Minoan civilization
The
Minoans were a pre-
Hellenic Bronze Age civilization in
Crete in the
Aegean Sea, flourishing from approximately
2600 to
1450 BC when their culture was superseded by the
Mycenaean culture, which drew upon the Minoans. Based on depictions in Minoan art, Minoan culture is often characterized as a
matrilinear society centered on
goddess worship.
The term "Minoan" was coined by the British
archaeologist Sir
Arthur Evans after the mythic "king"
Minos, associated with the
labyrinth, which Evans identified as the site at
Knossos. It is possible, though unsure, that
Minos was indeed a term for a Minoan ruler. What the Minoans called themselves is unknown, although the
Egyptian place name "Keftiu" and the
Semitic "Kaftor" or "
Caphtor", both evidently referring to Minoan Crete, are suggestive.
Rather than give calendar dates for the Minoan period, archaeologists use two systems of
relative chronology. The first, created by Evans and modified by later archaeologists, is based on pottery styles. It divides the Minoan period into three main eras—Early Minoan (EM), Middle Minoan (MM), and Late Minoan (LM). These eras are further subdivided, e.g. Early Minoan I, II, III (EMI, EMII, EMIII). Another system, proposed by the Greek archaeologist Nicolas Platon, is based on the development of the architectural complexes known as "palaces" at
Knossos,
Phaistos,
Malia, and
Kato Zakros, and divides the Minoan period into Prepalatial, Protopalatial, Neopalatial and Post-palatial periods. The relationship between these systems is given in the accompanying table, with approximate calendar dates drawn from Warren and Hankey (1989).
| Minoan chronology |
|---|
| 3650-3000 BC | EMI | Prepalatial |
| 2900-2300 BC | EMII |
| 2300-2160 BC | EMIII |
| 2160-1900 BC | MMIA |
| 1900-1800 BC | MMIB | Protopalatial
(Old Palace Period) |
| 1800-1700 BC | MMII |
| 1700-1640 BC | MMIIIA | Neopalatial
(New Palace Period) |
| 1640-1600 BC | MMIIIB |
| 1600-1480 BC | LMIA |
| 1480-1425 BC | LMIB |
| 1425-1390 BC | LMII | Postpalatial
(At Knossos, Final Palace Period) |
| 1390-1370 BC | LMIIIA1 |
| 1370-1340 BC | LMIIIA2 |
| 1340-1190 BC | LMIIIB |
| 1190-1170 BC | LMIIIC |
| 1100 BC | Subminoan |
All calendar dates given in this article are approximate, and the subject of ongoing debate.
The
Thera eruption occurred during a mature phase of the LM IA period. The calendar date of the eruption is extremely controversial; see the article on
Thera eruption for discussion.
Historical overview
The oldest signs of inhabitants on Crete are ceramic
Neolithic remains that date to approximately 7000 BC. See
History of Crete for details.
The beginning of its Bronze Age, around
2600 BC, was a period of great unrest in Crete, but it also marks the beginning of Crete as an important center of
civilization.
At the end of the MMII period (1700 BC) there was a large disturbance in Crete, probably an earthquake, although an invasion from
Anatolia has also been suggested. The Palaces at Knossos, Phaistos, Malia, and Kato Zakros were destroyed at this time. After that, population increased again, and the palaces were rebuilt on a larger scale, initiating the Neopalatial period. New settlements were built all over the island. This period (the 17th and 16th centuries, MM III / Neopalatial) represents the apex of the Minoan civilization. The
Thera eruption occurred during LMIA (and LHI).
On the Greek mainland, LHIIB began during LMIB, showing independence from Minoan influence. At the end of the LMIB period, the Minoan palace culture failed catastrophically. All palaces were destroyed, and only Knossos was immediately restored - although other palaces sprang up later in LMIIIA (like
Chania).
LMIB ware has been found in Egypt under the reigns of
Hatshepsut and
Tuthmosis III. Either the LMIB/LMII catastrophe occurred after this time, or else it was so bad that the Egyptians then had to import LHIIB instead.
|
Arists reconstruction of part of the Palace of Knossos, Crete |
A short time after the LMIB/LMII catastrophe, around
1420 BC, the island was conquered by the
Mycenaeans, who adapted
Linear A Minoan script as
Linear B for their
Mycenaean language, a form of
Greek. The first such archive anywhere is in the LMII-era "Room of the Chariot Tablets". Later Cretan archives date to LMIIIA (contemporary with LHIIIA) but no later than that.
During LMIIIA:1,
Amenhotep III at Kom el-Hatan took note of
k-f-t-w (Kaftor) as one of the "Secret Lands of the North of Asia". These included
i-'m-n-y-s3,
b3-y-s3-?-y,
k3-t-w-n3-y, some toponyms reconstructed as Cyclades and Greek, and then
k3-in-yw-s and
i-m-ni-s3. It is thought that these mean Amnisos, Phaistos, Kydonia, Knossos, and then Amnisos again. If so, then Pharaoh did not privilege LMIII Knossos above the other states in the region.
After about a century of partial recovery, most Cretan cities and palaces went into decline in the 13th century (LHIIIB; we should not speak of an independent "LMIIIB").
Knossos remained an administrative center until
1200 BC; the last of the Minoan sites was the defensive mountain site of
Karfi.
 |
Map of Minoan Crete |
Crete is a mountainous
island with natural
harbors. There are signs of earthquake damage at Minoan sites.
Homer recorded a tradition that Crete had 90 cities. The site at
Knossos was the most important one.
Archeologists have found
palaces in
Phaistos and
Malia as well. The island was probably divided into four political units, the north being governed from Knossos, the south from
Phaistos, the central eastern part from
Malia and the eastern tip from
Kato Zakros. Smaller palaces have been found in other places.
Some of the major Minoan archaeological sites are:
*Palaces
**
Knossos - the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete; was purchased for excavations by Evans on March 16, 1900.
**
Phaistos **
Malia**
Kato Zakros **
Galatas*
Agia Triada*
Gournia - town
*
Pyrgos*
Vasiliki*
Fournu Korfi*
Pseira - island town with ritual sites
*
Mount Juktas - the greatest of the Minoan peak sanctuaries
*
Arkalochori*
Karfi - last of the Minoan sites
 |
Minoan copper ingot |
The Minoans were primarily a
mercantile people engaged in overseas trade. Their culture, from ca 1700 BC onwards, shows a high degree of organization. Many historians and archaeologists believe that the Minoans were involved in the Bronze Age's important
tin trade: tin, alloyed with copper apparently from
Cyprus, was used in the manufacture of
bronze. The decline of Minoan civilization and the decline in use of bronze tools in favor of superior iron ones seem to be correlated. The Minoan trade in
saffron, which originated in the Aegean basin as a natural chromosome mutation, has left fewer material remains: a fresco of saffron-gatherers at
Santorini is well-known. This inherited trade pre-dated Minoan civilization: a sense of its rewards may be gained by comparing its value to
frankincense, or later, to
pepper. Archaeologists tend to emphasize the more durable items of trade: ceramics, copper, and tin, and dramatic luxury finds of
gold, and
silver.
Objects of Minoan manufacture suggest there was a network of trade with mainland
Greece (notably
Mycenae),
Cyprus,
Syria,
Anatolia,
Egypt,
Mesopotamia, and westward as far as the coast of
Spain.
Minoan men wore
loincloths and
kilts. Women wore
robes that were open to the
navel and had short sleeves and layered flounced
skirts. Women also had the option of wearing a strapless fitted bodice, the first fitted garments known in history. The patterns on
clothes emphasized
symmetrical geometric designs.
The statues of priestesses in Minoan culture and frescoes showing men and women participating in the same sports (usually bull-leaping) lead some archaeologists to believe that men and women held equal social status, and that inheritance might even have been matrilineal. The frescos include many depictions of people, with the sexes distinguished by colour: the men's skin is reddish-brown, the women's white. The colour serves as an identifying code in the pictures.
Language and writing
Knowledge of the spoken and written language of the Minoans is as yet scant despite the number of records found. Sometimes the Minoan language is referred to as
Eteocretan, although this presents confusion between the language written in
Linear A scripts and the language written in a
Euboean-derived alphabet only after the
Greek Dark Ages. While the Eteocretan language is often suspected to be a descendant of the Minoan language, there is nothing substantial yet to prove this theory. It is also unknown whether the language written in
Cretan hieroglyphs is the Minoan language or something else. It is also undeciphered and its phonetic values unknown.
Approximately 3,000 tablets bearing writing have been discovered so far, many apparently being inventories of goods or resources. The hieroglyphs came into use from MMI and were in parallel use with the emerging Linear A from the 18th century (MM II) and disappeared at some point during the 17th century (MM III). It is the fact that the majority of these inscriptions are concise economic records rather than dedicatory inscriptions that the translation of Minoan remains a challenge.
In the Mycenean period, Linear A was replaced by
Linear B, recording a very archaic version of the
Greek language. Linear B was successfully deciphered by
Michael Ventris in the 1950s, but the earlier scripts remain a mystery. Unless
Eteocretan truly is its descendant, it is perhaps during the
Greek Dark Ages, a time of economic and socio-political collapse, that the Minoan language became extinct.
Art
 |
A fresco found at the ancient Minoan site of Knossos |
The great collection of Minoan art is in the museum at
Heraklion, near Knossos on the north shore of Crete. Minoan art, with other remains of
material culture, especially the sequence of ceramic styles, has allowed archaeologists to define the three phases of Minoan culture (EM, MM, LM) discussed above.
Since wood and textiles have vanished, the most important surviving Minoan art are
Minoan pottery, the palace architecture with its
frescos that include landscapes,
stone carvings, and intricately carved
seal stones.
In the Early Minoan period ceramics were characterised by linear patterns of
spirals, triangles, curved lines,
crosses, fishbone motifs and such. In the Middle Minoan period naturalistic designs such as
fish,
squid,
birds and
lilies were common. In the Late Minoan period, flowers and animals were still the most characteristic, but the variability had increased. The 'palace style' of the region around Knossos is characterised by a strong
geometric simplification of
naturalistic shapes and
monochromatic paintings. Very noteworthy are the similarities between Late Minoan and
Mycenaean art.
Politics
In Minoan art, women vastly outnumber men
[Goodison and Morris 1998, p. 115]. Women are shown seated on thrones, and in commanding positions. Women are often saluted by people and/or animals. Whereas depictions exist of men showing deference to women, not one shows women deferring to men. Unlike their contemporaries, who possessed obvious "strong-man" male rulers, the Minoans show almost no trace of male rule at all.
"In Minoan imagery ... female figures seem preeminent. Males, to be sure, appear on frescoed walls, engraved sealstones, and gold rings and in small-scale statuary, but by and large these are not the bearded kings and warriors of Egypt and the ancient Near East. They are youths, who often, though not always, attend a dominant female..."
[Lapatin 2002, p. 65]According to Jacquetta Hawkes, "The absence of … manifestations of the all-powerful male ruler that are so widespread at this time and in this stage of cultural development as to be almost universal, is one of the reasons for supposing that the occupants of Minoan thrones may have been queens"
[Hawkes 1968, p. 76.] "In the scenes from the seal stones, not only is the Goddess always the central figure, being served and honored in a variety of ways; she is sometimes shown seated on a throne. Supposing that a king did rule as consort of the Goddess, one would expect at the very least that at the royal court, which elsewhere, in Egypt and the Orient, was seen as the human reflection of the divine order, there would have been a throne for the queen as the counterpart of the Goddess. Yet in the sacred room at Knossos, and apparently also in the state apartment in the residential quarter, the throne stood single and alone."
[Hawkes 1968, p. 154.]Like Egyptian rulers, Minoan queens may have had divine status:
"… [I]t is not impossible that Minoan Crete was run by women…. [I]n the so-called Camp Stool Fresco from Knossos, which depicts women sitting on stools and toasting each other, the principal figure (known as La Parisienne since the days of Evans) is painted twice the size of the others â€" a clear sign of importance and probably of divinity, to judge from Egyptian art, where the divine pharaoh is regularly shown in this way"
[Cadogan 1992, p 37.].
Goodison and Morris suggest that contemporary ideas of sexual roles have colored our interpretation of the place of women in Minoan society: "Is there … perhaps a hint of modern sexual asymmetry in interpretations which now admit males to the world of [Minoan] divine power, but still exclude females from temporal power, distancing them in the realm of the transcendent as goddesses or priestesses?"
[Goodison and Morris 1998, p. 130.].
Warfare and Minoan Peace
The paucity of evidence for Minoan warfare has often been used to argue that the Minoans engaged in little, if any, internal or external armed conflict. This condition is known as "Pax Minoica," or "The Minoan Peace." As with many other topics in Minoan studies, it is difficult to draw firm conclusions from the evidence, and there is disagreement over the meaning of the evidence we do have.
[Branigan 1999; Gates 1999.] |
A fresco from the Cycladic site of Akrotiri with warriors, shepherds, and a shipwreck |
This is a subject of some debate. S. Alexiou has pointed out (in
Kretologia 8) that a number of sites, especially Early and Middle Minoan sites such as Aghia Photia, are built on hilltops or are otherwise fortified. As Lucia Nixon said, "...we may have been over-influenced by the lack of what we might think of as solid fortifications to assess the archaeological evidence properly. As in so many other instances, we may not have been looking for evidence in the right places, and therefore we may not end with a correct assessment of the Minoans and their ability to avoid war."
[Nixon 1983, "Changing Views of Minoan Society," in Minoan society: Proceedings of the Cambridge Colloquium, 1981, 1983 ed. L. Nixon.].
Chester Starr points out in "Minoan Flower Lovers" that
Shang China and the
Maya both had unfortified centers and yet still engaged in frontier struggles, so the lack of fortified centers itself cannot be enough to definitively show the Minoans were a peaceful civilization unparalleled in history.
[Starr ? in Hagg-Marinatos eds. Minoan Thalassocracy]On the other hand, when Minoan archaeologists met in 1998 in a conference in Belgium to discuss the possibility that the idea of Pax Minoica was outdated, the evidence for Minoan war proved to be scanty. At the conference archaeologist Jan Driessen said the Minoans frequently show ‘weapons' in their art, but only in ritual contexts, and that "The construction of fortified sites is often assumed to reflect a threat of warfare, but such fortified centers were multifunctional; they were also often the embodiment or material expression of the central places of the territories at the same time as being monuments glorifying an emerging leading power"
[Driessen 1999, p. 16.].
Stella Chryssoulaki's work on the small outposts or 'guard-houses' in eastern Crete represent possible elements of a defensive system, however. Claims that they produced no weapons are erroneous; type A Minoan swords
[as found in the palaces of Malia and Zakros] were the finest in all of the Aegean
[See Sanders, AJA 65, p. 67, Hoeckmann, JRGZM 27, or Rehak and Younger, AJA 102].
However, Keith Branigan notes that 95% of so-called Minoan weapons possessed hilts or handles that would have prevented their use as weapons.
[Branigan 1999.]Paul Rehak maintains that Minoan figure-eight shields could not have been used for fighting or even hunting, since they were too cumbersome
[Rehak, 1999]. Finally, Cheryl Floyd concludes that many Minoan "weapons" were merely tools used for mundane tasks such as meat-processing
[Floyd, 1999]. Although there are few parallels in the historic or ethnographic record of meter-long swords and large spearheads being used as mundane devices, there is ample evidence that such swords are used in ceremonial (versus combat) contexts.
About Minoan warfare in general, Branigan concludes that "[T]he quantity of weaponry, the impressive fortifications, and the aggressive looking long-boats all suggested an era of intensified hostilities. But on closer inspection there are grounds for thinking that all three key elements are bound up as much with status statements, display, and fashion as with aggression…. Warfare such as there was in the southern Aegean EBA [early Bronze Age] was either personalized and perhaps ritualized (in Crete) or small-scale, intermittent and essentially an economic activity (in the Cyclades and the Argolid/Attica)"
[Branigan 1999, p. 92]. Olga Krzyszkowska concurs: "The stark fact is that for the prehistoric Aegean we have no direct evidence for war and warfare per se..."
[Krzyszkowska 1999, p. ?]A final bit of telling evidence against Minoan warfare: the constant warmongering of almost all their ancient contemporaries—the Egyptians and Hittites, for example—is well documented: massively walled cities; obvious martial art; obvious and numerous warrior graves; evidence of violence on skeletal remains; etc. (Although on the mainland of Greece at the time of the Shaft Graves at Mycenae, there is little evidence for major fortifications among the Mycenaeans -- the famous citadels post-date the destruction of almost all Neopalatial Cretan sites).
Religion
|
"snake goddess" (MM III). |
The Minoans worshipped goddesses.
[See Castleden 1994; Goodison and Morris 1998; N. Marinatos 1993; et al.] Although there are some indications of male gods, depictions of Minoan goddesses vastly outnumber depictions of anything that could be considered a Minoan god. While some of these depictions of women are believed to be images of worshippers, as opposed to the deity herself, there still seem to be several goddesses including a
Mother Goddess of
fertility, a
Mistress of the Animals, a protectress of
cities, the
household, the
harvest, and the
underworld, and more. Some have argued that these are all aspects of a single goddess. They are often represented by
serpents, birds, poppies, and a somewhat vague shape of an animal upon the head. Some suggest the goddess was linked to the "Earthshaker", a male represented by the
bull and the
sun, who would die each
autumn and be reborn each
spring. Though the notorious bull-headed Minotaur is a purely Greek depiction, seals and seal-impressions reveal bird-headed or masked deities.
Walter Burkert warns, "To what extent one can and must differentiate between Minoan and Mycenaean religion is a question which has not yet found a conclusive answer"
[Burkert 1985, p. 21.], and suggests that useful parallels will be found in the relations between Etruscan and Archaic Greek culture and religion, or between Roman and Hellenistic culture. Minoan religion has not been transmitted in its own language, and the uses literate Greeks later made of surviving Cretan
mythemes, after centuries of purely oral transmission, have transformed the meager sources: consider the Athenian point-of-view of the
Theseus legend. A few Cretan names are preserved in
Greek mythology, but there is no way to connect a name with an existing Minoan icon, such as the familiar
serpent-goddess. Retrieval of metal and clay votive figures—
double axes, miniature vessels, models of artifacts, animals, human figures—has identified sites of cult: here were numerous small shrines in Minoan Crete, and mountain peaks and very numerous sacred caves—over 300 have been explored—were the centers for some
cult, but
temples as the Greeks developed them were unknown.
[Kerenyi 1976, p. 18; Burkert 1985, p. 24ff.] Within the palace complex, no central rooms devoted to cult have been recognized, other than the center court where youths of both sexes would practice the
bull-leaping ritual.
Minoan
sacred symbols include the
bull and its
horns of consecration, the
labrys (double-headed axe), the
pillar, the serpent, the
sun-disk, and the
tree.
Possibility of human sacrifice
Evidence that suggest the Minoans may have performed human sacrifice has been found at three sites: (1)
Anemospilia, in a MMII building near Mt. Juktas, interpreted as a temple, (2) an EMII sanctuary complex at
Fournou Korifi in south central Crete, and (3)
Knossos, in an LMIB building known as the "North House."
The temple at Anemospilia was destroyed by earthquake in the MMII period. The building seems to be a tripartite shrine, and terracotta feet and some carbonized wood were interpreted by the excavators as the remains of a cult statue. Four human skeletons were found in its ruins; one, belonging to a young man, was found in an unusually contracted position on a raised platform, suggesting that he had been trussed up for sacrifice, much like the bull in the sacrifice scene on the Mycenaean-era
Agia Triadha sarcophagus. Additionally, a bronze dagger was found among his bones, and the discoloration of the bones on one side of his body suggest he died of blood loss. The bronze blade (with images of a boar on either side) was 15 inches long. The young man was found on a raised platform in the center of the middle room, next to a pillar with a trough at its base. The positions of the other three skeletons suggest that an earthquake caught them by surprise—the skeleton of a 28-year old woman was found spread-eagled on the ground in the same room as the sacrificed male. Next to the sacrificial platform, the excavators found the skeleton of a man in his late 30s, with his legs broken. His arms were raised, as if to protect himself from falling debris, which suggests that his legs were broken by the collapse of the building in the earthquake. In the front hall of the building, another skeleton was found, too poorly preserved to allow determination of age or sex. Nearby 105 fragments of a clay vase were discovered, scattered in a pattern that suggests it had been dropped by the person in the front hall when s/he was struck by debris from the collapsing building. The jar had apparently contained bull's blood.
Unfortunately, the excavators of this site have not published an official excavation report; the site is mainly known through a 1981 article in
National Geographic (Sakellarakis and Sapouna-Sakellerakis 1981, see also Rutter
[Lesson 15 of The Prehistoric Archaeology of the Aegean accessed March 17th 2006]).
Not all agree that this was human sacrifice. Nanno Marinatos, for example, says the man supposedly sacrificed actually died in the earthquake that hit at the time he died. She notes that this earthquake destroyed the building he was found in, and also killed the two Minoans who supposedly sacrificed him. She also argues that the building was not a temple and that the evidence for sacrifice "is far from … conclusive."
[Marinatos 1993, p. 114.] Dennis Hughes concurs with Marinatos: the building was not a temple and the man was not sacrificed. Hughes also argues that the platform on which the young man lay was not necessarily an altar; the blade was probably not a knife, but a spearhead; finally, this spearhead was not necessarily placed on the young man, but could have fallen during the earthquake from shelves or an upper floor.
[Hughes 1991, p. ?]At the sactuary-complex of Fournou Korifi, fragments of a human skull were found in the same room as a small hearth, cooking-hole, and cooking-equipment. This skull has been interpreted as the remains of a sacrificed victim.
[Gessell 1983.] In the "North House" at Knossos, the bones of at least four children (who had been in good health) were found which bore signs that "they were butchered in the same way the Minoans slaughtered their sheep and goats, suggesting that they had been sacrificed and eaten. The senior Cretan archaeologist Nicolas Platon was so horrified at this suggestion that he insisted the bones must be those of apes, not humans."
[MacGillivray 2000, p. ??]The bones, found by Peter Warren, date to Late Minoan IB (1580-1490), before the Myceneans arrived (in LM IIIA, circa 1320-1200) according to Paul Rehak and John G. Younger.
["Review of Aegean Prehistory VII: Neopalatial, Final Palatial, and Postpalatial Crete," American Journal of Archaeology 102 (1998) 91-173)]. Dennis Hughes and Rodney Castleden argue that these bones were deposited as a 'secondary burial'.
[Hughes 1991; Castleden 1991]. Secondary burial is the not-uncommon practice of burying the dead twice: immediately following death, and then again after the flesh is gone from the skeleton. The main weakness of this argument is that it does not explain the type of cuts and knife marks upon the bones.
The Minoan cities were connected with stone-paved
roads, formed from blocks cut with bronze
saws. Streets were drained and water and
sewage facilities were available to the upper class, through
clay pipes.
Minoan buildings often had flat tiled roofs;
plaster, wood, or
flagstone floors, and stood 2-3 stories high. Typically the lower
walls were constructed of stone and
rubble and
mudbrick was used for upper stories. Ceiling timbers would hold up the roofs.
Palaces
|
Ruins of the palace at Knossos |
The first palaces were constructed at the end of the Early Minoan period in the third millenum BC (
Malia). While it was formerly believed that the foundation of the first palaces was synchronous and dated to the Middle Minoan at around 2000 BC (the date of the first palace at Knossos), scholars now think that palaces were built over a longer period of time in different locations, in response to local developments. The main older palaces are Knossos, Malia and Phaistos.
The palaces fulfilled a plethora of functions: they served as centres of
government, administrative offices,
shrines, workshops and storage spaces (e.g., for grain), although it should be kept in mind that these distinctions might have seemed artificial to the Minoans.
The use of the term 'palace' for the older palaces, meaning a dynastic residence and seat of power, has recently come under criticism (see
Palace), and the term 'court buildings' has been proposed instead. However, the original term is probably too well entrenched to be replaced. Architectural features like
ashlar masonry,
orthostats, columns, open courts, staircases (implying upper stories) and the presence of diverse basins have been used to define palatial architecture. Often the conventions of better known, younger palaces have been used to reconstruct the older ones, but this practice may be hiding fundamental functional differences. Most older palaces had only one storey and no representative facades. They were generally smaller than the later palaces, but with a big central court. The plan was U-shaped.
The late palaces are characterised by multi-storey buildings. The west facades had sandstone ashlar masonry. Knossos is the best-known example. See
Knossos.
|
Fresco from the "Palace of Minos", Knossos, Crete |
Columns
One of the most notable contributions of the Minoans to architecture is their unique column. The Minoan column is called an 'inverted' column. Most Greek columns have a greater diameter at the bottom than the top, creating an illusion of greater height; the Minoan column is the opposite, having a greater diameter at the top. Their columns were also made of wood as opposed to stone, and were generally painted red. They were mounted on a simple stone base and were topped with a pillow-like, round piece.
[Benton and DiYanni 1998, p. 67.][Bourbon 1998, p 34]The Minoans raised ,
sheep,
pigs,
goats, and grew
wheat,
barley,
vetch,
chickpeas, cultivated
grapes,
figs,
olives, and grew
poppies, for poppyseed and perhaps opium. The Minoans domesticated
bees, and adopted
pomegranates and
quinces from the Near East, though not
lemons and
oranges as is often imagined. They developed Mediterranean polyculture, the practice of growing more than one crop at a time, and as a result of their more varied and healthier diet, the population increased.
Farmers used wooden
plows, bound by leather to wooden handles, and pulled by pairs of
donkeys or .
Thera eruption
Thera is the largest island of
Santorini, a little archipelago of volcanic fragments about 100 km distant from Crete. The
Thera eruption (estimated to have had a
Volcanic Explosivity Index of 6) has been identified by ash fallout in eastern Crete, and in cores from the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean seas. The massive eruption of Thera led to the volcano's collapse into a submarine
caldera, causing
tsunamis which destroyed naval installations and settlements near the coasts. The impact of the Thera eruption on the Minoan civilization is debated.
Claims were made that the ash falling on the eastern half of Crete may have choked off plant life, causing starvation. It was alleged that 7-11 cm of ash fell on Kato Zakro, while 0.5cm fell on Knossos. However, when field examinations were carried out, this theory was dropped, as no more than 5mm had fallen anywhere in Crete. (Callender, 1999)Earlier historians and archaeologist appear to have been deceived by the depth of pumice found on the sea floor, however it has been established this oozed from a lateral crack in the volcano below sea level (Pichler & Friedrich, 1980)(The calendar date of the eruption is much disputed. Many archaeologists believe that synchronisms with Egypt require a date around 1500 BC; radicarbon, however, puts the date in the late 17th century BC. See
Thera eruption for details.)
Other
There is evidence that the trade networks collapsed, and that Minoan cities perished by
famine. The Minoans'
grain supply is believed to have come from farms on the shore of the
Black Sea.
Many scholars believe that ancient trading empires were in constant danger from
uneconomic trade, that is, food and
staple goods were improperly valued relative to
luxury goods, because
accounting was undeveloped. The result could be famine and decline in population.
One theory of Minoan collapse is that
increasing use of iron tools impoverished the Minoan traders. When the trade networks ceased, regional famines could no longer be mitigated by trade.
*Benton, Janetta Rebold and DiYanni, Robert.
Arts and Culture: An Introduction to the Humanities. Volume 1. Prentice Hall. New Jersey, 1998.
*Bourbon, F.
Lost Civilizations. Barnes and Noble, Inc. New York, 1998.
*Branigan, Keith, 1970.
The Foundations of Palatial Crete.
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*
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*Marinatos, Nanno, 1993.
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*
Marinatos, Spyridon, 1960.
Crete and Mycenae (originally published in Greek, 1959), photographs by Max Hirmer.
*
Marinatos, Spyridon, 1972. "Life and Art in Prehistoric Thera," in
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*
Linear A*
Peak Sanctuaries*
Sacred Caves*
Philistines*
Atlantis*
Phaistos Disc
