Mystery aspects of dance depictions on Late Geometric and Early Archaic pithoi: Reflections on the cult practices of Early Iron Age Greece

Alexandra Pentoti

Mystery aspects of dance depictions on Late Geometric and Early Archaic pithoi: Reflections on the cult practices of Early Iron Age Greece

Abstract

During the Late Geometric and Early Archaic periods (late 8th–first half of the 7th century BCE), the decorative theme of dance is seen on a number of pithoi associated with ritual and cult places in central and southern Aegean region. The depictions of group circular or labyrinthine dances, as well as individual instances of dance rituals on votive pithoi, likely reflect particular cult practices and beliefs of the Early Iron Age Greek communities. The current article examines the selection of this specific decoration in relation to the ritual context of the pithoi, as revealed by the archaeological evidence, epic tradition and ancient Greek literature, in an attempt to approximate, as closely as possible, the social and religious life of early historical communities.

Keywords

References

Alexiou S. (1965). “Αρχαιότητες και μνημεία Κεντρικής και Ανατολ. Κρήτης”, ΑrchDelt 20, Β3, 549-557.
Angliker E.; Kourayos Y.; Daifa K. (2024). “Experiences and Individual Practices at the Sanctuary of Apollo at Despotiko: A Case of Dances and Travelling”, in: G. Woolf, I. Bultrighini and C. Norman (Eds.), Sanctuaries and Experience. Knowledge, Practice and Space in the Ancient World, Potsdamer altertumswissenschaftliche Beiträge 83 Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, 67-87.
Asimakopoulou S. D. (2017). Δήμητρα «εν άστει». Συμβολή στη λατρεία των γονιμικών θεοτήτων στην Αττική από τους κλασικούς χρόνους έως την ύστερη αρχαιότητα, Ph.D. diss, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
Bernabé Α. (Ed.) (2007). Poetae epici Graeci. Testimonia et fragmenta. Pars II, Fasc. 3. Musaeus, Linus, Epimenides, Papyrus Derveni, Indices, De Gruyter, Berlin.
Bowra C. M. (1970). On Greek Margins, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Burkert W. (1982). Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth (transl. by P. Bing), University of California Press, Berkeley/ Los Angeles/ London.
Burkert W. (1985). Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical (transl. by J. Raffan), Blackwell, Oxford.
Burkert W. (1993). Αρχαία Ελληνική Θρησκεία (transl. by Ν. P. Bezentakos and Α. Avagianou), Kardamitsa Publications, Athens [Orig. title: Griechische Religion der archaischen und klassischen Epoche, Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart/ Berlin/ Köln/ Mainz, 1977].

Cambitoglou A. (1970). “Ανασκαφαί Ζαγοράς Άνδρου. Προκαταρκτική Έκθεσις Ι. 1967 και 1968-69”, ΑrchΕph 109, 154-233.
Cambitoglou A., Birchall A., Coulton J. J. and Green J. R. (1988). Zagora 2. Excavation of a geometric town on the island of Andros. Excavation season 1969; Study season 1969-1970. The Archaeological Society at Athens, Athens.
Cassell B.S. (2024). “Experiencing Athenian pasts on Delos: Resource depletion, embodied cognition, and synchronized arousal in the geranos dance”, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies XX, 1-19.
Cook A. B. (1914). Zeus. A Study in Ancient Religion, Vol. I: Zeus God of the Bright Sky, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Cullen J., Keller D. (1990). “The Greek Pithos through Time: Multiple Functions and Diverse Imagery”, in: W. D. Kingery (Ed.), The Changing Roles of Ceramics in Society: 26,000 B.P. to the Present (Ceramics and Civilisation, vol. 5), The American Ceramic Society, Westerville, Ohio, 183-209.
D’Acunto M. (2016). “Dance in Attic and Argive Geometric Pottery: figurative Imagery and ritual Contexts”, in: G. Colesanti and L. Lulli (Eds.), Submerged Literature in ancient Greek Culture, Vol. 2: Case Studies, De Gruyter, Berlin/ Boston, 205-241.
Day L. P., Snyder L. M. (2004). “The ‘Big House’ at Vronda and the ‘Great House’ at Karphi: Evidence for Social Structure in LM IIIC Crete”, in: L. P. Day, M. S. Mook and J. D. Muhly (Eds.), Crete Beyond the Palaces: Proceedings of the Crete 2000 Conference, Prehistory Monographs 10, INSTAP Academic Press, Philadelphia, 63-79.
Dietrich O., Heun M., Notroff J., Schmidt K., Zarnkow M. (2012). “The role of cult and feasting in the emergence of Neolithic communities. New evidence from Göbekli Tepe, south-eastern Turkey”, Antiquity 86, 674-695.
Duev R. (2008). “Zeus and Dionysus in the light of Linear B records”, in: A. Sacconi, M. del Freo, L. Godart and M. Negri (Eds.), Colloquium Romanum. Atti del XII Colloquio internazionale di micenologia, Roma, 20-25 febbraio 2006, Vol. II, Pasiphae II, Fabrizio Serra Editore, Pisa/ Roma.
Ebbinghaus S. (2005). “Protector of the City, or the Art of Storage in Early Greece”, JHS 125, 51-72.
Étienne R., Kourou N., Simantoni-Bournia E. (2013). Η αρχαία Τήνος, Kardamitsa Publications, Athens.
Fairbanks A. (1900). A Study of the Greek Paean: With Appendixes containing the Hymns found at Delphi, and the other Extant Fragments of Paeans, Cornell University Press, New York.
Furley W. D.; Bremer J. M. (2001a). Greek Hymns: Selected Cult Songs from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period. Volume I: The Texts in Translation, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen.
Furley W. D.; Bremer J. M. (2001b). Greek Hymns: Selected Cult Songs from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period. Volume II: Greek Texts and Commentary, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen.
Garfinkel Y. (2003). Dancing at the Dawn of Agriculture, University of Texas Press, Austin.
Garfinkel Y. (2010). “Dance in Prehistoric Europe”, Documenta Praehistorica 37, 205-214, DOI: https://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/DocumentaPraehistorica/article/view/37.18
Giannopoulou M. (2016). “Ιεροί Πίθοι: παρουσία και χρήση σε ιερά διαχρονικά και ιδιαίτερα στα Μητρώα της Μακεδονίας”, in: Μ. Giannopoulou and Ch. Kallini (Eds.), Ηχάδιν. Τιμητικός τόμος για τη Στέλλα Δρούγου, Vol Ι, Hellenic Ministry of Culture, The Archaeological Receipts and Expropriations Fund (TAPA), Athens, 286-308.
Gilula M. (1974). “An Offering of ‘First Fruits’ in Ancient Egypt”, Tel Aviv 1, 33–43.
Gimbutas M. (1982). The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe 6500-3500 BC: Myths and Cult Images, University of California Press, Berkley/ Los Angeles.
Hallo W. W.; Younger K. L. (1997, eds.). The Context of Scripture: Canonical Compositions from the Biblical World, Vol. 1/4, Brill, Leiden.
Hallo W. W.; Younger K. L. (2000, eds.). The Context of Scripture: Monumental Inscriptions from the Biblical World, Vol. 2/4, Brill, Leiden/Boston/Köln.
Harrison J. E. (1912). Themis: A study of the social origins of Greek religion, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Harrison J. E. (1913). Ancient Art and Ritual, Williams and Norgate, London.
Hedreen G. (2011). “Bild, Mythos and Ritual: Choral Dance in Theseus’s Cretan Adventure on the François Vase”, Hesperia 80 (3), 491-510.
Johnston A. W. (1984). “Fragmenta Britannica III: Pithoi”, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 31, 39-50.
Kalogeropoulos K. (2013). Το ιερό της Αρτέμιδος Ταυροπόλου στις Αλές Αραφηνίδες (Λούτσα), Vol. Ι-ΙΙ, The Academy of Athens, Athens.
Kourayos Y. (2018). Δεσποτικό, ταξίδι στο χρόνο: 20 χρόνια ερευνών στο ιερό του Απόλλωνα, Municipality of Antiparos, Paros.
Kourou N. (2004). “Οι οικισμοί των Σκοτεινών χρόνων”, in: Α.-Ph. Lagopoulos (Ed.), Η ιστορία της ελληνικής πόλης, Hermes Publications, Athens, 147-162.
Kourou N. (2008). “The dawn of images and cultural identity: the case of Tenos”, in: E. Greco (Ed.), Alba della città, alba delle immagini? Da una suggestione di Bruno d’ Agostino, Tripodes 7, Scuola archeologica italiana di Atene, Atene, 63-90.
Kourou N. (2009). “The Settlements of the Dark Ages”, in: A.-Ph. Lagopoulos (Ed.), A History of the Greek City, BAR International Series 2050, Archaeopress, London: 109-123.
Kourou N. (2011). “From the Dark Ages to the rise of the polis in the Cyclades: the case of Tenos”, in: A. Mazarakis Ainian (Ed.), The “Dark Ages” Revisited. Acts of an International Symposium in Memory of William D. E. Coulson, University of Thessaly, Volos, 14-17 June 2007, University of Thessaly Press, Volos, 399-414.
Kyriakidis E. (2001). “The economics of Potnia: storage in ‘Temples’ of Prehistoric Greece”, in: R. Laffineur and R. Hägg (Eds.), Potnia, Deities and Religion in the Aegean Bronze Age, Proceedings of the 8th International Aegean Conference, Göteborg University, 12-15 April 2000, Aegaeum 22, Université de Liège/University of Texas at Austin, Liège/Austin, 123-129.
Langdon S. (2008). Art and identity in Dark Age Greece, 1100-700 B.C.E., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge/ New York.
Lange R. (1976). The Nature of Dance: An Anthropological Perspective, International Publications Service, New York.
Lawler B. L. (1946). “The Geranos Dance - A New Interpretation”, Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 77, 112-130.
Lawler B. L. (1964). The Dance in Ancient Greece, Adam & Charles Black, London.
Lekatsas P. (1985). Διόνυσος. Καταγωγή και εξέλιξη της Διονυσιακής Θρησκείας, 2nd ed. Moraitis School, Athens.
Leriou A. (2017). The musician, the dancer and the priest: readdressing Cypro-Archaic ritual, in: V. Vlachou and A. Gadolou (Eds.), ΤΕΡΨΙΣ: Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology in Honour of Nota Kourou, Études d’Archéologie 10, CReA-Patrimoine, Brussels, 525-540.
Macintosh F. (2012). The Ancient Dancer in the Modern World: Responses to Greek and Roman Dance, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Maletić A. (2003). Povijest plesa starih civilizacija II: Azijske plesne tradicije, Matica hrvatska, Zagreb.
Mandalaki S. (2022). Χορεύοντας με την Αριάδνη: ορχηστική προσέγγιση της μινωικής κοινωνίας, Demosieumata of Archaiologikon Deltion 112, Hellenic Ministry of Culture, The Archaeological Receipts and Expropriations Fund (TAPA), Athens.
Mann K. P. (2015). “Mutable spaces and unseen places: A study of access, communication and spatial control in households at Early Iron Age (EIA) Zagora on Andros”, ARC 30 (1), 52-62.
Mazarakis Ainian A. 1997. From Rulers’ Dwellings to Temples: Architecture, Religion and Society in Early Iron Age Greece, 1100 – 700 B.C. (SIMA 121), Paul Astroms forlag, Jonsered.
Mazarakis Ainian A., Alexandridou A., Daifa K. and Chatzinikolaou E. (2021). “Sacred, Communal or Private ‘Oikoi’? Ambivalent edifices of the Archaic period on the island of Despotiko in the Cyclades”, Eulimene 22, Mediterranean Archaeological Society, Rethymno, 9-40.
McLouphlin B. (2011). “The pithos makers at Zagora: Ceramic technology and function in an agricultural settlement context”, in: A. Mazarakis A

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Archaic Period Archeology , Ceramics in Archeology , Archaeology of Europe, The Mediterranean and The Levant

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

Alexandra Pentoti ^*
0009-0004-5519-4604
Greece

Publication Date

April 1, 2026

Submission Date

December 11, 2025

Acceptance Date

February 20, 2026

Published in Issue

Year 2026 Number: 2

IZ

https://izlik.org/JA47UL75SR

Cite

RIS / Bibtex

APA

Pentoti, A. (2026). Mystery aspects of dance depictions on Late Geometric and Early Archaic pithoi: Reflections on the cult practices of Early Iron Age Greece. Archaeology of Western Anatolia, 2, 14-36. https://izlik.org/JA47UL75SR