2015-A Group of new Mycenaean Frescoes from Iklaina, Pylos PDF

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9 A GROUP OF NEW Michael B. Cosmopoulos / MYCENAEAN FRESCOES FROM IKLAINA, PYLOS A group of fresco fragments discovered recently at Iklaina is of great interest, from both an artistic and a historical perspective.1 In the present paper I offer the first presen- tation of these fragments; after a bri...

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9 A GROUP OF NEW MYCENAEAN FRESCOES FROM IKLAINA, PYLOS

Michael B. Cosmopoulos /

A group of fresco fragments discovered recently at Iklaina is of great interest, from both an artistic and a historical perspective.1 In the present paper I offer the first presentation of these fragments; after a brief overview of the project and the site, I discuss the stratigraphic provenience, iconography, and style of the frescoes, after which I make some preliminary suggestions about their importance. The project focuses on the site of Iklaina: Traganes, identified by Richard Hope Simpson and John Bennet as a-pu2 , one of the district capitals of the Hither Province of the Pylian state.2 The site was tested for the first time by Spyridon Marinatos in 1954 but was left unexplored until the early 1990s, when George S. Korres recommended it to me for further investigation.3 The Iklaina Archaeological Project (IKAP) was launched in 1999. The first phase of the project (1999-2006) consisted of an intensive archaeological and geophysical survey of the areas nearest to Iklaina; the second phase, which started in 2006,

1. I am indebted to Sharon Stocker and Hariclia Brecoulaki for the invitation to present the Iklaina frescoes at the workshop, the proceedings of which are published here. Many thanks are due to John Younger, Aleydis van de Moortel, Nanno Marinatos, and Assaf Yasur-Landau who provided valuable suggestions and feedback. It is a pleasure for me to acknowledge the invaluable help and support offered to the Iklaina project by Joel Glassman, Director of the Center for International Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis; and Xeni Arapogianni, former Ephor of Antiquities for Messenia. The frescoes are being conserved by Stefania Veldemiri, to whom I wish also to express my gratitude for her meticulous and careful work. Our work has from the beginning been conducted under the auspices of the Archaeological Society at Athens, with funding from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, the Institute for Aegean Prehistory, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Geographic Society, the Loeb Classical Library Foundation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Pylos Archaeology Foundation. 2. Hope Simpson 1981, p. 117, F17, F18; Bennet 1998a, 1998b; Cosmopoulos 2006. 3. Marinatos 1954, p. 309; Hope-Simpson 1981, p. 117.

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A Group of Ne w M ycenaean Frescoes from I k laina, Pylos

ings in the complex were constructed in ashlar masonry, as suggested by tumbled ashlar blocks and orthostates found in front of the east wing. Among the numerous finds there are several human and animal figurines, clay offering tables, plain and decorated pottery, and the fresco fragments presented here. The majority of the fresco fragments were found in the rooms marked in Figure 1 as S1 and S2, although many pieces were also found in rooms T1–T3. The CTB complex was destroyed at an advanced stage of Late Helladic (LH) IIIA1 and was never reused; all the rooms that yielded fresco fragments are securely dated to LH IIB-LH IIIA1.

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Description of the Painted Plaster

OPEN AREA (?)

A total of 1,181 pieces of painted plaster have been recovered from the excavation so far, and most of them are of small dimensions (average dim. 2 x 1.7 cm, average thickness 1.5 cm). The vast majority of the pieces have monochrome backgrounds, some whitish, but most of them are light blue. A preliminary examination of fragments from the two main scenes by Jennifer and Arthur Stephens revealed the use of Egyptian blue pigment for the backgrounds. About 60 pieces have recognizable patterns: for the moment, we have identified three main iconographic groups. The long process of conservation and restoration of the fresco fragments has just begun, therefore in this paper I offer only a general overview and a preliminary assessment of the importance of these frescoes. The Naval Scene

Figure 1

4. A  nnual excavation reports have appeared in the Ergon and the Praktika of the Archaeological Society at Athens 1999–2010. The present paper was written in the spring of 2011, before the fifth season of excavation, which took place in June and July of 2011.

The most striking fresco is a naval representation, in which the elements preserved include part of a ship, three human figures, and two dolphins (Fig. 2). The ship’s hull is designed with two thin black curved lines that converge towards the right, suggesting that it was crescent-shaped; the rail is represented with a thick brown band under the top line. Three male figures are represented (named from the right A, B, and C). Figures B and C are oarsmen; C is the best preserved, with the face, arms, and part of the torso; B preserves only the outline of the face and the arms; A is not an oarsman, but a man sitting in a cabin (only the curved line of the curtain survives in the upper right-hand side next to the vertical post, suggesting that the walls of the cabin would have been curved). The roof of the cabin is formed by the same slanted beam that covers the oarsmen; it is supported by four vertical posts. There is no representation of a mast in the preserved fragment, but if a mast had existed, it would most probably have stood beyond the left edge of the fragment. Parts of two long thick oars in brown paint are visible; these are plunged into the water towards the bottom right and are held by the oarsmen. Two dolphins are visible in the lower right part of the fragment, outlined in black, their upper bodies depicted with the same hue of blue as the background. The ventral side is white, separated from the upper body with one thin black line, and rendered in 3-D with two additional black lines. The dorsal fin and the two pectoral fins are triangular, the rostrums are irregular conical, and the eyes are slanted. The tails are not preserved. The

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General plan of the Cyclopean Terrace Building complex.

consisted of a full-scale, multi-year excavation at the site. During four seasons of excavation (2006, 2008-2010) we uncovered parts of a Mycenaean settlement spanning the period from 1500 to 1200 B.C.4 Provenience and Context

During the 2009 excavation season numerous fragments of frescoes came to light in three rooms of the “Cyclopean Terrace Building” (CTB), a large, two-or three-story complex with at least three wings. The north wing stood partially on a massive Cyclopean terrace measuring 8 x 20 m; the east and west wings included a suite of rooms built around a central open space (possibly a courtyard or garden). It is clear that parts of the build-

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A Group of Ne w M ycenaean Frescoes from I k laina, Pylos

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The ship fresco. Photo and reconstruction S. Veldemiri.

position of the oarsmen (facing left) suggests that the ship is moving towards the right and that the preserved part of the fresco shows the bow of the ship. There are few representations of ships in Middle Helladic (MH) and early LH iconography: the well-known late MH pithos from Aegina, a jug from Argos, and a sherd from Iolkos that possibly has a representation of a ship.5 In all three of these representations the ships have crescentic hulls, but on the Iolkos piece the hull ends in a sort of forefoot.6 The Argos ships have a curved structure on top, possibly illustrating a cabin. Ship representations from the LH II-IIIA1 period do not exist, but there is a considerable number of LH IIIC middle–late representations on pottery;7 the best known ones are on a stirrup jar from Asine, a pyxis from tholos 1 at Tragana: Viglitses, a stirrup jar from a chamber tomb in Skyros-Basales, a krater from Pyrgos Livanaton (Kynos), a Minoan larnax from Gazi, a sherd from Seraglio in Kos, and another sherd from Enkomi.8 In all these representations the hulls have

5.  Aegina: Siedentopf 1991, p. 25, fig. 4, pls. 14, 38; Argos: Protonotariou-Deilaki 1980, fig. 26; Iolkos: Immerwahr 1985. The purpose of the present paper is not to provide an analytical discussion of ship representations in the Middle and Late Bronze Age, for which see Wedde 1991, 2000; Petrakis 2006; cf. Yasur-Landau 2010, pp. 49–50. 6. If it is, indeed, a ship and not a fish; see Bass 1972. 7. Petrakis 2004. 8.  Asine: Frödin and Persson 1938, p. 300, n. 2; Tragana: Viglitses: Kourouniotis 1914, pp. 107–109; Korres 1989; SkyrosBasales: Parlama 1984, pp. 146–151, figs. 31–32, pl. Α΄, 62–64; Kynos: Dakoronia 2006a, p. 25, fig. 1; 2006b, p. 172,

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a roughly rectangular profile, whether they were straight (Tragana, Gazi, Seraglio) or rockered (Kynos, Skyros, Asine, Enkomi). Almost all the ships have open galleries for the rowers; oarsmen are not represented, with the exception of the sherds from Seraglio and Enkomi, where the full bodies of the oarsmen are shown, including the legs.9 In the Seraglio piece, the oarsmen seem to wear helmets and their bodies are solidly painted, but the Enkomi figures are rather stylized and there is no indication of a garment. The arms of the Iklaina oarsmen are outstretched (resembling those of the Theran boat Π10, see below), indicating that they are at the beginning of the stroke; a similar strenuousness is also seen on the Seraglio sherd, but since the oarsmen are leaning back, it must be assumed that they are in fact at the end of their stroke. Overall, the Iklaina ship is similar in style to the Mycenaean representations from Aegina and Argos, especially insofar as the shape of the hull is concerned. On the other hand, there are also notable affinities with ship representations from Akrotiri and Ayia Irini. The crescent-shaped, light-colored hull, with the rail and the row of oarsmen facing towards the left and shown in profile from the waist up, standing under a wooden roof supported by vertical posts, is reminiscent of ship Π10 with figures A69–A75 of the South Miniature Frieze, and of the ships from the Keos frieze.10 Figure A, all the way to the right, is reminiscent of the figures under the ikria of ships Π11-Π12; and the row of spirals decorating the hull is paralleled in ship Π1.11 The curved wall of the cabin in which this figure sits is closer in style to the Theran cabins than it is to the Mycenaean ones.12 In terms of differences, apart from the larger scale of the Iklaina fresco, the oars of the Iklaina ship are longer and thicker than those of the Theran ships and the cover strut is slanted, as opposed to being horizontal. The dolphins in the lower right corner of the Iklaina fresco are rendered in a different way from the Theran dolphins. The straightness of their bodies is closer to the LM IIIA dolphins of the Dolphin Fresco from the Queen’s Megaron at Knossos and the painted floor at Ayia Triada,13 than it is to the arched Theran and Keian dolphins, the bodies of which are painted blue, yellow, red, or pink and divided into two sections by a single or double line in white, yellow, or blue.14 Additional affinities with the Knossos fresco are found in the white ventral side and the double lines of the underbelly (although these are wavy in the Knossos dolphins).

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fig. 1; Gazi: Alexiou 1972. Cf. Wachsmann 1997, p. 346, fig. 10; Seraglio: Vermeule and Karageorghis 1982, pl. XII.33; Enkomi: Gjerstad et al. 1934, p. 484, no. 262, pl. LXXVII, top row center; Sjöqvist 1940, fig. 20.3; Furumark 1941, pp. 333, 335, fig. 56.40.1; Casson 1995, fig. 59; Wachsmann 2009, pp. 141–142, fig. 7.28A, p. 357, n. 94. Wachsmann 2009, pp. 140–142, figs. 7.26A, 7.28A. For a review of the evidence see Wachsmann 2009, p. 155. Televantou 1994, color pl. 57. Televantou 1994, color pl. 58. Shaw 1982, p. 54. Knossos: Palace of Minos III, pp. 377–381, fig. 251. For the date see Koehl 1986, p. 413; Ayia Triada: Hirsch 1977, pp. 10–11, fig. 2, pl. 1. Davis 1990, p. 226.

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Female face, Fragment 1. Photo and reconstruction S. Veldemiri.

In mainland iconography dolphins had already been seen by the early Mycenaean period. The motif is found on two inlaid dagger blades from Prosymna and Pharai, on a gold cup from Shaft Grave III and an ostrich egg from Shaft Grave V at Mycenae, and on a gold cup from Dendra.15 In all these early Mycenaean representations, the dolphins are depicted with arched bodies, and are stylistically closer to the Theran and Keian dolphins than they are to the Iklaina ones. The Iklaina dolphins are, as far as I know, the only LH IIB–IIIA1 ones represented in frescoes on the Greek mainland. Overall, the style of the Iklaina naval scene appears to be a Helladic adaptation of Minoan iconographic motifs. Until more LH IIB–IIIA1 frescoes are found, it is difficult to ascertain whether it is part of a local Messenian or a wider mainland style.

A Group of Ne w M ycenaean Frescoes from I k laina, Pylos

thick black outline in frontal view; the pupil is also black. A wavy black coil of hair is seen falling across the neck onto the chest; a red and black strap from the top of a dress is visible on the shoulder. Fragment 2 shows a female hand being raised towards the breast; both hand and breast are outlined in red and are depicted in profile against a light blue background. This appears to be the right hand, as the thumb is at the left-hand side of the representation.16 All five fingers are visible, the thumb being longer in proportion to the other fingers; nails are not represented. The wrist appears to be decorated with three bracelets designed with red lines and a spiraliform Female hand, Fragment 2. attachment; another possibility is that these are Photo and reconstruction S. Veldemiri. ties (perhaps for a sleeved bodice), or even strung sealstones.17 The body, as indicated by the preserved part of the breast, was dressed in a light blue to white dress; because the arm appears to have been bare, it is possible that the dress was short-sleeved. This female figure, who brings her open hand toward her chest, could have been making the well-known female gesture of pointing to a necklace.18 Fragments 1 and 2 belonged to two different figures, despite the fact that in both fragments the figures face to the right. This is supported by (a) the difference in scale (the figure to which the face belongs would have been about 70-75 cm in height, whereas the one to which the hand belongs would have been about half that height); and (b) the fact that in Fragment 1 the face is outlined in black and in Fragment 2 the hand is outlined in red. These two female figures may have been part of a procession scene, in all likelihood of

15. P  rosymna and Pharai: Blegen 1937, pp. 330–331, figs. 420–421, color pl. II facing p. 330; Papadopoulos 1978–1979, pp. 167, 333, figs. 321a, b, 357; Mycenae: Karo 1930–1933, pp. 54, 226, no. 73, fig. 95, pl. CIII, and p. 146, no. 828, pl. CXLI; Dendra: Persson 1931, pp. 31–32, 44, fig. 25, pls. IX–XI.

16. N  otice, however, that some figures in Aegean art are represented with two right hands: e.g., the falling leaper on the violent Vapheio Cup (de Grummond 1980) and the Mykenaia fresco (Kritseli-Providi 1982, pp. 37–40, esp. p. 39). 17. I wonder whether the bracelets seen on the wrist of the hand in Fragment 2 may be similar to one worn by the recently published female archer from the Palace of Nestor (Brecoulaki et al. 2008) that consists of three (leather?) strings around the wrist, fastened together with a (metal?) spiral form ornament; in this case, the archer representation would depict the underside of the wrist of the right hand of the figure, while the Iklaina figure would depict the top side of the wrist of the right hand. Seals: Younger 1992, pp. 272–273; note the double lines used to secure the sealstones (one on each wrist) worn by the “Sitopotnia” from the House of the Frescoes; also see the two quadruple loosely woven strands, each with a banded lentoid sealstone (thus, two seals on the arm) in Pylos fresco 13 M nws, and the Knossos relief fresco. I thank John Younger for the suggestion and the references. 18. Younger 1992, pp. 266–268; 2008.

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The Female Figures

Two fragments depict a face and a hand from female figures (Figs. 3, 4). Fragment 1 preserves the face of a white-skinned female figure. The face is shown in profile facing to the right of the spectator, set against a dark blue background, with the eye rendered in

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Miscellaneous fragments. Photos S. Veldemiri.

prominent women. Stylistically, the rendition of facial features in Fragment 1 (slanted eye, subtle outline, lack of make-up, coil of hair falling in front of the neck) and the naturalistic representation of the hand resemble the features of the figures in the Kadmeia procession fresco and of those from below the Ramp House at Mycenae (My no. 1).19 The advanced stylization and awkwardness seen in later Mycenaean frescoes (including the Mykenaia) is not attested here. The Kadmeia frescoes date to the 14th century, which would agree in general with the Iklaina date, although the Iklaina frescoes may be dated a little earlier.20

A Group of Ne w M ycenaean Frescoes from I k laina, Pylos

House at Mycenae.21 The Iklaina frescoes, securely dated to LH IIB–IIIA1, can be placed early in the history of Mycenaean wall painting. The Iklaina painters are inspired by Minoan prototypes, but introduce significant mainland characteristics into their works, both in terms of style (e.g., the stylization in the dolphins) and iconography (e.g., dressed oarsmen, thick straight oars). These elements appear here for the first time on the Greek mainland and may represent the seeds of what in the centuries that followed became the established Mycenaean style. In this respect, we should consider the possibility that the origins of the mainland style developed in Messenia as early as LH IIB or LH IIIA1. As for the inspiration of these representations, the Minoan influences and the affinities with the Akrotiri and Ayia Irini frescoes reinforce Cameron’s original suggestion that the Mycenaeans were first exposed to the art of wall painting in Thera or Keos.22 At this stage it is impossible to speculate about the precise subject matter or meaning of these representations, but the possible existence of a naval scene from an early phase of Hall 64 at the Palace of Nestor suggests a commonality for this motif, perhaps as a means of displaying naval power.23 Another common element is the use of a plain blue background and the use of the Egyptian blue pigment, paralleled in the early frescoes at the Palace of Nestor.24 The presence of an iconographic program involving naval scenes and ritual activities in the CTB, in conjunction with the Cyclopean terrace, ashlar masonry, courtyard, and advanced drainage system, suggest that the CTB may have been an early Mycenaean center of power.

Other Representations

A large number of pieces preserve parts of other representations (Fig. 5) that will be identified and studied in coming study seasons. The Significance of the Iklaina Wall Paintings

The earliest known frescoes from the Greek mainland until now have been those dated to LH IIIA1, specifically, those from the Kadmeia, and the deposits below the Ramp

19. Kadmeia: Reusch 1956; Ramp House: Shaw 1996. 20. For the date of the Kadmeia frescoes, see Immerwahr 1990, p. 106.

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21. T hebes: Reusch 1956. Mycenae: Lamb 1919–1921, pp. 194–195, nos. 8–10, pl. VIII, although not enough is preserved of the original fresco to allow reconstruction of the composition. For LH IIIA1 nonfigural fragments from Tiryn...