The Greeks Flashcards
Trade routes in minoan period
crete is the big center –knossos and phaistos
Goes all the way to Mari of Zimri Lin (destroyed by Hammurabi)
Thera (Santorini): difficult dating, ca. 1628?/1,550?
volcanic eruption and tsunami , probably changed entire landscape
Minoan Period
1900-1700: Old Palace period
ca. 1700/1600: Palaces, destroyed & rebuilt bigger
ca. 1600-1450: New Palace period- ushers in mycenean period
Mycenaean Period (1450/1425-1200/1100)
aka Third Palace period: it begins with destruction of the Minoan palaces (1450/1425) & ends with that of the Mycenanean ones (1200) 100-200 years in middle of 15th century- 1450, nothing really happens until mycenean period
Before Minoan:
Cycladic (3000-2000) middle of 3rd millenium, years behind near east/mesopatamia
Scripts & languages in 2nd mill. Greece
Minoan/Cretan hieroglyphs: undeciphered (early-mid 2nd mill.) (from Crete Island)
Linear A: undeciphered (ca. 1700-1450)
Linear B: first texts in Greek, Mycenaean Greek (2nd-mill. Greek)- 1300s?
Linear A is most likely a forerunner of linear B, but cannot decipher based off of one another, not related to any language family we know of
Syllabary & logograms for linear B
Logograms are entire words, and syllabary is just syllabary
KA-KO – ka-ko’s- bad ugly, defective
Or khalko’s- copper (depends on the cases!!) ambiguous, easy for admin texts, but hard to use for literary texts
Frescoes
Fresco from Avaris (Tell ed-Dab‘a) – Hyksos (Dyn. XV, Egypt)
~~Fresco from Minoan palace in Crete (Knossos)
civilization**
cities, stratification, specialisation
by 1450 Mycenae has biggest centers of civilization
Ventris
gifted architect, gifted with languages, Chadwick and him(master of hellenistic greek) decipher linear B
-no literary texts, maybe on papyrus or passed down in words
first civilization in europe
crete- minoans
bull jumping
frescoes in avaris (hyksos) and minoan palace in Crete, rite of passage?
Tomb from Dynasty XVIII – Egypt, New Kingdom
Keftiu = Kaphtor = Crete
Men of Keftiu bearing gifts
Minoan fresco from Knossos
Greek drinking vases
Phaistos
has like 1 script, still not deciphered (must have a viable preexisting hypothesis)
Man- Douhoux- reduction into something else, deciphered it into english, german, a bunch of languages, you can make it work, because what can you test it against?
Arthur Evans
excavator of Knossos, Named it minoan period (king Minos and the minotaur) painted excavation as they went- beautifully done
Theseus & the Minotaur
amphora, Athens ca. 550, vase
Doesn’t want his daughter( arachnae?) to marry anyone, so theseus has to do the labyrinth
Asterion is the name of the minotaur
Knossos fresco
female questions?
Minoan seal: bull-leaping
Evans found Knossos because farmers had trinkets like the seal of the bull leaping, names it minoan for notoriety
labrys (λάβρυς): double-headed axe From a cave near Arkalokhori (Crete
Labrys- nothing to do with labyrinth, labrys is more like an axe After 1450 this axe is everywhere, so it becomes associated with the island
Ship fresco (aka City fresco) at Akrotiri
(in Thera = Santorini, Cyclades), ca. 1650
Thera= huge volcanic eruption!!
Hyksos- ships, offers new potential for islanders (most sailors didn’t know how to swim then)
Landscape with swallows (Spring fresco)
at Akrotiri, in Thera (= Santorini, Cyclades), ca. 1650
Many plants from minoan have petite little flowers with thick tree trunks
Every room in every palace has frescoes and painting (can see pigments even when frescoes are gone)
Mycenaean Period
1450/1425—1200/1100
Minoan Period
2000/1900—1450/1425
