The Minoan Civilization

The Palace of Knossos is the most complex structure existing from the ancient Minoan Civilization on the island of Crete. It was built in the Minoan political center of Knossos by King Minos around 1900 BC. The palace is an extremely intricate building standing five stories with large, beautiful paintings on its walls known as frescos; it even had indoor plumbing. It is apparent that only the most important people in Minoan society lived in the palace because of its grandeur and beauty.

(Bright, Hilda, and Helen Pocock.) The Minoans were the first advanced society in Europe 's history. The Minoans were found throughout mainland Greece and throughout the Mediterranean Sea and the island of Crete. Around the year 6500 the Cretans were documented in hunting, fishing, and engaged in pagan worship. In the year 3000 B.C. and the years following, immigrants from Northern Africa came to Crete. They were skilled in Bronze making. This would soon lead to the Bronze Age and the Greek empire would grow and become more powerful. In the years after 2000 B.C. is when most of the palaces and the other artifacts that are still visible today were made. (Kyriakopoulos, Victoria. pg. 23-24)

The Minoan civilization was named after King Minos and was influenced by the civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia. They were most likely destroyed later on by the Mycenaean civilization.

The Minoans were a civilization who flourished from 3000 BCE until 1100 BCE on the island of Crete, were greatly influenced by the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Syrians and the Anatolians (Britannica Encyclopedia). This civilization made major contributions to Western European development in the areas of language, architecture and art. It was the famous archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans who made the astounding discoveries at Knossos in the early 1900’s that introduced to the world the fascinating and wonderful sophistication of these early Greeks (Britannica Encyclopedia). The history of the island has been molded by its proximity to the Aegean Sea. Its geographical location gave it control over the sea and the lucrative trade routes. The Minoans traded with Egypt, the Levant, the Aegean, and beyond to Italy, and Sicily.

bronze started to replace stone tools. The Minoans Flourished during the bronze age and their art

As an island civilization, the peace-loving Minoans focused almost solely on trade. However, the Mycenaeans were were concerned with warfare and advanced their civilizations through conquest, as well as trade. This is evident in their architectures, as the high walls and narrow passages of Mycenaean architecture appear to be more defensive than aesthetic nature. Furthermore, their home city state was constructed upon a large mountain, aiding the defensive nature of the civilization. Also, their art often depicts forms of warfare, The Warrior Vase and the lion hunt dagger for instance. On the other hand, the Minoans had very open architecture, especially the Palace at Knossos. Moreover, most of the Minoan art depicts different animals and creatures of the sea, as well as people acting to further life, rather than take

Knossos was inhabited by the Minoan civilization and was a very important city-state. The city had approximately 100,000 citizens. The city of Knossos flourished with trade and commerce with other cities on the island of Crete. Knossos had flourished until around 1375 B.C.E where a volcano on the island of Thera erupted which led to Knossos being abandoned.

The palace is divided into 2 wings, in which the west wing was renowned as serving for formal purposes, whereas the east wing was more common. It also consisted of a central court, a throne room and a queen’s apartment. In this, it is said that women were the main gender that were seated on the throne. Stone was the primary building material for the multi-story structures, where the interior walls were plastered with clay and lime (Odysseyadventures 2012). The 2 areas of the palace reveal that there were 2 main social groups at Knossos. Potentially, the west wing contained the upper class citizens, and the east comprised of people in the middle-lower class. However, based on the description provided regarding the layout of the ancient city, Knossos may not have had a lower class. This judgment is reached, as the palace is described as vibrant and ultimately quite wealthy. It too is implied that the social hierarchy placed women as being regarded quite highly, where they were more centralised than men. As well as this, such an intricate layout would have required numerous workers, such as architects or builders, that were sophisticated in their chosen field. Evidently, in terms of social hierarchy, this indicates that possibly a large portion of the society were apart of the working group.

Religion played a significant role in the daily lives of the Minoans. There are no scriptures or book of prayers to support the existence of Minoan religions except for artifacts and motifs discovered in caves. It appears that Minoan society was a female dominated culture as evidence by the number of women in palace frescoes and figurines goddesses found in Cretan sites (Martin, 1996). The Cretans were polytheistic who worshipped many goddesses. Evidence found in excavated sites suggested that Cretans built sanctuaries in caves, mountain tops, palaces, and villages where they worshipped during which they offered animal and other goods as part of their rituals. Some evidence suggested that the Minoans may have performed human sacrifices. Minoan

Historians do not think that agricultural workers had a high position in the Minoan social hierarchy. This is due to the fact that we do not have a lot of sources which depict agricultural workers. This suggests that they were not seen as important.

Centralized power in myriad amounts of ancient cultures serves as a ‘norm’ for most. In times during the Minoan civilization, and the Mycenaean civilization, the idea of having a centralized power, or at least some sort of hierarchy that is evident, had had multiple disputes to whether or not such a government was favored. Minoans and Mycenaean’s often had problems with such centralized powers, that it caused a focal discussion of whether or not a hierarchy of such should be established. For both sides of the argument, there served multiple points of validity for and against a centralized government, especially referring to shipping goods, the manufacturing and usage of the goods, and the culture behind either one.

Minoans The Bronze age was one of the most significant periods in the history of the ancient Greeks, lasting for estimated 3000 years the bronze age was a period which saw many different advances in economy and technology such advancements include the introduction of the metal bronze which was used on a daily bases from knives , armour, helmets, decorations, jewellery and more it was one of the most important materials in specific time in history leading Greece to be one of the most important countries in the Mediterranean. To identify the people of that time historians have linked it to two significant civilizations of that time; Mycenaean and the Minoans, these two civilisations coincided throughout Greece. The Minoans were known to occupy

The Minoan Civilization was a civilization of the Bronze Age which arose in the island of Crete, Greece and flourished from around 2600 BC to 1100 BC. It is considered to be the first advanced civilization in Europe, where the Minoans formed complex and vibrant societies consisting of warriors, merchants, artists, farmers, sailors, sea traders and all kinds of people. They were also the first to use a written language in Europe, namely Linear A. Despite how intelligent these people were, the Minoan Civilization collapsed at its peak of splendor in 1450 BC, leaving traces of its grandeur and essential clues to their legend.

Peloponnesus is a peninsula connected to main land Greece by the Isthmus of Corinth in south Greece (fig. 1) (“Peloponnesus.”). Messenia is a region on the area of Peloponnesus in the south West (“Messenia.”). Within the ancient region of Messenia, the Mycenaean center of Pylos can be found (“Messenia.”). Pylos is a great Mycenaean palace that dated in the 13th century B.C. (“Pylos”). Carl Blegen discovered this great palace at Pylos in 1939; it was seated near Navarino Bay on the Adriatic coast (Castleden 9).

The Aegean world flourished before 3000 B.C.E. until about 1100 BCE separated by three main cultures the Cycladic, Minoan, and Helladic. During the Aegean period the wheel was being used to perfect potter such as Kamares and metal works had become sophisticated and elegant. What stood out to me during this period would definitely be the architecture. There was the Old Palace period which was destroyed by earthquakes and fires around 1900 - 1700 B.C.E. and what sprung out of that Minoan period was the second Palace period. The Second Palace period 1700- 1450 B.C.E. had reconstructed the Palace Complex of Knossos, Crete. This Palace was equipped and functioned similar to modern day buildings. Equipped with plumbing systems, ventilation shafts,