Representation of Humans and Animals in Greece and the Balkans during the Earlier Neolithic

Nanoglou, Stratos

doi:10.1017/s0959774308000012

Cited by 45 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…In part, this may be due simply to archaeological chance: for instance, there are few human representations known in the archaeology of the Western European Neolithic and Bronze Age, a field within which much key theory has been developed. Yet this would not explain why there have been few body-oriented theorizations of human figurines for the Balkan Neolithic, a period which has attracted the attention of some quite eminent theorists (Bailey 2005;Nanoglou 2005;Nanoglou 2008). Another reason may lie in the theoretical sources upon which archaeologists have drawn.…”

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People of Stone: Stelae, Personhood, and Society in Prehistoric Europe

Robb

2009

J Archaeol Method Theory

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Stelae (also known variously as statue-stelae and statue-menhirs) are a pan-European phenomenon in fourth and third millennia B.C. Europe and are clearly associated with the social transformations characterizing Europe in this period. While the varying traditions of stelae, from the Ukraine to Iberia, differ considerably, they also share a set of general aesthetic choices towards representing the human body, reducing the body to a rigidly schematic, highly stylized with a widely shared geometry and with emphasis upon its surface as a canvas for social marking, particularly of gender. This paper reviews the aesthetic choices involved in stelae and relates them to the changing social contexts of later prehistoric Europe.

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People of Stone: Stelae, Personhood, and Society in Prehistoric Europe

Robb

2009

J Archaeol Method Theory

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“…According to Nanoglou (2005Nanoglou ( , 2008a, material matters in Neolithic Greece and the Balkans; the materiality of the human body in stone and in clay is different as it expresses a different subjectivity and experience of being in the world. For example, Nanoglou (2005Nanoglou ( , 2008b notes changes in the materialization of the human body from the earlier to later Greek Neolithic that may reflect a shift in subjectivities from concerns with identity and the present to concerns with substance and the past, concurrent with broader changes in the Neolithic.…”

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confidence: 99%

Material Matters: Representation and Materiality of the Harappan Body

Clark

2009

J Archaeol Method Theory

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In the Indus Civilization (ca. 2600-1900 BC), a society with no readable texts and few larger-scale representations, terracotta figurines were the most common representations of the human body. This paper explores the unique construction of the material representations of bodies and other material culture from Harappa, a major Indus site now in Pakistan. Hand-modeling representations of human bodies from dual clay pieces, sometimes decorated with bone pigments, suggests a focus on the process and ideological rather than practical choices in the materialization of the Harappan human body. For the Harappans, material matters as they engage physically with their world and embody themselves and their worldview.In the Indus Civilization, which peaked ca. 2600-1900 BC in what is now Pakistan and northwestern India, some of the most intriguing artifacts and the most common representations of the human body are terracotta figurines. The purpose of creating these material representations of the Harappan body and how they were used remain unclear. Since they are almost always found in garbage or fill deposits and there are no informants or deciphered texts to provide contextual information, the figurines' "social lives" or histories and their function(s) in Harappan society are difficult to assess.This leaves us with the figurines themselves as the primary evidence of the Harappans' views of the human body and as material evidence of their engagement with their world. Material and manufacturing choices in the materialization of the human body provide clues to their possible uses and meanings. This paper explores the figurines from Harappa as a symbolic and social process through which the Harappans engaged with the world around them, necessarily focusing on the beginning of their "lives" or their creation.

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“…As David et al (1988, 378) note, designs on pottery are more than mere decorations; pots are also frequently associated with human beings due to the processes of transformation that both pots and people undergo (Gosselain 1999;Nanoglou 2008), or because they are considered as extensions of bodies in eating, drinking, washing, urinating and defecating (Warnier 2006, 190). Another description of this association is related to clay, since its plasticity may recall human and animal flesh: the use of clay gave people a new way of representing the body which emphasized its substance and its ability to take different forms (Borić et al 2013, 50;Meskell 2008, 379;Weismantel & Meskell 2014, 236).…”

Section: Figure 6 (Colour Online) (A) Bird-askos From Tharros (Adaptmentioning

confidence: 99%