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The Cretan Collection in the University of Pennsylvania Museum III

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This third volume about the Cretan Collection in the Penn Museum presents the Minoan metal artifacts. They provide primary evidence for the early history of metallurgy in southeastern Europe during...
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  • 07 February 2024
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The University of Pennsylvania owns the largest collection of Minoan artifacts outside of Europe. The objects were acquired legally from the nation of Crete after it became independent from the Ottoman Empire and before its request was accepted to become a part of Greece, whose laws forbade such gifts to institutions that had sponsored archaeological expeditions. This third volume about the Cretan Collection in the Penn Museum presents the Minoan metal artifacts. They provide primary evidence for the early history of metallurgy in southeastern Europe during the second millennium B.C. This is a rich and varied assemblage of objects, with a large number of different classes. It is especially rich in items from the preliminary stages of metalwork (including oxhide ingot fragments, cut preliminary strips, and small cast strips used as early stages in the manufacture of artifacts). The study using modern techniques of examination-including scientific analyses-both documents the museum's holdings and provides new information on Minoan metalworking. Two important metallurgical techniques are documented: eutectic bonding of silver-capped rivets on daggers and "casting on" repairs to an existing object, which has not been noted previously in Minoan metalwork. The assemblage is remarkable for the light its objects shed on the history of technology.
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Price: £75.00
Pages: 200
Publisher: INSTAP Academic Press
Imprint: INSTAP Academic Press
Series: Prehistory Monographs
Publication Date: 07 February 2024
ISBN: 9781931534383
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:

SOCIAL SCIENCE / Archaeology, Archaeology by period / region, HISTORY / Ancient / Greece, Exhibition catalogues and specific collections, History of engineering and technology

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This slender volume, which discusses in detail 62 objects made of copper and copper alloys and one lead object from the Minoan settlement at Gournia in eastern Crete, has been worth the wait as it includes significant scientific analyses that enrich our understanding of the works and how they were made. Furthermore, it goes well beyond the analysis of the artifacts themselves to present a highly readable and nuanced understanding of metalworking at Gournia and more generally on Crete during the Bronze Age, drawing on the authors formidable collective knowledge of this period, numerous recent discoveries in the field, and fascinating information gleaned from careful study of the objects under discussion. . . . The combination of detailed object-based analysis and thorough examination of the archaeological record presented in this book enriches our understanding of the Minoan metal objects in the care of the Penn Museum and adds to our knowledge of the role of metals at Gournia in the Bronze Age.
Hemingway, Seán, American Journal of Archaeology, January 2025, vol. 129, no. 1