Gestures in the arts of Bronze Age Crete

• Applicant: Dr. Ute Günkel-Maschek
• Subject Area: Classical, Roman, Christian and Islamic Archaeology ; Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: from 2016 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 319192759

Minoan art depicts a broad repertoire of gestures. From images on signet rings and gemstones to figurines of worshippers and deities through to wall-paintings, the importance of gesture-making male and female, human and supernatural beings permeated a variety of contexts of cultural and social life in Minoan Crete. Given the fact that written sources do not provide us with any information about related purposes, meanings and circumstances, these Images, their formulaic nature notwithstanding, offer the most promising body of evidence to address the who, when and where of Minoan action and interaction. However, a systematic study of gestures across the pictorial media has not been undertaken in Minoan archaeology until this day. The aim of this project is to carry out the first general study of gestures depicted in late Middle and Late Minoan art (c. 1700 to 1100 BC). Other than previous studies, it will cover all kinds of pictorial media depicting humans in action and communicative interaction. A methodology combining semiotic iconographic analysis with a contextual approach will be applied in a pragmatic structural approach to the use of gestures in both pictorial and physical contexts of Bronze Age Crete and related areas. To this end, contextual data will be drawn not only from pictorial scenes but also from archaeological find-contexts and from the production and usage of the objects on which the images of gesturing figures appear. By tracing the patterns of appearance of each gesture through media, space and time, the aim is to reconstruct the contextualization of individual gestures and to pinpoint the circumstances which prompted the performance of gestures within certain situations of Minoan cultural life and social practice. A database containing both an object catalogue and descriptions of pictorial units and relations between them will form the basic tool to reconstruct the groups of relationships connected to each individual gesture. The resulting networks will be visualized as concept maps, which are introduced as a new heuristic tool to enhance the organisation, representation and analysis of networks of entities and relations. The concept maps will be used in the main analysis of gestures and their structural and pragmatic embedding within the pictorial and locational contexts of Bronze Age Crete and related areas. Working on the abstract level of spatial and conceptual relations deduced from images, objects and contexts, a profound understanding of people, objects, situations, locations, actions and interactions associated with gesture-making in Minoan art will be created. In a final step, the validity of the overall conceptual structure representing the nexus of gestures in Minoan life and ritual for the interpretation of selected individual objects depicting gesturing humans will be assessed, illustrating the advances in understanding Minoan gestures resulting from this project.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants