 Archaeology and European modernity: Minoan Crete
It is widely recognised that the complex interplay between East and West has deep roots in the ancient world, but it is only more recently that scholars have become interested in the ways in which the constructions of European modernity and of Orientalism have in turn shaped archaeological discourse. The Minoan (Bronze Age) culture of Crete was ‘rediscovered’ towards the end of the 19th century and the presentation of the Minoans as the ‘first Europeans’ owes as much to contemporary concerns and perceptions of European identity (including the Ottoman rule of Greece, the font of European civilisation) as to the archaeological discoveries themselves. This project explores these issues through a specific case study, the shaping of the Minoan goddess into a deity who could be seen in relation to her Eastern ‘sister’ goddesses, yet was distinctively different from them and therefore appropriate to a European context. The project will also draw on a comparative study of the role of the goddess on Cyprus, famed as the island of Aphrodite. Here issues of identity – local Cypriot, East-West, European, past and present – are embedded in archaeological study of the feminine divine. (Dr Morris)
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