Island Iconography: Thera, Kea, Milos

New material from Kea and Milos is considered alongside that of Thera. The iconography is compared with that of Cretan paintings in order to determine whether it is Minoan or indigenous.

 The paintings are considered under two headings: (1) miniature friezes;  (2) large-scale paintings with themes of nature and culture.

The conclusion is reached that, while the concept of painting and the basic techniques and subjects were adopted from Crete, Cycladic painting has more indigenous than borrowed features in terms of iconographic repertoire and programmatic approach. Some aspects of Cycladic paintings are idiosyncratic to individual islands, but the many direct parallels discernible between them enable one to refer to a Cycladic or island iconography.

INTRODUCTION

The iconography of Thera, in conjunction with that of Kea and Milos, significantly broadens our understanding of Aegean culture at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age. Current study of the wall-paintings from these islands generates the question of whether the images were dependent on Crete in terms of content, or whether we can speak of a Cycladic or island iconography.

At Akrotiri on Thera each house or house block had at least one painted room or a complex of rooms (S. Marinatos 1968-1976; Doumas 1983; N. Marinatos 1984a; Morgan 1988; and on the question of Cretan connections: Cameron 1978; Sapouna-Sakellaraki 1981). At Ayia Irini on Kea, on the other hand, wall-paintings were found in only a few buildings of the town. The most important are the Bluebirds frieze found in House A and the miniatures from the North-East Bastion (Abramovitz 1973; 1980; Davis and Morgan in preparation; and on connections: Sakellariou 1980, 148-149). With the exception of stray pieces found in House B there are no compositions with large-scale human figures. At Phylakopi on Milos the well-known Flying Fish painting of the first excavations was found along with fragments of human figures in the so-called Pillar Crypt (Atkinson et al. 1904, 70-79). During the 1970 excavations a stratigraphical sounding was made in the room immediately adjacent to the Pillar Crypt in order to determine the date of the wall-paintings (Morgan forthcoming). The results are interesting but also frustrating since the sounding covered only a fraction of the room and the rest of the paintings remain uncovered. Excavations elsewhere on the site yielded little in the way of paintings, suggesting that the Pillar Crypt complex was the main painted area. However, with the arrival of the Mycenaeans some of the walls were cleared and in a dump found outside the city walls a single fragment of a miniature frieze was found. Again frustratingly limited, this solitary fragment nonetheless reveals that miniature wall-paintings were common to each of the Cycladic islands with major excavated settlements of Late Bronze I.

The aims of this paper are as follows: to use new material from Kea and Milos in conjunction with the well-preserved paintings of Thera in order to distinguish the main themes, characteristic details and, where possible, programmes of Cycladic paintings: and to determine how these compare with Minoan paintings from Crete and whether there are patterns of similarities or whether the islands developed their own tradition. In other words, were the paintings Minoan or were they indigenous?

There are, however, two important provisos. The first is the 'preservation factor'. The paintings of Thera are considerably better preserved than those of the other islands, or indeed of Crete, and this is especially important when we come to look at programmes. As always, it is important not to lose sight of the fact that our evidence is preserved evidence and not the totality. Secondly, as far as Kea is concerned, this is work in progress. The reconstruction drawings shown here are not intended as final.

With these provisos in mind, the discussion will begin with the miniatures, then move to the large-scale paintings with themes of nature and culture, and finally to some conclusions.

MINIATURE PAINTING

Thera, Kea and Milos each had miniature friezes in LC I / LM I.

On Crete, fragments of miniature friezes have been found at Knossos, probably datable in the main to LM I (Evans 1930, 46f.; Evans 1928, 602-603; Evans 1967, Pl. B, Fig. 1a, 1b; Pl. II, IIa; IV, Fig. 1-3; V, Fig.15; Cameron 1967, 65f.; 1974, Fig.17; cf. fragments on a slightly larger scale from the 13th magazines: Evans 1921, 443-447, 527-529; Evans 1967, Pl. V, Fig. 1-2; Pl. VI, Fig. 12) and at Tylissos, where they came from an LM IB destruction context (M. Shaw 1972). 'Miniature' plant fragments were also found in LM IA deposits at Prasa, near Knossos (Platon, 1951, 246f.; 1954, 448-449; Cameron 1976, 7-8, Pl. 3c), in 'Savakis' Bothros' in Knossos town (Cameron 1976) and (with birds) in an MM II - LM I context at Katsamba (Alexiou 1955, 314-318, Fig. 2; M. Shaw 1978), but the subjects and the paucity of remains do not permit a firm conclusion that these belonged to miniature friezes (cf. M. Shaw 1978).

The architectural context of each of the friezes was different: at Akrotiri a town house, at Ayia Irini rooms within the fortification wall, at Knossos within the palace, at Tylissos a country villa. The context of the Phylakopi fragment is of course unknown, but it must have come from one of the town houses. Some of these rooms may have been used as shrines (N. Marinatos 1983; 1984a; 1984b; 1985 on Thera), but that at Kea is large for such a function, unless intended for public religious gatherings or banquets.

The iconographic function of the paintings, however, appears to have been comparable at each site. All show public gatherings, apparently festivals of a ritual nature. All are set outdoors but with buildings or built structures of some kind. All appear to show their local surroundings: on the small islands of Thera and Kea the paintings are set by the sea, while at Knossos the setting is palatial. Each is therefore appropriate to its environment.

At Knossos the miniature friezes came from a small room of fthe north-west side ofthe central court in the palace. They probably belonged to three walls (Cameron 1974, Fig. 17 = 1978, Fig. 11). The main theme of one of the friezes is that of a crowd of spectators, male and female. The tripartite shrine around which they are gathered corresponds to a reconstructed structure on the west side of the central court at Knossos. A second frieze shows more spectators watching a ritual dance by women in an outdoor area generally understood as either the northern theatrical area or west court at Knossos (most recently discussed in Hägg and Marinatos 1987, papers by Cameron, Davis, Marinatos ).

The miniatures from Tylissos are fragmentary. They show female dancers (as at Knossos), and men carrying pots in a procession (as at Kea) walking towards a building.

By far the best preserved of the miniatures, the friezes from the West House at Akrotiri, were painted on three walls above the windows and doors of Room 5 (S. Marinatos 1974, Col. Pl. 7-9; Morgan 1988; Televantou, this volume). They depict a procession of ships, coastal settlements, pastoral activities, sacred hill-top rites, and a landscape. I interpret the main scene as a nautical festival (1978; 1983; 1988 with references to other interpretations).

The one fragment from Milos shows a man's leg in a boot and the head of a second figure below (Fig. 6). The boot is paralleled in the painting from Tylissos.

The miniatures from Kea were painted on the walls of a large room within the fortification wall. It seems likely that they ran along three of the walls. I am currently in the process of reconstructing these paintings. One should not, of course, expect a complete restoration along the lines of Thera - the pieces are too fragmentary for that - but much is possible and extracts of the paintings are being put together. They depict a festival, mainly of men, set by the sea as at Thera. The landscape in which the action is set is richly diverse, with a river, marsh, many different plants and multi-coloured rocks.

There is little doubt that the miniatures of Kea and Thera were painted by different hands. Both in individual style and iconographic details there are many differences. Despite this fact, the overall concept of these Cycladic paintings and the basic components of the major theme and some of the details of their depiction are clearly comparable. Both sets of paintings show settlements. At Thera the activity takes place between two towns. The architecture of the main settlement recalls that of Akrotiri itself. At Kea two building complexes are differentiated by scale. The architecture has individual characteristics including domes or vaults (Fig. 1).

Both complexes of paintings are set by the sea. At Thera the maritime theme of the miniatures is dominant and was accentuated by the Fishermen panels from the same room. At Kea evidence for the marine setting comes from large quantities of blue and a few fragments of ships shown in the reconstruction of Fig. 2. One poorly-preserved piece shows an awning with wooden struts and men seated beneath it, affording a direct parallel with the ships in procession from Thera. Another piece has small-scale dolphins. These were apparently painted on the hull of a ship (here separated from the blue of the sea) just as on the flagship at Thera (Fig. 3). The festive bunting of the Theran ship takes the form of festoons with crocus pendants (Morgan 1988, Pl. 39). At Kea, three fragments associated with the ship pieces provide a parallel for this motif; they are reconstructed here on a ship's hull. It appears from these details that the Keans were familiar with the same ship's emblems as the Therans. In spite of the fragmentary nature of the evidence, the question of whether the islanders used the same ships must be raised. Of even greater significance is the suggestion that, through the recurrence of these emblematic details the festivals themselves can be thought to be related.

The participants in the festivals of the island miniatures are mostly men. Those in the Kean miniatures are involved in a number of different activities, some of which do not occur in the Theran paintings and some which do. Processions, in which men approach one another from the left and the right, are a significant feature of both sets of paintings (Fig. 4 and 5). In the Meeting on the Hill at Thera (Fig. 5) most of the men in the ritual procession wear long white robes, one of which has the end of the fabric tossed over the shoulder (Morgan 1988, Pl. 123). A similar robe, otherwise relatively rare in the Aegean at this time (ibid., 93-95), is worn by the men in the procession at Kea, most or all of whom have the piece of fabric over the shoulder (Fig. 4). The robe is applied exclusively to processions in both cases. It is, in fact, a characteristic of these paintings that differential clothing is used for different activities. When an activity shown in one painting does not occur in the other, neither does the appropriate dress: men wearing short-sleeved garments in the Kean paintings gesture in a manner which suggest a dance (Abramovitz 1980, Pl. 4 (59-60)); neither the garment nor the dance appear in the Theran paintings. On the other hand, men paddling small boats wear loin-cloths in both sets of paintings (Morgan 1988, Pl. 160; Abramovitz 1980, Pl. 6c (96)).

Women appear with limited iconographic roles in these paintings and, unlike at Knossos, there are strikingly few. The theme of women in an architectural setting, usually at windows, is common in the Aegean: they are spectators of the scene (Morgan 1988, 82-83). It is a major component of the miniatures from Knossos. Both Thera and Kea contain the theme within the miniatures: at Thera in two women watching the Ship Procession from the Arrival Town (Morgan 1988, Pl. 120) and at Kea in two fragments, one with a woman at a window (Abramovitz 1980, Pl. 3 (56)), and one (ibid., 55) with a woman now reconstructed walking past a doorway carrying a vessel on her head. The only other context in which women appear in either of the friezes is that of outdoor scenes (Fig. 1). In two instances, in the pastoral scene from Thera (Morgan 1988, Pl. 16, 140), and in a fragment from Kea (Abramovitz 1980, Pl. 4a (63)), the skirt is delineated by short lines representing either rough wool or hide.

So far we have been considering the friezes with human figures, but at both Thera and it seems Kea there was a third frieze. The Landscape from Thera is on a slightly different scale from its companion friezes: though the entire frieze is narrower, the animals are on a larger scale than the human figures. From Kea came fragments of a scene with deer chased by dogs (Abramovitz 1980, Pl. 6d). The animals are also on a slightly larger scale than the humans. This constitutes part, at least, of the third frieze at Kea. Both paintings show hunting activities and in both, though the scene is from nature, there is a hint of human culture: at Thera the palm trees are cultivated not wild (Morgan 1988, 24-26, 39-40), while at Kea the scene reflects the human practice of using dogs in the hunt. A hunter, a fragment of a chariot, and fragments of horses also occur in the Kean miniatures (Abramovitz 1980, Pl. 5a and 7a), though their relationship to one another and to the deer is not dear from their contexts. The riverine setting of the Landscape frieze recurs in the Kean miniatures (Fig. 1), but it is not evident that it should be associated with the deer hunt.

In contrast to the close relationships between these two island paintings, few details find parallels with the miniatures of Crete. An exception is the detail of pots carried on poles by men which occurs at Tylissos and Kea (Fig. 4). Some motifs which occur in a maritime context in the Theran miniatures recur on Crete on pottery with marine associations - festoon and crocus pendants, star with dots - but at a slightly later date, LM IB rather than late LM IA (Morgan 1984).

Two scenes from the Theran miniatures were in common use in the Aegean, examples being known from Crete and Mycenae: the Cat and Bird of the Landscape frieze and the Shipwreck and Warriors scene (Morgan 1988, 146-154; Sakellariou 1975; 1981; Warren 1979, 125-128).

Some features in the Cycladic miniatures have a particularly Mycenaean flavour: at Thera, the lion hunt, a favourite theme of the Shaft Grave era, and at Kea, a chariot, a hunter shown with helmet, spear, and the flank of a deer slung over a pole, and the hunting dogs. These popular features of Mycenaean painting appear for the first time in Aegean wall-painting in the Kean miniatures. Despite the paucity of evidence for the earliest Mycenaean paintings, it seems likely that the Cycladic islanders were innovators who influenced the course of Mycenaean art (cf. certain idiomatic features of the large-scale Theran paintings discussed by Cameron 1978, 591).

While several details are paralleled between Thera and Kea, certain features are exclusive to their site in terms of miniature painting, though they may have parallels in other media. At Knossos, the tripartite shrine is a Minoan, rather than Cycladic structure (J. Shaw 1978). At Thera, the Meeting on the Hill shows a peak sanctuary ritual, a feature of Minoan cult (Morgan 1988, 156-158). The fortification wall of the Arrival Town in the Ship Procession is a Cycladic feature: both Ayia Irini and Phylakopi were fortified by this period, while at Thera the question of fortifications must remain open as the extremities of the site have not been reached. The Fishermen theme recurs on the well-known Fishermen Vase from Milos (Atkinson et al. 1904, 123-125, Pl. 22). At Kea, the majority of features exclusive to those miniatures recur in later Mycenaean painting: hunter, horses, chariot, dogs. Some features, however, are unique, notably a scene associated with the ships in which men standing by the sea shore bend over large cauldrons (FIg. 2), presumably preparing a feast as pan of the public festival.

Of those features, then, which are exclusive to individual miniatures, those from Knossos have only Cretan connections, those from Thera have connections with the other Cycladic islands, Crete and the Mycenae Shaft Graves, and those from Kea have connections with Mycenaean painting. This situation is comprehensible in terms of the geographic position of the islands, which sees Thera as a pivotal centre with direct contacts both south and north.

The striking similarity between the miniatures of Thera and Kea is emphasized in the layout or programme, of the paintings. At both sites a room adjacent to the room with miniatures had paintings in panels. At Thera the maritime theme of the miniatures was picked up in the panels of Stern Cabins (which relate to the ships in the procession) and the Priestess (who was involved in a ritual connected with the nautical procession) and the seasonal theme of the paintings was picked up in the Lilies (Morgan 1988, 143-145, 165; plan: p. 3, Fig. 2). At Kea too, at least two compositions of plants were painted on the walls of the room adjacent to the miniatures (Abramovitz 1980, Pl. 8a-c. 9a-d; plan: Caskey 1971, 375, Fig. 9, MI (= N18) plants and MII (= N20, miniatures)). This form of iconographic organization, with two related rooms, appears to be specifically Cycladic. I shall return to this point in the context of the following category of painting.

LARGE-SCALE PAINTING IN THE CYCLADES: THEMES OF NATURE AND CULTURE

Scenes from nature are common to both Crete and the Cycladic islands, but there are differences in approach. 'Pure' nature, in which human or divine participation is not visible, though they may have been symbolically implied, was (with the notable exception of Room 14 at Ayia Triada) the main approach to the theme on Crete: the House of Frescoes and the Caravanserai are good examples. The theme was applied at Thera in the Spring Fresco.

But in the Cyclades there are other approaches to nature, ranging from simple abstraction at Kea to complex symbolism at Thera. In the first category dolphins, which on Crete appear in a sealife environment in the floor paintings of Ayia Triada (Banti 1941-1943, 28-43, Fig. 18; Hirsch 1977, 10-11; Hood 1978, 71) and the Queen's Megaron at Knossos (Evans 1921, 542-544; 1930, 377-379; Koehl 1986) are painted at Kea in isolation, without context (fragments from House J, Abramovitz 1973, 293-296, Fig. 2, Pl. 56b). Nor is that the only instance of this approach in Kean painting. The Bluebird frieze from House A (Abramovitz 1973, 286-293, Pl. 54-56a; 1980, 85, Fig. 1), which Ellen Davis is in the process of reconstructing, has a monochrome background, a vivid contrast with the bluebirds of the House of the Frescoes which are set within a lush landscape of wild plants and rocks. This abstraction of nature is, of course, characteristic of Mycenaean painting, and again we see an aspect of Kean art which foreshadows that of the mainlanders.

If Kean artists abstract aspects of nature from their contexts, while the Cretans incorporated them into their environmental settings, Thera integrated the world of plants and animals with that of the human world. Dolphins in the Theran miniatures appear neither in isolation nor amongst other sealife, but as companions of ships. A development of this integration in the Theran paintings is that of parallelism between nature and culture. This is evident in the Boxers and Antelopes paintings from B1, in which the social theme of ritual fighting between young males is expressed through the juxtaposition of human and animal behaviour (Morgan 1985, 16-18; N. Marinatos 1984a, 106-112).

Further complexity is reached in the approach to nature which expresses mythic collaboration of animals with humans. This concept is manifest in the paintings of Thera, though it underlies some Minoan iconography as well. Only through the former does the latter make itself known. For there are paintings which appear to represent pure nature but which are, in fact, reflections of that more complex approach. They offer a good opportunity of observing ways in which iconographic meanings can be built up across paintings rather than simply within a single work.

Monkeys are a recurrent subject of Theran painting (N. Marinatos 1987a; 1987b). In the paintings from B6 they appear relatively abstracted (S. Marinatos 1972, Col. Pl. D). This is a unique instance of direct borrowing from Crete. The prototype lies in the House of the Frescoes frieze (Cameron 1968; 1978, 580). Features of the paintings - land delineated into areas, monkeys grasping, rivers - are abstracted in the Theran example, naturalized in the Cretan. The parallel is extended in the other compositions found in association with these paintings: at Thera, two goats flanking a clump of crocuses (S. Marinatos 1971, 46; 1972, 38); and from the House of the Frescoes, two agrimia flanking a tree with crocus clumps above (Cameron 1968, 25-26, Fig. 12 reconstruction). This association between monkeys and crocuses recurs in the Saffron Gatherer from Knossos, in which the monkey gathers the plant into baskets (Platon 1947). Both the anthropomorphism suggested here and the association between monkey and crocus are more apparent on Thera. In one of the friezes from Xeste 3 a monkey plays a lyre (N. Marinatos 1984a, Pl. 80) while others reportedly hold swords; swallows and crocuses are associated (S. Marinatos 1976, 25-26; N. Marinatos 1987a, 130 and n. 29). This frieze was found near the entrance to Room 2, close to the main cult area, the adyton of Room 3 (S. Marinatos 1976, 25; N. Marinatos 1984a, 113). On the two levels of the cult area the Cycladic formula of human activity juxtaposed with a scene from nature recurs: a fowling scene was painted between processions of figures and the main scenes of cult activity. Women are collecting crocuses into baskets, which are then brought to a seated female figure, the goddess or her representative, tipped out of the basket in front of her and presented, not by one of the women, but by a monkey (Fig. 10). The goddess has crocus blooms on her dress and one on her cheek. The association between monkeys and crocuses is here manifest and the animal has entered the mythical sphere.

Holding the programme of the Xeste 3 paintings in mind, attention now moves to Milos and the paintings from the Pillar Crypt area. From the recent sounding adjacent to the earlier excavation (FIG. 12, Pi-S) came fragments of blue, one piece of which is well enough preserved to be reconstructed as the head of a monkey (Fig. 7). From the next rooms, found in the first excavations, came paintings of Lilies and the well-known Flying Fish friezes. As at Thera, nature is juxtaposed with culture, and in the same room as the Flying Fish was a scene with two women. One is seated and holds a blue cloth in her hands (Atkinson et al. 1904, 73, Fig. 61; Fig. 60 top left fragment). The other is represented by a single surviving fragment and shows the shoulders of a bending figure (ibid., 74, Fig. 62). The new reconstruction in Fig. 8 shows that the bending woman is holding out her hands. As it is not known if she was holding anything, I have not drawn in the hands, but more likely she has already given her offering, in the form of the cloth held by the seated woman. The theme is one which we know already from the House of the Ladies at Thera (Fig. 9). There, a woman bends forwards holding out a cloth in one hand and a skirt in the other which she presents to a seated figure preserved only in a fragment of the arm (reconstruction: N. Marinatos 1984a, Fig. 69, 71). Not only is the theme comparable to that shown in the painting from the Pillar Crypt, but so are several of the details: the shoulder is idiomatically drawn, pushed forward in three-quarter view rather than in the usual frontal position; and the fingernails are painted pink. The knotted belt of the Milos figure is paralleled on the dresses of the women in the Xeste 3 paintings.

The theme of the House of the Ladies painting has been interpreted as a robing ceremony and has been shown in combination with Cretan sealstones to belong to an iconographic cycle of scenes in which a garment is brought to and then presented to the priestess or (epiphany of ?) the goddess (N. Marinatos 1984a, 97-105; Niemeier 1986, 78-81; Warren 1988, 20-23). On sealstones the theme appears in abbreviated form: carrying the garment (Hogarth 1902, 78, Fig. 5; Levi 1925-26, 130, Fig. 139; CMS II (3), No.8); and robing (Warren 1988, 21, Fig. 12). The figures are female in all but one instance (CMS II (3), No. 145 = Demargne 1948, 281, Fig. 1, skirt flanked by two males). In wall-paintings the theme may have been more widespread than we know today. Christos Boulotis has suggested a new reconstruction for part of the LM IB / LM II (?) Knossos Procession Fresco in which an offering to the central female figure is shown to be a fringed cloth (1987, Fig. 8), and the same scholar draws attention to a fragment from Tiryns showing a hand holding an idol and cloth (1979, 60-61). These examples are, however, of later date and in our present state of knowledge the only unequivocal examples of LB I are Cycladic. Amongst the figures in a procession from Xeste 3 at Thera is a man holding out a cloth as an offering (Praktika 1982, Pl. 169). Of the presentation scenes at Thera, in the House of the Ladies the offering is cloth, while in Xeste 3 the offering is crocus stigmas for the making of saffron, a dye which is used for cloth. At Milos, the theme recurs in the presentation of cloth from the Pillar Crypt. Three stages in the production of robes are therefore apparent in the ritual offerings: saffron (dye), cloth (woven), robe (sewn).

The theme can be seen through its associative elements to belong to a wider iconographic cycle in which women, cloth, crocuses and monkeys recur (in various combinations of two or three of the four elements) and whose focal point is a presentation scene. The complete cycle is not depicted in any single surviving painting (at Xeste 3 the cloth element is missing, in the Pillar Crypt the crocus), but different paintings represent sections of the cycle and through these reverberations the theme is communicated. A mythic content is apparent in the inclusion of monkeys involved in human activities and their association in this capacity with a presentation scene intimates the presence of the divine. The focal point of the cycle - the presentation scene - reflects a ritual, perhaps undertaken in an enactment of a mythic event, hence the inclusion iconographically of the monkey. The ritual action of the Xeste 3 paintings has been interpreted in terms of initiation rites and attention has been drawn to the medicinal importance of saffron (N. Marinatos 1984a, 61-84; 1987a; cf. Cameron 1978, 582). Whether the rituals are to be understood as Minoan-inspired there can be no doubt that this iconographic cycle held particular relevance for the islanders. The reason for this may lie in the offerings which are presented in the scenes. Perhaps not only saffron, whose most universal use is as a dye (Douskos 1980; Morgan 1988, 30-32) but the finished product of dyed cloth was of economic importance to the Therans. Textile production at Akrotiri is attested by large numbers of loom weights (Doumas 1983, 117) and the preponderance of sheep and goat among the domestic faunal remains (Gamble 1978). Different emphasis is reflected in the paintings: while the Pillar Crypt and House of the Ladies depict a single moment in time, the figures of Xeste 3 are involved in a sequence of actions. In the first case a culminating act involving a finished product is depicted - presentation of the cloth - and in the second, a process leading towards a culminating act - the ritual collection of crocuses and the presentation of the raw material for saffron. In their iconography it is evident that the people of Milos, whether or not they had the same economic concerns (which in the case of textiles seems likely (C. Gamble in Davis and Cherry 1979, 132-133), while saffron is unlikely) shared the concomitant mythic associations and at least part of the ritual activity. More negatively, it may be suggested that the artists of Milos depended heavily on Thera for their subject matter. But this last theory is anachronistic in its reliance on imitation versus inspiration as the alternative impulses behind artists' choices of subject. This is not western art of the 19th or 20th centuries AD, freed from the strictures of patrons and disassociated by the change from wall to easel from a specific context. The choice of a theme must have been relevant to the building in which it was painted, the people for whom it was intended and the time in which it was executed or in which it was intended to be seen.

In this sense, it is particularly significant that the programmes - the iconographic schemes or layouts - of Xeste 3 at Akrotiri and the Pillar Crypt at Phylakopi present a striking parallel. For here we are dealing not with isolated iconographic details, which travel easily between settlements in contact with one another, but with an overall approach to a theme: a visual concept. In Xeste 3, in an outer room to the south-east was the Frieze of Monkeys. Nearby, in Room 4, were Spirals and Rosettes (S. Marinatos 1976, 27, Pl. 40). In the inner rooms to the north-west, were the cult scenes juxtaposed with a nature frieze. The focal point of these scenes was the presentation to a seated female - the goddess or an epiphany of the goddess. In the Pillar Crypt complex, although the evidence is relatively fragmentary, the following can be deduced. In an outer room to the south-east was a Monkey frieze, which was bordered by Spirals and Bands (Morgan forthcoming). In the inner rooms immediately to the west and to the north-west were nature scenes (Lilies and Flying Fish) juxtaposed with a cult scene of the presentation of an offering to a seated female figure, presumably also the goddess. The presentation must in both cases have been the central theme. That the associated iconographic features of monkeys and spirals recur suggests a common conceptual basis and that the spatial relationship between the paintings was so similar points to a common thematic intention.

CONCLUSION

Though the concept of wall-painting, the basic techniques used, and some of the subjects of Cycladic painting were adopted from Minoan Crete, there are more indigenous features in the paintings than borrowed, and the close relationship between iconographic themes indicates a shared tradition.

In terms of idiom, some close comparisons between Thera and Milos are evident: in the characteristic delineation of marine rock and algae, e.g. Thera miniatures, Milos Flying Fish and fragments associated with the Presentation Scene (Morgan 1988, 35-38 for Thera; forthcoming on Milos), the pink fingernails, knotted belt, and idiomatic drawing of the shoulder. It is not apparent from the draughtsmanship, however, that the same hands are at work (on painterly techniques see E. Davis in this volume). At Thera the standard of draughtsmanship is exceptionally high. At Milos, the Flying Fish friezes are painted with deftness and subtlety, but the Presentation Scene lacks sureness: the line is often broken, unlike the pure continuous line of the Theran paintings. The miniature piece from Milos is fragmentary in the extreme, but the drawing of the leg is close to that of the miniatures from Kea (not to those from Thera) and it is possible that the same artists are at work. But far too little survives from Milos to be sure. Despite the striking iconographic similarities between the miniatures of Kea and Thera, the two sequences of friezes were clearly painted by different artists.

It appears, then, that the paintings of the Cycladic islands have more in common with one another in terms of iconography than in terms of draughtsmanship. This suggests a common tradition with different artists working on each island. This is a surprising conclusion, considering the degree of specialization usually associated with mural painting. One would have expected travelling artists rather than local painters at each site. Yet a common training ground for, in particular, the painters of the miniatures from Thera and Kea is likely and a free exchange of ideas between the island painters clearly led to major iconographic correspondences between the murals. These correspondences set Cycladic painting somewhat apart from that of Crete.

A characteristically Cycladic format is recognizable in which complexes of rooms have related sequences of paintings. Knossos palace also had paintings related in theme, but according to present-day knowledge the format of having two or three rooms with a coherent iconographic scheme appears to be specifically Cycladic. We have seen examples from Thera in the West House and Xeste 3, from Milos in the Pillar Crypt complex, and from Kea in the North-East Bastion.

A juxtaposition between human cult activity and the natural world also seems to be typically Cycladic. This does not appear to be a common characteristic of wall-painting outside the Cyclades. At Thera, this juxtaposition is to be seen in the Boxing Boys and Antelopes; the Ladies of the Robing Scene, who appear alongside paintings of Papyrus; the Crocus Gatherers, Fowling Scene and Monkeys frieze from Xeste 3; and in the Miniatures, with the Meeting on the Hill and Ship Procession on the one hand and the Landscape on the other. At Milos, it occurs in the Pillar Crypt complex, with the cult scene of the Presentation and the Flying Fish, Lilies and Monkeys. At Kea. it occurs in the Miniatures and Plant Panels. The only unequivocal example of such juxtaposition in Cretan painting occurs in Room 14 at Ayia Triada. Significantly, there are other important parallels with Theran painting here: the cat, bird and deer theme of the 'nature' wall (cf. the Landscape), and the association between women, crocuses and a shrine (cf. Xeste 3) on the others. The question arises as to why Ayia Triada, in particular, should display characteristics otherwise associated with Thera.

Miniature painting is seen to be characteristic of the islands. At both Thera and Kea a two-room complex was painted with miniatures and panels. There appear in both cases to have been three friezes, two with human activity and one with animals on a larger scale. The close comparisons in subject in these two sets of paintings - ships and the sea, settlements, men, processions contrasts with the differences between the miniatures of Crete and the Cyclades. Knossos relates to palace life; the Cycladic examples to island life and the sea. And, in contrast to the concentration on spectators at Knossos, the island paintings delight in the fullness of activity of the people.

Certain themes recur on the islands. One such theme is that of marine life, seen at Thera in the Miniatures, the Fishermen, and the Ships' Cabins, at Milos in the Flying Fish, and at Kea in the Miniatures and the Dolphins. This marine theme is reiterated on pottery from both Thera and Milos. Another theme which recurs is that of the Robing Ceremony and Presentation Scene, apparent at Thera in the House of the Ladies and Xeste 3 respectively, and at Milos in the Pillar Crypt complex.

The analogies between the components of the paintings of Xeste 3 and the Pillar Crypt support the view that the similarities in iconographic disposition are not coincidental but are indicative of a shared programmatic approach. The paintings of Milos and Thera exhibit a shared iconography. In terms of dating, Thera lies firmly within Late Minoan IA. At Milos, the building was destroyed in LM IB but it was built in LM IA. Even if the paintings were not exactly contemporary, Thera being at the end of IA, Milos at the beginning of IB, as I believe is the case, the difference is likely to have been minimal.

In wall-paintings, as in other respects, Thera has more in common with Crete than either Kea or Milos has, especially when we take into consideration unpublished paintings from Thera of processions (Xeste 3 and 4) and the fact that the technique of relief painting was practised on the island (S. Marinatos 1976, Pl. 41). Furthermore, it is evident that wall-painting played a major role in the religious and cultural expression of the people of Akrotiri, to a greater extent, judging by the distribution of preserved material from those sites, than at either Ayia Irini or Phylakopi. The significance of painted iconography is nowhere greater in the Aegean than at Akrotiri and at Knossos. Considering this fact, it is all the more notable that the themes of Theran painting are, on the whole, so different from those of palatial Knossos.

The broader question of the degree of Minoanization of the island settlements in LC I has been much discussed in recent years (papers in Hägg and Marinatos 1984; Barber 1987, 157-200; Branigan 1981; Davis 1979; Doumas 1982; Schofield 1982). What has emerged is the undoubted importance of the Cycladic islands, and in particular of Thera, in the maritime trading network of the Aegean. Such a network clearly has major cultural implications. The pivotal position of Thera in terms of the exchange of ideas between Crete and Thera, Milos and Kea which is revealed through the iconography of those islands speaks for a pattern of inter-island cultural connections in which Akrotiri played a major role (Fig. 13). Within this pattern it emerges that Cycladic wall-painting, while clearly owing much to Minoan tradition, developed its own characteristics, each island contributing to what in its totality amounted to an island iconography.

---------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------