Sympols from the Aegean World: the Case of Late Neolithic Idols from Thessaly, Greece

The language of symbols remains one of the most important elements of the prehistoric civilisation. In this paper fingurines and house models of Late and Final Neolithic Thessaly in central Greece, have been studied. The purpose was to obtain information about the Aegean symbolic representations in the Late and Final Neolithic Age. The studied material is related to anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines and house models, all of which are new finds coming from recent excavations and surveys in Thessaly. They are analysed morphologically according to a detailed descriptive code and we discuss their origin and development within the overall Aegean neolithic symbolism.

Thessalian figurines and house models shed light on several aspects of the ideology of Aegean Neolithic communities as well as on their economic and social organisation.