"Although absolute proof for or against the authenticity of the [Boston Snake] Goddess is elusive (and illusive), the combined evidence of history, style, imagery, technique, and science suggests that she . . . is a modern work." — Kenneth Lapatin
In 1914, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts acquired a remarkable six-inch-tall gold and ivory statuette, reputedly from Knossos, on Crete, that has been described as the most refined and precious relic of Minoan civilization. But what is this statuette really? In Mysteries of the Snake Goddess, a compelling real-life archaeological detective story, Kenneth Lapatin contends that this and other famous artifacts in museum collections around the world are very likely fakes. He examines several suspicious elements that suggest that the figures are almost certainly forgeries; their ivory and gold are of the wrong period, for one thing, and the stories of their origins are inconsistent and problematic.
The exact source of the Boston Snake Goddess is unknown; like her companions, she has no verified archaeological provenience, meaning "precise origin, or archaeological findspot." As a museum curator wrote in 1915, in the most comprehensive account of the Goddess to date, "No details as to the time, place, and circumstances of its discovery have been ascertained."
What makes this tale truly intriguing, however, is not the forgery but the motivations behind it. Sir Arthur Evans, the legendary excavator of Knossos, romanticized a sophisticated prehistoric society, one that provided Europeans with a legitimate rival to the cultures of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. And restorers working for Evans obligingly supplied the artifacts of that society, producing fakes that conformed to modern notions of Minoan culture. Their creations formed the basis for further theories, which led to further deceptions.
Evans hailed Minoan culture as "at once the starting point and the earliest stage in the highway of European civilization," yet many of its icons were fashioned by modern rather than ancient Cretans to suit the needs of many people, from forgers to collectors to scholars. The Goddess "has provided a canvas on which archaeologists and curators, looters and smugglers, dealers and forgers, art patrons and museum-goers, feminists and spiritualists, have painted their preconceptions, desires, and preoccupations for an idealized past," Lapatin explains.
This does not mean that the Goddess is not important, Lapatin points out. Rather, it means that we must regard the statuette as a projection of contemporary cultural ideals rather than a depiction of an actual ancient civilization. But this projection has value in and of itself. "Neither she nor her unprovenienced counterparts can any longer be employed as evidence for Aegean Bronze Age art, religion, or culture, but they can nonetheless serve as important historiographical documents. For they reflect the mentalities of early investigators of Minoan Crete and those who have followed in their footsteps, and thus provide valuable lessons in the subjectivity of historical reconstruction."
Mysteries of the Snake Goddess is both a real-life mystery story and a significant work of intellectual and cultural investigation, revealing how the past can be redesigned to accommodate the present.
Kenneth Lapatin studied Greek art and archaeology at Berkeley and Oxford, and in Athens as a Fulbright scholar. He is the president of the Boston society of the Archaeological Institute of America. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his wife, Marina Belozerskaya, a writer of historical nonfiction.
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