Human-Animal Relations in Bronze Age Crete

Archaeologists have long admired the naturalistic animal art of Minoan Crete, often explaining it in terms of religion or a love of the natural world. In this book, Andrew Shapland provides a new way of understanding animal depictions from Bronze Age Crete as the outcome of human-animal relations. Drawing on approaches from anthropology and Human-Animal Studies, he explores the stylistic development of animal depictions in different media, including frescoes, ceramics, stone vessels, seals and wall paintings, and explains them in terms of 'animal practices' such as bull-leaping, hunting, fishing and collecting. Integrating zooarchaeological finds, Shapland highlights the significance of objects and their associated human-animal relations in the history of the palaces, sanctuaries and tombs of Bronze Age Crete. His volume demonstrates how looking at animals opens up new perspectives on familiar sites such as Knossos and some of the most famous objects of this time and place.

• Provides readers with an up-to-date and interdisciplinary approach to the animal depictions of Bronze Age Crete, examining discoveries made over the past century alongside the most recent finds
• Introduces readers to recent anthropological theories in order to understand the material culture of Bronze Age Crete
• Goes beyond a traditional art historical approach in assessing the role of depictions in a prehistoric society, providing readers with a new way of understanding the art historical concept of naturalism, in terms of interaction between humans, animals and objects