Bronze Age acrobats: Denmark, Egypt, Crete

Abstract

A Danish eighteenth-century find of some bronze figurines tells the story of the practising of similar ritual performances across Bronze Age Europe from Egypt to Scandinavia. The Danish figurines, as well as Swedish rock carvings, show backwards-bending female acrobats doing backward handsprings. The exact same appearance is found on Egyptian depictions related to ceremonies and festivals. On Minoan Crete backwards-bent acrobats are related to bull leaping and bull ceremonies. Despite local variations, backwards-bent acrobatic performances carried out by topless female actors were part of the immaterial, ritual and cosmological exchange that characterized the second and early first millennium BC. Beliefs and ritual practices went hand in hand with the adoption of a series of elite items and an aristocratic lifestyle, thereby creating a unique and fascinating European Bronze Age.