Domestic Shrines in Late Minoan IIIA2-Late Minoan IIIC Crete: Fact or Fiction? Author(s): Birgitta

Domestic Shrines in Late Minoan IIIA2-Late Minoan IIIC Crete: Fact or Fiction?Author(s): Birgitta P. HallagerSource: Hesperia Supplements, Vol. 42, Essays on Ritual and Cult in Crete in Honor ofGeraldine C. Gesell (2009), pp. 107-120Published by: The American School of Classical Studies at AthensStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27759935 .

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CHAPTERIO

Domestic Shrines in Late

MlNOAN IIIA2-LATE MlNOAN IIIC

Crete: Fact or Fiction?

by Birgitta P. Hallager

Independent sanctuaries in Late Minoan (LM) IIIA2-IIIC Cretan settle

ments, known as town shrines, have been the focus of many articles and discussions in recent years. The presentation of newly found shrines such as the ones at Kavousi Vronda, Halasmenos, and Kephala Vasilikis has contributed to a better understanding of these public shrines and, in

particular, of their contents. In the preliminary reports and publications of both new and old excavations, rooms in private houses that have been

interpreted as domestic shrines seem, however, not to have attracted com

parable attention. In some settlements, more than one domestic shrine has

been identified; in other settlements, none have been found. If "each fam

ily had its own small ritual nook,"1 why do we not find these nooks in all

the houses? We have plenty of evidence of modest artifacts in the LM III settlements that we can, with some security, relate to domestic, or

popular,

cult. The question is whether we can?or cannot?relate these artifacts to

domestic shrines, in the sense of special rooms or parts of rooms reserved

for a household cult. In order to establish a positive identification of a shrine we need secure

criteria. These may include distinctive architecture, such as benches and

cult objects,2 but these features are not always reliable indicators. Benches are not uncommon in LM III houses, and the broad term "cult objects" could be applied to a large variety of objects found in these houses. Even more problematic is the distinguishing of so-called cult vessels. Miniature

vessels, rhyta, and stands are often considered to be connected to cult, but, as is well known, they are at the same time common vessels in domestic contexts. We cannot argue that all domestic contexts with these vessels are

shrines. In order to identify the presence of shrines in a settlement, it may be a good idea to have a closer look at the equipment in the better-known

type?the public shrine?before we turn to the domestic.

l.Geselll985,p. 47.

I am very grateful to Maria

Andreadaki-Vlasaki, Anna Lucia

D Agata, Aleydis Van de Moortel, and Molly Richardson, who read

this work and gave me valuable

comments that improved my paper. An additional warm thanks goes to

Molly Richardson, who undertook the

tedious task of transforming my text

into readable English. 2. Gesell 1985, p. 2.



I08 BIRGITTA P. HALLAGER

PUBLIC SHRINES

In the end, there is only one object that allows for the recognition of a

LM III public shrine?the presence of the goddess with upraised arms.3

According to our present knowledge, we find her shrine on the edge of a

settlement or in old Neopalatial buildings. She is standing on a bench, either

alone or, more commonly, in the company of other goddesses, surrounded

by cult objects and household vessels. It is probable that most shrines had more than one room and it is likely that there was an outdoor area suitable for rituals for the public.4 So far, the oldest goddess found in situ on her bench is the one in the Shrine of the Double Axes in the Palace at Knos sos. She and her votaries are dated to LM IIIA2,5 and this early date may

explain the "old-fashioned" equipment of this shrine, which continued in use in LM IIIB. The male and female votaries, the horns of consecration, and the miniature double axe on the bench are not present in public shrines outside Knossos, and two objects usually found in these latter shrines?the snake tube and the plaque?are absent from the Knossian shrine and have so far not been reported from other places in the town.

We may also conclude that only the goddesses and perhaps the plaques appear to have been permanent fixtures in the public shrines.6 All other

objects?i.e., snake tubes, kalathoi, stands, domestic vessels with offer

ings, and cult objects used in the rituals?seem to have been movable. It has been suggested that snake tubes were among the permanent fixtures.7 To be sure, the snake tubes are intimately connected with the goddesses, and the two are often found together in the shrines. Gesell has shown that often a particular tube "can be connected by findspot, type of clay or

paint, or attribute to a particular goddess and quite likely was made as the cult vessel for that goddess."8 This may imply that snake tubes that were

temporarily removed from their place in front of the goddess, either to another room within the shrine or to a context outside the shrine, not only represented the same cult9 but may have belonged to a specific goddess. But if each goddess had had her own snake tube, shrines such as those at

Gazi, Halasmenos, Kavousi Vronda, and Kephala Vasilikis seem to have had too few snake tubes compared to the number of goddesses.10 We may conclude that snake tubes were occasionally removed from the shrines, a

suggestion that is confirmed at some LM III settlements.

Goddesses, on the other hand, even if they seem to have occasion

ally left their benches, were not removed from the area of the shrine. At Kavousi Vronda, some may have been left standing on the exterior bench at the abandonment of the settlement, and at Kannia, goddesses were stored in the preparation room and in the storeroom of the shrine.

Fragments of broken goddesses are also noted in the LM III shrines. One could perhaps have expected to find broken goddesses venerably buried

together with other discarded religious objects in pits close to the shrines. So far, one rubbish area containing fragments of discarded religious objects has been identified at Khania,11 and there may be a similar rubbish area at

Karphi. Broken and discarded goddesses were not more sacred than broken

pots or remains of dinners?ritual or not. Fragments have been found in

the streets of Karphi, in rubbish dumps and pits, and in unreported contexts

3. If she is a goddess, and if so,

whether she is one or many; see Gesell

2004, pp. 143-144.

4. For references and further details, see Gesell 2004, pp. 133-141.

5. Rethemiotakis 1998, pp. 66-68.

6. Plaques are missing, however, from the Gournia shrine and, as men

tioned above, from the Shrine of the

Double Axes.

7. Gesell 2004, p. 143.

8. Gesell 1976, p. 255; 1985, p. 50. 9. Peatfield 1994, p. 31.

10. Gazi: five goddesses and two

snake tubes (Gesell 2004, p. 145); Halasmenos: six largely complete

goddesses, fragments of approximately 10 more, and 11 snake tubes (Tsipo

poulou, this volume); Kavousi Vronda: more than 30 goddesses and 17 snake

tubes (Gesell 2001, p. 254); Kephala Vasilikis: five or six goddesses and bases

of one or two snake tubes (Eliopoulos 2004, p. 86).

11. Khania: Hallager 2001; GSE III,

p. 287.



DOMESTIC SHRINES IN LM IIIA2-LM IIIC CRETE IO9

at Khania, Kommos, Ayia Triada, Juktas, Khamalevri, Kipia/Kalamafki (near Praisos), Ayios Ioannis (close to Apodolou), and Ephendi Christos

(Phaistos area),12 and we may add the two goddesses, unfortunately chance

finds, at Pankalokhori and Sakhtouria.13 Broken figures were treated like other rubbish and naturally we cannot argue that the contexts in which

they were found had to have been of sacred character. Their find contexts

may, however, indicate that there was a shrine somewhere in the neighbor hood, which is the case at Ayia Triada, Juktas, and Karphi. Can fragments of goddesses found inside a room or in an open court support a different

interpretation?

Fragments of discarded goddesses were found at Karphi in room 16?17, an open court next to the so-called Great House. Room 16-17 has been

considered not only to be a shrine, but to be a second major public shrine in the town.14 As noted above, discarded goddesses were thrown away in

pits and dumps, and the few other cult objects found in this court are also

fragmentary. In this connection it is interesting that the excavators assumed "that this area was the communal rubbish-tip" before the courtyard was constructed.15 Some of these fragments?if not all?could in fact have come from this rubbish-tip, and this is perhaps the reason why the court is not mentioned as a shrine in the excavation report. Rutkowski has pointed out the possibility that the entire area of the Great House might have belonged to the "Temple," and if this was the case, the association will of course also rule out the identification of the court as a second major public shrine.16

Fragments of goddesses were also found at Karphi in three connected rooms (79, 89, and 116) in a nearby house complex called the Commer cial Quarter. Room 116 is described as the main room, the other two as

anterooms.17 These three rooms are not considered a public shrine, but a

domestic shrine.18 In the excavation report, rooms 79 and 89 were thought to have been open areas owing to their "tarrazza" pavings, and in the south

west corner of room 89 was an oven built of stone.19 The report does not mention any goddesses in these two open areas, but Seiradaki writes that

fragments were found on the surface.20 Neither of these rooms is identi fied as a shrine in the excavation report. The two open areas could have been ordinary working areas, and the complex to which room 116 belongs was regarded as a general store by the excavators. Fragments of goddesses in a general store can hardly indicate a family shrine, and it would under all circumstances be somewhat strange and unique if goddesses could be

12. Karphi: Temple Road east 70

and 72 and Broad Road 101,103,105,

111, see Pendlebury, Pendlebury, and

Money-Coutts 1937-1938, pp. 86 and

93; Khania: GSE III, pp. 166-167 (80-TC 023), pis. 144,164a:5; pp. 271, 287; Kommos: Shaw 1996b, pp. 290,

298-299; AyiaTriada: D'Agata 1999b,

pp. 32, 35-36 (B6-7), pi. XII; Juktas: one fragment was found in the terrace

III fill, while the other was from the

floor deposit of room II (Karetsou

2003, pp. 57-59, fig. 8); Khamalevri:

Hood, Warren, and Cadogan 1964,

p. 65; Kipia/Kalamafki: Kanta 1980,

p. 183; Whitley 1998, p. 33, n. 5; Ayios Ioannis: Godart 2001, p. 466;

Ephendi Christos: Watrous 1996,

p. 102.

13. Alexiou 1958, pp. 187-188; Tzedakis 1967.

14. Gesell 1985, pp. 45, 79, no. 23.

15. Pendlebury, Pendlebury, and

Money-Coutts 1937-1938, p. 135.

16. Rutkowski 1987, p. 262, fig. 7.

17. Gesell 1985, p. 82, no. 29.

18. Gesell 1985, pp. 45, 82. This

is perhaps the reason why they are

not mentioned in the updated cata

logue of shrines of the goddess with

upraised arms presented in Gesell 2004,

pp. 145-148.


Money-Coutts 1937-1938, pp. 88-89.

20. Seiradaki 1960, p. 29.



no BIRGITTA P. HALLAGER

brought to a private domestic shrine to be venerated by a single family. The

explanation of the fragments as discarded garbage seems more than obvious

also in this case. Finally, Seiradaki also mentions fragments of goddesses in room 40, but the room has not been considered a shrine.21

We may conclude that the presence of fragments of discarded god desses and complete or fragmentary snake tubes at several sites in Crete cannot be "proof" that their find contexts have to be declared as shrines.

The finds may indicate no more than the presence of an unlocated public shrine in the area. If we add sites with goddesses and snake tubes to the sites with excavated public shrines we may?not unsurprisingly?conclude that town shrines were more common in LM III than we have previously suspected. There are strong reasons to believe that they

were a standard

feature in settlements in LM IIIB-IIIC Crete.22

DOMESTIC SHRINES

In reports and publications, shrines identified as "domestic" are also called "household shrines" or "house sanctuaries." The term "domestic" seems to

go back to Nilsson, who wrote the following: "The gods were venerated under roofs built by human hands, but all cult places of this kind are parts of a human habitation, small chambers in a house or palace_Consequently the cults in question must be considered as domestic cults."23 This is not true for LM III Crete, where the independent town shrines "are clearly a manifestation of public cult rather than simply private devotion."24 But what about "small chambers in a house"? Did each family, taking part in the public settlement cult, have in addition a private, domestic shrine?

In the LM IIIA2-IIIC period, Gesell has identified "clear examples of domestic shrines in residential buildings, showing some features similar to those of public cult."25 The clear examples were found in six settlements:

Karphi (3), Katsamba (1), Kephala Khondrou (1), Knossos (3), Kommos

(1), and Palaikastro (l).26 Of this total of 10 domestic shrines, I have, above,

already dismissed that with fragments of goddesses in the Commercial

Quarter at Karphi. If we take a closer look at the contents of the remain

ing nine shrines we may perhaps be able to distinguish common features that could identify them as domestic shrines. Three religious objects seem

primarily to be connected with them: snake tubes, figurines, and horns of consecration?but the three objects are not found together in any of the nine shrines. Snake tubes unconnected to other religious objects were found in three shrines, another three contained figurines, and the last three, the

Knossian, have horns of consecration.

21. Seiradaki 1960, p. 29.

22. As mentioned above, public shrines are usually found on the edge of a settlement. The absence of a public shrine from a partly excavated LM III

settlement cannot be evidence that none existed.

23. Nilsson 1927, p. 77.

24. Peatfield 1994, p. 31.

25. Gesell 1985, p. 47.

26. Gesell 1985, pp. 81-82, nos. 27

29 (Karphi); p. 82, no. 30 (Katsamba);

p. 82, no. 31 (Kephala Khondrou);

pp. 93, 97-98, nos. 42, 56, 60 (Knos

sos); p. 102, no. 69 (Kommos); p. 119, no. 97 (Palaikastro). In excavation

reports, many other identified domestic

shrines appear, but I have chosen to

restrict my discussion to the ones pre sented in Gesell 1985. The results of

this discussion will inevitably be rele

vant to all LM IIIA2-IIIC domestic

shrines.



DOMESTIC SHRINES IN LM IIIA2~LM IIIC CRETE III

"Shrines" at Katsamba, Kommos, and Kephala

Khondrou

Snake tubes have been found in LM III houses at Katsamba and Kom mos. The triangular room at Katsamba is an addition to a LM IIIB house, and inside this room two red-painted snake tubes, "nearly twins made of the same clay," lie in front of a bench. In Hillside House, room 4, at

Kommos stood a single snake tube with a conical cup set into its mouth. The room is described as a "comfortable living and working area in fine

weather" and as a semienclosed porch with a "deposition of various kinds of household equipment."27 A fragmentary snake tube was found in room

2 of the same house and another in a closet in one of the hilltop houses, but these seem not to be recognized as shrines.28 Both at Katsamba and at Kommos, snake tubes are found in rooms of ordinary houses, rooms

with domestic pottery and no other cult objects. Three snake tubes have

also been found in the LM III settlement of Ayia Triada, but the rooms

in which they were found have not been called domestic shrines.29 And

here we could add another room that belongs neither to a town shrine nor

to a domestic shrine: room 58 in the so-called Priest s House at Karphi. The tiny room is called a small sanctuary Inside two snake tubes were

found, also spindle whorls, bronze fragments, and "coarse sherds from

many pithoi, at least eight kalathoi mostly of type 1 and all the other usual

types."30 Again we have a find context without other cult objects. As argued above, snake tubes belonged to the movable objects of the public shrine

and in this light it is interesting to note that they were missing from the

"Temple." It seems more reasonable to conclude that the two stored snake

tubes belonged to the "Temple" than that the room in which they were

found was a sanctuary.

A snake tube was also present in the central house (Al-Al) of the

settlement at Kephala Khondrou. According to the first excavation report (1957), it was thought, together with other cult objects, to have fallen from a

domestic shrine situated on the second floor of the building.31 But already in

the second report (1959) the small area that had been considered the staircase

(HI) leading up to this shrine was instead in itself thought to have been a

shrine. In a restudy of the settlement, Leftheris Platon refers to this report

27. Gesell 1985, p. 102; McEnroe

1996, pp. 223, 228. The excavators

seem to have had some slight doubts

about the character of room 4. Joseph Shaw admits that "the absence of other

equipment clearly connected with ritual

. . . makes this interpretation [as a

shrine] unconfirmable" (1996, p. 389). Maria Shaw wonders "if this was a

public rather than a household shrine"

(1996c, p. 372), but, in discussing a

fragment of a crown belonging to a

goddess (Shaw 1996b, p. 290), she is not suggesting that it could have

derived from room 4.

28. House of the Snake Tube, room 2

(base fragment; Kommos III, pp. 71,144);

Hilltop, North House, in a sottoscala

in room N21 (base fragment, called a

"stand" in the catalogue, Kommos III,

p. 58; the architecture is described in

Shaw 1996a, p. 51). Fragmentary snake

tubes have also been found at Khania

(GSEII, pp. 162-163; GSE III, p. 244) and at Khamalevri (Hood, Warren, and

Cadogan 1964, p. 65). 29. One was found in room 25 of a

house; another two, in Casa del Lebete, were left on the site and destroyed

(Banti 1941-1943, p. 35). Fragments of

further snake tubes were found in a

trench between two tholos tombs

(Gesell 1976, p. 250). Why is room 25 and its snake tube excluded from the

catalogue of cult rooms in Gesell 1985,

pp. 74-77? Its find context in a room of

a LM III house (now called vano A in

Casa VAP; see La Rosa 1997, p. 264) is strikingly similar to the ones from

Katsamba, Karphi (room 58), and

Kommos (nos. 26, 30, and 69) in the

same catalogue. 30. Pendlebury, Pendlebury, and

Money-Coutts 1937-1938, p. 85.

31. Platon 1957, p. 141.



112 BIRGITTA P. HALLAGER

and states that there was no second floor belonging to the central house

and that the small room HI with a slab-paved floor might have been used

as a shrine.32 Thus the cult objects found in different rooms on the ground floor can no longer be regarded as a "closed" group that fell from an upstairs shrine.33 It is very doubtful that the tiny room HI was once used as a domestic

shrine, and if it was, it is somewhat strange that no finds are reported from

it. The snake tube was lying in a corridor (Zl), and the remaining two cult

objects, two legs of an offering table and the head of a small figurine, were

found in a nearby room (01).34 As at Katsamba and Kommos, we are left

with an isolated find of a snake tube?here in a corridor.

As we have seen, the snake tube was the most distinctive piece of ritual

equipment in the public shrines,35 and thus we can hardly argue that they were private possessions. The house with the two snake tubes at Karphi has been called the Priest's House. At Kephala Khondrou it has been

suggested that the central house belonged to a town official or perhaps a

priest and that it could have been a public building.36 In all cases it would not be surprising to find a snake tube belonging to a public shrine in the

house of a town leader or a priest, who may have been one and the same

person. As no other religious nooks have been identified in the houses of

this settlement it is not unreasonable to suppose that here, too, there was

once a public shrine on the outskirts of the settlement. Unfortunately this cannot be proven as the outskirts are not preserved:

some were destroyed

in modern times and others had previously collapsed downhill. In Kom

mos, however, we have a somewhat stronger case. A fragment of a crown

belonging to a goddess was found in a LM IIIB context and Maria Shaw states that this fragment "suggests the presence of an unlocated shrine."37

We may conclude that the presence of a snake tube in a room separate from a shrine does not necessarily imply that the room should be identified as a

shrine, but rather that the settlement had a shrine to which the removed snake tube belonged.38

32. Platon 1997, pp. 362, 366, and

n. 35.

33. Gesell 1985, p. 82.

34. Gesell 1985, p. 82; Platon 1997,

p. 362. The lower part of a parturient female figurine thought to have be

longed to this group (Gesell 1985, p. 82) is a surface find (Platon 1997,

p. 362), and another object included in

this group, the triton shell, was found

in the neighboring house.

35. Gesell 1976, p. 255; 2004, p. 140;

36. Gesell 1985, p. 42; Platon 1997,

p. 362.

37. Shaw 1996b, p. 290.

38. The two LM IIIB snake tubes

from Koumasa were the only LM III

finds in a building that has been iden

tified as a shrine both in the Proto

palatial and in the Postpalatial period (Gesell 1985, p. 102, no. 70). The other

remaining finds from the room with

the column base are dated between

Middle Minoan (MM) I and LM I

by Georgoulaki (1990), who has well founded doubts about the building's identification as a shrine. The two

snake tubes cannot in themselves prove that the building was a Postpalatial shrine (Muhly 1981, pp. 132-133).

Gesell also mentions a fragment of a

snake tube from a LM IIIA2 room at

Amnisos (Gesell 1985, p. 50). The vessel has subsequently been published (Alexiou 1992, p. 190, pi. 52:1). It

was found in a room together with a

LM IIIB stirrup jar. The vessel is

cylinder-shaped, only 0.15 m high, and it seems to have had a single, ver

tical roll handle attached just below

the rim (now restored). Alexiou con

cludes that it belongs to the vessels

called "snake tubes," but its small size

and single handle have no parallel in

Gesell's catalogue of snake tubes

(Gesell 1976). The snake tubes at

Katsamba have a height similar to that

of the vessel at Amnisos, but the Kat

samba tubes have the typical double

loop handles. At present the Amnisos

vessel has no parallels and its identifi

cation as a snake tube is unjustified. A further two vessels may be snake

tubes. A "cylindrical clay tube" with a

preserved height of 0.25 m was found

in Marinatos's excavations at Amnisos

(Kanta 1980, p. 39, fig. 14:9). Kanta

writes that it "may be a snake tube, but

is more probably a drain pipe." The

lower part of a "ceramic cylindrical stand" found in building 7, room 1 at

Palaikastro looks like a snake tube,

although it has only a single vertical

handle (MacGillivray et al. 1991,

p. 140, fig. 16).



DOMESTIC SHRINES IN LM IIIA2~LM IIIC CRETE II3

"Shrines" at Knossos

Horns of consecration?a symbol connected with official cult in the Neo

palatial period?were found in three "domestic shrines" at Knossos. In two of these shrines only ordinary pottery has been found: in the Southeast

House, room LI, there was a broken transport stirrup jar decorated with an

octopus, and from the badly preserved "Late Minoan shrine" found near the

Stratigraphical Museum, only common domestic pottery was recorded.39 The third shrine has been located in the lustral basin area of the Little Palace.

In the first two cases the small clay horns of consecration seem to have been standing on a pebble floor.40 This "unholy" position and the fact that

they were found with domestic pottery suggest no more than that they were stored in the rooms. The damaged horns of consecration of stone in the Little Palace were, according to Mackenzie, found in situ, standing on the south ledge of the former lustral basin?a position they seem to have had since the original cult use of the room.41 The recorded concretions and the "treasure deposit" were found in a tawny earth with burnt wood in the filled-in basin. Gesell suggests that these objects "fell from the same upper floor reoccupation shrine."42 If this is correct, there seem to have been two

shrines, the old horns of consecration isolated in the small and dark "basin room" from the other "religious objects."43 Hatzaki, however, argues that the distribution of the finds?including the horns of consecration?"is in sup port of an upper floor collapse for all the finds" within the lustral basin.44

Another LM III shrine has been identified in the southwest part of this building owing to the find of a small lead female figurine with upraised arms.45 Evans suggested that the figurine had fallen from the upper floor, and he dated it to the reoccupation period.46 Hatzaki is of another opinion. She concludes that it came from a mixed context and that it "could well be dated to LM I rather than to LM III."47 It is somewhat hard to believe that there were so many shrines in one and the same building, but if we

follow Hatzaki, there was only one?on the upper floor above the lustral basin. This upstairs shrine is somewhat elusive and difficult to reconstruct.

According to Hatzaki, no pottery was associated with the shrine furnishings and the "religious objects" are of various dates. She dates the concretions and the now-lost animal figurines to LM IIIA2, the horns of consecration to LM I, and the remaining objects?a fragmentary faience vessel, some

crystal discs, and bronze curls?to a similar early date.48 The very unsure

circumstances of the finding of some of the cult objects and, not least, their different dates prevent any further discussion. Here we can only conclude that if the shrine in the Little Palace ever was a LM III shrine, it is very far from being a "clear" domestic shrine.

39. Gesell (1985, p. 99) mentions

the finds of "pyxis lids; stirrup jar;

bowls," but these cannot be found in

Popham's two reports (Popham 1970a,

1970b). He mentions two "incense

burners," two champagne cup feet, and

a cup fragment. 40. Pebbles strewn on a bench,

dais, or ledge may have had some

religious significance (Gesell 1985,

pp. 90, 93), but pebble floors cannot

be used to identify a cult area as they are a very common feature in LM III

houses (see, for example, Shaw 1996c,

p. 354). 41. D'Agata 1992, p. 254.

42. Gesell 1985, p. 93.

43. Gesell (1985, p. 43) argues that

perhaps some small wild goat figurines were associated with the horns of

consecration.

44. Hatzaki 2005, p. 186.

45. Gesell 1985, p. 94.

46. Evans 1914, pp. 74-75.

47. Hatzaki 2005, p. 187.

48. Hatzaki 2005, pp. 186-187.




"Shrines" at Palaikastro and Karphi

In the same way that the goddesses have been accepted as vital for the identification of a public shrine, one could perhaps have expected that

figurines could be "hallmarks" for domestic shrines. Figurines were found in three "clear domestic shrines." At Palaikastro, however, it is somewhat

unclear which of the two "Postpalatial" deposits are referred to in Gesell's

catalogue of cult rooms. It is hard to believe that it could be the filled-in lustral basin in block Gamma, room 3. Two bell-shaped skirts of female

figurines and the horn-cores of a wild goat were found in this fill, but the main part consisted of pottery. Bosanquet regarded the broken figurines and the horn-cores as debris from a shrine, but he found "no reason for

ascribing any religious use to the bulk of the pottery found in the filling."49 Evidently this cannot be a domestic shrine. That leaves us with the deposit in room 44. This room is one of a row of storerooms at the back of block

Delta. The room contained the famous group of three female dancers and one playing a lyre, fragments of others, six birds, 44 conical cups probably broken from kernoi, and a good deal of mostly very broken pottery. In the 1903-1904 report, Dawkins called the room "The Shrine of the Snake

Goddess," but he also stated that "all these objects were clearly broken and then put away in this room."50 When he realized that the fourth figure holds a lyre and not a serpent, the room was no longer called a shrine but instead the "Room of the Ritual Objects," and the objects were "remains of a domestic shrine."51 Thus this room, as well, cannot be identified as a domestic shrine.

Another discarded bell-shaped skirt of a similar figurine was found in block X, room 37, and a male figurine was found in block Pi.52 But the contexts in which they were found have never been referred to as shrines. The location of the clear domestic shrine in the old Palaikastro excavations must thus remain at present unsolved.

An impressively large number of shrines has been identified at

Karphi?several more than in any other settlement on Crete. Apart from the two major town shrines, the "small sanctuary" in room 58, and the domestic shrine in rooms 79, 89, and 116 discussed above, an additional two shrines or sanctuaries and two domestic shrines have been identified.

The two "shrines or small sanctuaries"?rooms 27 and 57?both have

natural rock projections that, probably owing to the cult object found in these rooms, have been interpreted

as cult benches. But several other rooms

in the settlement have benches or rock projections that could have been used as benches, and there is no reason to believe that they are more sacred in rooms that contained cult vessels. Room 27 contained, in addition to

pottery and a spindle whorl, a piriform rhyton with a human head and a terracotta chariot rhyton?both indeed rather unusual and spectacular. It

is highly probable that they had been used in ritual performances, but is their presence in room 27 sufficient reason to identify this room as a shrine?

Rhyta with human heads are also found in contexts that cannot be declared to be shrines; for example, a grave gift in one of the Karphian tombs and a conical rhyton with a human face found in a domestic context in a house

49. Bosanquet and Dawkins 1923,

p. 87.

50. Dawkins and Currelly 1903

1904, pp. 216, 223.


p. 88.


p. 132, pi. 29.



DOMESTIC SHRINES IN LM IIIA2-LM IIIC CRETE

at Moires.53 They are not "normal" items of a public shrine,54 but this does not exclude the possibility that they could have been used in public cer emonies. And when not in use they had to be stored somewhere.

Room 57 contained, apart from pottery and spindle whorls, a squar ish stand with pillar and horns of consecration. Stands are present in the latest LM III public shrines, as seen for example at Kephala Vasilikis and in the Spring Chamber at Knossos.55 They were, however, not necessarily adorned with religious symbols, as witnessed by the two stands from the

Spring Chamber. Stands are found in tombs,56 and they are not uncom mon in domestic contexts, but these are seldom decorated with religious themes. Two additional stands decorated with plastic horns of consecration on the top were not found in shrines. One was found in a heap of debris at

Gournia, the other in a tomb at Gra Lygia in Ierapetra.57 Both are dated within the LM IIIA period.

We have some suspicion that stands may have been used for holding amphoroid kraters and footed kraters?vessels with a base or foot that is small in relation to their large size. If this is close to the truth we may suspect that they were used in communal feastings, some adorned with

religious symbols, others without. Stands with religious symbols may have been reserved for special occasions but they still had the same function as

the more simple stands. Communal feasting equipment may be combined with religious ceremonies, but the stand in itself cannot be enough to declare its findspot a domestic shrine rather than a storeroom. Stored pottery as

well as cult vessels are not uncommon in settlements, and in the same way

that kitchen utensils stored under a staircase cannot identify the storage place as a kitchen, we cannot argue that numerous cult vessels found in

storerooms or basements can identify these rooms as shrines.58

The two additional domestic shrines at Karphi were identified in the Central West Quarters and in the cliff houses?both areas with clay figu rines. Room 85 with annex room 87 in the Central West Quarters contained

figurines (one female head, a torso, and four animals), spindle whorls, a

bone tube, a steatite disc, a bronze ring, a sherd from an altar (stand?), and

pottery. In room 106 with annexes 102 and 115 in the cliff houses, two

figurines, one human and one animal, were found together with two sherds

probably from an altar (stand?), a bronze double axe as well as seven other bronze tools, a stone plaque, and pottery. Room 102 contained spools and

pottery and room 115 two bronze tools, one hut model, and pottery If we


Money-Coutts 1937-1938, p. 106. The

rhyton from Moires, a chance find, was

once thought to have come from a

shrine (Lebessi 1977, pp. 315-316,

pi. 188:oc, P), but subsequent excavations

at the site have shown that it belonged to a LM IIIC house without any sign of

cult practice (Rethemiotakis 1998, p. 76). 54. No rhyta have been found in

connection with the shrines of the god

dess with upraised arms (Gesell 1985,

p. 52). 55. Eliopoulos 2004, pp. 86-88,

fig. 6:8; PMII, p. 133, fig. 67:b.

56. E.g., at Milatos (Evans 1906,

fig. 105) and in tomb 8 atTa Mnemata

at Karphi (Pendlebury, Pendlebury, and

Money-Coutts 1937-1938, p. 105,

pi. XXXV:7, at left). The first was ob

viously a stand for an amphoroid krater; the second may have held one of the

two kraters (type 2) found in the tomb.

57. PM11, pp. 134,139, fig. 70 bis; Apostolakou 1998, pp. 49-51; Stampo lides, Karetsou, and Kanta 1998, p. 119, no. 34. The tomb contained two

LM IIIA2 and two LM IIIB ampho roid kraters and, as the stand is dated

LM IIIA2, it may have belonged to

one of the amphoroid kraters of that

same date.

58. Sanctuaries and Cults, p. 216.



Il6 BIRGITTA P. HALLAGER

leave aside the sherds of altars (stands?), which have been found at other

places in the town,59 the only cult objects in these two complexes are the

figurines and the hut model.

Clay Figurines

Let us start with the figurines. As mentioned above, it could be expected that the presence of clay figurines would be a good criterion for identify ing a domestic shrine. Above we have seen discarded figurines in a fill, in a room, and in a storeroom at Palaikastro, and a small figurine head found

together with two legs of an offering table in one of the rooms in the central house at Kephala Khondrou. These two sites are not unique. Figurines are

found in all LM III settlements and in all kinds of contexts. There seems

to be no reason to believe that the Karphi figurines in the two complexes mentioned above are more suitable for identifying a domestic shrine than the other figurines found in this settlement. The two figurines found in the cliff houses?a human head and an animal figurine in room 106?were, in the excavation report, compared to the ones found in Karphi s Middle

Minoan peak sanctuary, and they were thought to have been washed down from above, and a similar explanation was given for the ones found in the Northern Shelters (rooms 108, 109, 122).60 If these figurines are Middle Minoan we can leave them out. But figurines were also found in the Great

House, room 9, the Barracks, room 4, the Eastern Quarters, room 140,

and the Southern Shelters, rooms 62 and 90?and none of these rooms are identified as shrines.

Regrettably few LM III settlement sites have been fully published, but a quick look at some preliminary reports of excavated houses, single rooms, and settlements throws some light on the presence of clay figurines. The

upper part of a female figurine was found outside block N at Palaikastro.61 In the preliminary reports of the new Palaikastro excavations of 1986-1991

we find a head of a figure in a corridor in building 1, one clay figurine south of the "Laundry" in building 4, and a head associated with the later

stages in the same building, several fragments of discarded figurines in rubbish pits in building 5, and an ivory arm in a storeroom in building 7. In addition, a clay figurine was lying in a dump outside building 1 and a

fragmentary Mycenaean figurine was discovered on the terraces outside

building 4.62 In a room in building D at LM IIIC Kavousi Vronda, two animal figurines were found on a platform and one animal figurine in the center of the room, close to a column base. Figurine fragments are also

reported from building C, room 5, and a bull figurine was found in the area south of the public shrine.63 A bull figurine in a circular area of black

ashy soil has been reported from area A, room 2 at Halasmenos. A further bull figurine from area A and a female and a bull figurine from area B have also been reported.64

Figurines have also been found in the LM III settlements at Malia and Tylissos, a female figurine and half a bull in a LM IIIB house at Kanli

Kastelli, and a female figurine is mentioned from Marinatos's excavations

at Amnisos.65 Several LM III clay figurines, mainly female, have been

catalogued from the old Ayia Triada excavations, and others are present in the excavations on the acropolis of Gortyn and in LM IIIC deposits at

59. Seiradaki 1960, p. 29.


Money-Coutts 1937-1938, p. 98.

61. Sackett, Popham, and Warren

1965, pp. 266-267, 301, fig. 18.

62. MacGillivray et al. 1987, p. 143,

fig. 5; 1989, p. 432, figs. 12-14; 1991, pp. 133,140, figs. 9,17; 1992, p. 124, fig. 3.

63. Gesell, Day, and Coulson 1995,

pp. 71-72 and 80.

64. Coulson and Tsipopoulou 1994,

pp. 70-71; Tsipopoulou and Nowicki

2003, p. 563.

65. Malia: Deshayes and Dessenne

1959, p. 147, pi. LIL2, 3;Tylissos: Kanta 1980, pp. 11-12; Kanli Kastelli:

Marinatos 1955, p. 309; Kanta 1980,

p. 36; Amnisos: Kanta 1980, p. 38.



DOMESTIC SHRINES IN LM IIIA2-LM IIIC CRETE II7

Phaistos.66 A female figurine was found in a complex of buildings at Av

gos, a figurine is reported from a LM III settlement in the area of Epano Zakros, and several female and animal figurines have been reported from LM III strata at Archanes and Vitsila.67

Several female figurines have also been recorded at Knossos. Two have been published from the Royal Villa and the Southeast House, one from the area of the Cowboy Fresco, two from the northwest corner of the

Palace, and several more without closer contexts are stored in the Herak

leion Archaeological Museum and the Ashmolean Museum.68 Several human and animal clay figurines of LM III date have been published from the Unexplored Mansion but their contexts are either uncertain or

post-Minoan.69The same picture emerges in the settlement at the hilltop and central hillside of Kommos where several female and animal clay figurines have been found. Here they "were mostly found in contexts of

secondary deposition" and "rarely found in pure' deposits."70 At the LM IIIC settlement at Khamalevri, a female figurine and an animal figurine

were discovered in an open area, a male, a female, and an animal figurine in rubbish pits, and an animal figurine was lying in one of the "ceremonial

pits."71 So far 35 figurines have been published from the Greek-Swedish excavations at Khania. They were found in rooms, pits, and leveling deposits in the LM IIIB2 and LM IIIC settlements as well as in the

post-Minoan strata.72

This short list is far from exhaustive, but it gives an impression of how widespread and common human and animal figurines are in domestic contexts of LM IIIA2 to LM IIIC date. Among these figurines, we also find animals and Phi and Psi types of mainland origin in Palaikastro (1), Khania (8), Atsipades? (3), Archanes (l),73 AyiaTriada (1), Phaistos (7),

Gortyn (4), probably Khamalevri (l),74 and Knossos (8).75 Although few in number, they are found all over the island, and so far, the largest number have been recorded at Knossos and Khania.76 These figurines are the most

characteristic items of Late Mycenaean cult, and it is more than probable that they were the private possessions of "Mycenaeans or those who have

consciously adopted their ways."77 What do we know about the function of these figurines?

66. Ayia Triada: Rethemiotakis

1998, pp. 30-31; D'Agata 1999b, pp. 30-37; Gortyn: Rizza and Scrinari

1968, pp. 206-207, pi. VII, no. 23; Kanta 1980, p. 92; Phaistos: Kanta

1980, p. 96; Rethemiotakis 1998,

pp. 37-38; D'Agata 1999b, pp. 236-237.

67. Avgos: Kanta 1980, p. 145. For

Avgos as a possible farmstead, see Hay den 1997, pp. 196-198. In the area of

Epano Zakros: Kanta 1980, p. 194. Ar

chanes and Vitsila: Sapouna-Sakella raki 1990, pp. 88, 90, 94.

68. Popham 1970c, pis. 17:b, 22:f; Rethemiotakis 1998, p. 28, nos. 58, 61,

62; Herakleion Archaeological Mu

seum: Rethemiotakis 1998, pp. 26-28,

nos. 47-54, 59; Ashmolean Museum:

Rethemiotakis 1998, p. 28, nos. 60, 63, 64.

69. Higgins 1984.

70. Shaw 1996b, p. 287, n. 30.

71. Andreadaki-Vlazaki and Papa

dopoulou 2005, pp. 364, 375.

72. GSEII, pp. 183-184; GSE III, pp. 270-273.

73. Palaikastro: MacGillivray et al.

1992, p. 124, fig. 3; Khania: GSE II,

p. 183; GSE III, p. 270; Tzedakis 1969, p. 430, pi. 435:e, c/; 1970, p. 466, pi. 408:a, (3; Kanta 1980, p. 217; Atsi

pades: French 1971, p. 116; Kanta 1980,

pp. 201-202, 209, fig. 86:1-3; Archa

nes: Sapouna-Sakellaraki 1990, p. 90.

74. AyiaTriada: D'Agata 1999b,

p. 31; Phaistos and AyiaTriada: French

1971, pp. 136-139; Phaistos: D'Agata 1999b, pp. 236-237; Phaistos, Gortyn, and Khamalevri: D'Agata 2001, p. 347.

75. Knossos: French 1971, p. 180;

Higgins 1984, pp. 200-201.

76. Hagg (1997, p. 167) writes that the Mycenaean figurines at Khania may "constitute more than one-third of the

total number of such figurines found

scattered all over Crete," but to my

knowledge, of the 34 reported, listed

above, eight were found in Khania and

another eight have been published from

Knossos.

77. French 1971, p. 131.



n8 BIRGITTA P. HALLAGER

We have unfortunately no information about the exact findspots for most of the above-mentioned figurines. This was also the situation for the

many Mycenaean figurines found in domestic contexts on the mainland

until Kilian meticulously mapped the findspots of the figurines at the

Unterburg in Tiryns. Until then they had been interpreted as goddesses, ushebtis, and even as toys for children. He was able to demonstrate that the figurines had been deposited at doorposts and close to hearths and concluded that "their find spots in house contexts prove them to have had some apotropaic character; incidentally in no way are they to be classified as toys for children."78 Can we trace a similar function for the figurines on Crete?

The findspots of figurines in three LM III settlements may perhaps shed some light. In LM IIIB Quartier Nu at Malia, a fragmentary bull

figurine and a crude human figurine were found in a hall with a hearth.79 As it is the entrance room to the building complex Nu, it is obviously not a shrine, but could the figurines have had an apotropaic function here?

Figurines found close to a central hearth and close to doors in the LM IIIB2 settlement at Khania may indeed have had such functions.80 At LM IIIC

Karphi, three find contexts of figurines may be of some interest. Part of the head of a human figurine was found in "room" 79, an open court in front of the entrance to the Commercial Quarters. A clay figurine with broken

legs was found in room 9?the main room of the Great House?and in the Eastern Quarters we find a head of a figurine in room 140, which is the entrance to a megaron building. Could these figurines have functioned as protectors of entrances? Admittedly, with the exception of Khania, the

picture is not crystal clear, and it could be argued that fragmentary figurines could not have been ideal protectors. On the other hand it is not unreason able to expect a similar function; after all, we are in "Mycenaean" Crete.

As on the mainland, figurines are found in many different places in the settlements and we can note that several inhabitants of the island adopted the Mycenaean habit of placing figurines in their tombs, as is witnessed for

example in tombs at Stamnoi, Episkopi/Pediada, Kritsa, Myrsini, Olous, Gournia, Lastros, Armenoi, Khania, Mavro Spelio, Metochi Kalou, Astra

koi, Liliana/Phaistos, Ayia Triada, Kalokhorafitis/Mesaras, and Karphi.81 Prophylactic, protective objects are not an invention in the Mycenaean

period; they are probably as old as man himself. The amulets and associated seal stones

commonly found in Pre- and Protopalatial tombs are among

objects considered as indicative of "personal religion."82 Middle Minoan

78. Kilian 1988, p. 148 and fig. 16.

79. Driessen and Farnoux 1994,

pp. 62-63 (where there is also men

tioned the top part of a large female clay idol found in disturbed LM III layers).

80. G?EIII,p. 191.

81. Stamnoi: Kanta 1980, p. 56;

Episkopi/Pediada: Kanta 1980, p. 65; Kritsa: Warren 1970, pis. K, KA; Myr sini: Sakellarakis and Sapouna-Sakella raki 1973, pi. XV; Olous (close to a

grave): van Effenterre 1948, p. 12,

pi. XXXIX:2, left; Gournia: Boyd Hawes

et al. 1908, p. 46, pi. X:ll; Rethemio

takis 1998, p. 20, no. 10, pi. 32:y, 5; Lastros: Kanta 1980, p. 174; Armenoi:

Tzedakis 1971, p. 515; Khania: Kanta

1980, pp. 225, 227; Rethemiotakis

1998, p. 46, nos. 188-189, pis. 18,19; Mavro Spelio: Forsdyke 1926-1927,

p. 254 (tomb 111.25), fig. 43 and p. 263 (tomb VIIB.9), pi. XXI; Rethemiotakis

1998, p. 27, nos. 55, 56; Metochi Kalou:

Dimopoulou and Rethemiotakis 1978,

pp. 98-103; Astrakoi: Rethemiotakis

1998, p. 29, nos. 70, 75, and n. 165;

Liliana/Phaistos: Savignoni 1904,

p. 641 and fig. 113; Kanta 1980, p. 100; AyiaTriada: Paribeni 1904, pp. 739

744, 748, figs. 37-40; Kanta 1980,

p. 104; Rethemiotakis 1998, nos. 80

86; Kalokhorafitis/Mesaras: Lebessi

1973-1974, pp. 885-886; Karphi:

Pendlebury, Pendlebury, and Money Coutts 1937-1938, pp. 101-102.

82. Branigan 1970a, pp. 94-98.

On the meaning of EM II?III Cretan

folded-arm figurines, see Betancourt, this volume.



domestic shrines in lm iiia2-lm iiic crete II9

figurines and amulets depicting spiders, scorpions, and snakes were objects possessing protection and strength.83 The protective foot amulets found in

Egypt, Syria, and Anatolia, as well as on Crete, were worn in life as well as in death.84 "The prophylactic, protective nature of these objects reflects the

most personal of concerns . . . that of individual safety and well-being."85 Seen from this perspective it is far from impossible that the same is true

of figurines in LM III settlements and tombs. The existence of a popular religion that complemented the public does not, however, imply that there had to be special rooms or nooks dedicated solely to this purpose. The very fact that they are found all over the settlements and in contemporary tombs can more easily be understood if we accept them as personal belongings that functioned as protectors in the daily life of ordinary Minoans?protectors of personal safety, entrances, and hearths, and probably of many other

places, such as storerooms, roads, and fields.86

Whether a figurine had been deliberately placed in one room or was

stored in another or had been thrown away, we cannot argue that in some

cases?that is, for some of the figurines found in some rooms?a figurine can be an item that could identify a domestic shrine. A modern parallel is

the icons in a small minimarket. Naturally we cannot argue, owing to the

presence of these icons, that the shop is a domestic shrine. By the same

token, an icon on a bookshelf in a room of a private house is insufficient evidence for declaring the room a shrine. Why, then, should we argue that rooms with a figurine are domestic shrines?

Hut Models

Perhaps the closest we can come to envisioning shrines are the hut mod

els, which look like small "shrines." Until recently, the earliest was dated to LM IIIA2, the majority belonging to the period from LM IIIB to

"Subminoan."87 So far none have been found in the public shrines, and it cannot be proven that hut models relate to the cult of the goddess with

upraised arms in LM III.88 All the LM III models are found empty, and

only the very latest, found in the Spring Chamber, contained a "goddess."

83. Watrous 1995, p. 397.

84. Branigan 1970b, p. 16; Pini 1972.

85. Peatfield 2000, p. 11.

86. To my knowledge we have so far

no secure information concerning figu rines found in storerooms, roads, and

fields but, on the mainland, some hun

dred figurines have been found along an ancient path in the Argolid (Hagg 1981, pp. 38-39; Kilian 1990, pp. 185

190). 87. Hagg 1990, p. 98. It has been

suggested that hut models may be

"indications of foreign intrusion into

Crete in the late IIIB or early IIIC

period" (Sackett, Popham, and Warren

1965, p. 286, n. 78), but presentations of new circular hut models of Neopala tial (Rethemiotakis, this volume) and

Early Minoan date (Alexiou and War

ren 2004, p. 114) show that they have

been a long-lived feature of Minoan

popular cult.

88. Against Mersereau 1993, p. 17.

She argues that "the models do relate

to the cult of the MGUA in LM III," and finds goddesses without shrines at

Gortyn, Phaistos, Archanes, Khania, and Kastri. She argues further that

there is a geographical overlap between

hut models and goddesses at Knossos

and Karphi (Mersereau 1993, p. 18). The finds from Gortyn, Phaistos, and Archanes, however, are later than

LM III and thus cannot say anything about the situation in this period. Her

identification of the small fragment of a face found at Kastri as a goddess with

upraised arms is somewhat dubious

(Mersereau 1993, p. 18, n. 84). The

excavators, Sackett and Popham,

compared it to a face of similar size, Herakleion Museum inv. no. 1813 from

Ayia Triada. This belongs to a fantastic

animal (D'Agata 1999b, p. 78 [C 2.7], pis. XLII, XLIX) and not to a goddess. As for the geographical overlap at

Knossos, the goddess in the Shrine of

the Double Axes is LM IIIA2, while

the hut model found in the Spring Chamber is LM IHC/Subminoan.

That a hut model and a goddess are

found in the same LM IIIB-IIIC set

tlement, as is the case at Khania and

Karphi, cannot be evidence for a rela

tionship between the two finds. At both

sites there are rhyta and cooking pots. Do they relate?




This "Subminoan" model deviates from the other models in two additional

aspects: it is the only model with handles and the only model found in a

probable cult context. With the evidence of this late model it is tempting to assume that the earlier, empty models "might have housed removable

religious symbols or even terracotta figurines,"89 but on the other hand it is somewhat safer to conclude that we have reached a period when the

public goddesses with upraised arms are no longer venerated,90 and that a

goddess inside a model is an innovation of the "Subminoan" period. It is

highly unlikely that a dwarfed public goddess was enclosed in a small private "shrine" in LM III. During this period the goddesses dwell exclusively in

public shrines?none to my knowledge has been found in the contemporary rural cult centers. All LM III hut models with known findspots are found in domestic contexts or

workshop areas,91 whereby we may suspect that

they, like the figurines, belonged to the sphere of the popular cult. Could the models have functioned as small domestic shrines?92 If we

imagine that the hut model was a symbolic model of a domestic or workshop building with a door to keep evil spirits out, it may have functioned as a

kind of "spirit house."93 In this sense it is a shrine that housed the guardian spirit of the house or workshop, and this may explain why all the LM III

models are found empty and why their findspots are restricted to domestic and workshop areas. Like the clay figurines, the models were not placed in rooms specially dedicated to cult, and it seems likely that both may have had some

apotropaic character.

CONCLUSIONS

The term "domestic shrine" as a description of certain rooms in a settle

ment implies that a room was dedicated solely to the purpose of worship or that a part of a room was set aside for this purpose. No such rooms can

be found in LM IIIA2-IIIC Crete. Instead we find, on the one hand, a

strong public cult with common cult equipment throughout Crete and, on

the other, the existence of a parallel popular cult that had no connection to the public cult and no connection to a particular room nor to a nook

within a room. Universal concerns such as fertility and protection had

deep roots in Minoan popular religion.94 Protective "spirits" could be and were placed anywhere they were thought necessary, and that is probably why we find the "modest artefacts" of the popular cult spread all over each LM III settlement.

Finally, we must not forget that the inhabitants of LM III Crete had

many extra-urban sanctuaries where they venerated their gods. We know

that the old peak sanctuary of Juktas was visited in LM III, and other

peak sanctuaries may have had contemporary ritual activities, although the evidence is very elusive.95 We also know of many rural cult centers,

such as the open-air sanctuary at Kato Syme, the rock shelter at Patsos,96

and several caves, such as the Psychro, Idaean, Phaneromeni, Kamares,

Skoteino, Liliano, and Eileithyia, where there are no signs of formal orga nization.97 With such a variety of cult places, private religious nooks were

simply not needed.

89. Hagg 1990, p. 102. The trans

formation of the cult in the Subminoan

period and Early Iron Age and the

function of the models in these periods will not be discussed here.

90. No complete freestanding large

goddesses with upraised arms later

than LM IIIC have so far been found

(Gesell 1985, p. 58). 91. A further hut model has been

published since Hagg (1990) and Mersereau (1993) wrote their articles.

It was found in the potters' quarter at Gouves (Vallianou 1997, p. 341,

pi. CXLLb). 92. The models have been inter

preted in many different ways. Most of

these are presented in Mersereau 1993.

Concerning her own suggestion that

they were "used in the worship of the

MGUA at the level of the household

unit," I cannot agree. 93. Mersereau 1993, p. 20, n. 92.

94. Peatfield 2000, p. 13.

95. Karetsou 2003, p. 49. See, fur

ther, Peatfield and Soetens, this volume.

96. Kourou and Karetsou 1994.

97. Tyree 2001, p. 49.



Documents

Domestic Shrines in Late Minoan IIIA2-Late Minoan IIIC Crete: Fact or Fiction? Author(s): Birgitta