A Turning World : A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Spinning Top

The paper argues that it is possible to establish a connection, at the symbolic level, between the spinning top, in the shape attested for the Geometric period, and some extraordinary clay top-shaped pyxides, which could hardly have been used in daily life, but would have been suited as display objects in the funerary ceremonies of Geometric elites. Particularly striking is the frequency of these pointed pyxides in the shape of spinning tops, sometimes in association with “pseudo pyxides” (whose reference to the spinning top is even stronger), in tombs of subadults, particularly subadult females. This particular association leads to suggest that its symbolic framework is the one of the spinning top used as an omen for a good marriage, placed in tombs of aoroi, or prematurely died girls, before becoming brides and mothers.