Mysteries Of The Snake Goddess: Art, Desire, And The Forging Of History
InMysteries of the Snake Goddess, Kenneth Lapatin traces the  murky origins (and seriously debunks the authenticity of) "the most refined and  precious" surviving object of Minoan art. The gold-and-ivory figure, now  residing in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, was discovered in the early 20th  century by renowned archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans. Other, related figures (of  equally dubious origin) retain pride of place in several North American and  European museums. They are almost certainly forgeries, according to Lapatin, or  at best, "neither entirely genuine nor fully fake." This is not a crime story  but rather a tale of well-meaning overextrapolation. Evans, and others, took  kernels of evidence to bake a large loaf of an idealized, matriarchal Cretan  civilization. In short, Evans's desire to believe clouded his scientific  caution. As well, Lapatin gently points out that very often our re-creations of  the past are influenced by the ideas, mores, and, even, inadequacies of our  present. His book is one of calm, inviting erudition that, mercifully, avoids  the mean wrangling so common in academia.--H. O'Billovich--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.