Solid items made to break, or breakable items made to last? The case of Minoan peak sanctuary figurines

The thousands of figurines found at peak sanctuaries across Crete have been widely understood as votive offerings. Owing to their fragmentary condition, it also has been suggested that they were broken as part of the rituals performed at these sites by being thrown into bonfires or to the ground. Th...

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Main Author: Céline Murphy
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: ACoSt - Association for Coroplastic Studies 2018-04-01
Series:Les Carnets de l’ACoSt
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/acost/1089
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author Céline Murphy
author_facet Céline Murphy
author_sort Céline Murphy
collection DOAJ
description The thousands of figurines found at peak sanctuaries across Crete have been widely understood as votive offerings. Owing to their fragmentary condition, it also has been suggested that they were broken as part of the rituals performed at these sites by being thrown into bonfires or to the ground. This hypothesis was further strengthened by the perception of some archaeologists of the figurines as poorly made. Upon a closer material examination of these artefacts, however, it appears that they were modelled and assembled with techniques ensuring their solidity. I therefore propose here that the figurines may not have been broken as immediately as is usually assumed, and that they may have been placed on display at peak sanctuaries for some time, before fragmentation took place. Keywords
format Article
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publisher ACoSt - Association for Coroplastic Studies
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series Les Carnets de l’ACoSt
spelling doaj-art-50d7ba88f0684edbb5bda60fa974033c2025-08-20T02:44:59ZengACoSt - Association for Coroplastic StudiesLes Carnets de l’ACoSt2431-85742018-04-011710.4000/acost.1089Solid items made to break, or breakable items made to last? The case of Minoan peak sanctuary figurinesCéline MurphyThe thousands of figurines found at peak sanctuaries across Crete have been widely understood as votive offerings. Owing to their fragmentary condition, it also has been suggested that they were broken as part of the rituals performed at these sites by being thrown into bonfires or to the ground. This hypothesis was further strengthened by the perception of some archaeologists of the figurines as poorly made. Upon a closer material examination of these artefacts, however, it appears that they were modelled and assembled with techniques ensuring their solidity. I therefore propose here that the figurines may not have been broken as immediately as is usually assumed, and that they may have been placed on display at peak sanctuaries for some time, before fragmentation took place. Keywordshttps://journals.openedition.org/acost/1089manufacturePeak sanctuarymaterialfragmentationdisplay
spellingShingle Céline Murphy
Solid items made to break, or breakable items made to last? The case of Minoan peak sanctuary figurines
Les Carnets de l’ACoSt
manufacture
Peak sanctuary
material
fragmentation
display
title Solid items made to break, or breakable items made to last? The case of Minoan peak sanctuary figurines
title_full Solid items made to break, or breakable items made to last? The case of Minoan peak sanctuary figurines
title_fullStr Solid items made to break, or breakable items made to last? The case of Minoan peak sanctuary figurines
title_full_unstemmed Solid items made to break, or breakable items made to last? The case of Minoan peak sanctuary figurines
title_short Solid items made to break, or breakable items made to last? The case of Minoan peak sanctuary figurines
title_sort solid items made to break or breakable items made to last the case of minoan peak sanctuary figurines
topic manufacture
Peak sanctuary
material
fragmentation
display
url https://journals.openedition.org/acost/1089
work_keys_str_mv AT celinemurphy soliditemsmadetobreakorbreakableitemsmadetolastthecaseofminoanpeaksanctuaryfigurines