Gestures in the arts of Bronze Age Crete

米诺斯艺术描绘了各种各样的手势。从图章戒指和宝石上的图像，到崇拜者和神灵的雕像，再到壁画，男性和女性、人类和超自然生物的手势制作的重要性渗透在克里特岛的各种文化和社会生活背景中。鉴于书面资料并没有为我们提供任何有关相关目的、意义和环境的信息，这些图像尽管具有公式化的性质，但却提供了最有希望的证据来说明米诺斯人的行动和互动的时间、地点和人物。然而，直到今天，在米诺斯考古学中还没有对图像媒体上的手势进行系统的研究。该项目的目的是对中晚期和晚期米诺斯艺术（公元前1700年至1100年）中描绘的手势进行首次全面研究。与以往的研究不同，它将涵盖各种描绘人类行动和交际互动的图像媒体。将符号学图像分析与语境方法相结合的方法应用于实用结构方法中，研究青铜时代克里特岛及相关地区的图像和物理环境中手势的使用。为此，上下文数据不仅将从图像场景中提取，还将从考古发现环境中提取，以及从手势人物图像出现的物体的生产和使用中提取。通过通过媒介、空间和时间追踪每个手势的出现模式，目的是重建个体手势的语境化，并查明在米诺斯文化生活和社会实践的某些情况下促使手势表演的环境。一个包含对象目录和图像单元描述以及它们之间关系的数据库将构成重建与每个单独手势相关的关系组的基本工具。由此产生的网络将被可视化为概念图，作为一种新的启发式工具引入，以增强实体和关系网络的组织、表示和分析。这些概念图将主要用于分析手势及其在青铜时代克里特岛和相关地区的图像和位置背景下的结构和实用嵌入。在空间和概念关系的抽象层面上工作，从图像，物体和上下文推断，对米诺斯艺术中与手势制作相关的人，物体，情况，位置，行动和互动的深刻理解将被创造出来。在最后一步，将评估代表米诺斯人生活和仪式中手势联系的整体概念结构的有效性，以解释描绘手势的人类的选定个体物体，说明该项目在理解米诺斯手势方面取得的进展。

Minoan art depicts a broad repertoire of gestures. From images on signet rings and gemstones to figurines of worshippers and deities through to wall-paintings, the importance of gesture-making male and female, human and supernatural beings permeated a variety of contexts of cultural and social life in Minoan Crete. Given the fact that written sources do not provide us with any information about related purposes, meanings and circumstances, these Images, their formulaic nature notwithstanding, offer the most promising body of evidence to address the who, when and where of Minoan action and interaction. However, a systematic study of gestures across the pictorial media has not been undertaken in Minoan archaeology until this day. The aim of this project is to carry out the first general study of gestures depicted in late Middle and Late Minoan art (c. 1700 to 1100 BC). Other than previous studies, it will cover all kinds of pictorial media depicting humans in action and communicative interaction. A methodology combining semiotic iconographic analysis with a contextual approach will be applied in a pragmatic structural approach to the use of gestures in both pictorial and physical contexts of Bronze Age Crete and related areas. To this end, contextual data will be drawn not only from pictorial scenes but also from archaeological find-contexts and from the production and usage of the objects on which the images of gesturing figures appear. By tracing the patterns of appearance of each gesture through media, space and time, the aim is to reconstruct the contextualization of individual gestures and to pinpoint the circumstances which prompted the performance of gestures within certain situations of Minoan cultural life and social practice. A database containing both an object catalogue and descriptions of pictorial units and relations between them will form the basic tool to reconstruct the groups of relationships connected to each individual gesture. The resulting networks will be visualized as concept maps, which are introduced as a new heuristic tool to enhance the organisation, representation and analysis of networks of entities and relations. The concept maps will be used in the main analysis of gestures and their structural and pragmatic embedding within the pictorial and locational contexts of Bronze Age Crete and related areas. Working on the abstract level of spatial and conceptual relations deduced from images, objects and contexts, a profound understanding of people, objects, situations, locations, actions and interactions associated with gesture-making in Minoan art will be created. In a final step, the validity of the overall conceptual structure representing the nexus of gestures in Minoan life and ritual for the interpretation of selected individual objects depicting gesturing humans will be assessed, illustrating the advances in understanding Minoan gestures resulting from this project.