Seals and signets are fine pieces of jewellery and are much admired for their intrinsic beauty and the skill of their working. However, because each carries a unique design, chosen by the owner as her or his insignia, they have much more to tell us than simply a tale of riches and adornment.
The images on the seals and signets give the fullest pictorial record, preserved for us, of the lives of the Minoans and the Mycenaeans of more than three thousand years ago. At the time the grand palaces and villas of Minoan Crete and the great citadels and towns of Mycenaean Greece were flourishing centres of culture and art, of administration and trade. From these seats of power, the rulers controlled the Aegean and sent and received gifts from the rulers of the ancient civilisations further to the east.
This talk places before you a selection of the finest seals and signets and allows them to speak to you of the people who created them and wore them with pride in that far distant time.
Dr Janice Crowley has taught for many years on the staff of the University of Tasmania's Department of Classics in Hobart. She was then seconded to be the assistant to the Director of the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens working out of the Sydney office.
She now concentrates her time researching into the Minoan and Mycenaean art, particularly the iconography of seals. For over 30 years, in the role of Invited Scholar, she has regularly visited the Corpus of Minoan and Mycenaean Seals [CMS] first in Marburg and now in Heidelberg, Germany, to study the seal records held there.
Lunch will be held at the Antiquities Museum, Michie building level 2.
Members/guests: $25
Students: $15
Please RSVP by Wednesday 10 October by phone or email. You can pay at the door or deposit payment to QFAAIA, BSB 084-004, acc 174437544, giving your name as a reference.
phone: secretary 33439629
email: carmeltrew@yahoo.com.au
