Desfina Cultural Association, Desfina, Greece
Proodos Lecture (Public)
24 June 2022
Recent archaeological discoveries reveal Bronze Age (ca. 3,000-1,100 BCE) exchange between the Aegean and the Indus River Valley. With a quickly growing corpus of evidence for such far-flung exchange, this iconographic study addresses a critical and lingering lacuna: evidence for possible overlap between Aegean and Mesopotamian cosmologies, as they may relate to down-the-line exchange and western knowledge of eastern imports. The project proposed here is a first step, limited to two liminal figures that appear in Mesopotamian and Aegean art: the mythical Minoan Genius (a hybrid creature) and the monkey (perhaps considered a hybrid by Aegean people). Unlike other animals in Aegean iconography, the genius and monkey are never depicted as dead, wounded, hunted, or conquered. Both creatures are depicted interacting with over-sized humans (traditionally identified as deities). Although monkeys are accepted as agents/symbols of rebirth and renewal in both regions, the role of the genius is rarely addressed, despite its performance of tasks that are similar to those performed by the monkey, particularly in Anatolian, Levantine, and Mesopotamian imagery. This study interrogates shared notions of liminality and exoticism and the metaphysical within Bronze Age cosmologies. More broadly, this project strives to continue to dispel the broader colonial myth of Mesopotamian primacy with hope that scholars will continue to look farther eastward.
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