Crete was famous in Greek myth as the location of the labyrinth in which the Minotaur was confined in a palace at somewhere called 'Knossos'. From the Middle Ages travellers searched unsuccessfully for the Labyrinth. A handful of clues that survived, such as a coin with a labyrinth design and numerous small bronze age items. The name Knossos had survived - but it was nothing but a sprinkling of houses and farmland so they looked elsewhere. Finally, in 1878, a Cretan archaeologist, Minos Kalokairinos discovered evidence of a Bronze Age palace. British Archaeologist and then Keeper of the Ashmolean Arthur Evans came out to visit and was fascinated by the site. Between 1900 and 1931 Evans uncovered the remains of the huge palace which he felt must be the that of King Minos, and he adopted the name 'Minoans' for its occupants. He employed a team of archaeologists, architects and artists, and together they built up a picture of the Bronze Age community that had occupied the elaborate building. They imagined a sophisticated, nature-loving people, whose civilisation peaked, and then disintegrated. Evans's interpretations of his finds were accurate in some places, but deeply flawed in others. The Evans Archive, held by the Ashmolean, records his finds, theories and (often contentious) reconstructions.

This edited collection focuses on how the ancient past of the city of Naples has been invented, shaped, transmitted, and received in literature, art, and material culture since the time of the city's foundation. Adopting a chronological approach, chapters examine important moments in Naples' reception history from the Roman period (when the city was already several centuries old) to the present day. Among the topics covered are representations of the city's early history and mythology in texts and temples of the Roman period; later uses of Roman spolia (marble sculptures and architectural elements) in Christian churches; the importance of antiquity to the rulers of the Angevin and Swabian periods; the appropriation of the city's classical heritage by Renaissance humanists; the image of the 'local' poets Virgil and Statius in later eras; humanist images of the ancient aqueducts and catacombs that ran beneath the city; representations of classical monuments in early modern city guides; images of ancient ruins in contemporary Catholic nativity scenes; and the archaeology and philosophy of the city's Metro system. Featuring contributions from an interdisciplinary range of scholars, this comprehensive volume provides a highly accessible point of entry into the vast bibliography on ancient Naples.

From the age of Homer until late antiquity the culture of ancient Greece and Rome was permeated by images of Greek myths. Gods and heroes were represented as statues, on vase and wall paintings, on temples, on sarcophagi as well as on other media. This book offers, for the first time, a concise introduction into the interpretation of images of Greek myths. Its main aim is to make the pictorial versions of the myths comprehensible on their own terms. Ancient artists were well aware of the potential but also the limitations of these 'silent' images and of the strategies that made them 'speak' to the audience/viewer. The book combines detailed explanation of theoretical and methodological issues with exhaustive discussion of case studies. It will be useful and stimulating for all undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in classical mythology and ancient art."

From the age of Homer until late antiquity the culture of ancient Greece and Rome was permeated by images of Greek myths. Gods and heroes were represented as statues, on vase and wall paintings, on temples, on sarcophagi as well as in other media. This 2011 book provides a concise introduction to the interpretation of the images of Greek myths. Its main aim is to make the pictorial versions of the myths comprehensible on their own terms. Ancient artists were well aware of the potential - but also the limitations - of these 'silent' images and of the strategies that made them 'speak' to the audience/viewer. The book explains the theoretical and methodological issues at stake and discusses in detail a number of case studies. It will be useful and stimulating for all undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in classical mythology and ancient art.

Nothing in Anglo-Saxon pagan culture could withstand the impact of Christianity after the arrival of the disciples of Pope Gregory I in England. Originally published in 1999, Professor Henderson's book investigates the ways in which the English, in the two centuries following their conversion, expressed their new convictions about this world, and the next. It deals with the impact of books and travel on the Anglo-Saxons, discusses personal sanctity and the manipulation of belief by the state, and identifies the positive role of art in a society constantly afflicted by wars and epidemics. Henderson combines new fragmentary visual and literary evidence in this carefully illustrated book to bring out the peculiar character, both sophisticated and naive, of the new Christian civilisation which began to flourish and, to a surprising degree, recreate that of sixth-century Italy in seventh- and eighth-century England.

From monumental tombs and domestic decoration, to acts of benefaction and portraits of ancestors, Roman freed slaves, or freedmen, were prodigious patrons of art and architecture. Traditionally, however, the history of Roman art has been told primarily through the monumental remains of the emperors and ancient writers who worked in their circles. In this study, Lauren Petersen critically investigates the notion of 'freedman art' in scholarship, dependent as it is on elite-authored texts that are filled with hyperbole and stereotypes of freedmen, such as the memorable fictional character Trimalchio, a boorish ex-slave in Petronius' Satyricon. She emphasizes integrated visual ensembles within defined historical and social contexts and aims to show how material culture can reflect preoccupations that were prevalent throughout Roman society. Interdisciplinary in scope, this book explores the many ways that monuments and artistic commissions by freedmen spoke to a much more complex reality than that presented in literature.

In this book, Sheila Dillon offers the first detailed analysis of the female portrait statue in the Greek world from the fourth century BCE to the third century CE. A major component of Greek sculptural production, particularly in the Hellenistic period, female portrait statues are mostly missing from our histories of Greek portraiture. Whereas male portraits tend to stress their subject's distinctiveness through physiognomic individuality, portraits of women are more idealized and visually homogeneous. In defining their subjects according to normative ideals of beauty rather than notions of corporeal individuality, Dillon argues that Greek portraits of women work differently than those of men and must be approached with different expectations. She examines the historical phenomenon of the commemoration of women in portrait statues and explores what these statues can tell us about Greek attitudes toward the public display of the female body.

In this book, Clemente Marconi provides a new interpretation for the use of figural decoration in Greek temples of the archaic period, through a study of the archaic metopes of Selinus. The study of figural decoration on Greek temples has traditionally been identified with the broader study of architectural sculpture. At the same time, the original, articulated appearance of archaic temples has been fragmented into a discussion of individual types. Marconi argues against both the typological approach and the tendency to investigate style and iconography as two aspects unrelated to the cultural and social background within which temple decoration operated. He explores the relation between style and function and examines the function of figures on temples within the cultural and social context of the communities for which these images were created. Critical to this exploration are the reintegration of the figures into the fabric of buildings, the space of archaic sanctuaries and cities, and the ritual dimension that represented the context for the reception of the figural decoration of Greek temples.

This survey, which centres mainly on Greek sculpture and vase-painting from 600 to 300 BC, examines research over the past twenty years. Organised chronologically in terms of media (free-standing sculpture, architectural sculpture, luxury items, ceramics), the chapters discuss polychromy, the ethics of collecting and the relationship between scenes of myth and everyday life. Attention is also paid to new approaches that question the concept of 'art' in Classical Greece (what is known as the 'paradigm shift') in which the purposes, contexts and effect of material culture are given greater prominence. To summarise recent research, the author adopts a balance between a broad treatment and detailed description. The text and images (fifty in number and largely in colour) will be particularly useful to students and teachers but will have a wider appeal.

What was the impact of Romanisation on non-elite life in central Italy during the late third and second centuries BC? Focusing on the increasing spread of black-gloss pottery across the peninsula, this 2007 text demonstrates the importance of the study of such everyday artefacts as a way of approaching aspects of social history that are otherwise little documented. Placing its subject within the wider debate over cultural identity in the Roman world, the book argues that stylistic changes in such objects of everyday use document the development of new forms of social representation among non-elite groups in Roman Italy. In contrast to previous accounts, the book concludes that, rather than pointing to a loss of regional cultural identities, the ceramic patterns suggest that the Romanisation of Italy provided new material opportunities across the social scale.

Originally published in 2005, this book examines Roman strategies for the appropriation of the Greek visual culture and argues that the scholarship on this topic, dominated by copy criticism (Kopienkritik), has not appreciated Roman values in the visual arts. Ellen Perry analyzes the Roman aesthetics that lie at the core of the visual conservatism - and innovation - in the art of that civilization. These attitudes help to explain the preponderance of copies, exact or free, after the sculpture of great Greek masters in Roman art. A knowledge of Roman values, Perry demonstrates, explains the entire range of visual appropriation in Roman art, which includes not only the phenomenon of copying, but also such manifestations as allusion, parody, and most importantly aemulatio, successful rivalry with one's models.

The study of colour has become familiar territory in anthropology, linguistics, art history and archaeology. Classicists, however, have traditionally subordinated the study of colour to form. By drawing together evidence from contemporary philosophers, elegists, epic writers, historians and satirists, in this 2009 text, Mark Bradley reinstates colour as an essential informative unit for the classification and evaluation of the Roman world. He also demonstrates that the questions of what colour was and how it functioned - as well as how it could be misused and misunderstood - were topics of intellectual debate in early imperial Rome. Suggesting strategies for interpreting Roman expressions of colour in Latin texts, Dr Bradley offers alternative approaches to understanding the relationship between perception and knowledge in Roman elite thought. In doing so, he highlights the fundamental role that colour performed in the realms of communication and information, and its intellectual contribution to contemporary discussions of society, politics and morality.

In this wide-ranging exploration of the creation and use of Buddhist art in Andhra Pradesh, India, Catherine Becker examines how material remains and visual experiences shape and reveal essential human concerns. Shifting Stones, Shaping the Past addresses the fundamental Buddhist question of how humanity progresses centuries after the passing of its teacher, the Buddha Sakyamuni. How might the Buddhas distant teachings be made immediate and accessible? Beginning with an analysis of the spectacular relief sculptures that once adorned the stupas of the region during the early centuries of the Common Era, Becker analyzes the creation of scenes of devotion and the representation of narratives. These reliefs reveal the ancient devotees faith, or optimism, in the role of visual imagery to continue the work of the Buddha by advancing the spiritual progress of visitors to Andhras stupas. Over a period of almost two millennia, many of these stupas have fallen into disrepair. While it is tempting to view these monuments as ruins, they are by no means dead. Turning to the 20th and 21st centuries, Becker analyzes examples of new Buddhist imagery, recent state-sponsored tourism campaigns, and new devotional activities at the sites in order to demonstrate that the stupas of Andhra Pradesh and their sculptural adornments continue to engage the human imagination and are even ascribed innate power and agency. Shifting Stones, Shaping the Past reveals intriguing parallels between ancient uses of imagery and the new social, political, and religious functions of these objects and spaces.

Looking at Greek Art by Mark D. Stansbury-O'Donnell offers a practical guide to the methods for approaching, analysing and contextualising an unfamiliar piece of Greek art. It demonstrates how objects are dated and assigned to an artist or region; how to interpret the subject matter and narrative; how to reconstruct the context for which an object was made, distributed and used; and how we can explore broader cultural perspectives by looking at questions of identity, gender and relationships to surrounding cultures. Each section focuses on different theoretical approaches, providing an overview of the theories, key terms and required evidence. Case studies serve to demonstrate each process and some key issues to consider when using a given approach. This book explores a variety of media, including terracotta, metalwork and jewellery, in addition to works found in major museum collections in the United States and Europe.

For the first time in 3,300 years, The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by Day: The Papyrus of Ani is showcased in its entirety in seventy four magnificent, large-format, color pages. Maybe the most stunning presentation of this book in 3300 years: Upon death, it was the practice for some Egyptians to produce a papyrus manuscript called the Book of Going Forth by Day or the Book of the Dead. A Book of the Dead included declarations and spells to help the deceased in the afterlife. The Papyrus of Ani is the manuscript compiled for Ani, the royal scribe of Thebes. Written and illustrated almost 3,300 years ago, The Papyrus of Ani is a papyrus manuscript with cursive hieroglyphs and color illustrations. It is the most beautiful, best-preserved, and complete example of ancient Egyptian philosophical and religious thought known to exist. The Egyptian Book of the Dead is an integral part of the world's spiritual heritage. It is an artistic rendering of the mysteries of life and death. For the first time since its creation, this ancient papyrus is now available in full color with an integrated English translation directly below each image. This twentieth-anniversary edition of The Egyptian Book of the Dead has been revised and expanded to include: * Significant improvements to the display of the images of the Papyrus. * A survey of the continuing importance of ancient Egypt in modern culture. * A detailed history of Egyptian translation and philology since the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799. * And, a state-of-the-art Annotated Bibliography and Study Guide for Ancient Egyptian studies. As the third revised edition, the entire corpus of this critical work is given its most accessible and lavish presentation ever. * Includes a detailed history of Egyptian scholarship, an annotated bibliography and study guide, and several improvements to the color plates. * Makes an excellent gift for people interested in world history and ancient religions.

The transition from republic to monarchy with the accession of Augustus heralded the transformation not just of the Roman political system but of the city of Rome itself. This volume, written by some of the foremost scholars from around the world, addresses three main topics: the impact of imperial building programs on the configuration of space within the city and on the evolution of Rome's urban image; the various ways in which the figure of the emperor himself was represented, both visually and symbolically, in the city's urban fabric; and the performance of rituals and ceremonies that expressed key imperial ideals and values and enabled communications between the emperor and important collectivities in the city. The contributors build on important recent developments in research: increased archaeological excavation and restoration, the proliferation of digital technologies, and the greater attention paid by scholars to the centuries after Augustus.

Looking at Greek Art by Mark D. Stansbury-O'Donnell offers a practical guide to the methods for approaching, analysing and contextualising an unfamiliar piece of Greek art. It demonstrates how objects are dated and assigned to an artist or region; how to interpret the subject matter and narrative; how to reconstruct the context for which an object was made, distributed and used; and how we can explore broader cultural perspectives by looking at questions of identity, gender and relationships to surrounding cultures. Each section focuses on different theoretical approaches, providing an overview of the theories, key terms and required evidence. Case studies serve to demonstrate each process and some key issues to consider when using a given approach. This book explores a variety of media, including terracotta, metalwork and jewellery, in addition to works found in major museum collections in the United States and Europe.

In this book, Brenda Longfellow examines one of the features of Roman Imperial cities, the monumental civic fountain. Built in cities throughout the Roman Empire during the first through third centuries AD, these fountains were imposing in size, frequently adorned with grand sculptures, and often placed in highly trafficked areas. Over twenty-five of these urban complexes can be associated with emperors. Dr Longfellow situates each of these examples within its urban environment and investigates the edifice as a product of an individual patron and a particular historical and geographical context. She also considers the role of civic patronage in fostering a dialogue between imperial and provincial elites with the local urban environment. Tracing the development of the genre across the empire, she illuminates the motives and ideologies of imperial and local benefactors in Rome and the provinces and explores the complex interplay of imperial power, patronage, and the local urban environment.

This richly illustrated work provides a new and deeper perspective on the interaction of visual representation and classical culture from the fifth century B.C. to the fourth century A.D. Drawing on a variety of source materials, including Greco-Roman literature, historiography, and philosophy, coupled with artistic renderings, Paul Zanker forges the first comprehensive history of the visual representation of Greek and Roman intellectuals. He takes the reader from the earliest visual images of Socrates and Plato to the figures of Christ, the Apostles, and contemporaneous pagan and civic dignitaries. Through his interpretations of the postures, gestures, facial expressions, and stylistic changes of particular pieces, we come to know these great poets and philosophers through all of their various personas-the prophetic wise man, the virtuous democratic citizen, or the self-absorbed bon vivant. Zanker's analysis of how the iconography of influential thinkers and writers changed demonstrates the rise and fall of trends and the movement of schools of thought and belief, each successively embodying the most valued characteristics of the period and culture. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1995.

This book explores how art and material culture were used to construct age, gender and social identity in the Greek Early Iron Age, 1100-700 BCE. Coming between the collapse of the Bronze Age palaces and the creation of Archaic city-states, these four centuries witnessed fundamental cultural developments and political realignments. Whereas previous archaeological research has emphasized class-based aspects of change, this study offers a more comprehensive view of early Greece by recognizing the place of children and women in a warrior-focused society. Combining iconographic analysis, gender theory, mortuary analysis, typological study and object biography, Susan Langdon explores how early figural art was used to mediate critical stages in the life-course of men and women. She shows how an understanding of the artistic and material contexts of social change clarifies the emergence of distinctive gender and class asymmetries that laid the basis for classical Greek society.

Sir William Gell (1777-1836) was a British archaeologist well known for his drawings of sites and objects of classical interest. Gell published this new, two-volume edition of his Pompeiana in 1832, in an effort to describe the latest archaeological discoveries in the Roman city destroyed by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. Concerned 'that time will incalculably diminish the freshness of those objects ... stripped of their external coats by the rains of winter or the burning suns of summer', he made it his task to describe what he had seen both through description and through his own numerous illustrations. In this first volume, Gell focuses on sites including the forum, baths, and the temple of Fortune. Pompeiana reveals both the history of the excavations, the individual finds, and the processes of field archaeology itself during a more romantic age.

Sir William Gell (1777-1836) was a British archaeologist well known for his drawings of sites and objects of classical interest. Gell published this new, two-volume edition of his Pompeiana in 1832, in an effort to describe the latest archaeological discoveries in the Roman city destroyed by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. Concerned 'that time will incalculably diminish the freshness of those objects ... stripped of their external coats by the rains of winter or the burning suns of summer', he made it his task to describe what he had seen both through description and through his own numerous illustrations. In this second volume, Gell focuses on two Pompeiian homes and provides a commentary on the illustrative plates interspersed throughout the book. Pompeiana reveals both the history of the excavations, the individual finds, and the processes of field archaeology itself during a more romantic age.

Adolf Furtw ngler (1853 1907) was a prominent German archaeologist and art historian specialising in classical art. He was appointed assistant Director of the K nigliche Museen zu Berlin in 1880, a position he held until 1894 when he was appointed professor of Classical Archaeology in Munich. He is best known for developing the Kopienkritik approach to studying Roman sculpture, which he introduces in this volume first published in 1885 and translated into English by Eugenie Strong in 1895. Kopienkritik is a methodology which assumes that Roman sculptures are copies of Greek originals, and that by studying the Roman copies the original Greek sculpture can be reconstructed. This approach dominated the study of classical sculpture in the twentieth century and remains influential despite repeated criticism. Furtw ngler compares the styles of known classical Greek sculptors with Roman statues to uncover the original sculptor in this defining example of the Kopienkritic approach.

In this book, Ada Cohen focuses on art produced in Macedonia during the late Classical and early Hellenistic period, which coincides with the reigns of Philip II, his famous son Alexander the Great, and their immediate successors. Although inspired by traditional Greek themes and ideals, this body of artwork articulated specifically Macedonian aspirations. Cohen focuses on three key 'masculine' themes - warfare, hunting, and abduction of women - exploring their visual and conceptual interconnections. She demonstrates their preoccupation with the visual celebration of violence and studies the analogies they draw among the ideological categories of 'enemy', 'animal', and 'woman'. Simultaneously historical and thematic, Cohen's text is structured around select paintings and mosaics from northern Greek sites, such as Pella and Vergina, and from both secular and funerary contexts. She also examines monuments from other ancient contexts and in other media to illuminate specific questions of style, theme, and meaning.

Sir William Gell (1777-1836) was a British archaeologist known for his drawings of sites and objects of classical interest. Noting that from the beginning of the excavations at Pompeii in 1748 'to the present day, no [substantial] work has appeared in the English language upon the subject of its domestic antiquities', together with architect and fellow countryman John P. Gandy he first published Pompeiana to help detail important findings that had been made by the excavators in the first two decades of the nineteenth century. To this end they provide historical discussion, analysis, and over 75 plates illustrating various points of archaeological interest including, as their subtitle notes, 'the topography, edifices, and ornaments of Pompeii'. Pompeiana is an important work that helped open the excavations to English readers and created further awareness of the treasures of the doomed city, destroyed by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE.