Bronze Age Greek Sculpture

	In the Bronze Age there was not a lot of sculpture in Greece. In Crete, between about 1700 and 1450 BC, the
Minoans produced a lot of medium-sized figurines, mainly made of bronze and ivory. Some of these show women holding snakes: this may be the goddess herself, or a priestess. Other figurines show the Minoan interest in nature and graceful movement, like a young man jumping on a bull's back. A number of figures are of cows or bulls, which also may have a religious meaning. On the mainland, the
Myceneans made only tiny clay figurines, three or four inches high, which were probably gifts for the gods.   Can you see that there are two kinds - one with the arms up (called a PHI figurine because it looks like the Greek letter PHI) and another kind with the arms folded (called a PSI figurine because it looks like the Greek letter PSI)? The one on the right is from Bronze Age Cyprus.
Stone Age Bronze Age Dark Age Archaic Severe Classical Hellenistic

For more information about Bronze Age Greek sculpture, check out these books on Amazon.com or in your local library:

Minoan and Mycenaean Art, by Reynold Higgins (2nd revised edition 1997) The standard book for college students

The Archaeology of Greece: An Introduction, by William R. Biers (1996) This is NOT a children's book, but Biers writes very clearly and has a lot of good pictures.

Greek Art and Archaeology (3rd Edition), by John G. Pedley (2002) This is also NOT a children's book, but it has a lot of good information and is pretty readable. Plus, the author is really an expert in this field.

Main Greek Art page
Main Greeks page
Main art page

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