Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-22dnz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T03:30:53.887Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Mycenaean sanctuary at Phylakopi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Colin Renfrew
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Professor Renfrew, who holds the Chair of Archaeology in the University of Southampton, has prepared for us an account of the sanctuary at the important site of Phylakopi in the Cycladic island of Melos, excavated by the British School of Archaeology at Athens from 1896 to 1899. The publication (Atkinson et al., 1904) was a landmark in the study of European prehistory. The person in day-to-day charge (although not nominally Director) was Duncan Mackenzie, who later assisted Evans at Knossos. Mackenzie's Daybooks have been preserved and are a useful source of stratigraphic information.

Excavation was resumed in 1974–7, directed by Professor Renfrew, for the British School of Archaeology at Athens, with the authority of the Greek Archaeological Service. The most important and altogether unexpected result has been the discovery of a sanctuary of the Mycenaean period, with a number of very beautiful finds (cf. Frontispiece)* as well as some highly unusual ones (male figurines). The only well-preserved Mycenaean shrine previously excavated is that at Mycenae itself, discovered by Lord William Taylour and first published in this journal (Taylour, 1969 and 1970).

The Phylakopi shrine is of great importance for the Mycenaean period in the Cyclades, for the understanding of Mycenaean cult and religion, and for the several works of art which it has yielded, including the Lady of Phylakopi, perhaps the most beautiful of the ceramic cult figures known from the Mycenaean world.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 52 , Issue 204 , March 1978 , pp. 7 - 15
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1978

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

Atkinson, T. D., Bosanquet, R. C., Edgar, C. C., Evans, A. J., Hogarth, D. G., Mackenzie, D., Smith, C., and Welch, F. R., 1904. Excavations at Phylakopi in Melos (Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies Supplementary Paper no. 4).Google Scholar
Boardman, J. 1963. Island gems (London: Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies).Google Scholar
Bouzek, J. 1972. Syrian and Anatolian figurines in Europe, Proc. Prehist. Soc. XXXVIII, 156–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buschor, E. and Marrow, W. Von, 1927. Von Amyklaion, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archãologischen Instituts in Athen, LII, 1–204.Google Scholar
Canby, V. J. 1969. Some Hittite figurines in the Aegean, Hesperia, XXXVIII, 141–9.Google Scholar
Caskey, J. L. 1971. Investigations in Keos, Part I, Excavations and explorations 1966–1970, Hesperia, XL, 358–96.Google Scholar
French, E. 1971. The development of Mycenaean terracotta figurines, Annual of the British School of Archaeology at Athens, LXVI, 102–87.Google Scholar
Frödin, O. and Persson, A., 1938. Asine (Stockholm).Google Scholar
Homolle, M. T. 1908. Fouilles de Delphes V. Monuments figurés, petits bronzes, terres cuites (Paris).Google Scholar
Hooker, J. T. 1977. Mycenaean Greece (London).Google Scholar
Jacobi, G. 1931. Nuovi scavi nella necropolea micenea di Jalisso, Annuario della Real Scuola di Archeologia di Atene, XIV, 253–5.Google Scholar
Kondoleon, N. 1958. Naxos, Praktika tis Archaiologikis Etaireias, 228–9.Google Scholar
Kondoleon, N. 1959. Naxos, Praktika tis Archaiologikis Etaireias, 151–8.Google Scholar
Mackenzie, D. 1963. Daybooks of the Excavations at Phylakopi in Melos 1896–1899, edited by Renfrew, C., privately circulated. (Copies in the library of the British School, Athens, of the Museum of Classical Archaeology, Cambridge and the University Library, Cincinnati.)Google Scholar
Marinatos, S. and Hirmer, M., 1970. Crete and Mycenae (London).Google Scholar
Mylonas, G. 1973. Mycenae: a guide to its ruins and its history (Athens).Google Scholar
Nicholls, R. V. 1970. Greek votive statuettes and religious continuity, c. 1200 to 700 BC , in (ed.), Harris, B. F., Auckland Classical essays presented to E. M. Blaiklock, 1–38 (Auckland).Google Scholar
Nilsson, M. P. 1950. The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion (Lund).Google Scholar
Philippaki, B. 1970. Anaskaphi akropoleos Agios Andreas, Archaiologikon Deltion, XXV, Chronika, 431.Google Scholar
Popham, M. R., Catling, E. A., and Catling, H. W., 1974. Sellopoulo tombs 3 and 4, two Late Minoan graves near Knossos, Annual of the British School of Archaeology at Athens, LXIX, 195–258.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1978. Phylakopi and the Late Bronze I period in the Cyclades, in (ed.), Doumas, C., Papers prepared for the Second Conference on the archaeology and vulcanology of Thera (forthcoming).Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. and Brice, W. C., 1978. A Linear A tablet fragment from Phylakopi in Melos, Kadmos, XVI (forthcoming).Google Scholar
Tamvaki, A. 1973. Some unusual Mycenaean terracottas from the Citadel House area, 1954–69, Annual of the British School of Archaeology at Athens, LXVIII, 207–65.Google Scholar
Taylour, W. 1969. Mycenae 1968, Antiquity, XLIII, 91–7.Google Scholar
Taylour, W. 1970. New light on Mycenaean religion, Antiquity, XLIV, 270–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsountas, C. 1892. Ek ton Amyklaion, Ephemeris Archaiologiki, 2–31.Google Scholar
Ucko, P. J. 1968. Anthropomorphic figurines of Predynastic Egypt and Neolithic Crete (London).Google Scholar
Van Leuven, J. 1975. Aspects of Mycenaean religion. Paper read at the Mycenaean Seminar, 15 January 1975. Notes circulated by Institute of Classical Studies, London.Google Scholar
Ventris, M. and Chadwick, J., 1973. Documents in Mycenaean Greek (2nd ed.) (Cambridge).Google Scholar
Zapheiropoulos, N. 1960. Naxos, Praktika tis Archaiologikis Etaireias, 329–40.Google Scholar