Wall Paintings and Social Context: The Northeast Bastion at Ayia Irini (Keos) - Hardcover

Morgan, Lyvia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1931534977 ISBN 13: 9781931534970

Publisher: INSTAP Academic Press (Institute for Aegean Prehistory), 2020

Synopsis

This book presents the results of the study of the wall paintings from the Northeast Bastion at Ayia Irini, situating them within the wider social context of the island of Kea and the Aegean world. Like the spectacularly well-preserved town of Akrotiri on Thera, with which these paintings are contemporary, Ayia Irini thrived 3,500 years ago. But unlike Akrotiri, Ayia Irini was not protected by a layer of volcanic ash. When the site was excavated in the 1960s–1970s by the University of Cincinnati under the auspices of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, the paintings had long since collapsed, fracturing into thousands of small pieces and becoming mixed with stones, broken pottery, and accumulated debris. This study attempts to bring the wall paintings back to life through the best-preserved fragments. Within the Northeast Bastion was a miniature frieze and, in the adjacent room, large-scale panels of plants. Human action set within townscapes, landscapes, and the sea presents a vivid account of the social life and environment of the people for whom this harbor town was vital within the trading network of the time. In this book the social implications of the fascinating and often unique iconography is explored, and the setting within a fortification wall is quite extraordinary. The volume contains many catalog entries, which contain color images of the fragments, and it is also abundantly illustrated with color drawings, visualizations, and photographs.

About this edition

• Publisher: INSTAP Academic Press (Institute for Aegean Prehistory)
• Publication date: 2020
• ISBN 10: 1931534977
• ISBN 13: 9781931534970
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 630