The Tomb, the House, and the Double Axes: Late Minoan IIIA2 Hagia Triada as a Ritual and ‘Mythical’ Place

At LM IIIA2 Ayia Triada, both the buildings and the open spaces were clearly intertwined not only by a complex of diversified practical functions, but became components of a built environment endowed with symbolic connotations, which encompassed as well an outlying burial area, in use over more than a millennium. In such a perspective, both the finds from ‘Casa VAP’ and the decorated panels of the ‘Painted Sarcophagus’ can be validly exploited to highlight the social behaviour underlying the self-representation of the local ruling group. While being portrayed on the ‘Painted Sarcophagus’ in a setting that appears as a ‘Painted Town’, the members of such a group seemingly carried out rituals such as animal sacrifices, offerings, and libations; stepped altars and double axes standing on pyramidal bases help define the local setting as a ritual place. Eventually, the supernatural beings depicted on the short sides of the ‘Painted Sarcophagus’ lead one to wonder whether they were aimed at linking such a setting to a ‘meta-physical’ dimension, the character of which was probably explained by lost mythical tales.