Minoan Crete Flashcards
Geographical Setting, Natural Features and Resources & Sources
- Surrounded by Aegean Sea
- Fertile plains and valleys (Mesara Plain, Lasithi Plain)
- Mountainous (White Mountains, Mount Ida, Mount Dikte)
- Limestone caves
- Temperate climate
- At crossroads of Africa, Asia and Europe
- Clay (pottery, bowls, pithoi, tablets)
- Stone (sealstones, rhytons, vases)
- Strong cyprus trees for shipbuilding and houses (shipwrecks and buildings)
- Plants for food, medicine, decorations
- Wild and domesticated animals (animal skeletons)
- Seafood and molluscs (deposits of murex mollusc)
Significant Sites
- Knossos: Possible capital and centre of culture, economy and religion
- Phaistos: Agricultural centre and economic powerhouse
- Malia: Massive gold trade, and was a commercial and trading centre
- Zakros: Administrative, manufacturing and commercial port city
- Agia Triada: Religious and funerary site
- Gournia: Production and trade centre
Issues Relating to Gender and Identity of the Ruler & Sources
- Could be male, female or palace elite
- Grandstand fresco: women in dimorphous dresses are in the centre and are more defined than surrounding men, and are next to tripartite shrine with horns of consecration
- Procession fresco: central woman in dimorphous dress surrounded by men worshipping her and holding rhyta for religious ceremony
- Griffin frescoes in Knossos limestone throne room: griffins may have represented women, throne suited woman’s body but was from Mycenaean occupation
- Prince of Lilies fresco: priest king, fragments found from multiple rooms and reconstructed to support Evans view of King Minos
- Master Impression seal: male figure with divinely bestowed power stands atop palace and holds sceptre
- Chieftain Cup: king figure with long hair, jewellery and sceptre guarding palace entrance, and second figure with short hair, military-type clothes and sword reports to king
- Homer’s Odyssey: King Minos and no powerful women mentioned but he had patriarchal context
- Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War: King Minos was first to build navy and no powerful women mentioned but he had patriarchal context
Colin Renfrew’s quote on Issues Relating to Gender and Identity of the Ruler
“Minoan society was likely organised into chiefdoms, each chiefdom dictating one of religious, economic, and/or political affairs”
Christos Boulotis’ idea on Issues Relating to Gender and Identity of the Ruler
Kingship was prevalent in all major civilisations of Eastern Mediterranean and Mycenaean Greece, so it must have been the same in Minoan Crete
Helen Waterhouse’s idea on Issues Relating to Gender and Identity of the Ruler
Priestesses had authority due to predominance in ritual scenes and perhaps ran theocratic state in conjunction with male monarch
Sinclair Hood’s quote on Issues Relating to Gender and Identity of the Ruler
“The Queen of Crete, acting in her role of a priestess, was the person who actually sat on the throne”
Susan Evasdaughter’s idea on Issues Relating to Gender and Identity of the Ruler
Griffins represented women and limestone throne suited woman’s body
Reynold Higgins’ quote on Issues Relating to Gender and Identity of the Ruler
Chieftain cup shows “a ruler standing in front of his palace or in the Central Court”
Arthur Evans’ idea on Issues Relating to Gender and Identity of the Ruler
Priest-king with religious authority and political influence
Bureaucracy & Sources
- Complexity of palace administration and management of economic resources presupposes bureaucracy
- Structure is unknown
- Operated primarily in palaces and villas could be extensions of palace elite in countryside
- Scribes kept records of goods being imported and exported from palaces
- Overseers for supervision of collection, storage, local distribution and overseas exports
- Linear A and Linear B: archives and receipts of goods
- Linear A at House A at Agia Triada: collection of iron ingots
Priestly Class & Sources
- Involved in religious ceremonies, rituals, processions, offerings, libations, sacrifices and ceremonial dances
- Harvester vase: procession of men holding farming tools, dancing and singing in harvest celebration, led by priest with long hair and sistrum
- Camp-stool fresco: priestesses participating in ritual feast, main figure La Parisienne painted twice the size of others suggesting her divinity
- Grandstand fresco: women in dimorphous dresses are in the centre and are more defined than surrounding men, and are next to tripartite shrine with horns of consecration
- Procession fresco: central woman in dimorphous dress surrounded by men worshipping her and holding rhyta for religious ceremony
- Ladies in Blue fresco: elite women in dimorphous dresses, elaborate hairstyles and jewellery, but is heavily restored
- Agia Triada Sarcophagus: priestesses dress in the same sheepskin skirts as priests
Helen Waterhouse’s idea on Priestly Class
Priestesses had authority due to predominance in ritual scenes and perhaps ran theocratic state in conjunction with male monarch
Roles and Status of Women & Sources
Religion
- Priestesses and avatars of goddess
- Possible theocratic matriarchy
- Primarily associated with fertility so role as mother may have been emphasised
- Ordinary women unknown
- Grandstand fresco: women more defined than men, in centre, surrounded by men, next to tripartite shrine with horns of consecration, dimorphous dresses
- Procession fresco: central woman in dimorphous dress surrounded by men worshipping her and holding rhyta for religious ceremony
- Camp-stool fresco: priestesses participating in ritual feast, main figure La Parisienne painted twice the size of others suggesting divinity
- Agia Triada Sarcophagus: priestesses dress in the same sheepskin skirts as priests
Industry
- Textile workers
- Loom weights: 400 in Knossos workshops
- Linear B: production targets of cloth, different textiles and over 500 women in manufacturing at Knossos
Agriculture
- Lack of portrayals of women in agriculture
- Women in frescoes have white skin but this could be because they were elite
- Only men are shown with red skin
Helen Waterhouse’s idea on Religious Roles and Status of Women
Priestesses had authority due to predominance in ritual scenes and perhaps ran theocratic state in conjunction with male monarch
Pamela Bradley’s quote on Industrial Roles and Status of Women
“The importance of the Minoan textile industry can be gauged from … loom weights and Linear B tablets describing … women working as weavers”
Laura Perry’s quote on Roles and Status of Women
“in both religious and daily life, women and men were equal” because “the Minoans were a largely egalitarian culture”
Craftsmen and Agricultural Workers & Sources
- Majority of Minoans involved in agriculture and manufacture of crafts for local consumption and export
- Stonemasons (bull rhyton and 50 carved stone vases at Zakros)
- Metalworkers (bronze double axes at Nirou Khani, furnaces at Phaistos and Zakros, kilns at Agia Triada and Knossos, metallurgy workshop at Chrysokamino, remains of slag at Malia)
- Glass and faience makers ( Snake Goddess faience figurines at Temple Repositories at Knossos)
- Potters (Pithoi and Kamares ware)
- Seal carvers (384 engraved stone seals, ‘Zakro Master’ seals)
- Textile workers (400 loom weights at Knossos)
- Painters (frescoes)
- Builders (palaces and villas)
- Purple dye makers (large deposit of crushed murex shells that were used to create purple dye)
- Farmers and animal herders (Harvester vase, clay tablets record farm produce)
- Fishermen (purple dye industry, fishing hooks at Gournia)
Palace Economy & Sources
- Palaces collected, stored and redistributed surplus products and services in their areas
- Labour and manufacturing centred in palace workshops
- Palaces may have been workplaces
- Palaces had extensive storage magazines and pithoi
- Oil presses at Knossos
- Linear B: list of transactions, agricultural products and livestock under palaces’ control
Peter Warren’s idea on Palace Economy
Palaces were large agricultural villages that controlled agriculture in their region
Kostis Christakis’ idea on Palace Economy
Knossos local population was 15 000 but storage capacity could only feed 1000 people per year, so economic system based on redistribution did not exist. Instead, palaces sustained elite class, financed state enterprises and provided food for ceremonial events
Importance of Agriculture & Sources
- Primarily agrarian society so agriculture was linchpin and mainstay of economy as it expanded manufacturing and trade
- Production and trade of olive oil, wine and honey as a luxury
- Contributed to good general health of Minoans
- Models of clay tubs for pressing grapes
- Seal impressions at Khania: milking animals
- Oil presses at Knossos
- Magazines and pithoi in palaces such as Knossos
- Linear B: rations of grain, cereals, flax, spices
- Linear B: flocks of over 100 000 sheep and goats controlled from Knossos during Third Palace period
- Linear B: 14 000 litres of wine at Knossos and 9000 litres of olives from Mesara Plain
- Linear B: target figures for flocks and wool production
- Harvester Vase
Role of Towns & Sources
Gournia
- Regional production centre of bronze tools/weapons
- Agricultural town with fishing
- Industry centre of pottery
- Trade centre with overseas connections to Aegean
- Bronze saws, chisels, needles, fishing hooks and hammers
- Pottery and stone vases
- Harbour complex with wharf, ship shed and fortifications
Zakros
- Storage
- Stone and ivory carving
- Manufacture and export of olive oil and wine
- Houses have large storage rooms
- Olive oil and wine presses
- House A in Zakros: seal impressions
- ‘Zakro Master’ seals found across Crete including Knossos and Agia Triada: dealings between various sites
Myrtos
- Specialised in weaving and textile manufacture
- Spindle whorls, loom weights, spinning bows and dye tubs
Trade and Economic Exchange in Mediterranean and Aegean Region & Sources
- At crossroads of Africa, Asia and Europe
- Traded with Cyclades, Egypt, Levant, mainland Greece, southern Italy
- Exported pottery, metalwork, olive oil, textiles
- Imported copper, tin, gold, alabaster, ivory, linen
- Directed by rulers/temples via royal emissaries
- Two Minoan shipwrecks off Turkish coast
- Rekhmire’s tomb: Minoan trade envoys bearing tribute of pottery, stone-carved vessels, rhytons, cloth and textile patterns copied onto tomb walls and ceilings
- Kamares ware found across Egypt
Rodney Castleden’s quote on Trade and Economic Exchange in Mediterranean and Aegean Region
“exports to Egypt of manufactured goods … Egyptians sent gifts of gold, ivory, cloth, stone vessels containing perfume”
