'Peaceful' Minoans, 'Warlike' Mycenaeans and their Precious Metal Vessels: A Reassessment of a Tired Cliche

The interpretative rivalry between Minoan and Mycenaean scholars was a key feature of Aegean archaeology throughout the early and mid-twentieth century, pitting against each other well known names such as Arthur Evans and Alan Wace. This framework, and its attendant stereotypes of peaceful nature-loving Minoans and crude warlike Mycenaeans, has been challenged and dismissed in most spheres of research, except craft. This approach is exemplified by the 1977 publication of The Vapheio Cups and Aegean Gold and Silver Ware by Ellen Davis, who claimed to be able to substantiate the identification of distinct Minoan and Mycenaean crafting traditions. Although this aspect of her research should be understood as a product of its time, instead its attributions are still cited as fact, often with little to no scrutiny of her method. Taking an interdisciplinary approach which combines archaeological and practical metalsmithing knowledge, this paper will re-examine Davis’s data and demonstrate that her methodology relied on a set of assumptions that played down the diversity in metalware manufacture to force the evidence to fit a preconceived notion of two separate crafting traditions. This revision of one of the foundational publications on Aegean metalwork will have implications for how we understand trade between Crete and the Greek Mainland during the Late Bronze Age, the exchange of knowledge between these regions and the movement of people.