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Minoans and Myceneans. Minoans: Geography & Culture Myceneans: Geography & Culture. Minoans: Island of Crete. Minoans.
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Minoans and Myceneans Minoans: Geography & Culture Myceneans: Geography & Culture
Minoans • The story of European civilization really begins on the island of Crete with a civilization that probably thought of itself as Asian (in fact, Crete is closer to Asia than it is to Europe). • Around 1700 BC, a highly sophisticated culture grew up around palace centers on Crete: the Minoans. • The Minoans produced a civilization oriented around trade and bureaucracy with little or no evidence of a military state. • They built perhaps the single most efficient bureaucracy in antiquity. • This unique culture, of course, lasted only a few centuries, and European civilization shifts to Europe itself with the foundation of the military city-states on the mainland of Greece.
Crete • On the island, the climate is comfortable and the soil fertile; as an island, it was isolated from the mainland of Asia Minor, the Middle East, and Egypt. • Being an island, resources were limited. As the population began to thrive, it also began to increase, and it is evident that the resources of the island became increasingly insufficient to handle the increased population. So the Cretans improvised. • Some migrated, populating other islands in the Aegean Sea.
Migration and Trade • In doing so, they took their growing civilization with them and spread Minoan culture, religion, and government all over the Aegean Sea. For this reason, the Minoan culture is also called the "Aegean Palace civilization." • But the Cretans who remained turned to other economic pursuits to support the growing population; in particular, they turned to trade. • Crete became the central exporter of wine, oil, jewelry, and highly crafted works; in turn, they became importers of raw materials and food. In the process they built the first major navy in the world; its primary purpose, however, was mercantile.
Minoan Time Line: First Palace period 2200 - 1700 BC • Power began to be centered around kings. The first large palace centers came into being. • Excavation has revealed four large palaces at Knossos, Phaestos, Malia, and Zakros so far. • The buildings are arranged around a central court and have fine facades of closely fitted stone blocks with monumental entrances. Inside, they are multi-storied and have workshops, storage magazines and sacred rooms. • The finest example was uncovered in the west palace section at Phaestos. The palaces workshops are also producing fine wares already.
Pottery and Workshops • The gorgeous Kamaresware pottery dates to this period and the style is named after the cave of Kamares where it was first discovered. Kamaresware is pottery with polychrome motifs of rosettes, spirals and hatching vibrantly painted on a shiny black background, and was produced in a variety of vase shapes. • The workshops also produced fine vases and vessels of stone and faience; seal stones of precious or semi-precious stones, with hieroglyphics and dynamic natural scenes; elegant weapons and tools; vessels of bronze or silver; jewellery of marvellous technique ("the Bee Pendant" from Malia); and miniature sculpture. • The first palace centers and the settlements of Crete were reduced to ruins possibly by earthquakes .
Kamaresware Pottery http://home.earthlink.net/~macrakis/kamares.vase.jpg
Second Palace period 1700 - 1500 BC • Magnificent new palaces were built upon the ruins of the old ones. The cities around them expanded. Many lords in rural villas controlled areas in the same way as the feudal lords of the Middle Ages. • Their ships carried both the products of Minoan and other societies throughout the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean to trade. • The new palaces were multi-storeyed and complex. They had great courtyards with grand porticoes, broad staircases, processional paths and monumental entrances. Many rooms could be opened for air circulation and sunlight to enter via pier and door partitions making the rooms quite bright and pleasant in the summer. Benches and thrones were found in royal rooms.
Second Palace con’d • There were many interior light wells to allow light in through all levels of the palace via the roof. • Bathrooms and water supply and drainage systems allowed for a easier style of life. Sections of the palaces were royal quarters, sacred areas (pillar crypts, tripartite shrines), audience and banquet halls. • Large areas of these palaces were set aside as storage areas (magazines), and workshops also existed within the palaces. • Wonderful fresco painting decorating the walls with fresh, lively scenes in an array of colors. • Gypsum was a common building material used for wall siding and floors. • The marine style of pottery developed with flowing elements including stylized octopuses and seaweed.
Second Palace period 1700 - 1500 BC(Continued) • The floral style also developed inventive plants and open flowers. Frescos depicted landscapes with animals along with scenes from religious and social life. Bull jumping and other festivities were shown on the frescos. Faience work, decorative plaques, figurines such as the snake goddesses, royal gaming boards, detailed gold and silver jewellery and vessels were produced in the workshops of the day. Some very fine bronze work was achieved during this period. • The still undeciphered Linear A is now in use. There are about 200 surviving texts on clay tablets apparently deal with accounting and inventory information. The tablets come from the archives of palaces such as Knossos or villas and were preserved by firing in the fires that destroyed the palaces. The Phaestos Disk, with its unique hieroglyphic text, belongs to the first phase of the second palace period.
Volcanic Eruption 1450 B.C. • All of the centers of the second palace period were destroyed around 1450. • The terrible volcanic eruption of Santorini had large impacts on Crete depending on how the ash fell, but did not have enough effects to destroy the palaces or the Minoan way of life. • The eruption of Santorini may have destroyed some coastal towns and shipping, and would have depressed the economies of the eastern Mediterranean though. Terrible palace destructions did happen though (probably through earthquake again). • Life resumed only at the palace at Knossos, which was reconstructed and served as the residence of a new Mycanaean (Achaean) rulers from the mainland. • Their presence is inferred by the appearance of the very archaic written Greek language of Linear B and by the appearance of Palace Style pottery. Changes were made in the arrangement of the palaces, and the Knossos Throne Room and many surviving frescoes (such as the Corridor of the Procession also at Knossos) date from this period.
Minoan Timeline Continued • Third Palace period 1500 - 1200 BC • After the final destruction of about 1380, none of the Minoan palaces were rebuilt. Even the palace at Knossos was not rebuilt, although the city around it stayed alive. • Post-palace period 1200 – 1050 • The last phase of this period was a time of decline and disorder caused by the movement of many peoples in the East Mediterranean. The forerunners of the Dorians may have begun to arrive in Crete. • Sub-Minoan Period 1100-1000 BC • Crete entered upon the purely Greek period of its history with the arrival of massive waves of Dorians at about 1100 BC. The Protogeometric period that followed (1100-900 BC) unfolded alongside the Sub-Minoan, as the earlier Minoan cultural traditions continued on especially in the mountain areas of central and eastern Crete. Many mountain top settlements existed due to their defensive locations. The use of iron, and cremation of the dead became general.
Writing • Three types of picture writing have been discovered in ancient Crete. Unfortunately, the writings have told us very little about the Minoan way of life. • Linear A: This type of writing has been found in many places in Crete. Most examples are scratched on clay tablets but there are some samples engraved on metal. In order to be able to translate Linear A we will probably have to find a bilingual text. This means a text with the same words written in Linear A and in a language we already know. • Linear B: Linear B has been found at one site only in Crete. This was at the palace at Knossos. It has been found in many sites in Greece, however, including Mycenae. It is now known to be an early form of Greek. • Phaestos Disc: Only one example of the third type of writing has ever been found. It is on a decorative disc found at the palace at Phaestos. It may not be Cretan. It may have come from Anatolia.
Linear A & B Linear A Linear B
Phaestos Disc • This is an early example of moveable type for printing. Europeans did not use this technique again until the A.D. 1400s. Previously it had been thought that the Chinese had invented moveable type. • The Phaestos Disc is remarkable because the figures are not scratched on but pressed in. A block was made for each pictograph. The same block was pressed into clay whenever that particular sign was needed.
Minoan Religion • The Goddesses: • The main deity is still the Mother Goddess, who is portrayed in different forms such as the "goddess with the snakes." The Bull was also worshipped as a powerful symbol of fertility beside her. Deities were worshipped in sanctuaries of the palaces, various dwellings, the peak sanctuaries, and in sacred caves. Many of the features of Minoan religion passed into the cycle of the Greek mystery religions. Most of the tombs were cut into the soft rock and had a square burial chamber and a sloping dromos. Some were still vaulted tombs with a circular or rectangular chamber. • They gave thanks for their beautiful land by worshipping a small number of gods and goddesses. The main ones represented the male and female aspects of life. • They worshipped them on mountains, in temples on the ground and in caves. It was believed that gods and goddesses could live in tress and columns because these linked the earth and the heavens. The Minoans had many sacred objects.
The bull: • The male aspect of life was represented by the bull. The bull figure is found in many pictures of Minoan life. The angry beast which lived in the labyrinth beneath the palace of Knossos, the Minotaur, had the body of a man and the head of a bull. • Bull's horns are found as decorations in many parts of the palace ruins and on vases, seals and ornaments. Little model bulls were placed between the stalactites in caves as offerings to the gods. Many stayed there for over 3000 years before they were discovered. • Bulls may have been sacrificed in some religious ceremonies. Blood would have been collected in rhytons. In a libation ceremony the blood would have been poured over columns or into caves. This represented a releasing of the bull's energy.
Palaces • Knossos • Phaestos
Knossos Site • On Friday 23 March 1900 at 11 a.m. Arthur Evans began his excavation of Knossos. Although he was not the first to excavate at the site, that honour belongs to a Greek appropriately called Minos Kalokairinos in 1878, it was to be Evans who uncovered the Knossos Palace and brought to light a hitherto unknown civilisation -- possibly the oldest in Europe. • The basic excavation of the site took four years and for the rest of his life Evans continued working on the site, reconstructing and building, often in an attempt to preserve the remains from the weather to which they had been exposed for the first time in 3,500 years. • Occupation 1900-1700 B.C. (earthquake in 1700 B.C., then repaired), reoccupied until around 1400 B.C.
The Bull Chamber Immediately south of the North Pillar Hall is the Bull Chamber, which was on the same level as the Central Court. It was here that the Bull Relief Fresco was found. Opposite this chamber there would originally have been another, also decorated with a fresco.
The great staircase Bull “horns” on palace wall.
The Dolphin Sanctuary Near the Hall of the Double Axes is the Dolphin Sanctuary, which Evans assigned as the Queen's Apartment. The area takes its name from a Dolphin Fresco which was found here in pieces, although it probably fell from the floor above during the destruction of the palace. A replica of the fresco now adorns the north wall.
The Throne Room On the West Side of the Palace is one of the most famous of rooms unearthed by Evans, the Throne Room. The throne room would have had an oppressive quality about it. With its low ceiling and lack of windows it was separated from the Central Court by an anteroom. The throne is placed along a side wall facing across the room. On either side of the throne there are stone benches and in front of the throne a stone basin.
Phaestos/Phaistos • Phaistos is Minoan palace site situated on a hill with a commanding view of the Mesara Plain to the south and west. • It is about 60 km south of Heraklion in the fertile Messara valley that is surrounded by mountain ranges and the plain extends south to the Libyan sea. Regular public transportation is available from Iraklion and Rethimnon. • During the Minoan times, Phaistos was a very important city-state, being the second largest city after Knossos. Where this great city once stood, there is now the village of Agios Ioannis, buillt next to Phaistos.
Phaestos in Mythology • According to mythology, Phaistos was the seat of king Radamanthis, brother of king Minos. • It was also the city that gave birth to the great wise man and soothsayer Epimenidis, one of the seven wise men of the ancient world. • The city also participated in the Trojan war and was an important city-state in the Dorian period. Phaistos continued to flourish during Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic times, but was destroyed by the Gortynians during the 3rd century B.C. • Still, Phaistos existing even during the Roman period. Phaistos had two ports, Matala and Kommos.
Occupation • The Old Palace was built on the site at the beginning of the Second Millenium, known as the Protopalatial Period (c.1900-1700 BCE). • Twice it was severely damaged by earthquakes and rebuilt so three distinct phases are visible to archaeologists. • Levi, who excavated here from 1950 to 1971 believed that the first two phases of the Old Palace of Phaistos constitute the oldest Palatial buildings in Crete. • Other finds at the site include thousands of seal impressions and some tablets containing the Linear A script from Middle Minoan II. Linear A has so far defied all attempts to decipher it.
Rebuilding • When the Old Palace was finally destroyed, almost certainly by an earthquake, a new palace was built on the site. • Fortunately for us, the builders of the new palace did not destroy all traces of the old. • In fact much of the old palace was covered over at the time of the building of the new palace in order to level the ground. • Some of the old palace can still be seen, especially in the north-east corner, but much of the Old Palace remains are accessible only to the experts.
Magazine-storage area At Phaistos, the magazine consisted of ten rooms, five on each side, opening onto an east-west corridor, which at its east end opened out into a two-columned hall with a portico facing the Central Court. One storage room remains in tact with a number of pithoi inside.
Theatre Area From the Upper West Court a staircase leads to the theatre area, with its eight rows of seats, each one 22 meters long and the Lower West Court. On the north side of the theatre there is a retaining wall for the Upper Court and below this, the tiered seats overlooking the Lower West Court. The court is traversed diagonally by a raised causeway. On the east side of the causeway are six circular pits. These are thought to have been for grain storage similar to those in Knossos and Malia.
End of Minoan Civilization • At around 1400 B.C., Mycenean civilization began to gain control of Crete. • Increase in warfare and abandonment of palaces in favor of settlements higher in the mountains (protected). • i.e. Kavousi
Myceneans: The Early Helladic Period, ~2750-2000 BC • Somewhere between 3000 BC and 2000 BC, the lands of Greece were settled by a metal-using agricultural people who spoke a language other than Indo-European. • Some of the names they gave their villages were preserved by the Greeks, names, for instance, ending in "-ssos." We know next to nothing of these people, their religion, their cultural memory, their language, or their everyday experience. • The period when they dominated Greece, called the "Early Helladic" period, seemed to be one of comparative quiet and peace. All that ended around 2000 BC; the early Helladic sites and villages were destroyed in fire or abandoned outright.
The Middle Helladic Period, ~2000 BC-1550 BC • This period of conquest and settlement by the Greeks makes up the Middle Helladic period. • These new invaders settled all the parts of Greece, in some instances settling peacefully with the previous inhabitants, and began to dominate Greek culture. • They spoke an Indo-European language; in fact, they spoke Greek. • Their society was primarily based on warfare; their leaders were essentially war-chiefs.
The Middle Helladic Period, ~2000 BC-1550 BC Con‘d • They had settled a difficult land: the Greek mainland is hot, dry and rocky. Agriculture is difficult, but some crops grow extremely well, such as grapes and olives. • The coastal settlers relied heavily on fishing for their diet. In spite of the ruggedness of their life and the harshness of their social organization, these early Greeks traded with a civilization to the south, the Minoans. • Their contact with the Minoans was instantly fruitful; they began to urbanize somewhere in the Middle Helladic period and translated their culture into a civilization.
The Late Helladic Period, ~1550 BC-1150 BC • Around 1600 BC, urban centers began to thrive and the Greek settlers entered their first major period of cultural creativity. • Their cities grew larger, their graves more opulent, their art more common, their agriculture more efficient, and the power of these new warlord cities began to be felt around the Aegean. • This period of Greek development and prosperity is called the Late Helladic Period or simply the Mycenean period. The Greeks of this age are the Myceneans proper; for four centuries their culture thrived.
Culture • What we can tell from their ruined cities, their art, and their records, is that the Myceneans derived much of their culture from the Minoans, but with some dramatic differences. • Mycenean society was monarchical. The monarch, called a wanax, ruled over a large administration as a kind of head bureaucrat. • Unlike the Minoans, though, the Mycenean kings accumulated vast wealth in concentrated form; the rest of society did not share in the prosperity as did the Minoans. • The king was also primarily a warlord, and Mycenean society was constantly geared for battle and invasion.
Mycenae and Perseus • According to the tradition, the city of Mykenae, the main representative of this civilization, was founded by Perseus (1400 - 1350 BC), the son of Zeus and Danae, the daughter of king Akrisios of Argos. • Mykenae was build by the mythical Cyclops, the same ones who constructed the enormous walls of the nearby city of Tyrinths, which was governed by his brother Proetos. • Perseus was succeeded by his son Sthenelos, the father of Eurystheus, who captured Argos and according to the myth, he assigned Herakles to perform the twelve labors. • After the death of Eurystheus, the city was governed by Atreus of Elis (1250 BC), the brother of Eurystheus wife and son of Pelops and Hippodameia.
