Archaeologies of Cult: Essays on Ritual and Cult in Crete in Honor of Geraldine C. Gesell

Intended as a tribute to a pioneer in the field of Cretan cult study, 28 of Geraldine Gesell’s former students and colleagues present aspects of ritual and religion on Crete. In a variety of approaches the discourse ranges in time from the Iron Age to the Bronze Age and in subject matter from cult practices to sacred landscapes. A combined bibliography provides a useful reference tool for a survey of literature on the subject.

Table of Contents

How Many Archaeologies of Cult? (Anna Lucia D'Agata); Gods in the House? Religious Rituals in the Settlements of South Central Crete (Joanne Murphy); Structured Deposition as Ritual Action at Knossos (Eleni Hatzaki); Special, Ritual, or Cultic: A Case Study from Malia (Pascal Darcque and Aleydis Van de Moortel); Tree Tugging and Omphalos Hugging on Minoan Gold Rings (John Younger); "Why All This about Oak or Stone?": Trees and Boulders in Minoan Religion (Lucy Goodison); Harvest Rites and Corn Dollies in the Bronze Age Aegean (Anaya Sarpaki); Cult Activity at Malia in the Protopalatial Period (Jean-Claude Poursat); Does the Widespread Cult Activity at Palaikastro Call for a Special Explanation? (Timothy Cunningham and Hugh Sackett); Rethinking the Tomb of the Double Axes at Isopata, Knossos (Lucia Alberti); Domestic Shrines in Late Minoan IIIA2-Late Minoan IIIC Crete: Fact or Fiction? (Birgitta Hallager); Goddesses for "Gene"? The Late Minoan IIIC Shrine at Halasmenos, Ierapetra (Metaxia Tsipopoulou); Ritual Activity at Karphi: A Reappraisal (Leslie Preston Day); From Kavousi Vronda to Dreros: Architecture and Display in Cretan Cult Buildings (Nancy Klein and Kevin Glowacki); Additions to the Corpus of Early Cretan Figurines: Was There a Nude Goddess in Early Minoan Crete? (Philip Betancourt); Configuring the Individual: Bodies of Figurines in Minoan Crete (Christine Morris); A Neopalatial Shrine Model from the Minoan Peak Sanctuary at Gournos Krousonas (George Rethemiotakis); Tubular Stands in Neopalatial Crete (Gerald Cadogan); Does Size Matter? Miniature Pottery Vessels in Minoan Peak Sanctuaries (Iphiyenia Tournavitou); The Survival of the Goddess with Upraised Arms: Early Iron Age Representations and Contexts (Mieke Prent); Environmental Change and Minoan Sacred Landscapes (Jennifer Moody); The Topography of Minoan Peak Sanctuaries Revisited (Alan Peatfield); Juktas and Kofinas: Two Ritual Landscapes Out of the Ordinary (Steven Soetens); Investigating Minoan Sacred Landscapes (Lucia Nixon); The Chimera of Continuity: What Would "Continuity of Cult" Actually Demonstrate (James Whitley).

<DIV><DIV>Anna Lucia D'Agata is Senior Research Fellow at the Istituto di Studi sulle Civilta della Egeo e del Vicino Oriente of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome. Aleydis Van de Moortel is Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Tennessee.</DIV>