Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The amazing discovery of the 'first European civilization' in Crete, Greece and the Aegean islands during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was beyond what anyone had imagined. Beginning with the Neolithic period, before 3000 BCE, and ending at the close of the Bronze Age and the transition to the Iron Age of Hellenic Greece (c.1000 BCE), this is the first comprehensive introduction to the visual arts and architecture of this extraordinary era. This book introduces the reader to the historical and social contexts within which the arts - pottery, gold, silver, and ivory objects, gravestone reliefs, frescoes, and architecture - of the Aegean area developed. It examines the functions they served, and the ways in which they can be read as evidence for the interactions of many different peoples and societies in the eastern Mediterranean. It also provides an up-to-date critical historiography of the field in its relationship to the growth of ancient art history, archaeology, and museology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, giving a contemporary audience a clear appreciation of what has been at stake in the uncovering and reconstruction of this ancient society.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgements (p. ix)
• Chapter 1 Introduction: Aegean Art and Architecture (p. 1)
• The environment (p. 4)
• Discovering the Aegean world (p. 7)
• Art and art history (p. 20)
• Objectives of this book (p. 24)
• Organization of the book (p. 28)
• Chapter 2 The Neolithic Period and the Prepalatial Early Bronze Age (p. 33)
• Settlements (p. 33)
• Burial practices (p. 53)
• Chapter 3 The First Palace Period (p. 63)
• Middle Bronze Age palaces and villas (p. 63)
• The vernacular tradition in Greece and Crete (p. 77)
• Ritual practices (p. 78)
• Summary (p. 87)
• Chapter 4 The Second Palace Period (p. 89)
• Public art, private art, and the palatial architectural style (p. 89)
• The Second Palaces: Knossos, Phaistos, Gournia, and Kato Zakro (p. 92)
• Minoan villas: function and design (p. 110)
• The terminology and typology of Minoan palatial buildings (p. 120)
• The Minoan and Mycenaean spheres of influence (p. 122)
• Religious practices (p. 135)
• Burial practices (p. 148)
• Chapter 5 Mycenaean Domination and the Minoan Tradition (p. 155)
• The Mycenaean palace at Pylos (p. 155)
• The Mycenaean palace at Knossos (p. 165)
• Haghia Triadha and Kommos (p. 171)
• The continuation of Minoan building techniques in the Third Palace Period (p. 173)
• Burial practices (p. 174)
• The Mycenaean shrine at Phylakopi (p. 182)
• The circuit walls at Mycenae and Tiryns (p. 185)
• Chapter 6 Conclusion: Disruptions, (Dis)Continuities, and the Bronze Age (p. 193)
• The eastward migration of Aegean traditions (p. 193)
• The international style (p. 198)
• Cyprus, Palestine, and the Peoples of the Sea (p. 200)
• Tradition and transformation (p. 210)
• What goes around comes around: Daedalus returns to Crete (p. 214)
• Notes (p. 220)
• List of Illustrations (p. 227)
• Bibliography (p. 232)
• Timeline (p. 242)
• Index (p. 243)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

In this excellent book, Preziosi and Hitchcock (both, Univ. of California, Los Angeles) offer a well-written, cogently argued, handsomely illustrated, timely presentation of Aegean art and architecture in the third and second millennia. They discuss numerous archaeological sites and artifacts from mainland Greece, the Cycladic Islands, Turkey, Crete, and Cyprus--cognizant of the sea as the primary means of communication and commercial relations, binding together these disparate sites in a continuous cultural horizon, culminating in the second millennium Bronze Age. The text is replete with trenchant observations on evolving archaeological/art historical methods and on the influence of archaeological pioneers, such as Schliemann and Evans, in uncovering the material remains of a previously obscure period in European history, once known only through Homeric poems and Greek mythology. Much attention is paid to extensive contacts with Egypt, the Levant, and the Near East, as persons, objects, images, writing systems, and beliefs moved between the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean. The expansion of Aegean archaeology demonstrates the growing freedom of 20th-century concepts of culture that acknowledge the mutually creative forces of interaction along so-called cultural boundaries. Thus, it is clear that Greek artistic culture came into being in the second millennium with substantial contributions from Bronze Age neighbors. General readers; undergraduate and graduate students. R. Brilliant; Columbia University

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Donald Preziosi is Professor of Art History, UCLA, where he developed and directs the art history critical theory programme, as well as the UCLA museum studies programme.Dr Louise Hitchcock is a Research Associate of the Institute of Archaeology at UCLA. She received the prestigious Edward A. Dickson Fellowship on several occasions prior to completing her Ph.D., and was a Fellow of the American School of Classical Studies, Athens.