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The
Sarcophagus of Ayia Triada
excavated at Ayia Triada, near the palace site of Phaistos
Detail |
This
stone sarcophagus is very well preserved and has the typical
vivid colors of Minoan painting. The colors are better and
more luminous than in other paintings which have survived,
no doubt due to the unusually good conditions which preserved
it. The costumes and objects in the painting are also typical
Minoan.
The
image is of a solemn procession. The side picture, among stylized
floral friezes, shows a scene of preparation for a religious
rite. It ends in a bull sacrifice - the rite is probably related
to the funeral.
Minoan
lines do not confine figures to flat two-dimensional forms
such as in Egypt, but are fluid and dynamic. The gestures
are naturalistic and do not contain excessively rigid conventions. |
On
one of the sides of the sarcophagus there is a painting of
a priestess or queen carrying blood from a sacrifice to hand
to another priestess, who then empties them in a receptacle
between two double
axes. Some have argued that the Minoans practiced human sacrifice, but the evidence is inconclusive either way.
The
site at Ayia Triada is an early Minoan city, not as grand
as Knossos. Two early Minoan tholos tombs with their funerary
rooms were discovered there with well preserved objects.
Detail from Sarcophagus
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