Minoan Civilization Articles

We've all heard stories about the "Lost City of Atlantis", sunken into the ocean thousands of years ago. This intellectually and technologically advanced civilization, with its electricity and sophisticated plumbing systems, was far ahead of any other ancient culture thriving during its time. Then, like a flash, it was gone, sunken at the bottom of some... [continue reading]

Until Sir Arthur Evans unearthed the palace of Knossos, the half-man-half bull killed by Theseus was considered just a popular legend; archeology changed that. The Minotaur King Minos, of Crete, fought hard with his brother to ascend the throne and, having won the kingship and exiled his brother, prayed to the god of the sea, Poseidon, for a snow white... [continue reading]

Frescoes are the source of some of the most striking imagery handed down to us from the Minoan civilization of Bronze Age Crete (2000-1500 BCE). Further, without written records, they are often the only source, along with decorated pottery, of just how the world appeared to the Minoans and give us tantalizing glimpses of their beliefs, cultural practices... [continue reading]

The jewellery of the Minoan civilization based on Bronze Age Crete demonstrates, as with other Minoan visual art forms, not only a sophisticated technological knowledge (in this case of metalwork) and an ingenuity of design but also a joy in vibrantly representing nature and a love of flowing, expressive, shapes and forms. Materials & Technology... [continue reading]

The ever evolving pottery from the Minoan civilization of Bronze Age Crete (2000-1500 BCE) demonstrates, perhaps better than any other medium, not only the Minoan joy in animal, sea and plant life but also their delight in flowing, naturalistic shapes and design. Kamares Style Following on from the pre-palatial styles of Vasiliki (with surfaces... [continue reading]

In this paper several archaeological, historical and other aspects of aqueducts in Minoan era are reviewed. During the Middle Bronze Age a “cultural explosion”, unparalleled in the history of other ancient civilizations, occurred on the island of Crete. One of the salient characteristics of that cultural development was the architectural... [continue reading]

Recently Vivian Nutton wrote that “… for our knowledge of Greek medicine and its physicians before the late fifth century BC, we are largely at the mercy of a combination of later legend and modern plausible speculation, and neither can be trusted entirely”. This work attempts to remove some of this speculation, and look at what... [continue reading]

In 1984, exactly ten years ago, at a conference in Athens on the ‘Function of the Minoan Palaces’, several participants in a general discussion on economy and trade brought up the possibility of Minoan artists working overseas. Peter Warren later went on to discuss the existence of Minoan merchants abroad, but few of the other participants pursued... [continue reading]

Ritual has always been a popular subject of study in archaeology and anthropology. Early ethnographers relished the details of its drama, and early archaeologists found it a convenient explanation for those finds they could not explain. More sophisticated modern scholars ponder the symbolic complexity of its action, and debate its social function. And... [continue reading]