The Minoan World

The Minoan World
Author: Arthur Cotterell
Publisher:
Total Pages: 196
Release: 1980
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780684166674

Provides an outline of what is known about the Minoans and a guide to the surviving sites and treasures of today.

Minoan and Mycenaean Art

Minoan and Mycenaean Art
Author: Reynold Alleyne Higgins
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Total Pages: 216
Release: 1997
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780500203033

The magnificent works of ancient Crete, Mycenae, and the Cycladic Islands are awe-inspiring in their richness and variety. Frescoes, jewelry, sculpture, gold funeral masks, ivories, and countless other beautiful artifacts--all the significant works of art and architecture that are our legacy from those great civilizations in the third and second millennia BC are described and illustrated in Dr. Higgins's distinguished survey. This fully revised and updated edition includes greater coverage of the breathtaking frescoes from Akrotiri on the island of Thera. Other recent findings are also illustrated and described in detail, such as the unique ivory figure from Palaikastro, objects from the palace of Mallia, and the intriguing discovery of Minoan frescoes in Egypt.

The Minoan World

The Minoan World
Author: Giorgos aRethemiotakis
Publisher:
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2015
Genre:
ISBN: 9786188233119

Sir Arthur Evans and Minoan Crete

Sir Arthur Evans and Minoan Crete
Author: Nanno Marinatos
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2014-12-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 0857725165

Before Sir Arthur Evans, the principal object of Greek prehistoric archaeology was the reconstruction of history in relation to myth. European travellers to Greece viewed its picturesque ruins as the gateway to mythical times, while Heinrich Schliemann, at the end of the nineteenth century, allegedly uncovered at Troy and Mycenae the legendary cities of the Homeric epics. It was Evans who, in his controversial excavations at Knossos, steered Aegean archaeology away from Homer towards the broader Mediterranean world. Yet in so doing he is thought to have done his own inventing, recreating the Cretan Labyrinth via the Bronze Age myth of the Minotaur. Nanno Marinatos challenges the entrenched idea that Evans was nothing more than a flamboyant researcher who turned speculation into history. She argues that Evans was an excellent archaeologist, one who used scientific observation and classification. Evans's combination of anthropology, comparative religion and analysis of cultic artefacts enabled him to develop a bold new method which Sir James Frazer called 'mental anthropology'. It was this approach that led him to propose remarkable ideas about Minoan religion, theories that are now being vindicated as startling new evidence comes to light. Examining the frescoes from Akrotiri, on Santorini, that are gradually being restored, the author suggests that Evans's hypothesis of one unified goddess of nature is the best explanation of what they signify. Evans was in 1901 ahead of his time in viewing comparable Minoan scenes as a blend of ritual action and mythic imagination. Nanno Marinatos is a leading authority on Minoan religion. In this latest book she combines history, archaeology and myth to bold and original effect, offering a wholly new appraisal of Evans and the significance of his work. Sir Arthur Evans and Minoan Crete will be essential reading for all students of Minoan civilization, as well as an irresistible companion for travellers to Crete.

Maritime Networks in the Mycenaean World

Maritime Networks in the Mycenaean World
Author: Thomas F. Tartaron
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2013-05-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1107067138

In this book, Thomas F. Tartaron presents a new and original reassessment of the maritime world of the Mycenaean Greeks of the Late Bronze Age. By all accounts a seafaring people, they enjoyed maritime connections with peoples as distant as Egypt and Sicily. These long-distance relations have been celebrated and much studied; by contrast, the vibrant worlds of local maritime interaction and exploitation of the sea have been virtually ignored. Dr Tartaron argues that local maritime networks, in the form of 'coastscapes' and 'small worlds', are far more representative of the true fabric of Mycenaean life. He offers a complete template of conceptual and methodological tools for recovering small worlds and the communities that inhabited them. Combining archaeological, geoarchaeological and anthropological approaches with ancient texts and network theory, he demonstrates the application of this scheme in several case studies. This book presents new perspectives and challenges for all archaeologists with interests in maritime connectivity.

The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean

The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean
Author: Eric H. Cline
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 968
Release: 2012-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 019024075X

The Greek Bronze Age, roughly 3000 to 1000 BCE, witnessed the flourishing of the Minoan and Mycenean civilizations, the earliest expansion of trade in the Aegean and wider Mediterranean Sea, the development of artistic techniques in a variety of media, and the evolution of early Greek religious practices and mythology. The period also witnessed a violent conflict in Asia Minor between warring peoples in the region, a conflict commonly believed to be the historical basis for Homer's Trojan War. The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean provides a detailed survey of these fascinating aspects of the period, and many others, in sixty-six newly commissioned articles. Divided into four sections, the handbook begins with Background and Definitions, which contains articles establishing the discipline in its historical, geographical, and chronological settings and in its relation to other disciplines. The second section, Chronology and Geography, contains articles examining the Bronze Age Aegean by chronological period (Early Bronze Age, Middle Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age). Each of the periods are further subdivided geographically, so that individual articles are concerned with Mainland Greece during the Early Bronze Age, Crete during the Early Bronze Age, the Cycladic Islands during the Early Bronze Age, and the same for the Middle Bronze Age, followed by the Late Bronze Age. The third section, Thematic and Specific Topics, includes articles examining thematic topics that cannot be done justice in a strictly chronological/geographical treatment, including religion, state and society, trade, warfare, pottery, writing, and burial customs, as well as specific events, such as the eruption of Santorini and the Trojan War. The fourth section, Specific Sites and Areas, contains articles examining the most important regions and sites in the Bronze Age Aegean, including Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos, Knossos, Kommos, Rhodes, the northern Aegean, and the Uluburun shipwreck, as well as adjacent areas such as the Levant, Egypt, and the western Mediterranean. Containing new work by an international team of experts, The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean represents the most comprehensive, authoritative, and up-to-date single-volume survey of the field. It will be indispensable for scholars and advanced students alike.

The Aegean World

The Aegean World
Author: Ioannis Galanakis
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013
Genre: Art, Cycladic
ISBN: 9789606878596

Showcases the finest collection of Minoan material outside of Greece, which is a continuing source of study and inspiration for scholars and the public alike.

A Short History of the Minoans

A Short History of the Minoans
Author: John Bennet
Publisher: I. B. Tauris
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015-05-28
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9781780763255

The Minoans have for decades tantalized all those who have tried to understand this most enigmatic people of the ancient world. The Minoan allure lies in large part in the riddles to which their mysterious culture gives rise. What is contained in their earliest writing script, the still un-deciphered Linear A? Did their likely extinction by volcanic eruption shape the Atlantis legend? Why was their religion so thoroughly matriarchal, with its symbols of snake goddess, serpent and labrys (double-headed axe)? What was the purpose of their great palaces at Knossos, Phaestos and Malia? What is the meaning of the atmospheric bull dance fresco uncovered at the palace of Knossos? The archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans controversially 'rediscovered' and then restored the Minoan civilization in the early twentieth century, and tied it to King Minos, builder of the famous labyrinth and keeper of the legendary Minotaur. In this lucid and absorbing new history of Crete from the 9th millennium BCE to the end of the Bronze Age (c 1000 BCE), John Bennet expertly draws on the latest archaeological and textual discoveries to separate fact from imagination, history from myth.