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Temple of the Sacred Spiral
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Much of the information below comes from a course on Aegean prehistory put together by Jeremy Rutter of Dartmouth College.
The Minoan civilization on the island of Crete was the historical predecessor of Greek Mycenean culture. For over two thousand years, from the early Minoan Period in 3100 B.C., until the Post Palatial or Late Minoan Period in 1050 B.C., the Minoans were a recognized and prominant, fully developed Aegean civilization. Cretan civilzation was focused around massive pallaces, at places such as Knossos, Phaestos, amd Gortys. These palaces were centers of governmet, trade, science, and the arts. Greatest among all the palaces was that of Knossos, the legendary home of King Minos, son of Zeus, and founder of the Minoan culture.
Very little was known about Minoan Crete before the great excavations of Greek and foreign archaeologists that began about 1900, and the discovery of the palaces of Knossos and Phaestos, with their astonishing architecture and wonderful finds.
Its history had passed into the realm of legend and remained a distant memory in Greek tradition and mythology.
The ancient authors speak mainly of Minos, the king who had his capital at Knossos, and was a wise lawgiver, a fair judge (who therefore judged souls in Hades after his death, along with Rhadamanthys and Aiakos) and a great sea - dominator. Homer calls him "..companion of mighty Zeus..", and Thucydides informs us that he was the first man to hold sway over the Aegean with his fleet, and that he captured and colonized the Cyclades, driving out the Carians, and freeing the seas from piracy.
Plato speaks of the heavy tribute that the inhabitants of Attica were compelled to pay to Minos - the historical basis of the myth of Theseus can easily be recognized - and Aristotle attributes his thalassocracy to the geographical position of Crete.
This position was, in fact, particularly favorable, both for the Minoan domination of the sea, and for the growth and development of their wonderful civilization. It was the crossroads linking three continents, and the racial elements and cultural strands of Asia, Africa and Europe met and mingled here to produce a new way of life, a new philosophy of the world and an exceptionally fine art that still strikes one today with its freshness, charm, variety, and mobility.
Homer was aware that the inhabitants of Crete were divided into a number of tribes, and mentions the names of five of them: the Pelasgians, the Eteocretans, the Kydonians, the Achaeans and the Dorians, adding that each spoke its own language. He also emphasizes how densely populated Crete was, with its ninety cities, and mentions some of them, such as Knossos, Phaestos, Gortys, Lyttos, Kydonia, and Rhytion.
Excavation has demonstrated the truth of Homer's comments, revealing a host of Minoan sites, four of which were "palace" centers, developing around a large palace. Those known today, apart from Knossos and Phaestos, are at Malia and Zakros.
Evans divided the Minoan age chronologically, on the basis of the pottery, into "Early Minoan", "Middle Minoan" and "Late Minoan". Nowadays a different system of chronology has won general acceptance. It was proposed by Professor N. Platon, and is based upon the great destructions and the life of the Minoan palaces. It gives us the following periods for prehistoric Crete:
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Neolithic period (6000-2600 BC)
The Pre palace period (2600-1900 BC)
With the arrival of new racial elements in Crete, bronze was used for the first time in the fabrication of tools and weapons. Its use quickly became widespread and continued to the end of the Minoan period. Not enough is known about the pre - palace settlements, but we do know that there were strongly built houses of stone and brick which had large numbers of rooms, paved courtyards and, often, red plaster on the walls. The most typical of them were discovered at Vassiliki and Myrtos (Ierapetra).
By way of contrast, the tombs of the period are very well known; there are large vaulted tombs (plain of the Messara), cist tombs cut rock inphelten (Mohlos), chamber tombs (Agia Photia, Sitia) and grave compounds (Archanes, Chryssolakkos (Malia), Palaikastro, Zakros etc.). The wealth of finds in these tombs supplies us with information about the art and evolution of the pre-palace Civilization.
The pottery has a variety of main styles, known today by the names of Pyrgos, Ag.Onoufrios, Levina, Koumassa and Vassiliki. They are imitations of vessels made of straw, wood or hide and have incised, motifs full of movement painted and mottled decoration.
Particularly fine examples are the Vassiliki style pots with their striking mottled decoration, produced by the firing, and their sophisticated shapes, like the "teapot" and the tall, beaked pitchers. The first polychrome pottery makes its appearance towards the end of the period.
In the field of miniature art, the gold ware is outstanding (jewellery from Mohlos and the vaulted tombs of the Messara), as are the excellent, early examples of seals tones made of ivory and steatite.
Society seems to have been organized in genos, or "clans", and farming, stock-raising, shipping and commerce were developed to a systematic level. The main forms of deity, and the most important cult symbols, had made their appearance in the sphere of religion, figurines of the Mother Goddess being typical.
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First Palace period (1900-1700 BC)
At the beginning, power began to be centered in the hands of kings, for some unknown reason, and the first large palace centers which had a wide cultural influence in the vital region around them, came into being. Excavation has revealed four large palaces, at Knossos, Phaestos, Malia and Zakros, but there must have been others.
It is clear from the scant remains of them that have been discovered beneath the later palaces that they possessed all the features of the fully developed Minoan architecture, that is the arrangement of the buildings around a central court, the fine facades of closely fitted blocks of porous stone, the large numbers of magazines, the sacred rooms, the different levels and storeys connected by small staircases, and the monumental entrances.
The finest example is that uncovered in the west palace section at Phaestos.
The most decorative style of pottery in the world was created in the palace workshops: the Kamares ware, named after the cave of Kamares where it was first discovered.
Its motifs are polychrome and full of movement; they are mainly rosettes, spirals and hatching, painted on a shiny black background, and they are found on a variety of vase shapes, made with an astonishing technical perfection.
The specialist workshops of the palaces also produced very fine vases or vessels of stone and faience; seal tones of precious or semi precious stones, with hieroglyphics and dynamic scenes that are often naturalistic; solid elegant weapons and tools; vessels of bronze or silver; jewellery of marvellous technique (the "Pendant of the bees" from Chryssolakkos, Malia is famous) and charming miniature sculpture.
Protopalatial terra-cottas are best known, however, from dedications in the Peak Sanctuaries (cult areas on the peaks of hills or mountains), which are typical of the period.
The best known of those discovered so far come from Petsofa, Piskokefalo, Youktas, Kalo Horio, Kofinas, Traostalos, and Vryssinas.
The Minoan pantheon always has the mother goddess as its main element, and the use of sacred symbols (the sacred horns and the double axe) becomes general.
Society was organized hierarchically, there was specialization of labour and contacts with the outside world became more frequent. In the palace archives, use was made of the hieroglyphic script, which quickly developed into a linear one.
A terrible disaster, perhaps caused by earthquakes, reduced the first palace centers and the settlements of Crete to ruins, about 1700 BB
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During this period Minoan Civilization reached its zenith. The new palaces that were built upon the ruins of the old ones were much more magnificent, the cities around them expanded and hummed with life, large numbers of rural villas, the residences of local governors, controlled great areas in the same way as the feudal towers of the Middle Ages, the roads increased in number and quality, the harbors were organized, and swift ships carried the products of farming and of Cretan art to the whole of the then civilized world, where they were exchanged for raw materials. The new palaces were multi-storeyed and invariably very complex. They had great courtyards, imposing or picturesque porticoes, broad easy staircases, processional paths and monumental entrances. The royal living quarters had tiers of doors (Polythyra), thrones and benches, as well as bathrooms and interior light wells, and there were rows of sacred quarters and magazines, crypts, and halls for audiences, banquet and sacred ceremonies. Finally, there were ancillary areas of all kinds, including workshops, and a water-supply and drainage system based on very ingenuous principles. It is not surprising that buildings as large and complicated as this (the palace at Knossos covers 22.000 square meters and had over 1500 rooms) led the Greek imagination to create the myth of the labyrinth. The great palaces had one feature in common with the smaller ones, that were perhaps the summer residences of the kings (like those at Knossos, Archanes and Agia Triada near Phaestos): this was the wonderful fresco painting decorating the walls with fresh, lively scenes in an array of colors, or the dazzling white and veined blocks of gypsum that were used to cover the walls and floors.
The "megara", or rural villas of the local governors, at Vathypetro, Sklavokambos, Tylissos, Metropolis (Gortys), Nirou Khani, Zou, Pyrgos (Myrtos), Praessos, Apano Zakros and elsewhere, had a farming and industrial character, emerging clearly from the interesting buildings that survive.
The social system was probably feudal and theocratic, and the king of each palace center was also the supreme religious leader. There may have been a hierarchy of these priest-kings, headed by the ruler of Knossos. Thanks to this system, continuous peace - the famous PAX MINOICA - prevailed throughout the island, which facilitated the great cultural development, the charming, refined way of life, and the Cretan thalassocracy.
The art of the second palaces is naturalistic for the most part, and demonstrates the love of the Minoans for eternal, all-powerful and constantly renewed nature, as well as its internal, spiritual counterpart.
A variety of pottery styles developed: the marine style, with its lively motifs derived from the varied and striking world of the deep (octopuses, tritons, star fishes, sea-snails, rocks, seaweed etc.), the floral style, with its fresh plants and open flowers, the decorated style, the basic motif of which is the spiral in a variety of complicated arrangements, though it also has sacred symbols and weapons, and, during the final phase of the period, the "palace" style, with its tectonic forms and decoration arranged in bands.
The fresco - a particular feature of the period - was used on a much greater scale than previously to decorate the palaces and wealthy houses. Landscapes were now depicted (royal gardens with exotic animals, such as monkeys, thickets of dense vegetation, birds, wild cats and deer), and there are scenes from cult and from social life: scenes of festival occasions in the palaces and sanctuaries (the miniature frescoes from Knossos), of contests such as bull-leaping, held in honor of the deity, and of ritual, such as the "holy Communion" with the Parisienne . The relief fresco was used to portray majestic figures of princes and high priests (Prince with the Lilies) and sacred or imaginary animals (bulls, sphinxes, griffins etc.).
In the field of plastic art, the figures were more natural and complete, like the figurines with the beautiful hairstyles from Piskokefalo (Sitia), and the plastic rhytons in the shapes of bulls or wild cats. The stone vases and vessels were made of fine veined, colored stone or of rare, hard stones, alabaster, marble, rock crystal, obsidian, porphyry and basalt. They often take the form of sacred animals or animal heads, like the superb bulls heads from Knossos and Zakros, or they may be decorated with masterful relief scenes like the ones from Agia Triada (harvesters rhyton, rhyton of the sacred games, cup of the report) and the rhyton with the peak sanctuary, from Zakros.
Faience was used for the working of rare, luxury items such as plastic rhytons (Zakros), decorative or votive plaques (the "town mosaic", and votive reliefs from Knossos), and unique figurines like the snake goddesses. There are works of a similar technical perfection in gold and ivory, such as the chrysselephantine bull leaper from Knossos, royal gaming boards, gold rings engraved with miniature scenes of ritual, that afford so much information about Minoan religion, a wide range of jewellery, and vessels either made of gold or silver, or gilded. The handles of the long swords or elegant daggers of this period often have a gold covering and gold nails.
In addition to bronze weapons and tools of all kinds, many of which are like those of the present day, there are some very fine bronze vessels with carefully worked and graceful repoussee decoration.
The seal stones of the second palace period are made of precious and semiprecious stones, and represent wonderfully natural scenes from the animal world and from the religious cycle. They are usually lentoid or almond-shaped.
The main deity is always the Mother Goddess, who is portrayed in her different forms. She is the chthonic "goddess with the snakes" the "Ministress of the Animals" with lions and chamois, and the goddess of the heavens, with birds and stars. The powerful god of fertility was worshipped together with her,apparently in the form of a bull, as were the young couple, boy and girl, who died or were lost in the autumn and came back to the light and life in the spring, thus representing the cycle of nature. Alongside them there existed a whole exotic world of monstrous demons to serve them, and facilitate communications between man and the divinity.
The deities were worshipped in sanctuaries in the palaces, houses or countryside, in the peak sanctuaries and in sacred caves. Many of the features of Minoan religion passed into the cycle of Greek mystery religions. Most of the tombs were cut into the soft rock and had a square burial chamber and a sloping dromos. Some were still vaulted tombs with a circular or rectangular chamber.
The south royal tomb-sanctuary at Knossos consists of a complete building complex, with a small portico, a crypt with a sacred Pillar, a chamber cut into the rock, and an upper floor for the cult of the dead. It is very reminiscent of the "tomb of Minos" in Sicily described by Diodoros.
The hieroglyphic script of the preceding period now developed into Linear A. The surviving texts - there are about two hundred are written in the unknown Minoan language on clay "tablets", and appear to contain information relating to accounts. They come from the archives of palaces or villas (Knossos, Archanes, Tylissos, Agia Triada, Phaestos, Zakros, Hania). The "Phaestos Disk", with its unique hieroglyphic text, belongs to the first phase of the second palace period. The hieroglyphic script seems to have survived from earlier times and to have been used by the priests to write religious texts.
About 1450, all the centers of the second palace period were destroyed by the terrible volcanic eruption of Santorini. Life was resumed only in the palace at Knossos, which was reconstructed and served as the residence of a new Achaean dynasty. The presence of this dynasty is attested both by the very archaic Greek language written in Linear B and by the appearance of the "Palace Style" pottery. Many changes were made in the arrangement of the palaces, and it is to this period that the "throne room" belongs, as does the final form and decoration (with frescoes) of the "Corridor of the Procession", and most of the other surviving frescoes.
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Post-palace period (1380-1100 BC)
After the final destruction of about 1380, none of the Minoan palaces was re-inhabited. The Achaeans built their simple Mycenean megara on other sites, as yet unknown, remains of these have survived only over the ruins of earlier royal villas (as Agia Triada), and farms or houses (as Tylissos). Not even the palace of Idomeneus, the king of Knossos who took part in the Trojan War with his friend Meriones and 80 ships, has been discovered. A great number of Mycenean centers are known, however, these now spread throughout the whole of Crete, and most of them existed down into Greek times (Kydonia, Polyrrhenia, Kissamos, Knossos, Cortys, Phaestos, Lyktos, Arcadia, Rhytion etc.)
The basis of the new civilization was Minoan, but its spirit was archaic Greek, and it showed a tendency towards an architectural structure and uniformity. The labyrinthine buildings were replaced by the austere Mycenean megaron, the predominant pottery style was the so-called "Mycenean koine", in which the same shapes were continually repeated, with simple decoration and the frescoes lost their former freedom and vigor. In the sphere of plastic clay art, there were large, impressive clay figurines, but even these were schematic and rigid (Metropolis (Gortys), Gournia, Gazi).
There was no substantial change in religion or cult. The tombs were mainly chamber tombs with a long dromos, as before, but the grave foods are poorer, and most of the jewels accompanying the dead were made of colored glass paste.
The last phase of this period was a time of decline and disorder caused by the movement of the "Seat Peoples" in the East Mediterranean. The forerunners of the Dorians seem to have begun to arrive in Crete, for a number of new cultural features make their appearance in sporadic fashion: cremation of the dead, for example, iron weapons and tools, brooches - which attest a new style of dress and geometric decorative motifs.
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Sub-Minoan Period (1100-1000 BC)
Crete entered upon the purely Greek period of its history with the arrival of massive waves of Dorians, about 1100 BC. The Protogeometric period that followed (1100-900 BC) unfolded alongside the Sub-Minoan, for the earlier Cretan cultural tradition continued to offer resistance in certain areas, particularly the mountain centers of the Eteocretans in central and eastern Crete (Karfi (Lassithi), Vrokastro (Merambello), Praessos and other places near Sitia), and to exercise some influence on the uncouth conquerors. No one today doubts the contribution made by the Minoan and Mycenean civilizations to the creation of the Greek miracle.
The use of iron, and cremation of the dead became general, and the urns for the ashes are amongst the most characteristic vessels of the period. The finest examples of them come from Fortetsa, near Knossos, and some of them reveal the influence of Athens on the protogeometric art of Crete.
Knossus was an elaborate and intricate home for the Minoan royal family. Excavated by Sir Arthur Evans between 1894 and 1924, this palace has revealed more about Minoan life and customs than any other archaelogical find. It is a classic example of Minoan architecture, with its inverted columns, open, airy rooms, vivid frescoes, and labyrinthian design. Frescoes were used as decoration throughout Minoan palaces and homes.
1. Specific skin color conventions exist for the sexes, probably adopted from Egyptian wall painting but possibly indirectly through Syria (e.g. Tell Atchana): red for male, white for female.
2. While genre scenes are common, there are no unmistakably particularized scenes, whether historical or mythological.
3. Scenes from nature are realistic in terms of the movements of animal or human participants. The artists were keen observers of action. Likewise, flowers and birds are portrayed "naturalistically", although specialists knowledgeable in the fields of botany and ornithology have often shown that the plants and animals in question have no true counterpart in nature but merely appear to be represented accurately. By contrast, the backgrounds in Minoan frescoes are often obviously "fantastic", represented as if seen from above and characterized by gaily painted rocks which sometimes resemble stalactites and at other times look like Easter eggs. There is no attempt to indicate depth by means of perspective or diminution of figure scale with distance.
4. The range of colors is remarkably varied.
5. There is a comparatively wide variety of scenes and individual motifs in Minoan painting as a whole. Fresco was a major art form which often influenced pottery and possibly seal-cutting as well. The decline of ceramics as a major art form at the end of the Protopalatial period may well be due to the appearance for the first time of figured mural painting at the beginning of the Neopalatial period.
6. With the possible but dubious exceptions of cross-hatching on the bellies and forelegs of the wingless sphinxes from the Throne Room and of parallel chevrons on the centerpieces of the figure-of-eight shields from the second floor of the "Residential Quarters", there appears to have been no attempt to indicate relief by means of shading in Minoan fresco art.
One of the female bull-jumpers in the Taureador Fresco has lines on her body and legs seemingly intended to indicate musculature, but this too is an isolated case, in this instance of the employment of so-called "relief lines". As Hood notes, when the artist desired to indicate relief, (s)he chose to reproduce it physically in plaster, although only in large-scale figures.
7. The appearance of two or more registers in a mural (e.g. Procession Fresco, Camp Stool Fresco) may be an indication of Post-Palatial date, indicative of Egyptian influence and perhaps of Mycenaean taste. Hood considers the same to be true of all procession frescoes.
8. Underwater scenes may have been restricted to the decoration of floors. The use of marine motifs for the decoration of plaster floors was later adopted by the Mycenaeans in the palaces of Tiryns and Pylos.
Note the absence of hunting scenes and scenes of warfare, both to be extremely popular in Mycenaean art. Chariot scenes are also relatively rare, although two fragmentary examples are known from Knossos and chariots appear twice on the LM IIIA Ayia Triadha sarcophagus. Some commentators have noted that, in its choices of the specific time within an action, Minoan pictorial art tends to focus on the moment immediately preceding violent action (e.g. the cat stalking the bird from Ayia Triadha) or on that immediately following (e.g. the hobbled bull on the "quiet" gold cup from Vapheio; the victorious boxer standing over his fallen opponent on the Boxer Rhyton from Ayia Triadha). This observation may have some truth in it, but one cannot deny that the Minoans occasionally depicted the instant of maximum violence, especially in bull-jumping scenes (e.g. the goring of the jumper on the Boxer Rhyton).
Within the palace at Knossos, the following subjects are most common:
(1) Bull-leaping and bull-catching compositions, both ordinary frescoes and painted stucco reliefs, on a variety of different scales.
(2) Boxing and wrestling scenes, mostly (if not entirely) in the form of painted stucco reliefs.
(3) Heraldic griffin compositions, again both as ordinary frescoes and as painted stucco reliefs.
(4) Processional scenes in architectural settings where the painted processions on the walls are likely to be mimicking real-life processions in those same spaces (e.g. Corridor of the Procession, Grand Staircase). Hood considers scenes of this type all to be Post-Palatial in date and to be a concession to the tastes of the Mycenaean overlords of Knossos during this period. The artistic source for such scenes is likely to be Egypt.
Other types of scene are found outside the palace at Knossos or at other sites, but the pictorial repertoire within the Knossian palace in particular would seem to have been a restricted one.
Until quite recently, few Aegean prehistorians devoted much time or effort to the questions of how and why palatial civilization arose in the Aegean world where [on Crete] and when [in the early second millennium B.C.] it did. The earliest writers on the subject tended to view the Minoan palaces as inspired by and, to some degree or another imitations of, functionally similar buildings in the Near East. Such authorities also saw in the peculiarities of Minoan palatial culture expressions of a nature-loving, anti-militaristic population whose geographical isolation, coupled with a rich environment, resulted in a "complex society" or civilization quite distinct from those of Egypt, Mesopotamia, or, at a somewhat later date, the Greek Mainland. During the later 1960's and early 1970's, however, there was a general tendency to abandon invoking the Near East and other areas outside the Aegean as the sources for major developments within it. Instead, notions of indigenous development came to the fore and the Early Minoan period was increasingly viewed as a long period of gestation during which many of the forms which were to characterize the later palatial culture of Crete were devised. Renfrew in 1972 was the first to propose a theoretical model for the indigenous development of "civilization" in the Aegean. More recently, alternative models have been suggested by Gamble and Halstead. By far the most prolific, as well as most provocative, authority on the subject within the past decade has been Cherry, who deserves much of the credit for making the question of what he terms "the emergence of the state" not only the "hottest" but also one of the most genuinely interesting and multifaceted problems presently confronting Aegean prehistorians.
The problem is not so much to explain how the particular architectural form of the palace itself took shape but rather to account for the social, economic, and political developments which made such a complex necessary. In other words, the problem is to document what is commonly termed in contemporary archaeological parlance "the emergence of the state". Cherry has defined "state" in this context as follows: a state is a powerful, complex, permanently instituted system of centralized political administration. It exercises sovereignty in carrying out basic political functions (e.g. maintaining territorial rights and internal order, or making and executing decisions regarding group action) and its authority in these matters is buttressed by sovereignty in the use of force within its jurisdiction. States are also societies with relatively complex and specialized administrative organization, involving hierarchically ordered personnel who perform specialized administrative tasks and make decisions.
Renfrew's redistributive model may be summarized as follows:
Although Renfrew's model accounts for the emphasis in the first palaces on storage facilities for agricultural produce and on workshop areas for specialized artisans, and although it explains why the first palaces appeared in the southern Aegean where modern vine and olive cultivation is most at home and where the highly varied terrain particularly favors specialized agricultural production (in contrast to both Thessaly and Macedonia), it also suffers from a number of weaknesses, namely:
Such an argument is somewhat circular since the basis of elite power (forced economic specialization, leading to the interdependence of the population and the need for redistribution) takes shape only after nucleation of settlement, which was in turn dependent on the already existing power of the elite.
The "social storage" model again posits a certain degree of altruism on the part of the human participants in the reciprocation process. A variant of it would eliminate this, however, by having surpluses be exchanged for prestige craft items which could be redeemed for food when the recipient of such items himself felt the pinch of insufficient food.
Van Andel and Runnels prefer to return to an alternative explanatory hypothesis championed by Renfrew in 1972, one focussing attention on trade (whether commercial or based upon gift-exchange of prestige items), craft specialization, and the resulting accumulation of wealth by an elite. In their view, a modest network of trans-Aegean trade routes had gradually come into existence between late Mesolithic and Final Neolithic times. Late in the 4th millennium B.C., the introduction of animals exploited for traction in tandem with the ard (a primitive plough) and the use of animal fertilizer opened up extensive areas of previously unused land to rain-fed agriculture. In addition, increased emphasis on the secondary products generated by animal husbandry (e.g. milk, cheese, wool/hair, hides) raised the demand for grazing land. Thirdly, improved shipbuilding technology as evidenced by the advent of the longboat (at least by the time of the Keros-Syros culture of EC IIA, if not earlier) and the sail (certainly by the EM III period) made possible bulk transport of goods on a scale and across distances not previously practicable.
The result of these changes was the colonization and exploitation of the Aegean islands and of previously neglected areas of the Peloponnese, a process which still further promoted trade and possibly at the same time increased the variety of the items exchanged. The broadly contemporary development of lead, copper, gold, silver, and bronze technology and what one imagines was a brisk exchange of both metallic raw materials and finished goods further enhanced the development of trade networks. These would have been punctuated by exchange centers (emporia) at fairly regular intervals, centers where wealth may have accumulated quite rapidly in the hands of emerging elites. The seats of these elites eventually became the foci of the first Aegean states.
The model proposed by van Andel and Runnels is not without its own problems. They are very casual about chronology and lump together in fairly tight cause-and-effect fashion a series of developments which spanned more than a millennium. Their emphasis on the prominent role of Sherratt's "secondary products revolution" may be misplaced in that weaving (of wool, one imagines) was clearly already a major industry at Knossos well back in the Neolithic and thus hardly a novel development of the 3rd millennium. Moreover, if trade played such an important role in the emergence of elites, why did obvious middlemen like the Cycladic islanders, who furthermore had the readiest access to such regionally restricted raw materials as obsidian (Melos), emery (Naxos), marble (several islands), silver and lead (Siphnos and eastern Attica), and perhaps copper and gold as well, not become the architects of the Aegean's first palatial polities? If van Andel and Runnels are right, it is far from clear why Minoan Crete should have been the home of the Aegean's first civilization, although Aegina's importance at the same early stage of the Middle Bronze Age is very well accounted for by their model.
At present, the relative and absolute chronologies of the critical period between later EM II and MM IB are fairly coarse. In order to be able to decide between revolutionary and gradualist hypotheses on the subject of Minoan state formation, much more work on Minoan pottery of these periods is required. But improving our understanding of Minoan ceramic development by the publication in greater detail of substantial deposits of pottery will not automatically result in a more finely tuned chronology since variability from deposit to deposit will also be conditioned by spatial and functional variables (i.e. how did the pottery vary from region to region during the period in question, and what functional ranges of pottery are present or absent in a given excavated context).
The common assumptions that Minoan culture developed not only gradually (i.e. the rate of cultural change was slow but constant) but also inexorably (i.e. culture necessarily becomes more complex or "advanced" with the passage of time) are not warranted. The example of EH-MH cultural development on the Greek Mainland clearly shows that culture regressed from the Korakou culture of the EH IIA period to the Tiryns culture of EH III in terms of complexity. If the notion of unidirectional development cannot be sustained for the Mainland, why should it be considered to hold true over precisely the same period of time on the island of Crete?
In Minoan Culture the chief pre-Hellenic divinity was undoubtably a goddess
whose fostering care embraced all living creatures and followed them into
the underworld. A survey of the representational art which illustrates Minoan religious
activities clearly indicates that those figures which are plausibly to
be identified as divinities rather than as mortals are overwhelmingly of
the female sex. The representations of her vary all the way from rude, rough
figures of the Neolithic peroid, to the distinctly Cretan style, with a
large bell sklirt, that occurs in the Later Minoan shrines at Knossos, Aghia
Triadha, and Gournia. Many representations of her also occur on the mainland
at Mycenae, Tiryns, and in graves in Argolis. With her are associated doves
and snakes, signifying her connection with air and earth. Although her character
was distinctly beneficent and pacific, yet as Lady of the Wild Creatures
she had a more fearful aspect, one that was often depicted on carved gems,
where lions are her companions. It is clear that, if individual divinities
are to be identified on the basis of different sets of attributes associated
with particular figures, several distinct Minoan goddesses existed.
Represented by the MM III "Snake Goddesses" of the Temple Repositories
at Knossos as well as by some of the later bell-shaped terracotta figurines
of the LM III period, this particular goddess is usually considered to
be a household divinity and interestingly does not appear on seals. She is represented in the fashion and appearance of a typical
Cretan woman.
Dominating female figures on a number of seals are often identified as deities.
Actual scenes of worship are often represented. Knossos has yielded a fragmentary fresco of a pillared shrine surmounted by sacred horns, with groups of men and women seated before it. Numerous scenes on gems and rings depict adorants or priestesses in various attitudes of worship before Alters, miniature temples, and enclosures containing a sacred tree. Although a wild kind of dance is suggested on some rings, the great majority of cult scenes present the picture of dignified, orderly worship. It is worth remarking that Minoan art reveals none of the indecencies so frequently represented in the minor arts of classical Greece.
The presence of priestesses in Minoan cult scenes is noteworthy. They
dance in a ring or before a shrine in honor of the Goddess: they bear the
ceremonial cope and double axe. There are other scenes showing women in
attitudes of worship before a shrine, but in view of the lack of any supporting
evidence these women may be considered votaries quite as much as priestesses.
It is true that men also appear in sacred dances, but so rarely tha they
seemed to have performed a subordinate role in the rites. On the well known
signet from Mycenae, priestess present flowers, lilies, and irises, to a
seated goddess, who wears a stylized iris in her hair.
A famous seal impression from Knossos shows a female figure holding a staff and standing on top of a
cairn or rocky hill. She is flanked by antithetic lions, beyond which are
a shrine on one side and a saluting male on the other. A second seal from
Knossos shows a capped female with a staff walking
next to a lion, another pose of the same Mistress of Animals figure.
The Great Goddess of Minoan Crete seems to have survived in various Hellenic divinties, notably in Rhea the mother of the gods, and Hera, the wife of Zeus. There is good reason to bekieve that in the compulsory marriage of Zeus and Hera is reflected the subjugation of a native race to Achaean invaders. From this comes the idea that Ritual Marriage, as commemorating a reconciliation of the two religous systems, one having a god, the other a goddess, as the chief divinity. Characteristics of ancient Cretan divinty also lived on in Ge, Demeter, Athena as the goddess of vegetation, Aphrodite a s counterpart to Astarte, and finally in Artemis.
The 'Cretan Zeus' and 'Zeus of the Double Axe' are such familiar titles that it is surprising that Minoan archaeology offers very lttle evidence for the existance of a god, and no proof whatsoever of the existance of a god of such power as we associate with Zeus. It seems that the truth is that the Achaeans introduced Zeus into Crete at the close of the Bronze age, had him born by the Earth Goddess in her own cavw sanctuary, and gave him the Cretan symbol of soveriegnty, the double axe with which she ahd been honored. As a result the Cretan Zeus and Zeus of the Double Axe became famiiar concepts for later generations.
Male figures identifiable as divinities are rare and are often represented
on a smaller scale than female figures, not necessarily deities themselves,
in the same scene.
(a) Seal showing a male with a spear (?) descending through the air in front of a large pillar with a pillar-shrine further behind. The female in front of him is usually considered to be saluting or "adoring" him.
(b) A youthful (i.e. beardless) male is occasionally depicted on seals standing between "horns of consecration" or posing as a Master of Animals.
(c) A tiny figure standing behind a figure-of-eight shield in the air above a series of much larger female figures is sometimes identified as a male divinity.
Caves were first used in Crete as dwellings or at least as habitation sites in the Neolithic period. Toward the end of the Neolithic, they also began to be used extensively as cemeteries, and such usage continued throughout the Early Minoan period and in some areas even longer. Caves appear to have first been used as cult places early in the Middle Minoan (Protopalatial) period, at more or less the same time when the first Cretan palaces were being constructed. There may very well be some connection between the establishment of powerful central authorities in the palaces and the institution of worship in caves. The evidence for the use of caves as cult places consists of pottery, animal figurines, and occasionally bronze objects. Such objects are found not only in caves which had previously served habitation or funerary purposes but also in caves which had as their earliest known function the housing of some religious activity. In addition to artifacts, some cult caves contain large quantities of animal bones, mostly from deer, oxen, and goats and no doubt derived from some form of animal sacrifice.
One of the better known cult caves is the "Cave Of Eileithyia" near Amnisos, associated with the divinity Eileithyia on the basis of a reference in Homer's Odyssey. This cave is some 60 m. long, between 9 and 12 m. wide, and 2 to 3 m. high. Near the middle of the cave is a cylindrical stalagmite ca. 1.40 m. high which is enclosed by a roughly built wall 0.45 m. high. Within the enclosure and in front of the stalagmite is a roughly square stone, perhaps some form of altar.
These are cult centers located at, or just below, the tops of prominent local hills, not necessarily "peaks" on true "mountains". Such sites are characterized by deep layers of ash (without animal bones, hence interpreted as the remains of bonfires and not of blood sacrifices of some kind) and by large quantities of clay human and animal figurines. Like the cult caves discussed above, the earliest peak sanctuaries date from the MM I period and most of the two dozen or more confirmed examples of such cult locales have produced material of this date. Moreover, the cult caves and peak sanctuaries are virtually the only sites other than the palaces themselves to have produced certain artifactual types such as the finest Kamares pottery, "tables of offerings", and objects inscribed in Linear A other than unbaked clay tablets. Thus a close connection between the palaces on the one hand and these extramural cult centers on the other is readily apparent, not simply in the dates of their respective appearances but also probably in the ideology behind them and in the human sponsors of that ideology, the palatial élite.
Many of the human figurines from peak sanctuaries are in fact individual human limbs or parts of the body, separately modelled and pierced by a hole for suspension. It has been suggested that these separate limbs are comparable to terracotta parts of the body found in Classical shrines dedicated to healing divinities, and that by analogy the peak sanctuaries are also to be understood as those of healing divinities. However, the parts of the body represented in the Minoan sanctuaries (arms, legs, and heads primarily) are not exactly parallel to those found in Classical sanctuaries (which include numerous eyes, breasts, and genitalia as well as major limbs). Moreover, the large numbers of animal figurines found at the peak sanctuaries obviously cannot be explained in the same way, although these may have served as substitutes for genuine sacrificial animals or as votive pledges that such animals would be sacrificed elsewhere at some other time, since blood sacrifice does not seem to have been an acceptable practice at peak sanctuaries. It is likely that the detached human limbs from these sanctuaries originally formed parts of complete "dolls" held together by string inserted through the commonly found perforations. Metal artifacts are found only exceptionally (e.g. a hoard of non-functional double axes at Iuktas) and pottery, except for miniature vases, is equally rare. In both these respects, as well as with regard to animal bones, the finds from peak sanctuaries are quite different from those in cult caves.
The two major peak sanctuaries so far excavated and published are Petsofa in eastern Crete (elevation 215 m.; serving the town of Palaikastro) and Iuktas (elevation 811 m.; just south of and hence presumably serving Knossos). At both sites, the earliest period of use is dated to the beginning of the MM period. In the earliest levels, there are no architectural remains, merely the ashy deposits and the figurines already discussed. In MM III, an imposing building was constructed on Mt. Iuktas consisting of three parallel terraces, oriented north-south, of which the upper two at the west were approached by an east-west ramp at the south. On the west side of the uppermost terrace, a long stepped altar (4.70 m. north-south by 0.50 m. high) overlies several cracks in the bedrock, one of which leads down to a natural chasm located between the two upper terraces which has so far been excavated to a depth of 10.50 m. without the bottom having been reached. The lowermost terrace at the east consists of a series of five or six roughly square rooms in a single row, all opening uphill toward the west. On the downhill, exterior side of this lowermost terrace to the east, the junction of wall foundation and wall proper leave a narrow bench 0.45 m. wide running north-south which evidently served as a display space for votive offerings. Both the finds and the architecture at this particular peak sanctuary are of unparalleled magnificence among cult locales of this class, as one might perhaps have expected of the sanctuary which served the site of Knossos. At Petsofa, a three-room building was first erected in MM III, again a long time after the sanctuary was first used. It is quite possible that these peak sanctuaries were visited only on special religious holidays, much as similar mountaintop chapels are today in Greece, since in many cases the sanctuaries are too remotely located to have served daily religious purposes. A peak sanctuary is portrayed in considerable detail on the famous Sanctuary Rhyton found in the ruins of the palace at Zakro and hence dating from LM IB. It is likely that a peak sanctuary is also depicted in the northern section of the Fleet Fresco of LM IA date from Akrotiri on Thera.
Rutkowski has argued, on the basis of various possible connections between peak sanctuary cult and pastoral farming (e.g. location of peak sanctuaries in areas associated with summer transhumance of sheep and goat herds, frequency of terracotta animal figurines at peak sanctuaries) that "peak sanctuaries came into existence mainly to relieve the fears and cares of the shepherds and cattle breeders." But the close links between palatial centers, peak sanctuaries, and cult caves suggest that Cherry's view that peak and cave sanctuaries are evidence for the ideological manipulation of the ordinary Minoan by an emerging élite who also managed the palaces is likely to be closer to the truth. The appearance of permanent architecture at several peak sanctuaries other than Petsopha and Iuktas no earlier than MM III (Gonies, Kophinas, Modhi, Pyrgos, Traostalos, Vrysinas) has been connected with the appearance of villas throughout Neopalatial Crete and with what some feel to be the enhanced authority of Knossos at about the same time. Rutkowski has suggested that peak sanctuary cult became more institutionalized in the Neopalatial period under Knossian royal authority, perhaps with permanent priests in residence at the sites now boasting architecture. In this scenario, Iuktas is felt to have occupied the apex of a hierarchy of peak sanctuaries. much as Knossos did in one of villas and palaces. Peak sanctuaries appear to go into steep decline after the end of LM I, in contrast with cult caves which continue to be patronized frequently during the LM III period. The decline in peak sanctuaries, however, is probably limited to the east where in the period following LM IB there was a dramatic decline in population, whether due to the fallout from the Santorini eruption or to a Mycenaean invasion. In the center and west of the island where settlement was continuous from LM IB through LM II and into LM IIIA, there is good evidence for continuity of cult at peak sanctuaries such as Mt. Iuktas.
In her recent study of such cult places, Gesell distinguishes between three social contexts [town (fully public), palace (semi-private? for ruling class only?), and house (private)] and three architectural types [bench sanctuary, lustral basin, pillar crypt]. Only the bench sanctuary may be attested as early as the Prepalatial (EM) period (e.g. the supposed shrine at Myrtos in which the so-called "Goddess of Myrtos" was found), to survive throughout Minoan prehistory. Pillar crypts and lustral basins are forms which are restricted to the Protopalatial and Neopalatial periods. Four of the best known Minoan sanctuaries of the domestic class are briefly described below:
Shrine of the Double Axes at Knossos
This tiny (1.5 m. x 1.5 m.) shrine was abandoned with its religious furniture in situ and is thus extremely valuable as a source for our understanding of Minoan religion at least toward the end of the Bronze Age. The room's floor area is divided into three sections at different levels. In the front (lowest) part lie several large vases. In the middle area, a tripod "table of offerings" is embedded in the floor, and to either side of it are groups of small jugs and cups. At the back of the room is a raised bench ca. 0.60 m. high on which are fixed two stuccoed clay "horns of consecration". In each case, between the "horns" is a round socket, presumably to hold a double axe such as the small one of steatite found resting against the left-hand pair of "horns". (The evidence for such a reconstruction comes from the iconography of seals and vase-painting, in both of which a central double axe between the "horns" is common.) Between the two pairs of "horns" were found a bell-shaped female figurine and a smaller female statuette of Neolithic type, perhaps a treasured heirloom. To the left of the left-hand pair of "horns" was a male figurine holding out a dove, while to the right of the right-hand pair were two more bell-shaped female figurines, one with a bird perched on her head. The last is often considered to be a goddess while the remaining figures are identified as votaries.
Town Shrine at Gournia
This small (3 m. x 3 m.) shrine is not part of a palace or of any other large building but is rather a self-contained architectural unit approached by a cobbled road leading up the hill from the west. It was in a rather poor state of preservation when excavated, but its floor was littered with a large amount of cult paraphernalia, some of it comparable to that from the Shrine of the Double Axes at Knossos. The lack of associated pottery makes the dating of this shrine somewhat uncertain, but it probably was last used in the LM IIIB period. There was a low bench along its right-hand (southern) wall. In the northeast corner was a plastered tripod "table of offerings" around which were placed four "snake-tubes", the base of a fifth "snake-tube" resting on the tripod "table of offerings" itself. Found in the debris of the rooms was a bell-shaped female figurine, around whose body is twined a snake. Two snakes also twist around one of the "snake-tubes". Fragments of other human figurines were found, as well as four terracotta birds and two terracotta snakes' heads.
Sanctuary Complex to West of Central Court at Knossos
Approached by a short and shallow flight of steps leading down from the central court, this complex has several distinct elements, all of which are accessible from a single stone-paved anteroom with a short stone bench against its north wall, the Lobby of the Stone Seat. To the west through a pier-and-door partition are two pillar crypts of similar size (3.5 m. x 5.3 m.), both with a central pillar liberally incised with double axes on all exposed faces of each block (including the top surface of the uppermost block in each pillar) except for the west faces of the blocks in the eastern pillar. Both crypts are of Neopalatial date, the eastern with two rectangular basins ca. 0.25 m. deep sunk into the floor to east and west of the rectangular central pillar (cf. the pillar crypts in the Royal Villa and Temple Tomb), the western with a depressed rectangular space in its paved floor all around the square central pillar. Two narrow storage rooms oriented north-south open off of the eastern pillar crypt and under the threshold leading into the eastern one was found a rich collection of fragmentary cult paraphernalia of MM IA date (the Vat Room Deposit: faïence figurine fragments, beads, and inlays; clay sealings; gold sheet; copper beads; shell inlays; etc.).
To the north of the Lobby of the Stone Seat, two storage chambers oriented east-west open off of each other in a fashion comparable to the organization of the pillar crypts just described. The southern (the Room of the Tall Pithos) is unremarkable, but under the floor of the second (Temple Repositories) were found two empty, shallow cists below which were two larger and considerably deeper cists filled with MM III pottery in the uppermost 1.10 m. of fill and with fragmentary cult paraphernalia and greasy earth containing carbonized botanical material and stag horns in the lowest 0.40-0.50 m. The cult items include three largely preserved "snake goddesses" of faïence as well as fragments of others, miniature votive robes in faïence, faïence plaques of a cow and a wild goat nursing their young, shells, crystal, ivory, and faïence inlays, stone "tables of offering", a marble cross, scraps of gold foil, etc., etc.
To the northeast of the Lobby of the Stone Seat and facing onto the central court are the foundations of a Neopalatial Tripartite Shrine, largely restorable on the basis of the painted representation of such a shrine in the miniature Grandstand Fresco. Finally, to the southwest of the Lobby of the Stone Seat, fallen from a room above christened the "Treasure Chamber", was found a cache of twenty-four Neopalatial stone vases, twelve of them rhyta (including three in the form of lions' heads) and several of them Egyptian imports.
Not all portions of this complex are restorable at any one moment in time, but together they reveal that this area of the palace was a focus of cult activity from the earliest days of the palace or even just before its construction (Vat Room Deposit of MM IA) down through the Neopalatial period and perhaps even into the Post-Palatial era, at which time pithoi and Linear B tablets show that the area in and around the Lobby of the Stone Seat was a central storage facility and point of disbursement for oil.
Throne Room Complex to West of Central Court at Knossos
Located near the northeast corner of the west wing of the Knossian palace, the "Throne Room" proper is part of a larger four- or five-room block which was apparently devoted first and foremost to cult rather than to the display or exercising of political authority. The anteroom (6.0 m. x 5.7 m.) is entered through a pier-and-door partition and down three shallow steps from the central court (cf. a similar entrance to the "Men's Hall" in the Little Palace from the peristyle court to its south). There may have been a wooden throne against the right-hand (northern) wall of the anteroom between two short lengths of a gypsum bench. A longer gypsum bench runs along the entire south side of the room and the floor is attractively paved with stone slabs. To the west and entered through an off-centered doorway is the Throne Room proper, named after the stone throne (Europe's oldest) set against the north wall and flanked by stone benches which also extend along the west wall and in front of the parapet which separates the area around the throne from the Lustral Basin to the south. Flanking the throne, as well as the door leading out of the room to the west, are pairs of large, antithetical wingless griffins. The southern part of the room is occupied by a large Lustral Basin (the scene of the Minotaur's murder by Theseus in Mary Renault's The King Must Die). The floor of the room was attractively paved with a border of gypsum slabs framing a central rectangle of red-painted plaster. Near the east entrance, this floor was covered with an overturned pithos and five stone alabastra (normally stored in shallow sinkings on the west side of the north-south corridor immediately west of the Lustral Basin), a circumstance which suggested to Evans that a ritual may actually have been in progress when the palace burned down early in the LM IIIA2 period (ca. 1385 B.C.). Behind the Throne Room to the west are two small chambers or annexes which served to house cult paraphernalia and two more storage chambers also accessible from the Throne Room by means of a short north-south corridor lie to the south. In its present state, the Throne Room block dates from LM II-IIIA2 early, the period of the Mycenaean occupation of Knossos.
Double Axe
Some large bronze examples of this, the most common of all Minoan religious symbols, were clearly used as tools, but miniature specimens in unsuitable and sometimes precious materials (e.g. gold, silver, lead, steatite, terracotta), as well as very fragile bronze examples (e.g. the gigantic specimens from Nirou Khani), must have had a purely sumbolic function. The earliest examples date from the middle of the EM period. Double axes often appear in representational scenes, usually set in the top of stone bases or between "horns of consecration". Their precise significance is disputed. In the Near East, axes of this sort are often wielded by male divinities and appear to be symbols of the thunderbolt. Since in Crete the double axe is never held by a male divinity, an alternative view which ascribes its frequency in art to its popularity as a sacrificial instrument has considerable appeal. Miniature examples may have functioned as charms or amulets. Plutarch (Quaestiones Graecae 302A), a Greek author of the second century A.D., reports that the Carian (a southwest Anatolian population) word for double axe was labrys, a word likely to be connected with the mythological name for Minos' palace and the Minotaur's lair at Knossos, labyrinthos (= "place of the double axe"?).
Much discussiom has raged about the significance of the so-called 'sacred
double axe,' which has been found at several shrines, and on at least one
seal is in the hands of the goddess. In the beginning, the double axe was
undoubtably both tool and weapon; it easily typified human force, and could
signify divine power by a transition as simple sd that which makes a crown
or sceptre a religous symbol. Plutarch tells us that the double axe was
a royal emblem in Lydia from prehistoric times down to the seventh century
B.C. When found with a religous connection in Minoan art, the double axe
may be either an ascription of power to the goddess, like the representation
of Athena with a spear, an attribute of power in the hands of a worshipper,
or the blazon of a votary or of the owner of the object on which the sacred
scene is depicted. Often it appears without having any sacred meaning at
all. The bipennis may have been the emblem of a distinguished class, which
furnished kings to Knossos and princelings to smaller communities. Even
humblest members of this class would be allowed to use the emblem. There
is good authrity for thinking that such a practice was not forgotten to
early Aegean idea, for Herodotus states that the Greeks borrowed their custom
of putting devices on their shields from the Carians, who "In ancient
times were the subjects of King Minos." Various cults dedicated to
the double axe were present in Crete, the axe was a symbol of the power
of the goddess and of the king.
"Horns of Consecration"
These occur both as three-dimensional objects of stone or terracotta (e.g.
just south of the Theatral Area at Knossos or in a niche along one side
of the court at Nirou Khani; twice on the bench in the Shrine of the Double
Axes at Knossos), often stuccoed, and as painted or sculpted representations
on murals, altars, vases, seals, and larnakes. Typically they serve either
as stands for a narrow range of other cult implements (double axes, libation
jugs, branches) or as architectural crowning members (on both altars and
roofs). The original significance of the "horns" is uncertain. It has been
suggested that they are stylized bulls' horns, a symbol of the moon's crescent,
or simply an odd form of pot support.
Altars
There are a number of types of which perhaps the commonest are: (a) stepped (as on the Ayia Triadha sarcophagus) (b) rectangular, with a cap projecting all around at the top (c) round in plan, with incurving sides in profile, and apparently portable. In scenes of animal sacrifice, a table rather than one of the above forms of altar is used as the surface on top of which the victim was bound and slaughtered (cf. Ayia Triadha sarcophagus).
"Tables of Offerings"
In form, these are discoid "tables" resting on three short legs and having a shallow depression in the top. Usually made of clay and occasionally stuccoed, these items may have served sometimes simply as portable hearths. Legless versions, rectangular in plan and made of stone rather than clay, are usually referred to as "libation tables".
Kernoi
These are simply ceramic vessels with multiple receptacles of the same shape. Vessels of this sort are a fairly prominent feature of the Phylakopi I culture in the Cyclades, but there need be no connection either typologically or functionally between the Minoan and Cycladic forms. The term "kernos" is that applied to similar vessels used in Classical mystery cults at Eleusis and elsewhere.
"Snake Tubes"
These are high, cylindrical ceramic vessels, sometimes bottomless, with snakes occasionally modelled in relief on the exterior. Gesell has shown that such objects should probably be identified as stands designed to support shallow bowls and dishes which held either incense or offerings of some kind. That is, they were probably not intended to be "houses" for a domestic snake as their name implies. Most examples date from LM IIIB-C, and they may therefore all be examples of an item associated with Post-Palatial Minoan cult.
Libation Jugs
These are simply specimens of a special form of ewer having a globular body, a tall neck, a beaked mouth, and a high-swung loop handle.
Flowers The lily and the iris were favorite flowers among the Minoans, and appear in both natural and conventionalized forms, in which latter case they are hardly distinguishable from each other. On both a mold from Gournia and a vase from Knossos, the flower Lilium Candidum is pictured. There is a life size relief figue on a wall at Knossos that depicts a king adorned with a crown, and a necklace of the conventionalized flower (lily or iris): and a grave near Phaestos has yielded a gold necklace flower design as seen on the Knossian king. It therefore seems reasonable to suppose that both the lily and the iris, like the lotus of Egypt, had a symbolic, and in some instances religous meaning.
Birds, Bulls, Agrimia, and Snakes
Birds appear frequently in religious scenes (e.g. the Ayia Triadha sarcophagus)
and are usually identified as "divine epiphanies", that is, as manifestations
of divine beings (in this instance, in non-human form), although in some
cases they appear to be an identifying attribute of a divinity
rather than an alternative form of one. Other frequently occurring
animals are bulls, agrimia (Cretan ibexes), and snakes. The first
two often occur in the form of votive figurines and probably figured importantly
as sacrificial animals. The last may have been a prominent symbol in earth
(or chthonic) cults, just as birds may have been in sky (or atmospheric)
cults.
Pillar-shaped Stones (Baetyls)
An example of such a natural form at a cult location is the stalagmite in the Cave of Eileithyia at Amnisos. On seals, free-standing columns or pillars, both with and without capitals, are shown within small enclosures and in the presence of worshippers. Such columns or baetyls also appear flanked by antithetic animals (e.g. the relief on the Lion Gate at Mycenae). The place of the column may be taken by a human figure, arguably a god or goddess, in what is otherwise a closely comparable composition. The column or baetyl may therefore conceivably symbolize a deity or be a symbol for the palace of the king (as is often argued for the column in the Lion Gate relief) or for the shrine of a divinity. In this connection, the flanking animals are considered to be "protectors", appropriately enough in that they are usually lions or griffins. In the pillar crypts of Minoan palaces and villas, square piers are often found incised with a variety of signs including double axes, stars, and tridents. Although these piers serve a structural function, they were probably also considered sacred in some sense. Hence it has often been suggested that the signs incised on them constitute some form of divine invocation to secure the building in which they occur against the dangers of earthquake and fire.
Trees
On the Ayia Triadha sarcophagus, libations are being poured into a krater (mixing bowl) set between the bases of two tall columns which are capped by a double axe on which sits a bird. The columns are covered with green projections and so may be intended to resemble trees (date palms?) or simply to be columns covered with leaves. Leaves in the form of lengths of the foliate band pattern sometimes substitute for the handles of double axes in vase-painting, while branches are often set up between "horns of consecration". On seals, trees often appear inside small enclosures in the presence of worshippers and appear to have the same function in such a context as the columns or baetyls discussed above.
Demons
At first glance, these animal-headed figures with "tail-coats" of skin, commonly carrying libation jugs, look like men in costume, but their legs and feet are those of animals. Occasionally portrayed in the pose of the "Master of Animals", such demons are Minoan corruptions of the Egyptian goddess Ta-wrt who occurs in the form of a hippotamus. In Egypt, Ta-wrt is a beneficent spirit but not a major divinity. In Crete, the demons appear to function as divine servants.
The sarcophagus was found in a looted tomb of the early 14th century B.C. (LM IIIA) at Ayia Triadha. The form of the tomb was unusual, but its few remaining contents, aside from the sarcophagus itself, were unremarkable. The sarcophagus is unusual in that it is a rare stone version of the otherwise common enough terracotta burial chest or larnax. The scenes on the sarcophagus, painted on lime plaster applied over the limestone body of the chest, are unique in Aegean funerary art. Quotations in the descriptions below are taken from C. Long, The Ayia Triadha Sarcophagus (Göteborg 1974).
"The pouring scene represents the mixing of liquids, probably wine and water, in a krater in honor of a goddess or goddesses symbolized by the double axes mounted on either side of the krater. The birds perched on the double axes probably indicate the arrival of the deity(-ies) and have been summoned by the music of the lyre...." The ceremony takes place outside the tomb. "The Minoan funerary libation would not require the quantity of liquid being prepared in the krater, and the scene might better be regarded as the preparation for the Mycenaean funerary toast."
"The recipient in the presentation scene probably represents the spirit of the deceased observing that his obsequies are being performed with all proper dignity and beginning to sink beneath the ground on his way to the afterworld, as does the ghost of Patroklos in the Iliad. His motionless stance with arms concealed indicates he is neither deity nor living human, nor is he wrapped like an Egyptian mummy or laid out like the corpses on the Tanagra larnakes. The rite being performed may have been intended to secure for the deceased a happy life after death in addition to admission to the afterworld....The building behind the recipient can be equated with the tomb in which the sarcophagus was found.... The boat might provide transportation for the journey to the afterworld, and the cattle might represent either sustenance for the journey or the bulls supplied for funeral games in honor of the deceased. The absence of parallels for the gifts in cult presentation scenes may be evidence that they are funerary."
In the upper register is a fragmentary male processional scene (something being brought to the tomb?), while a chariot drawn by two agrimia and carrying two women fills the lower register. Agrimia appear to have had religious connotations in a good deal of Minoan art, and it is possible that the two women in the lower register are as a consequence both goddesses. If they are indeed goddesses, they seem to have no connection with the mortal scene above but may indicate by their participation in the procession that they are favorably disposed toward the dead.
At the right is a shrine with a tree at its center. To the left of the shrine is an altar, above which is a libation jug and a basket-shaped vase (kalathos) full of fruit (?). A woman stands in front of the altar with her hands held palms down above it. Behind her is a sacrificial table on which a bull is strapped down for sacrifice. Below the table and fixed in the ground is a conical rhyton into which the bull's blood will drain and thus seep into the earth. Next to the rhyton and perhaps held in reserve for a second stage of the sacrifice are two agrimia. Behind the table is a flute player. Further to the left is a procession of female figures, only the first of whom is well preserved. This figure advances to the right with her arms outstretched and palms down. The indication of the hands' position and the arrangements for the blood to drip into the ground indicate that the sacrifice is to an earth ("chthonic") or underworld figure. It is probable that this sacrifice is part of the funerary rites on behalf of the deceased on the opposite side.
A pair of females ride in a chariot drawn by two winged griffins, above which flies a single bird. The two females must be divinities because of the supernatural form of the griffins. Like the females on the opposite end, these figures are probably to be interpreted as escorts for the deceased on his way to the Underworld.
Are all the scenes to be interpreted as having a single focus or theme? Or are the scenes on the front (pretty obviously indicative of a cult of the dead) to be separated from those on the back (arguably some kind of divine cult, perhaps connected with a deity of vegetation)? Some authorities are so impressed by the evidence for divine cult in these scenes that they deny any connection at all with a cult of the dead and identify the figure of the "dead man" as a god or as the image of a god. Others maintain that all the scenes are connected with a cult of the dead: the double axes should be understood as cult objects which can serve in both divine and mortuary cults, while the birds may as well represent the soul of the dead as the epiphany of a deity.
Nilsson felt that both divine and mortuary cults were involved and saw only one way in which to resolve this dichotomy, namely to assume that the dead man was deified and worshipped after his death. He associated this "heroization" of the dead man with the notion that the dead individual was in fact a Mycenaean overlord of Ayia Triadha and not a Minoan. The mixture of the two forms of cult (mortuary and divine) on the sarcophagus thus became for him a Minoan response to the demands of their Mycenaean overlords. But there is no evidence from the tomb for any cult associated with the dead man. In fact, the sarcophagus was re-used, which suggests that no special veneration was accorded either the corpse or its tomb. Moreover, there is very little evidence from Greek Mainland sites for a Mycenaean cult of the dead persisting for any appreciable length of time after an individual's burial.
Two fairly recent discoveries strongly suggest that the Minoans indulged in this "barbaric" form of blood sacrifice.
Excavated in the summer of 1979, this four-room building set within a low enclosure (temenos) wall serves as a reminder that our views about a past culture may be subject to sudden and drastic change as the result of a single new discovery. The building, oriented roughly to the cardinal points and entered from the north, lies on the northern slopes of Mt. Iuktas some seven kilometers south of Knossos. In plan, it consists of an east-west corridor at the front off of which open three non-connecting rectangular rooms oriented north-south. In the east room were found large numbers of clay vessels containing agricultural produce, many of them arranged on a series of three steps, perhaps an altar, at the back (south) end of the room. In the central room, more vases containing agricultural produce were found. These too tended to be located toward the south (rear) end of the room, in the vicinity of a raised platform on which were found two terracotta feet, all that remained, in the excavators' opinion, of a cult statue made mostly of wood, only the carbonized remains of which were actually discovered. Near the statue and its base, part of the limestone bedrock was left exposed above floor level rather than being cut down and the excavators identify this outcrop as a "sacred stone" over which blood offerings may have been poured. In the west room, three skeletons were found in positions which indicated that all three had met a violent end: (1) An 18-year-old male, the skeleton so tightly contracted that he is considered to have been trussed in a fashion comparable to that of the sacrificial bull on the Ayia Triadha sarcophagus, was found lying on his right side on a platform in the center of the room. Among his bones was a bronze dagger 0.40 m. long, on each side of which was incised the frontal head of a boar. Close beside the platform (or sacrificial altar) had stood a pillar with a trough around its base, the trough probably designed to catch the blood from animal (and human) sacrifices. The dead youth's bones were discolored in such a way (those on his upper/left side being white, those on his lower/right side being black) as to suggest to a visiting physical anthropologist that the youth, estimated to have been 5' 5" tall, had died from loss of blood. (2) A 28-year-old female of medium build was found spreadeagled in the southwest corner of the room. (3) A male in his late thirties, 6' tall, was found on his back near the sacrificial platform, his hands raised as though to protect his face, his legs broken by fallen building debris. On the little finger of his left hand he wore a ring of silver and iron. On a thong around his wrist he wore a stone seal on which the intaglio device was a boat.
In the corridor constituting the front room of the building, aside from rows of still more vessels containing agricultural produce, was found a fourth skeleton, too poorly preserved for sex and age to be determinable. Scattered widely around this body were found 105 joining fragments of a bucket-shaped clay vessel bearing a red-spotted bull in relief as decoration on one side. This was the only vase of the roughly four hundred vessels recovered from the building to be found littered over such a wide area, and the excavators theorize that it was dropped in the corridor by the fourth person when (s)he was felled by the collapsing debris of the building.
The sanctuary was destroyed by fire, probably as the result of an earthquake, at the end of MM II, possibly in the same earthquake which destroyed the Old Palaces at Knossos and Phaistos at this time. The collapsing roof and masonry of the upper walls killed three of the four individuals found within the structure, but the eighteen-year-old was probably already dead. A somewhat similar isolated shrine of the same period, although lacking the dramatic artifactual and human finds of the Anemospilia sanctuary, was excavated in the 1960's at Mallia (Gesell 1985: no.76).
In a LM IB context in excavations just to one side of the Royal Road some distance northwest of the Little Palace at Knossos, 327 children's bones were found in a burnt deposit in the basement of a building christened the North House. Originally attributed to between eight and eleven children provisionally aged between ten and fifteen years old, between 21% and 35% of these bones, which included skull fragments as well as other bones, all found in an unarticulated heap, exhibited "fine knife marks, exactly comparable to butchery marks on animal bones, resulting from the removal of meat. Cannibalism seems clearly indicated. Among possible interpretations are ritual usage (otherwise unexampled in the open town of Knossos) and lack of all other food because of poisoning or other deleterious effect of gases or fall out from intense activity of the volcano of Thera." Subsequent analysis has revealed that the bones in fact need belong to no more than four individuals, two of whom can be quite precisely aged by means of their teeth to eight and twelve years. Some phalanges (finger or toe bones) from young humans, a human vertebra with a knife cut, some marine shells, some shells of edible snails, and burnt earth were found filling a pithos in the "Cult Room Basement", a room across a corridor from the "Room of the Children's Bones" in which the cache of 327 children's bones were found. The context within the pithos suggests that some portions of young children were cooked together with a variety of other edible substances. Together with the major concentration of children's bones were also found some sheep bones including articulated vertebrae. One of the latter had a cut mark in a position indicating that the beast's throat had been slit, so that sheep sacrifice may have been connected with the death and dismemberment of the children, whom forensic experts have established to have been in perfect health at the time of their deaths. There is unfortunately no method by which these skeletons can be accurately sexed, so we remain ignorant as to whether they belonged to boys, girls, or both. Could there be some connection between these butchered children, the youths and maidens who jump bulls in Minoan representational art, and the tribute of Athenian boys and girls paid to the legendary king Minos to which Theseus, the heroic Athenian prince, put a stop with the loving help of Minos' daughter Ariadne by killing the monstrous Minotaur?
Bull grappling was a difficult and challenging sport performed by pairs of young men and women. A team of one boy and one girl would first suprise a bull, grab it by the horns, and then flip onto or over the back of the bull. This act was performed by amateurs, the teams were not specially trained for bull leaping, it was an acivity that everyone particpated in. It is thought that perhaps bull-leaping was a ceremonial ritual of Minoan religion, signify the role of the bull in Minoan life. Perhaps it was symbolic of domestication and control of cattle, or it could also involve the Minoan myth that the world rested on the back of a bull. The art of bull leaping is a poorly understood phenemenon, it is a practice completely alien to our culture, and there is little archaelogical evidence to explain the practice.
Links
The
Iraklion Museum: Minoan artifacts and images
Ancient
Aegean Archaeology Class notes from Dartmouth archaeology class
Minoan
Art History: Lots of images from the class above
Barbarians and Beuracrats:
A general page of ancient Greece with a good deal of information of Minoan
civilization.
Minoan
Costume: Images and descriptions of typical minoan dress
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