Bronze Ag. Representations of Aegean Bull-Leaping IOHN G. YOUNGER Abstract There were three main systems for depicting Ae- gean bull-leapingin the Lare Bronze Age. Type Iwasdescribed by Evans, Type II by Mrs. Sakellariou, while Type IIIis here presented for the firsr time. Though Types I and III seemto reflecr several aes- thetic considerarions, Type II may illustrate the sportmore accurarely. All threetypesinclude severalexamples that come withknown proveniences and from dated contexts. These examples suggestthatType I was a Creran schema with a floruii in LM I, Type III a Mycenaean schema with a foruit in LH IIIB, and Type II a Cretan and Mycenaean schema dating primarily before the beginning of LB IIIB. If Type IIdepicts bull-leaping accuritely then the sport may not have been practiced after LB IIIA:2.tNTnopucrtoN* Minoan and MycenaeanbullJeaping' has been apopular subject of discussion and speculation since 1884 when Heinrich Schliemann found at Tiryns a fresco depicting the sport (III.Ibelow). Later, the excavations at Knossos produced many frescoes and sealingsrepresenting other aspects of bull-leap-ing, and these provoked wider interest. In r9o9 A. Reichel published a catalogueof the representations known at the time and he at- tempted some general conclusions., But an elucida- tion of the maneuvers in the sport had to wait untilx In addition to the srandard abbreviations the followilcare PLATES 2O-22 Sir Arthur Evans in rgzr and r93o treatedthe sub- ject of bull-leaping in two admirable studies.3 In his later essay Evans published several rep- resentations of bullJeapingfound on sealsrones and in wail and relief frescoes. He also presented a drawing in good Minoan style by Theodore Fyfe (PM III fi,g. ry6, our ill. r), a lucid diagram of the various positions a leaper might assume. Evans's discussion of the sport is informative and entertain- ing with enlightening digressions on rodeos in the American West, on Iberian bull sports, and on the tawroftatlt.apsiai of Roman Thessaly. His recon- struction of the Minoan feat (Evans's Schema, be- low) rests, however, aimost exclusively on its de- piction in the bronze group (I.6 below) from near Rethymnon now in the British Museum (pl. zo, 6g. :).' He appears to ignore the ample .uid.r,.. of different methods of depicting the leap as pre- sentedin other media, the most noteworthy repre- sentation being the Knossos Taureador fresco (II.r5 below). Mrs. A. Sakeilariou in1958 again catalogued the known representarions of bull-leaping and bull- grappling.5 She divided the poses of the bull-leaper into two main .groups; a third includes only rep- resentarions of bull-grappling. Her first group lists depictionswhich she thought would fit EvanJs sys- None of the photographs is to scale.Appreciation is also due to Abby Watrous for the illustration of the Diving Leaper Schema (ill. z).
