Faience Goddesses and Ivory Bull-Leapers: The Aesthetics of Sexual Difference at Late Bronze Age Knossos

摘要

In the figurative art of Late Bronze Age Knossos one recognizes a singular form to the human body which cuts across all other distinctions. Contrary to popular and academic interpretations, sexed differences are not marked in a clearly binary fashion. Drawing on this observation, the current paper analyses the relationship between two sets of figurines from the Bronze Age Palace site of Knossos: the faience figurines from the u27Temple Repositoriesu27 and the ivory bull-leaper figurines from the u27Domestic Quarteru27. The interpretation of these figurines elucidates: a) how the appearance of sexual characteristics is context specific and not a general feature of the imagery; and b) the differing aesthetic responses motivated by and surrounding these two sets of artefacts and hence the social contexts in which representations of sexed differences were mobilized.