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Talking about fakes

PostPosted: Tue Jan 11, 2005 9:49 pm
by Quintus Aurelius Orcus
Salvete

In a recent article in an archeology magazine, author Lapatin discusses how some Minoan Snake goddess figurines are fakes.
In his article "Snake Goddeses, Fake Godesses" (January/February 2001), Kenneth D.S. Lapatin recounted how, in late May 1903, Arthur Evans discovered two large rectangular stone-lined cists at the Minoan site of Knossos on Crete. Most striking of the artifacts he found within were the remains of faience statuettes depicting female snake handlers, which Evans considered to be goddesses and priestesses. These extraordinary finds, however, soon gave rise to a number of fakes. Lapatin's book on the subject, Mysteries of the Snake Goddess: Art, Desire, and the Forging of History (2002), has now appeared in paperback form (Da Capo Press, $16.95). ARCHAEOLOGY's executive editor, Mark Rose, recently spoke to Lapatin, now assistant curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum, about the book and the subject of fakes in general.
Here is the rest of the interview: http://www.archaeology.org/online/interviews/lapatin.html
For more on what he says on the fake Snake Goddess:
http://www.archaeology.org/0101/abstracts/goddess.html
valete

Quintus