Performance, Power and the Art of the Aegean Bronze Age

In this volume, the author investigates the sudden appearance of the human form in the visual remains of the Aegean Bronze Age at the beginning of the historical period referred to as Late Minoan. Found in a range of media, the beauty of the images of men and women, as well as the great skill of their execution emerging so suddenly, called out for exploration. The study attempts to get at the specific social meanings of performances (primarily bull leaping and dancing) as they would be understood to the people who enacted them. Having comprised a workable set of meanings for images of bull leaping and dancing, the author turns to the larger historical framework of the period, and questions why these images of performance emerged at this specific time during the Aegean Bronze Age.