Molds from Palekastro

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Mold Palekastro 04.jpg
Casting mold with gear and female figure
Casting mold Palekastro 05.jpg
Mold with two double axes

The Palekastro molds ( Greek Μήτρες του Παλαιοκάστρου Σητείας Mitres tou Palekastrou Sitias ) are two double-sided slate molds from the time of the Minoan culture for casting cult figures and symbols. These include female figures with raised arms, the double axes ( Greek Λάβρυες Labryes ) and flowers or poppy capsule carrying two double axes with indented edges, "horns of consecration " and a disc with astral symbols. The gear with a cross surrounded by dots could have been a device for predicting solar and lunar eclipses . The molds were found near Palekastro in the east of the Greek island of Crete .

Find description

The two molds were discovered in October 1899 by a farmer from Karydi ( Καρύδι ) 150 meters northwest of the town of Palekastro. The gendarmerie sent the finds to the then Cretan capital Chania , where the archaeologist and neo- Greekist Stefanos Xanthoudidis saw them and took them for himself. He recognized the importance of the work of the artisans of ancient times and gave the molds to the museum in Heraklion founded in 1883 . In March 1900, Xanthoudidis published a description in Greek under the title Metrai archaiai ek Seteias Kretes in the journal Ephēmeris archaiologikē , published by the Athens Archaeological Society . Inside were photos of the casts on all four sides of the molds.

Cast plate Α, back
Cast plate Α, front side
Cast plate Β, back
Cast plate Β, front side

Xanthoudidis called the two molds made of fairly soft and brittle mica slate ( Αργιλικός σχιστόλιθος Argilikos schistolithos ) as table Α ( Πινακίς Α Pinakis Alpha ) and table Β ( Πινακίς Β Pinakis Beta ). The plaster casts published by him on the right side are reversed to the hollow forms of the originals. The two molds of the same size are 22.5 cm wide, 10 cm high and 2 cm deep, while the width of the casts is 23 cm.

Plate Α shows on the front a large disc with cross-shaped spokes and a serrated edge, a female figure with raised arms, who appears to be holding flowers or poppy capsules in her hands, and a small disc on a bell-shaped base with horizontal stripes with a Cross in the middle, under which a crescent moon is depicted. On the back, on the edge of the panel, there is an image of double horns, the "horns of consecration" known in the Minoan culture on a trident . A small corner has broken off at the bottom of the board.

Two double axes with a serrated edge and different sizes are engraved on the front of the plate Β. The double ax or labrys is a cultic symbol in the Minoan culture . The back of the panel shows a female figure holding up two double axes. A small corner on one side of this board has also broken off. Both panels are displayed side by side in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum . Only the front is visible to the visitors. The panels are in the museum from 1370 to 1200 BC. Dated.

Interpretation of the molds

Since the Palekastro molds do not come from an excavation, and the circumstances of the find with regard to the exact location and location in the ground are unknown, their dating is problematic. Neither stratigraphy nor additional findings can be used to determine the relative age . In 1927 Martin P. Nilsson made stylistic comparisons of the female figure on panel Α with various Minoan-Mycenaean gold rings and a representation on the sarcophagus of Agia Triada . In 1941 Luisa Banti viewed the two female figures on the molds as variations of the type of "goddess with the raised hands", as they were found as terracotta figures in Knossos , Gazi , Karphi and other places in Crete and are assigned to the late Minoan phase SM III . Stylianos Alexiou joined the classification in SM III in 1958, but noticed the differences in the gestures , as the female figures on the two panels were holding objects in their hands. Recently, the molds have been pre-dated for stylistic and iconographic reasons, as in 2016 by Jan G. Velsink , who classified them in the Middle Minoan phases MM II or III.

lili rere
Drawing after Evans and the original of the gear

The most interesting objects are on the front of the plate Α, which already led Arthur Evans to describe them in his book The Palace of Minos at Knossos from 1921. On pages 478 and 479 he already compares the basis of an ivory object that is part of the Knossos game board with the cogwheel of the Palekastro mold. On page 514 the two objects to the right and left of the female figure from panel Α are shown as drawings, but both are imprecise. Evans refers to the isosceles cross used in many cultures as the simplest form of a star symbol and sees in the gear a merging of the day star with the sun disk . He considers the smaller object to be the symbol of the goddess as queen of the underworld and the starry sky of the night. In connection with the crescent moon , the cross on the mold represents the evening star .

In 2013, five scientists published an article in the journal Mediterranean Archeology and Archaeometry in which they described the 8.5 × 8.5 cm large cogwheel on Table Α as a mold for the production of a "ray carrier disk", which was made in the Minoan period in the 15th century. Century BC BC served as a sundial and could be used to calculate the latitude as well as solar and lunar eclipses . Two pens and a pair of tweezers-like objects next to the object served as accessories . Minas Tsikritsis had already given corresponding information to the public in April 2011. At the conference Ancient Greece and the modern world in Olympia at the end of August 2016 , together with Efstratios Theodosiou, he described the smaller, approximately 3 cm wide and 6.2 cm high object next to the female figure as a Minoan cosmology model with the planetary system above the earth's disk on the the cross symbolizing the sun is surrounded by 18 points, including the moon symbol, surrounded by 28 points, a reference to the Saros cycle with 28 lunar eclipses in 18 years. The “radiation carrier disk” on the other side of the female figure, which is associated with the titan Rhea , they see as a portable analog computer , created 1400 years before the Antikythera mechanism .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stefanos A. Xanthoudidis: Μήτραι αρχαίαι εκ Σητείας Κρήτης. In: Ephēmeris archaiologikē. Athens Archaeological Society, Athens 1900, col. 25 (Greek, digitized version ).
  2. ↑ a b Stefanos A. Xanthoudidis: Μήτραι αρχαίαι εκ Σητείας Κρήτης. In: Ephēmeris archaiologikē. Athens Archaeological Society, Athens 1900, Πίναξ 3–4 (Greek, digitized version ).
  3. ↑ Stefanos A. Xanthoudidis: Μήτραι αρχαίαι εκ Σητείας Κρήτης. In: Ephēmeris archaiologikē. Athens Archaeological Society, Athens 1900, Col. 27 (Greek, digitized version ).
  4. ↑ 2 molds from Sitia. Museums Nord (Museumsverband Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg), accessed on March 26, 2019 .
  5. ^ Martin P. Nilsson: The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion and Its Survival in Greek Religion. Gleerup, Lund 1927, The Tree Cult, pp. 242-243 (English, digitized , reading sample 2nd edition, 1971 ).
  6. ↑ Luisa Banti: Divinità Femminili a Creta nel Tardo Minoico III. In: Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni. Volume 17. Zanichelli, Bologna 1942, p. 23 (Italian, digitized [PDF; 829 kB]).
  7. ↑ Stylianos Alexiou: Η μινωική θεά μεθ 'υψωμένων χειρών. In: Andreas G. Kalokairinos (Ed.): Κρητικά Χρονικά (Kritika Chronika). 1Β, No. II. Historical Museum Crete, Iraklio 1958, pp. 213–214 (Greek, online [PDF; 9.6 MB]).
  8. ↑ Jan G. Velsink: Two Minoan Molds for Small Cult Objects Reconsidered. In: BABesch: Annual Papers on Mediterranean Archeology. Volume 61. Peeters, 2016, ISSN  0165-9367 , p. 17 (English, abstract ).
  9. ↑ Arthur Evans: The Palace of Minos at Knossos. MacMillan, London 1921, The Temple Repositories, pp. 478-479 (English, digitized ).
  10. ↑ Minas Tsikritsis, Efstratios Theodossiou, Vassilios N. Manimanis, Petros Mantarakis, Dimitrios Tsikritsis: A Minoan Eclipse Calculator. In: Ioannis Liritzis (Ed.): Mediterranean Archeology and Archaeometry. Volume 13, No. 1. University of the Aegean, 2013, ISSN  1108-9628 , p. 266 (English, digitized [PDF; 7.9 MB]).
  11. ↑ Arthur Evans: The Palace of Minos at Knossos. MacMillan, London 1921, The Snake Goddess and Relics of Her Shrine, p. 514 (English, digitized ).
  12. ↑ Minas Tsikritsis, Efstratios Theodossiou, Vassilios N. Manimanis, Petros Mantarakis, Dimitrios Tsikritsis: A Minoan Eclipse Calculator. In: Ioannis Liritzis (Ed.): Mediterranean Archeology and Archaeometry. Volume 13, No. 1. University of the Aegean, 2013, ISSN  1108-9628 , pp. 267-268 (English, digitized [PDF; 7.9 MB]).
  13. ^ Researcher cites ancient Minoan-era 'computer'. Athens News Agency, April 6, 2011, accessed March 26, 2019 .
  14. ↑ a b Researcher cites ancient Minoan-era computer. Archeology News Network, July 4, 2011, accessed March 26, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Minas Tsikritsis, Efstratios Theodosiou: The Minoan Eclipse Calculator and the Minoan Cosmology Model. Ancient Greece and the Modern World Conference, Ancient Olympia, 28. – 31. August 2016. Conference Paper, 2017, pp. 7–10 (English, online ).
  16. ↑ Minas Tsikritsis, Efstratios Theodosiou: The Minoan Eclipse Calculator and the Minoan Cosmology Model. Ancient Greece and the Modern World Conference, Ancient Olympia, 28. – 31. August 2016. Conference Paper, 2017, pp. 10–11 (English, online ).

Web links

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