Faience goddesses and ivory bull-leapers: The aesthetics of sexual difference at Late Bronze Age Knossos

In the figurative art of Late Bronze Age Knossos one recognises a singular form to the human body which crosscuts all other distinctions. Contrary to popular and academic interpretations, sexed differences are not marked in a clearly binary fashion. Drawing on this observation, the current paper analyses the relationship between two sets of figurines from the Bronze Age Palace site of Knossos: the faience figurines from the ‘Temple Repositories ’ and the ivory bull-leaper figurines from the ‘Domestic Quarter’. The interpretation of these figurines elucidates: a) how the appearance of sexual characteristics are context specific and not general features of the imagery; and b) the differing aesthetic responses motivated by and surrounding these two sets of artefacts and hence the social contexts in which representations of sexed differences were mobilised.