The question of narrative in Aegean Bronze Age art

"Those who study the cognitive development of Homo sapiens maintain that our specialized communication skills evolved from the desire to narrate. Societies define themselves through their histories and their traditional stories; the socio-political significance of narrative in any given civilization is considerable. Until quite recently, narrative in visual media has been identified with recognizable story content, particularly of a mythological or historical nature. The figural arts of the Aegean Bronze Age have, consequently, been largely overlooked in discussions of pictorial narration in ancient art. The present study seeks to correct the omissions of earlier writings by favouring a broad conception of narrative derived from the field of narratology, employing a system of analysis that concentrates on the essential features or structures of narrative relating, and assessing pictorial texts in terms of degrees of narrativity..."