Archaeology Team 5Minoan Workshops:

What’s daily life like for the average Minoan?

What you need to doIn the following slides you will be shown a picture of Knossos, a plan of Knossos, some pictures of different sections of the palace, and then some specific artifacts. Based on the information that you compile from these pieces, you will need to put together a fairly good picture of what kind of trades the Minoans were engaged in? What was their economy? What occupations did they have? What social classes did they have?

You will see a series of rooms and artifacts from Knossos. From these slides try to write down as many aspects of daily life that you can. For example: What jobs did they do? What did they eat? What kind of trade did they have? What did they do for fun?

Show the class the presentation that I have put together and explain to them what you found out from the slides you were shown.

Knossos: Bird’s Eye

Knossos Plan

Room #1: apartmenthttp://www.daedalus.gr/DAEI/THEME/Minos7.html

Artifact #1: Storage jarshttp://www.daedalus.gr/DAEI/THEME/B23.jpg

Artifact #2: Fresco

Artifact #3: detail from harvester vasehttp://www.daedalus.gr/DAEI/THEME/Knossos.htm

Artifact #4: Jug

Room #2: Minoan Workshopshttp://www.explorecrete.com/Knossos/12_Knossos_East_Wing.html

Artifact #5: Pithoi jugshttp://www.explorecrete.com/Knossos/12b_Knossos_Pithoi_Drainage.html

Room #3: Customs

House and Theatre

http://www.explorecrete.com/Knossos/14_Knossos_Theatre_Royal_Road.html

ConclusionYou have a choice as to how you do this. You can either make a list with each room and artifact, a description of each, and indicate what this tells you about Minoan society, answering the questions in the introduction.

Or you can write the questions, such as economy, occupations, trade, food, arts, recreation, etc. and then list the different rooms or artifacts that gave you more information about this topic. Show the slides that you were given to the class and tell them what you learned.