The Palaikastro Kouros is a

chryselephantine Chryselephantine sculpture (from Greek grc, χρυσός, chrysós, gold, label=none, and grc, ελεφάντινος, elephántinos, ivory, label=none) is sculpture made with gold and ivory. Chryselephantine cult statues enjoyed high status ...

statuette of a male youth (''

kouros kouros ( grc, κοῦρος, , plural kouroi) is the modern term given to free-standing Ancient Greek sculptures that depict nude male youths. They first appear in the Archaic period in Greece and are prominent in Attica and Boeotia, with a les ...

'') excavated in stages in the modern-day town of

Palaikastro Palaikastro or Palekastro ( el, Παλαίκαστρο, officially el, Παλαίκαστρον), with the Godart and Olivier abbreviation PK, is a thriving town, geographic heir to a long line of settlements extending back into prehistoric ti ...

on the Greek island of

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...

. It has been dated to the

Late Minoan The Minoan chronology dating system is a measure of the phases of the Minoan civilization. Initially established as a relative dating system by English archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans between 1900 and 1903 based on his analysis of Minoan pottery ...

1B period in the mid-15th century BC, during the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

. It is now on display in the Archaeological Museum of Siteia. Standing roughly 50 cm (19.5 in) tall, its large size by the standards of other figurines in

Minoan art Minoan art is the art produced by the Bronze Age Aegean Minoan civilization from about 3000 to 1100 BC, though the most extensive and finest survivals come from approximately 2300 to 1400 BC. It forms part of the wider grouping of Aegean art ...

, and the value of its materials may indicate that it was a cult image for worship, the only one known from the Minoan civilization. The majority of its body (torso, legs, arms, and feet) is made of

hippopotamus The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extan ...

tooth covered with gold foil, but the hair part of the head is carved from gray-green

serpentinite Serpentinite is a rock composed predominantly of one or more serpentine group minerals, the name originating from the similarity of the texture of the rock to that of the skin of a snake. Serpentinite has been called ''serpentine'' or ''se ...

with rock-crystal eyes and ivory details. Where the carved surface survives relatively well, the carving is extremely detailed, showing the veins and

tendon A tendon or sinew is a tough, high-tensile-strength band of dense fibrous connective tissue that connects muscle to bone. It is able to transmit the mechanical forces of muscle contraction to the skeletal system without sacrificing its ability ...

s of the hands and feet. The face is completely missing, but the elaborate stone hairstyle, with "a shaved scalp and

Mohawk Mohawk may refer to: Related to Native Americans * Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York) *Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people * Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been ...

-like crest", survives. The position of the arms can be parallelled in some

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

figurines from

Petsofas Petsofas is the archaeological site of a Minoan peak sanctuary in eastern Crete. It overlooks the Minoan town of Palaikastro and was excavated by John Myres in 1903. He discovered a large number of clay figurines, including animal and human fig ...

, a

peak sanctuary Minoan peak sanctuaries are widespread throughout the island of Crete (Greece). Most scholars agree that peak sanctuaries were used for religious rites. In all peak sanctuaries human and animal clay figurines have been found. Clay body parts, al ...

overlooking the town. The ivory pieces were held together with olivewood dowels. The figure presumably represents the "young god" who had appeared relatively recently in

Minoan religion Minoan religion was the religion of the Bronze Age Minoan civilization of Crete. In the absence of readable texts from most of the period, modern scholars have reconstructed it almost totally on the basis of archaeological evidence of such as M ...

, as a consort or son (or both?) of the main mother goddess. He has been regarded by some as a very early form of

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...

, the main god in much later Ancient Greek religion. Palaikastro is very close to one of the main traditional sites of the

Dicktaian Cave Psychro Cave ( el, Σπήλαιο Ψυχρού) is an ancient Minoan sacred cave in Lasithi plateau in the Lasithi district of eastern Crete. Psychro is associated with the Diktaean Cave ( el, link=no, Δικταῖον Ἄντρον; ''Diktaio ...

where Zeus grew up. The "young god" may have been a "vegetable god" who died in the winter and was reborn in the spring each year, perhaps associated with the constellation of Orion. The figure has been burnt and apparently also deliberately smashed up, probably in the invasion of Crete by

Mycenean Greece Mycenaean Greece (or the Mycenaean civilization) was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC.. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainlan ...

that is thought to have taken place around 1450 BC, when the city of Palaikastro was badly burned. Alternatively, it may have been destroyed by Minoan traditionalists, in a reaction to new Egyptian-influenced religious forms.

Excavation

The statue was found in several stages over a number of years: most of the torso in 1987, and the head in 1988. Unexpectedly, parts of the legs were then found in 1990, some thirty feet away from where the upper body parts had been. A thorough and careful water-sieving of six tons of soil from the site then produced hundreds of further fragments, including most of the feet, the eyes, and part of an ear. Piecing all these together took a further four years. Parts of a gold kilt and an ivory dagger pommel were also found, but are not included in the reconstructed figure. Fragments of what is thought to have been a wooden base, painted with

Egyptian blue Egyptian blue, also known as calcium copper silicate (CaCuSi4O10 or CaOCuO(SiO2)4 (calcium copper tetrasilicate)) or cuprorivaite, is a pigment that was used in ancient Egypt for thousands of years. It is considered to be the first synthetic pi ...

and decorated with gold leaf were also found. Possibly a "star-spangled" base represented the starry sky the god walked on. A small

boulder was excavated very close to the kouros; perhaps it was its

baetyl Baetylus (also Baetyl, Bethel, or Betyl, from Semitic ''bet el'' "house of god"; compare Bethel, Beit El) are sacred stones that were supposedly endowed with life, or gave access to a deity. According to ancient sources, at least some of these ...

or sacred stone. In

, it has been suggested that rubbing, lying, or sleeping on a baetyl could summon a vision of the god, an event which appears to be depicted on some gold

Minoan seal The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from 3500BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000BC, and then declining from 1450B ...

rings, where the stones are large oval boulders. Marinatos, Nanno (2004), "The Character of Minoan Epiphanies", ''Illinois Classical Studies'', vol. 29, 2004, pp. 32–39
JSTOR
Accessed 18 Feb. 2021. File:Roussolakkos 038.jpg, Map of "building 5" where parts of the statue were found at 4 locations, marked with * File:Palaikastro Kouros 09.jpg, Another angle File:Palaikastro Kouros 08.jpg, Another angle File:Palaikastro Kouros 08 (cropped).jpg, Detail

Notes

References

*Hemingway, Seán, '' Art of the Aegean Bronze Age'', ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'', Spring 2012 Volume LXIX, Number 4 * MacGillivray J.A., Sackett L.H., Driessen J.M. et al., "The Palaikastro Kouros, a Minoan Chryselephantine Statuette and its Aegean Bronze Age Context", British School at Athens, BSA Studies, (1999). A book-length study by many authors, available on JSTOR, with each chapter treated as an article **"Chapter 14": MacGillivray, Alexander, and Hugh Sackett. “The Palaikastro Kouros: the Cretan God as a Young Man”, p. 166, British School at Athens Studies, vol. 6, 2000, pp. 165–169
JSTOR
Accessed 22 Feb. 2021 *Also: (Lapatin, Kenneth D. S., J. A. Macgillivray, J. M. Driessen, L. H. Sackett, C. V. Crowther, P. Harrison, S. A. Hemingway, R. B. Koehl, M. S. Moak, A. Moraitou, J. Musgrave, A. Nikakis, S. E. Thorne, and J. Weingarten. "The Palaikastro Kouros: A Minoan Chryselephantine Statuette and Its Aegean Bronze Age Context." American Journal of Archaeology 106.2 (2002))
The Palaikastro Kouros
at the Odysseus portal of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture

External links

{{commonscat-inline 15th-century BC works 1987 archaeological discoveries Minoan art Ivory works of art Kouroi Minoan religion Archaeological discoveries in Greece Cult images Sculptures of Zeus