MINOAN CIVILIZAT

IONPREPARED BY :FITRIANI BINTI

SHIFOLLAH( 1312440 )

FASIHA BINTI BUSTAMI ( 1318146 )

Period

Middle bronze age ca. 2000 BCE – ca. 1500 BCE.

Location

Island of Crete is located in the center of eastern Mediterranean at the crossroads of Africa, Asia and Europe.

The name of Minoan is given by Sir Athur Evans (19th century British archeologist) based on discovered the palace (Knossos) of the legendary King Minos, who appears in several Greek myths.

Origin

- Born 8 July 1851 in Nash Mills, Hertfordshire.

- An English archaeologist

- Fields Archaeology, museum management, journalism, statesmanship, philanthropy.

- Known for Excavations at Knossos; developing the concept of Minoan civilization

- The first to define Cretan scripts Linear A and Linear B, as well as an earlier pictographic writing.

Sir Athur Evans

Chronology of Crete Prof. N. Platon (Greek archaeologist) has

developed a chronology based on the palaces destruction and reconstruction. He divided Minoan Crete into :

1) Prepalatial ( 2600 - 1900 BC )

2) Protopalatial ( 1900 - 1700 BC )

3) Neopalatial (1700 - 1400 BC )

4) Postpalatial ( 1400 – 1150 BC )

Around 2000 BC a new political system was established with authority concentrated around a central figure – a king.

The first large palaces were founded and acted as centers for their respective communities, while at the same time they developed a bureaucratic administration which permeated Minoan society.

Politics

King

Noble

Traders

Farmers, artisans and slaves

CLOTHING

- Minoan men wore loincloths and kilts.

- Women wore robes that had short sleeves and layered

flounced skirts. Women also had the option of wearing a

strapless fitted bodice.

- The patterns emphasized symmetrical geometric

design.

It seems to be the first "leisure" society in existence, in which a large part of human activity focused on leisure activities, such as sports. In fact, the Cretans seem to have been as sports addicted as modern people; the most popular sports were boxing and bull-jumping. Women actively participated in both of these sports.

BULL JUMPINGBOXING

Exported timber, food, cypress wood, wine, currants, olive

oil, wool, cloth, herbs, and purple dye

Imported precious stone, copper, ivory, tin, silver, gold and

other raw materials

Countries Egypt, Syria, Cyprus, the Aegean islands, the

Greek mainland

Economy

Plants

Barley, wheat, vetch, chick peas, pigeon

peas, cultivated peas, sesame hemp, flax,

castor oil plants, grape, olive, fig trees,

quinces, pears

Animals

Cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, bees

Agriculture

There are numerous representations of goddesses, which leads to the conclusion that the Cretans were polytheistic.

Some scholars have assumed that the Minoans worshipped a Great Goddess, the Mediterranian ‘Magna Mater’ named ‘Potnia’, ‘the lady’.

The double – axe was probably potnia’s symbol and possibly the pillar and the snake was her symbol too.

Ritual celebrations usually took place in sacred caves, on sanctuaries on mountain peaks, and in the palaces and villas which all had their own sanctuaries.

Animal and bloodless sacrifices, along with processions were part of ritual worship of the great female nature goddess, and during these festivities worshipers used music, dance, and prayer to achieve a state of religious ecstacy that put them in touch with the supernatural.

Religion

Snake Goddess

MINOAN SACRIFICE with a slaughtered

bull in the middle, two terrified animals

below him and a woman offering on the

right. Notice the double axe and horns

of consecration next to the altar.

The first scripts resemble Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Eteocretan language is a writing system found on the island of Crete.

Later the emergence of a syllable called Linear A (not been deciphered).

Linear B which was used by the Mycenaeans was the written script used at later Minoans times and was deciphered recently, in 1953.

Most of the tablets found have been translated to contain inventories of goods in storage, and do shed some indirect light into the life of a prosperous society.

Language & Writing

PHAISTOS DISC (Linear B)

Minoan Linear A

The Minoans developed a visual art culture that seems to have been solely oriented around visual pleasure.

The Minoans seem to have been the first ancient culture to produce art for its beauty rather than its function.

During the Protopalatial Period (1900-1700 BC), the introduction of the potter’s wheel allowed efficient production of vessels with thin walls and subtle, symmetrical shapes.

The Minoans not only decorated their palaces, they decorated them with art. To walk through a Minoan palace was to walk through room after room of splendid, wall-sized paintings.

Art

Cont… Minoan art frequently involves

unimportant, trivial details of everyday life, such as a cat hunting a bird, or an octopus, or representations of sports events (rather than battles, or political events).

Minoan architecture consist of several structures which acted as centers for commercial, religious and administrative life.

Archeologist have unearthed in Crete a Minoan landscape filled with tombs, palaces, villas, towns and the roads that connected them.

The Minoan cities were connected with stone-paved roads. Streets were drained and water and sewer facilities were available to the upper class, through claypipes.

Minoan buildings often had flat tiled roofs; plaster, wood, or flagstone floors, and stood two to three stories high. Typically the lower walls were constructed of stone and rubble, and the upper walls of mudbrick. Ceiling timbers held up the roofs.

The materials used in construction varied; could include sandstone, gypsum, or limestone.

THOLOS TOMBSFor centuries the Minoans used Tholos Tombs and sacred caves, along with pithoi(storage jars) and larnakes (ash-chest) for burial of their dead.

MINOAN VILLAS The Late Minoan I villa at Ayia Triada in Crete functioned as

part of a larger administrative system. It was the center of an estate.

Produce and other items from this estate were collected and dispersed as rations and wages to local workers and as tax payments to the palace of Phaistos.

Neopalatial Crete was organized into an extensive system of such manorial estates which contributed to the palatial centers.

MINOANS PALACES

The Minoans palaces provide a forum for gathering and celebrations, while at the same time they offered storage for the crops and workshop for the artists.

They were built over time to occupy low hills at strategic places around the island in a manner so complex that they resembled labyrinths to outside visitors.

There were expanded drainage systems, irrigation, aqueducts, and deep wells that provided fresh water to the inhabitants.

The palaces were technologically advanced with expanded drainage systems, irrigation, aqueduct and deep wells that provided fresh water to the inhabitants.

They were laced with impressive interior and exterior staircases, light wells, massive columns, storage magazines, and gathering outdoor places -- the precursor to ancient theaters.

THE PALACE AT KNOSSOSU SHAPE PLAN WITH A CENTRAL

COURTYARD

RUINS

THE PALACE AT KNOSSOS

Construction on the palace at Knossos, according to legend the palace of King Minos, was begun perhaps as early as 2000 B.C., and by 1900 BC, it was fairly close to its final form--a large single building with a central courtyard.

During the Second Palace period, 1700-1450 BC, the Palace of Minos covered nearly 22,000 square meters (about 5.4 acres) and contained storage rooms, living quarters, religious areas, and banquet rooms. What appears to be a jumble of rooms connected by narrow passageways probably gave rise to the myth of the Labyrinth; the structure itself was built of a complex of dressed masonry and clay-packed rubble, and then half-timbered.

THE CITY OF KNOSSOS

Cyprus treesAerial view of the palace at knossos

Columns wider at the top Timber framing Rubble masonry

1st Factor Professor marinates was the first to suggest in 1939 that

the eruption of Thera, along with the associated effects, was the cause for the catastrophe.

The theory argues that the earthquakes destroyed the palaces, tsunamis obliterated the fleet and peers of the Minoans, and the volcanic ash of Thera covered the whole island destroying, crops and suffocating animals.

2nd factor Invasion and occupation of Crete by the Mycenaeans.

Their documented invasion took place around 1400, and in combination with the effects of the Thera eruption present a likely scenario for the final destruction of the Minoans civilization.

Downfall