minoan civilization ppt

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Minoan Civilization

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Page 1: Minoan Civilization PPT

Minoan Civilization

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Minoan Civilization

- a Bronze Age civilization, which arose on the island of Crete  and flourished from approximately the 27th century BC to the 15th century BC.

- Discovered by a British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans at the early 20th century

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The Minoan Civilization is divided into three time periods:

• Early (3000-2100 BC)• Middle (2100-1500 BC)• Late (1500-1100 BC)

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Palaces

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Knosso

s Palace

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Phaistos Palace

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Malia Palace

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Kato Zakros Palace

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Galatas Palace

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Early Minoan Settlements

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Tripiti

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Myrtos-Pyrgos

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Vasiliski

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Fournou Korifi

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Society and Culture

• The Minoans were primarily a mercantile people engaged in overseas trade. Their culture, from 1700 BC onward, 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 to make bronze. The decline of Minoan civilization and the decline in use of bronze tools in favor of iron ones seem to be correlated.

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• Minoan men wore loincloths and kilts. Women wore robes that had short sleeves and layered flounced skirts. These were open to the navel allowing their breasts to be left exposed, perhaps during ceremonial occasions. 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. It must be remembered that other forms of dress may have been worn of which we have no record.

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Language

• The Minoan language is a language of ancient Crete. Minoan was spoken before the island's civilization was replaced with that of themainland, and its relation to Greek is unknown.

• The Eteocretan language is likely descended from Minoan, and is largely written in a Euboean-derived alphabetic script that was the norm after the Hellenic Dark Ages,

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Art

• The 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.

• Since wood and textiles have vanished through decomposition, the best preserved, and so most easily learned from, surviving examples of Minoan art are Minoan pottery, the palace architecture with its frescos that include landscapes, stone carvings, and intricately carved seal stones.

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Fresco Painting

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Pottery

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. Frescoes were the main form of art during these time of the Minoan culture.

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Spouted vessel,2100-1700 B.C.

Vase with typicaloctopus motif – 1500B.C.

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Vase, Marine Style, 1500 B.C.

Cans1390-1070 B.C.

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Painting

The Minoans used a "true" or "wet" painting method, allowing the pigments of metal and mineral oxides to bind well to the wall, which required quick execution. The nature of this technique encouraged improvisation, spontaneity, and the element of chance. Since they had to work within the time constrains of the drying plaster, the painters had to be very skillful, and their fluid brush strokes translated into the graceful outlines that characterize Minoan painting. For this reason, this method of painting was most appropriate for the fluid moments of life and nature scenes that the Minoans favored, which contrasted sharply with the strict stylization and stereotyping typical of frescoes from other Mediterranean cultures of the same time.

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La Parisienne

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Sculptures and Figures

• Very little sculpture from Minoan Crete has survived since most of it was not monumental, and instead consisted of small artifacts dedicated to gods or kings.

• Other common gestures observed in figures include the 'Minoan salute' and the 'hands-on-hips'. The latter attitude is often represented in a female figure who has been given multiple interpretations: the epiphany of a deity, a religious official, and a worshiper. Whatever the meaning, gestures and posturing were clearly important aspects of Palatial culture and Minoan ritual.

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Minoan Salute

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Bull Rhyton

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Technology

• Through their interaction with other civilizations of the middle east, the Minoans were aware and used the art of metalworking. Their skillful jewelry creations adorned the collections of noble palace inhabitants and were even exported around the Mediterranean.

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Bees of Malia

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Religion

The Minoans worshiped almost exclusively goddesses.  Although there is some evidence 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 speculated to be images of worshipers and priestesses officiating at religious ceremonies, 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 Great Goddess.

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Snake Goddess

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Agriculture

• The Minoans raised cattle, sheep, pigs, and goats, and grew wheat, barley, vetch, and chickpeas, they also cultivated grapes,figs, and olives, and grew poppies, for poppyseed ,and perhaps, opium.

• They developed Mediterranean polyculture, the practice of growing more than one crop at a time, and as a result of their more varied and healthy diet, the population increased. This method of farming would theoretically maintain the fertility of the soil, as well as offering protection against low yields in any single crop.

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The Legend of King Minos

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The legendary king of Crete, son of Zeus and the Phoenician princess Europa. Minos and his two brothers, Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon, were raised in the royal palace of Cnossus. Minos married Pasiphae, daughter of the sun-god Helios. Some of their children were Phaedra, Ariadne, and Andregeos.

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In mythology, a dispute over the sovereignty of Crete led Minos to ask Poseidon for help. He asked the god to send an offering as a sign of his true kingship. The god of the sea sent a gleaming pure white bull, which emerged miraculously from the waves. This confirmed to all concerned that Minos was their true king. However, as soon as King Minos saw this magnificent beast he refused to sacrifice it to Poseidon, and replaced it with another. Poseidon in retaliation sent Pasiphae into uncontrollable lust for this huge beast. So much so that she had the urge to mate with this huge animal. To do this she requested the help of Daedalus, a craftsman and inventor, who built a hollow wooden cow. Pasiphae hid inside, the amorous bull mounted the wooden cow and as a result Pasiphae conceived its child, or rather a creature which was half man and half bull, which became known as the Minotaur (Minotauros, "the bull of Minos").

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King Minos ordered Daedalus to construct a palace to hide the Minotaur, and Daedalus built Labyrinth. Because of his meddling Minos imprisoned Daedalus and his son Icarus inside a tower. They escaped by making wings from wax and feathers, but Icarus was killed when he flew to close to the sun.

When Androgeos, the son of King Minos, attended the games in Athens he was victorious in all events, but was murdered through envy by other contestants. Minos then attacked Athens to avenge the death of Androgeos, and, after gaining control of the city he granted Athens peace, but with one condition: that every nine years Athens should send seven of their finest young men and young maidens to Crete, as sacrifice to the Minotaur. When the hero Theseus heard about this practice, he volunteered to be one of the victims, killing the Minotaur, and freeing Athens from this grizzly duty

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Another legend of which King Minos is part, is that of King Nisus of Megara, who to protect his city had to keep a lock of red hair hidden in his own white hair. King Minos besieged Megara, but Nisus knew that all would be well, as long as the lock of red hair was still in place. However, Scylla the daughter of Nisus fell in love with Minos, and to prove her love for him she cut the lock of red hair from her fathers head, which killed Nisus, and Magara fell. When Minos found out that Scylla had been responsible for her father's death he killed her. She was reincarnated as a seabird, to be pursued by her father Nisus, who had been turned into a sea eagle.

Sir Arthur Evans a British archaeologist gave the name "Minoan" to the Cretan civilization, from King Minos' name, (A.D. 1900). Even the name Minos, may not have been the king's real name (and is not Greek in origin) and could have been a hereditary title of Minoan rulers.