D. Panagiotopoulos (Mycenaean; 297–307), E. Tsangaraki (neopalatial sealings with human figures; 363–81) and J. Weingarten (‘replica rings’; 395–410). Several contributors summarize achievements to date and underscore future challenges: H. Hughes-Brock (225–37), O. Krzyszkowska (materials; 249–57), J.-P. Olivier (inscribed seals; 287–95) and J.G. Younger (attribution studies; 413–24). The importance of good contextual data is addressed by P.P. Betancourt (83–89), while P. Warren (383–94) provides a valuable overview of Aegean absolute chronology, incorporating evidence discovered since 1989. Among the most illuminating papers presented to the symposium were those that dealt with extraAegean topics. A masterly overview of sealing practices at Tell Sabi Abyad and other Late Neolithic sites in Syria is offered by K. Duistermaat (163–78): the system is clearly linked to an emerging need to identify private property in a communal setting when owners were temporarily absent for herding or hunting. It is not indicative of a redistributive system or control by institutions or ‘elites’ – perhaps a salutary warning to those studying the earliest sealing practices in the Aegean. Many insights into the complexities of later seal ownership and use emerge from D. Collon’s paper, focusing on second millennium Syria (109–29). S. Herbordt (213–24) concentrates on the bullae (sealings) from the Nişantepe archive at Hattusa dating to ca. 1345–1200 BC, where roughly 60% were impressed by royal seals; titles and professions of other seal users, for
ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY example high-ranking administrators, scribes, priests, females, are also identified by inscription, thus permitting the responsibilities of offices and individuals to be traced. As A.L. Foster (187–204) indicates in her valuable overview of Egyptian sealing types, often exceptionally well preserved, many practices are culture-specific, yet cautious comparison of similar forms and contexts may provide insights for the Aegean in the Early and Middle Bronze Age. J. Phillips, by contrast, focuses on non-administrative relations between Egypt and the Aegean in seal shape, imagery, colour and non-glyptic use (309–23), while J. Aruz (73–82) explores the fertile subject of the intercultural styles deployed in glyptic and other media throughout the eastern Mediterranean in the Late Bronze Age. T. Dietrich (149–61) provides a brief overview of the medieval seals used on royal and church documents. The systematic publication of Aegean seals by the CMS and the Archive in Marburg with impressions and casts of virtually all known examples has encouraged numerous scholarly studies and several important doctoral theses in the past 50 years. The latest is Anastasiadou’s detailed account of MM II three-sided soft stone prisms, swiftly transformed into CMS Beiheft 9 from her Marburg PhD prepared under the guidance of Pini. With some 625 documented examples, MM II soft stone prisms constitute one of the largest groups in Aegean glyptic, falling well short of the ca. 950+ MM III to LM I seals engraved in the ‘talismanic style’, but comparable in number to the ca. 600+ examples of the LH III ‘Mainland Popular’ and Fluorite groups. Through careful study of material, style/technique and motif, Anastasiadou distinguishes several discreet style-groups among the soft stone prisms. By far the largest and best known is the ‘Malia/East Cretan’ group with ca. 575 examples, virtually all made of steatite (63–115). Widely collected by Arthur Evans and other early travellers, and thus often lacking any known provenance, many were condemned for their ‘crude’ engraving or ‘primitive’ style, and assigned an early date (for example EM II to EM III/MM I). This fallacy has proved surprisingly hard to dislodge, notwithstanding the discovery of ca. 125 unfinished and/or damaged examples in the Atelier de Sceaux in Quartier Mu at Malia destroyed in MM IIB. Anastasiadou’s study firmly demonstrates that the overwhelming majority of steatite prisms are related to Maliote examples, though differences in style suggest the existence of local production centres. Where indications of
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provenance exist, the distribution pattern stretches from Malia eastwards. Output seems largely, if not wholly, confined to the MM II period. By contrast, a small number of prisms show slightly earlier features, including about 17 assigned by Anastasiadou to her ‘Mesara Chlorite’ group, comprising several smaller ‘clusters’ (120–37). Some can persuasively be linked to nonprismatic shapes – cones, reels, bottles and buttons – also often made of chlorite, perhaps quarried in the Asterousia range. Although evidence for dating is scanty, Anastasiadou’s suggested range of MM IA late/MM IB–II seems appropriate. Another small but important group identified in this study are the ‘Central Cretan Ornamental Prisms’, made in both steatite and whitish materials (148–59). These too have links to seals of other shapes, notably Petschafte, buttons and discs, and output seems to have continued from MM II into MM III and perhaps even early LM IA. These detailed considerations of style-groups are made superbly clear by in-text photographs of impressions from the CMS Archive, as are earlier sections on engraving techniques (37–48). By contrast, outline drawings executed by Anastasiadou herself accompany the lengthy discussion of iconography in volume 1 (160–369) and form a complete visual conspectus of devices in volume 2 (plates 1–125). The decision not to rely on previously-published drawings was undoubtedly correct, since it ensured a uniform drawing style throughout, where only the salient features of each motif are presented; this was achieved by painstaking observation of impressions and photos of originals. All illustrations, in the text and plates, are helpfully labelled with the catalogue number in bold (referring to volume 2) or CMS number for comparanda. Thus from the users’ standpoint, organization and presentation of the volume could scarcely be bettered. In addition to discussing some 265 individual devices – representational, vegetal/floral, ornamental – and various ‘compounds’, Anastasiadou considers composition (327–40) and the ‘nature’ of the images. These are seen as ‘descriptiveֹ’, ornamental, script-carriers and ‘pictographic’ – defined as comprising ‘incomprehensible combinations of devices ... not seen in everyday life or nature’ (341–55, 344). It might have been wiser to avoid the last term, since it was widely applied (if not rigorously defined) by Evans to describe the motifs on the ‘primitive pictographic prism-seals’ which he saw as an early form of ‘picture writing’ and as precursors to the
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‘conventionalized pictographic or hieroglyphic type – class A’ (Scripta Minoa 1, Oxford 1909, 134–35). Of course there may have been attempts by engravers to mimic script or to convey meaning through the ‘incomprehensible combinations’ on certain three-sided seals, whose floruit (we now know) coincides with the use of the Cretan Hieroglyphic script. The fact that some prisms of steatite (together with the hard stone variety) were carriers of genuine script-signs raises numerous questions regarding the interplay between imagery and script, and the role of seal ownership and status, in this critical era of state formation in Minoan Crete. The ground for future investigations into these issues has now been laid by Anastasiadou’s exemplary study. As anticipated at the 2008 symposium, the CMS project in Marburg ended in December 2011. Happily a new home for the Archive was then provided by the Institute of Classical Archaeology in Heidelberg, where it forms an important teaching and research resource; work on the CMS on-line database is also continuing (Müller, Beiheft 8, 31–33, 427–46). Thus there is every chance that further monographs and symposium proceedings will be published in future. The real challenge is to ensure that the publication of seals and sealings not yet covered in the CMS series, numbering well in excess of 1,000, and the documentation of new finds can continue. For this, the support of all Aegean prehistorians – and, crucially, funding bodies – will be essential. OLGA KRZYSZKOWSKA Institute of Classical Studies, University of London
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TORELLI (M.) Dei e artigiani. Archeologia delle colonie greche d’Occidente. Rome: GLF Laterza, 2011. Pp. ix + 236, illus. €35. 9788842095101. doi:10.1017/S0075426914002225
There have been many changes in approach to the study of Greek colonization in recent years. Amongst English-speaking academics, in particular, debates on ethnicity and cultural identity, the role of indigenous populations and the nature of the settlement process itself have become dominant. In this volume, Torelli seeks to step back from these, and instead places the relationship between colony and mother-city at the heart of study of the western Greeks. He uses two topics – the religious history of the western Greek
colonies and the production of artisans in those colonies – as a means of exploring the development of western Greek culture and its relationship to that of the rest of the Greek Mediterranean. Torelli argues that the centrality of religion to the foundation and development of colonies makes it ideal as a means of exploring the interplay between tradition and local innovation in western Greek culture. The emphasis, however, is firmly on gods rather than artisans, since over twothirds of the book focuses on religion. The introduction offers a rationale for linking these two topics and an overview of the state of archaeological research on Magna Graecia and Sicily. Thereafter, the book is divided into two unequal sections – a long and detailed study of religious practices, encompassing state religion and its cult places, elements of innovation and tradition in the ways in which religion developed in the Greek western Mediterranean and many other aspects of religious practice, followed by a much shorter discussion of artistic output. The chapters on civic religion are the most successful sections of the book. Torelli presents a close analysis of cults and cult practices in the western colonies and their putative founding cities, concluding that, in the Archaic period, the religious connections between colony and mothercity were strong and that religious culture was largely conservative. Once the colonies were wellestablished, however, he identifies significant areas of innovation in the selection of cults and in the rituals and cult practices observed; the colonies drew on influences far beyond the founding cities and regions of each colony and developed distinctive local ritual and religious cultures. The focus is very much on civic religion as a signifier of religious identity. Other aspects of cult practice, such as hero cults, founder cults, mystical and initiatory cults, funerary cults and domestic religious practices, are dealt with relatively briefly. The book concludes with a shorter section examining tradition and innovation in artistic styles in architecture, sculpture, pottery, painting and the production of terracotta and metalwork. Here, also, the emphasis is on civic culture and monumentality, since the most detailed discussion is devoted to civic and religious architecture. As in the discussion of cults, Torelli concludes that an initial period of adherence to the styles of the mother-city was followed by a period of considerable innovation in western artistic and architectural styles.