Knossos

Forthcoming April 2017

http://upers.kuleuven.be/en/book/9789462701052

Chapters by:
Simon Jusseret (The University of Texas at Austin, Université catholique de Louvain)
Manuel Sintubin (KU Leuven)
Jan Driessen (Université catholique de Louvain)
Susan E. Hough (U.S. Geological Survey)
James P. McCalpin (GEO-HAZ Consulting Inc.)
Christoph Grützner (RWTH Aachen University, University of Cambridge)
Thomas Wiatr (RWTH Aachen University, German Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy)
Charalampos Fassoulas (Natural History Museum of Crete, University of Crete)
Gerassimos A. Papadopoulos (National Observatory of Athens)
Jack Mason (RWTH Aachen University)
Klaus Reicherter (RWTH Aachen University)
Clairy Palyvou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
Eleftheria Tsakanika (National Technical University of Athens)
Jeffrey S. Soles (University of North Carolina – Greensboro)
Floyd W. McCoy (University of Hawaii – Windward)
Rhonda Suka (Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii)
Colin F. Macdonald (The British School at Athens)
Tim Cunningham (Université catholique de Louvain)

"Ex oriente nigri: "Captain of the Blacks" and the Fabrication of the Minoan Culture

The fabrication of the Minoan culture is the specifically modern phenomenon, closely linked to the imperial and colonial conquest and appropriation of Ancient Greece. The Greek war of independence created an arena in which Europe could take part in the fight for its cradle. In the postcolonial key, the paper situates the fresco "Captain of the Blacks" into the context of the fabrication of the Minoan culture and the colonial narratives inscribed into it. In the beginning of the 20th century, this colonial past of the notion, known today as the Minoan culture, played a major role in the definition of the European past, present and future. The Minoan culture, as a colonial discursive formation in archaeology, has remained in the framework of the culture-histori-cal paradigm, but beyond it as well. The paper argues that the reconstructionof the fresco "Captain of the Blacks" in the works of Arthur Evans is the consequence of the colonial racism, putting the emphasis on the colour of the skin as a racial/ ethnic category. The interpretation that the dark-skinned figures are of the African origin has rarely been questioned, but rather perpetuated as a given.

Key words: Minoan culture, racism, "Captain of the Blacks", Egypt,colonialism, post-colonial perspective"

The ancient complex of Knossos, Crete, has a built history spanning nine millennia. The most recent manifestation includes highly contested, twentieth-century reconstruction works. Knossos occupies an important place in the ancient history and architecture of the Mediterranean. Despite this, Knossos, nor any ancient Minoan site, is not inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List (WHL). While demonstrating the “Outstanding Universal Value” of Knossos, this paper proposes that a new submission to inscribe the “Minoan Palatial Centres” on UNESCO’s WHL would be strengthened by outlining Sir Arthur Evans’ reconstruction work and architectural speculation c.1900–1935. This paper will explore why Evans may have connected mythology and monarchy to Knossos, and why the connection is still being used to enhance the heritage value of the sites today. The proposal for the “Minoan Palatial Centres” to be included on the WHL need not rely on Evans’ theories and reconstructions (many which have since been disproven), but nor should they be hidden. The inconvenient history of the “Evansian Period” of Knossos and the Minoans is an indelible element of Knossos’ historical narrative and could ameliorate this proposal to inscribe sites of great importance to the ancient built environment.

This paper, first presented at the Aegaeum 'Potnia' conference in 2001,  put forward new evidence for the importance of the sun in Minoan religion. At the Mesara-type tombs of the Early—Middle Minoan period, the doorways are aligned to dawn at specific times of year, suggesting seasonal activities associated with the dead. Later, at the Knossos 'Throne Room', each of the polythyron doorways admits the rising sun at a different time of year — echoing those favoured at the Mesara-type tombs — creating dramatic lighting effects focused on the 'throne', the 'Lustral Basin' and the inner doorway respectively, which would have enhanced the impact of any rituals enacted there.

This paper represents my first attempt to make sense of the dearth of data relating to prehistoric earthquakes in Crete. The title explains: Defining Earthquakes and identifying their consequences in North Central Crete during the Old and New Palace Periods. There is still a good deal of work to be done in this field.

ABSTRACT: This documentary response sheet contains a series of sequential questions drawn from the video, Acorn: The Minotaur's Island (shown in-class; also available online via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LZ6JzBcXjU [95 minutes]).  These sequential questions aim to maximize both student attention to various pertinent points made throughout the documentary and greater retention of the materials covered by the documentary.  In addition, the documentary has been vetted for overall content accuracy (albeit updated and/or corrected in-class), and selected to provide supplementary visual aids (e.g., images of regions, sites, finds, and other materials), additional specialist views (e.g., interviews), and other data to aid in student comprehension of the course lectures and readings from the textbooks.  REVISED: Feb., 2024.

This article addresses the rather special place of ku-do-ni-ja (a toponym almost certainly associated with the LM III settlement under the modem town of Khania) within the political geography of Late Minoan III Crete, as this can be reconstructed from the study of geographic references on the Knossos tablets. The discussion focuses on the contextual internal consistency and remarkable contextual isolation of the toponyms associated with ku-do-ni-ja (the ‘ku-do-ni-ja group’) and attempts to contrast it with the more diverse occurrences of ku-do-ni-ja itself. Finally, archaeological data are brought into the picture. Ιt is argued that the emergent picture, supported both from the study of the Knossian occurrences themselves and by the archaeological facts revealed by excavations at Khania, is one of a remarkable site, which has a very unique relationship to the Knossian centre. This relationship might not be properly assignable to such absolute schemes as 'autonomy' or ‘dependency’.

SUMMARY: Lecture 15 provides coverage on the art, architecture, state, administration, and economy of the Late Bronze Age Mycenaeans, and a discussion of the presumed Mycenaean takeover or domination of Crete (Minoans); the Minoan initially influenced mainland Greece, while the Mycenaeans later influenced Crete. This lecture is designed mainly as an educational resource for college students (i.e., normally posted only on my institution's course website), the public (e.g., people auditing my course), and interested colleagues from other disciplines (to whom I provide copies privately).  I am posting it here, both as a broader access, educational tool, and especially to promote the study of this region and its past societies.  For further knowledge about this region and period, I refer interested parties to the textbooks and other sources from which the materials were extracted (see syllabus), and/or the bibliographies in these works and my online resource guides (see other files in my academia folders).  The lecture summarizes the pertinent materials in the course textbook(s), adding in other data, and furnishing numerous images to clarify information encountered within the textbook(s).  Some generic imagery (usually indicated as such) is posted to aid in transmitting various concepts visually, and/or when a specific image remains not located (temporarily).  I update and revise such lectures each time, with such elective courses normally being taught once every two years.  I try to cover the most current, mainstream views, and usually place summary notes at the end of each lecture alongside some of the key sources used for compiling the ppt.  Over time, each lecture is improved, errors rectified, and additional data placed within the lecture.  These ppt. lectures take many hours to compile, but they have proved useful to many of my more serious students and I hope they can be of benefit to others as well.  My apologies for any errors I may have made, and my liberal usage of educational imagery from professional sources and vetted internet sources. REVISED: March 2024, new formatting, slides, and text, with some text modifications, also adding a Late Minoan IIIC (1200-1100 BCE) summary section at the end, and additional sources.

“ΧΡΩΣΤΗΡΕΣ / PAINTBRUSHES. Wall-painting and vase-painting of the second millennium BC in dialogue” was an interdisciplinary symposium addressed to archaeologists, conservators of antiquities and artists specialized in the study of Aegean iconography. All were invited to Akrotiri, Thera, from 24 to 26 May 2013, to participate in open discussions on the dialectical relationship that developed between the arts of vase-painting and wall-painting in the Aegean during the second millennium BC.

The subject of the present study revolves around the burials of warriors in the area of Greece during antiquity, with emphasis on the phenomenon of burying the dead with arms. The time period, which is examined here begins from the Iron Age and reaches up to the Hellenistic Era. The first part of the thesis is divided into four chapters based on the chronological classification of findings. In the first chapter, I present the warrior burials of the Iron Age by geographical region, starting from the North and heading to the South. Afterward, I proceed to the chapters concerning the Archaic, the Classical, and finally, the Hellenistic Era. In the second part, I present the conclusions of the study that was conducted, the above are accompanied by detailed tables that record the archaeological data that were assembled. The conclusions follow the same structure as the main part of the thesis, as they are presented in the same chronological order.

The responses of the communities on the island of Naxos to the dynamic processes taking place during the EarlyCycladic (3rd millennium BC) and the Late Mycenaean(1400–1050 BC) periods have been well represented in the scholarly literature. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the Middle Cycladic (2000–1600 BC) and the early LateCycladic (1600–1400 BC) periods. Even though it is a period of high archaeological visibility for the Cyclades as a whole, as well as of prosperity and contact with the communities of palatial Crete, on Naxos it is represented patchily to say the least. This paper draws primarily on material evidence of the diachronic development of the coastal settlement at Grotta, as well as of other sites on the island (e.g., Mikri Vigla, Zas Cave, Ailas), and attempts to fill in this lacuna and explain this conundrum by adopting a synthetic approach.

Read but do not take everything at face value. This was an early attempt to make sense of the New Palace period at Knossos. Many flaws in the arguments but still some good ideas. One serious problem is the way in which the importance of MM III A is underestimated as probably the first phase of the New Palace period. Later writings on Knossos take greater account of MM IIIA which can now even be divided into 2 phases. In addition, the arguments for a "Ruined Palace" in LM IB are over-stated, although Knossos does seem to have been severely damaged at the end of LM IA. Frescoes, of course, are not only of the LM IA palace but begin in MM II followed by wall-paintings and relief frescoes in MM IIIA and later.

This paper proposes a new explanation of the intriguing distribution pattern of peak sanctuaries in Crete during the MM period, and the reasons for their fast expansion in the late Proto-Palatial period, followed by a sudden decline soon afterwards. The working hypothesis presented here is based on my intensive fieldwork carried out during the last decade and is supported by several recently identified sites which shed new light on these problems. At present about 40 sites in Crete can be classified as peak sanctuaries. They are mostly grouped in three regions: central Crete, the East Siteia peninsula and the Rethymnon isthmus, with a few “anomalous” sites beyond these regions. It is indisputable that the earliest, the most important and the longest-lived peak sanctuary was Iouchtas, closely related to Knossos. Iouchtas became a model-site, the idea of which spread to other parts of the island. Some regions, however, as for example those controlled by Malia and Phaistos, showed stro...

L'étude de la religion mycénienne n'est pas chose aisée, dans la mesure où nos connaissances sont fondées essentiellement sur l'interprétation philologique et historique des tablettes en Linéaire B, archives comptables conservées accidentellement par les incendies qui détruisirent les palais de Knossos et Khania en Crête, de Pylos, Mycènes, Thèbes et Tirynthe en Grèce continentale. Contrairement aux historiens des religions des grandes civilisations proche-orientales contemporaines de la civilisation mycénienne, nous ne disposons pas de textes liturgiques ou mythologiques et il paraît fort peu vraisemblable que les archives mycéniennes nous livrent un jour de tels textes. Les documents que nous possédons sont donc essentiellement des sources d'information sur l'économie palatiale, fondée sur un système de collecte et de redistribution, mais, cette documentation a priori aride, nous fournit également des renseignements, d'autant plus précieux qu'ils sont rares et ténus, sur la société et la religion mycénienne. Ainsi, seuls 17% des documents pyliens et 5% des tablettes de Knossos font référence à la sphère religieuse 1 : il s'agit essentiellement de versements divers à des divinités, desservants et sanctuaires, mais aussi de texte faisant référence à l'économie des sanctuaires mycéniens, qui semble être en partie contrôlée par le palais. A cet égard, le premier écueil auquel est confronté le mycénologue consiste à tenter d'identifier les théonymes dans les textes en Linéaire B pour reconstituer les panthéons 2 des royaumes. I/ Comment identifier un théonyme mycénien ? 1 Des analogies possibles avec les théonymes du panthéon classique. F 0 F 0 Le Linéaire B notant du grec, il est bien évident qu'il paraît simple de considérer que les mots mycéniens qui pourraient morphologiquement correspondre à des noms de divinités classiques désignent des dieux honorés par les Grecs du II° millénaire. On trouve ainsi par exemple dans les textes pose -da-one = datif de Poséidon, di-wo = Zeus, era = Héra, e-ma-a 2 = Hermès, di-wo-nu-so = Dionysos..... F 0 F 0

Not only Greeks went overseas to trade and transmit their beliefs; also communities from other regions in the Mediterranean travelled to Greece in order to exchange products. This was the case of Near Eastern merchants and, specifically, Phoenicians, who had a great trading infrastructure. This can be attested in Mainland Greece and also in the islands.

Crete is a great example of these trading contacts, as Near Eastern material has been found in many settlements. Knossos has provided material to support the presence and most probably residence of Phoenician merchants and metalworkers. Even though some Phoenicians presumably only used Knossos as a stopping point before continuing their trade routes to the north of the Aegean or to the West, some archaeological finds indicate a more permanent character of their stay.

Faience figurines of Egyptian deities show not only this trading network but also the transmission of oriental beliefs. The presence of cippi (funerary monuments common in Phoenicia) implies that oriental traders would have lived and died in Knossos, denoting their wish to be remembered in Crete. Oriental jewellery and metal vases in Tekke Tomb J and the Khaniale Tekke Tholos Tomb 2 indicate that a community of oriental traders and metalworkers would have also resided in Knossos, and they would have been buried with some of their personal belongings.

As the archaeological record shows, between the 9th and the 8th centuries BC, Knossos saw some Near Eastern metalworkers who arrived, settled, practiced their craft and taught their techniques to local people in the island. This multi-cultural character of Knossos shows that the Greek world was not exclusively Greek, but that cultural practices, techniques and material objects were shared among different groups of people. 

Key words: Knossos, Greeks, Phoenicians, trade

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Arthur Evans (1851-1941) deve la sua celebrità agli scavi archeologici che condusse a Cnosso, nell'isola di Creta, dove dal 1900 portò alla luce il palazzo che la tradizione vuole fosse la reggia di Minosse. Prima delle esplorazioni cretesi, tuttavia, lo studioso inglese trascorse un intenso periodo nei Balcani (1875-1882) e dal 1884 effettuò viaggi ed esplorazioni di notevole importanza in Italia ed in Sicilia. In Bosnia, scrivendo per il Manchester Guardian degli articoli sulle rivolte che animavano la regione, Evans finì per essere imprigionato ed espulso dall'Impero Austro-Ungarico. Rientrato in Inghilterra e divenuto curatore dell'Ashmolean Museum di Oxford nel 1884, Evans frequentò a lungo l'Italia e la Sicilia alla ricerca di reperti archeologici per le collezioni del museo inglese, accompagnando il suocero, Edward Freeman, che si occupava della stesura di una monumentale opera sulla Sicilia antica. Sulla base di lettere e documenti (anche inediti), si rimarca l'importanza delle esplorazioni condotte dall'archeologo inglese in Italia, delle quali si presenta una prima trattazione complessiva ed organica: si tratta di esperienze che segnarono profondamente Evans dal punto di vista umano e che in qualche misura influirono anche sulla sua successiva attività scientifica. Partendo dai rapporti che il padre, John Evans, intrattenne con studiosi italiani, si prende in esame la rete di conoscenze che Arthur Evans ebbe con colleghi in Italia e si esaminano le ricerche condotte dallo studioso in specie a Taranto ed in Sicilia: la scoperta di ceramica micenea in alcune tombe dell'area siracusana (indagate da P. Orsi) colpì particolarmente Evans, che, in seguito alla morte della moglie, avvenuta in Liguria nel 1893, abbandonò i suoi interessi scientifici italiani, dedicando da quel momento le sue maggiori energie nello studio di Creta.

On Late Bronze Age pottery the 'reed' is usually a simple but vague floral device and rarely can the actual plant be securely identified. The same is largely true of the Aegean wall paintings ; many aquatic plants look like reeds but very few can be identified positively, mainly because the plant's tuft is never depicted. From this point of view, the only true reeds in Aegean art are depicted on the reed bed wall painting from Xeste 3.

The strong iconographical similarities show that the fine Late Minoan IB 'reed vases' echo or imitate the marshland depicted on similar monumental wall paintings, which were used as prototypes. The precise dating of the wall painting of the reed bed from Akrotiri in the Late Minoan IA period proves the direct influence of monumental painting on pottery and offers a hitherto unknown iconographic model of Aegean art.

This paper examines the architectural drawings of ‘The Palace of Minos’, the final publication of Knossos’ excavations conducted by Sir Arthur Evans. The main aim is to investigate the meaning of their use and their incorporation in ‘The Palace of Minos’. An examination based upon the study of architecture and architectural drawings in archaeology, as well as the history of archaeological research, proposes that ‘The Palace of Minos’ contains a very characteristic, radical and exceptional assemblage of architectural drawings in terms of Aegean archaeology. Such special architectural drawings may derive from specific epistemological assumptions made by Evans in order to support his vision for Minoan Civilization. I will argue that Evans based his narrative for the Minoan Civilization not only upon the archaeological discourse, but also upon the archaeological image. More specifically, I will examine the way in which architectural drawings contributed to this direction.

This paper presents a new edition of a boundary stone between Capua (on Crete) and Knossos. I identify the post of Publius Messius Campanus as procurator Campaniae rather than procurator Caesaris. The appearance of the procurator Campaniae on Crete is linked to a dispute between the colony of Capua and a private citizen called Plotius Plebeius. This new reading has several important historical consequences: first, it is the earliest attestation of a procurator Campaniae (and the first outside Italy); second, it offers a new interpretation of the juridical category of Knossian lands as part of the ager vectigalis of the Italian colony of Capua in the form of a praefectura Campana or Capuensis; third, it proposes a reinterpretation of the process of arbitration between a public entity (Capua) and a private owner.

- Knossos in Paris. Minoan and Mycenaean references in "The Remembrance of Things Past". This article identifies the references to primitive Greece of Proust who, without being very knowledgeable in archeology, shared the Cretomania of his time, wich was marked by the latest discoveries from the Knossos excavations in 1900. In "À la recherche du temps perdu" are thus to be found again the era’s aesthetic and archeological debates.
- Cnosso a Parigi: archeologia minoica e micenea attraverso "Alla ricerca del tempo perduto". Questo articolo identifica i riferimenti alla Grecia primitiva di Proust che, sebbene non molto studioso in archeologia, condivideva la cretomania del suo tempo segnata dalle ultime scoperte degli scavi di Cnosso nel 1900. "À La Recherche du temps perdu" riflette i dibattiti estetici e archeologici del tempo.
RESUME / ABSTRACT
Au tournant des XIXe et XXe siècles, l'Europe s'emballa pour un nouveau visage de la Grèce révélé par les fouilles de l'archéologue anglais Arthur Evans à Cnossos, qui mirent au jour le prétendu palais du roi Minos dont l'architecture et les fresques rencontraient les attentes de l'Art nouveau. La Grèce de Marcel Proust est tributaire de cette révélation de la Grèce préhellénique qui avait aussi frappé le couturier vénitien Mariano Fortuny, dont Madeleine Lemaire présenta les « châles Cnossos » à Paris dès 1908. En Russie le peintre Léon Bakst, décorateur des Ballets Russes admirés par Proust, se passionnait lui aussi pour ces formes et ces couleurs qui renouvelaient l'esthétique du théâtre et de la mode. Quant à Sarah Bernhardt, modèle de la Berma dans La Recherche, elle n'avait pas attendu Evans : les découvertes de Schliemann à Mycènes l'avaient déjà inspirée pour le décor et les costumes de Phèdre. Ce faisceau de références est tout sauf accessoire : il permet de reconstituer, à travers la « crétomanie » 1900, l'importance de la Grèce préhellénique et de la Grèce archaïque dont La Recherche diffracte l'image dans les passages les plus inattendus : tel geste, telle posture des jeunes filles, telle attitude de la Berma, jusqu'à certaine description de Versailles, sont incompréhensibles si l'on ne fait appel à ces trouvailles archéologiques et aux reconstitutions de l'époque – loin d'amoindrir ou de réduire le sens, ces références permettent de le retrouver.

Thirty Roman mosaics are now known from the Knossos Valley. The Villa Dionysos, with eight mosaics thus far uncovered, forms the largest coherent group. Recent work undertaken at the nearby bath house has revealed a small group of three mosaics. For the most part the remainder are isolated examples, commonly found during rescue excavation and often not well preserved. The mosaics range in date from the late first to the late third century AD and they display a variety of styles from black and white to polychrome and themes from simple geometric to complex figured designs. This paper presents a catalogue of the mosaics followed by a synthetic analysis, providing cultural evidence for the hitherto not well-understood Roman period of Knossos and adding to the corpus of mosaics in Greece.

Despite the limitations of such a study, imposed by the nature of the recovery of the material culture, it is possible, through an understanding of mosaic distribution, context and type, to make suggestions regarding the function of different areas within the city. An analysis of chronology and evidence for workshop production provides data for economic and cultural fluctuations and, importantly, a study of the mosaics helps to place Knossos within the broader context of the Roman Empire.

Having Crete and the settlements of Knossos and Heraklionas main case-studies, the aim of this paper is threefold. First, in the wake of a notable lack of archaeological research into Crete during the Byzantine Islamic transition, it aims at expanding on the current knowledge and understanding of Knossos and Heraklion between the late 7th and mid 10th century. To do so, I have reassessed the corpus of structural remains and material culture already available in secondary literature, complementing it with new architectural analyses of these monuments, and archive-based restudy of related ceramic evidence. The record of evidence thus collected has been contextualised within the wider archaeological framework of the Medieval Mediterranean world, to which Crete belonged. Secondly, by weaving together their historical developments, this paper aims at drawing a new diachronic narrative of shifting settlement patterns and modes of habitation between these two sites. In particular, it will be argued that the progressive socioeconomic decline and ruralisation of Knossos after the 7th century were directly proportioned to the concomitant growth and urbanisation of Heraklion, which eventually –and irreversibly – became the new capital of Crete in the period of the Islamic Emirate (820s-961). These two sites, however, remained indissolubly linked to each other, with Knossos becoming part of the productive hinterland of the new Islamic capital. Finally, I will conclude by placing these two case-studies within their geographical and historical contexts, outlining obstacles and perspectives for a future agenda of landscape archaeology targeting the agricultural hinterland of Heraklion and the surrounding network of rural settlements.

The first Neolithic (agrarian) settlement and related archaeological finds from Knossos Crete is calibrated c. 7000-6000 BCE. (COG.) As discussed in The Origins of Greek Religion (OGR), the derivation of Crete settlers was most probably Anatolia. In the westward migrations from Anatolia, there was a sharing of “culture (agriculture, vegetation, religion), and their skills (the potter’s art, the working of metal).” (OGR: 21.) Crete most likely received agricultural skills from Anatolia as well as the model or idea of permanent settlements and domestic animals. Also, evidence of Crete’s use of obsidian from Anatolia cannot be ignored in this discussion as Anatolia and Crete were utilizing sea trade. (CAH: Vol. 1, Part 1, 570-1; OGR: 21, 106-7, 92, 110-12, 165, 170, 182-3, 304, 221; TIGR: 29-31; COG: 37; MK.)

In 1980 Ljudmila Plesničar published a Roman grave, discovered to the south-east of the colony of Emona (modern Ljubljana) along the road leading towards the municipium Neviodunum (modern Drnovo near Krško).
The grave inventory included among other items a marble casket, two iron and four bone objects, explained by the author as an iron chopping-knife, a bone pin, a bone tube, an iron adze and two bone spatulae. The last three can be identified as a fragmented iron wax spatula, a bone strip terminating in a perforated tab, probably a ruler, and a bone knife resembling modern paper knives.
Roman bone or ivory knives, in form very close to iron-bladed pen-knives,
are extremely rare. Apart from the knife from Ljubljana, two others have been found in graves associated with writing and measuring instruments.

The focus of this paper is a short solo dance, Gnossienne, choreographed and first performed by the American dancer Ted Shawn in 1919.  Shawn was a significant figure in the early development of modern dance. In 1915, he and Ruth St Denis formed the Denishawn School of Dance.  The Denishawn used an eclectic mix of dance techniques from all over the world in their training, and in their heyday the Denishawn Dancers were America’s leading dance company. Martha Graham, sometimes called the ‘mother of modern dance’, first trained and performed with the Denishawn, as did actress and dancer Louise Brooks.
Shawn kept Gnossienne, which requires a high level of physical bodily control, in his repertoire for over thirty years, and it was then passed down through Shawn’s main protégée, Barton Mumaw to his student Jack Clark. Martha Graham also created her own version of the dance in 1926.
In Shawn’s own words, ‘to music by Eric Satie, I represented a priest of ancient Crete going through a ritual at the altar of the snake goddess’.  Gnossienne was one of a number of Shawn’s solo pieces that placed a male dancer centre stage, itself a comment on the dominance of females in modern dance at this time.
The paper explores the Minoan inspiration behind the dance, both in its imagery and its narrative, situating it within the context of popular knowledge and perceptions of Minoan culture at this time. It also looks at how and where Gnossienne was incorporated into Denishawn performances, placed against the wider backdrop of their range of ‘exotic’ dance themes.