Minoan Sentence Examples

On another a Minoan warrior prince appears before his retainers.

The principal Philistine tribe is indeed known in the biblical records as the Cherethims or Cretans, and the Minoan name and the cult of the Cretan Zeus were preserved at Gaza to the latest classical days.

Cretan enterprise in the days of the New Egyptian empire is illustrated by repeated finds of Late Minoan pottery on Egyptian sites.

The leading characteristics of this mainland civilization are thus indistinguishable from the Minoan.

Among the more interesting relics found were ivory figures of Egyptian or strongly Egyptianizing fabric. On an adjacent hill were the remains of what seems to have been in later times a temple of the Dictaean Zeus, and from the occurrence of rich deposits of Minoan vases and sacrificial remains at a lower level, the religious tradition represented by the later temple seems to go back to prehistoric times.

Near this hamlet on the coast of the Gulf of Mirabello in east Crete,t he American archaeologist MissHarriet Boyd hasexcavated a great part of another Minoan town.

Seager, an American explorer, has found striking remains of flourishing Minoan settlements.

The contents of a series of tombs at Mochlos throw an entirely new light on the civilization of the Early Minoan age.

The above summary gives, indeed, a very imperfect idea of the extent to which the remains of the great Minoan civilization are spread throughout the island.

The period of decline referred to above (Late Minoan III.), which begins about the beginning of the 14th century before our era, must, from the abundance of its remains, have been of considerable duration.

The Keftiu who represented Minoan culture in Egypt in the concluding period of the Cnossian palace (Late Minoan II.) cease to appear on Egyptian monuments towards the end of the XVIIIth Dynasty (c. 1350 B.C.), and their place is taken by the "Peoples of the Sea."

A new geometrical style of decoration like that of contemporary Greece largely supplants the Minoan models.

To this civilization as a whole it is convenient to give the name "Minoan," and the name of Minos itself may be reasonably thought to cover a dynastic even more than a personal significance in much the same way as such historic terms as "Pharaoh" or "Caesar."

The archaeological evidence outside Crete points to the actual existence of Minoan plantations as far afield on one side as Sicily and on the other as the coast of Canaan.

Industrial relations with Egypt are also marked by the occurrence of a series of finds of pottery and other objects of Minoan fabric among the remains of the XVIIIth, XIIth and even earlier dynasties, while the same seafaring enterprise brought Egyptian fabrics to Crete from the times of the first Pharaohs.

Even in the Homeric poems, which belong to an age when the great Minoan civilization was already decadent, the Cretans appear as the only Greek people who attempted to compete with the Phoenicians as bold and adventurous navigators.

We are now in the beginning of the Bronze Age, and the first of Evans's "Minoan" periods (see Crete).

These northern "megara" are all of late date, none being prior to Minoan III.

The most that can be said to he capable of proof is the infiltration of some northern influence into Crete at the end of Minoan Period II.; but it probably brought about no change of dynasty and certainly no change in the prevailing race.

From the skullforms studied, it would appear, as we should expect, that the Aegean race was by no means pure even in the earlier Minoan periods.

He goes so far as to pronounce the latter to be Cretan importations, their fabric and forms being unlike anything Nilotic. If that be so, the period at which stone implements were beginning to be superseded by bronze in Crete must be dated before 4000 B.C. But it will be remembered that below all Evans's "Minoan" strata lies the immensely thick Neolithic deposit.

Passing by certain fragments of stone vessels, found at Cnossus, and coincident with forms characteristic of the IVth Pharaonic Dynasty, we reach another fairly certain date in the synchronism of remains belonging to the XIIth Dynasty (c. 2500 B.C. according to Petrie, but later according to the Berlin School) with products of Minoan Period II.

He is usually dated about 1900 B.C. This brings us to the next and most certain synchronism, that of Minoan Periods III.

Actual vases of late Minoan style have been found with remains of Dynasty XVIII., especially in the town of Amenophis IV.

In the Minoan epoch Athens is proved by the archaeological remains to have been a petty kingdom scarcely more important than many other Attic communities, yet enjoying a more unbroken course of development than the leading states of that period.

These new probabilities open up considerable possibilities in research with regard to the relations of the early Minoans and other Aegeans with Syria and Egypt and the undoubted fact of the resemblances of Minoan on the one hand to Syrian and Egyptian religions and funerary practices, and on the other hand to those of the Etruscans.

Equally interesting are the relation of the Syro-Hittite with the Minoan, and we seem to find in certain objects found in Egypt and Cyprus and dating probably from the 14th to the Toth centuries, proof of the existence of a mixed art of Syrian origin, probably in Cilicia (Alashiya) at that time.

The skirts were held in place by a thick rolled belt, and the upper part of the body remained quite nude in the earliest times; but from the middle Minoan period onward we often find an important addition in the shape of a low-cut bodice, which sometimes has sleeves, either tight-fitting or puffed, and ultimately develops into a laced corsage.

The whole plan bears more than a superficial resemblance to those of Cretan palaces in the later Minoan period.

They are inscribed in an alphabet which has many points of similarity with the western Greek alphabets, and some with the Punic alphabet; but which seems to retain a few characters from an older script akin to those of Minoan Crete and Roman Libya.

For the theory that Atlantis is to be identified with Crete in the Minoan period, see "The Lost Continent" in The Times (London) for the 19th of February 1909.

Recent discoveries in Crete have brought to light the existence of a Cretan or " Minoan " sea-power of remote antiquity, and it is clear that a great deal of what used to be described as Phoenician must receive quite a different designation.

This cavity was filled with rubbish, sherds, &c., the latest of which was found to date as far back as the beginning of the Middle Minoan age, and the later work of 1908 only proved (by means of a small shaft sunk through the debris) that the rock floor was 52 ft.

It is practically certain, however, that the cavity must date from an Early Minoan period prior to that of the great palace.

The earliest Cretan settlements in Greece belong to the end of the third Middle Minoan period, about 1800 s.c. Pre-Mycenaean civilization in Greece varied in different localities.

For the mainland cultures a new term " Helladic " has lately been invented, and three chronological divisions, Early, Middle and Late Helladic, are proposed to correspond with the parallel Cycladic and Minoan periods.

Sir Arthur Evans conducted supplementary excavations at Cnossos in 1912, and the British School reexamined the Kamares Cave, where the typical Middle Minoan polychrome pottery were first found in Crete, in 1913.

Two beehive tombs, said to be Early Minoan, were found near Phaistos.

At Gortyna the first prehistoric finds of neolithic and Minoan periods were made in 1913.

Seager's brilliant discoveries at Mokhlos were published (with coloured plates of the Early Minoan stone vases) in 1912.

As to its chronological relation to the Cretan sites - Cnossus, Phaestus, &c., and the "Minoan" civilization as determined by Dr A.Evans, see the discussion under Crete.

In the second stage, implements of true bronze (9 to io% tin) become common; painted pottery of buff clay with dull black geometrical patterns appears alongside the red-ware; and foreign imports occur, such as Egyptian blue-glazed beads (XIIth-XIIIth Dynasty, 2500-2000 B.C.),1 and cylindrical Asiatic seals (one of Sargon I., 2000 B.C.).2 In the third stage, Aegean colonists introduced the Mycenaean (late Minoan) culture and industries; with new types of weapons, wheel-made pottery, and a naturalistic art which rapidly becomes conventional; gold and ivory are abundant, and glass and enamels are known.

There he can reconstruct the splendour of that Minoan age to which Homeric poems look back, as the Germanic epics looked back to Rome or Verona.

The only Aegean objects yet found (1910) in or near Ionia are some sherds of the very latest Minoan age at Miletus.

The outcome for the absolute dating of Minoan civilization thus remains uncertain.

The explosive activity last culminated with the Minoan eruption at ca.

Panormos holiday excursions include the Minoan palace at Knossos, boat trips and three interesting historic towns, Chania, Rethymnon and Heraklion.

The Minoan Brotherhood and Minoan sisterhood are sibling paths in the Minoan Tradition, each with its own Mysteries and rites.

The few observations hitherto made on the sites of Ionian cities indicate continuity of settlement and culture as far back as the latest phases of the Mycenaean (Late Minoan III.) Age and not farther, supporting thus far the traditional foundation dates.

Ionian culture and art, though little known in their earlier phases, derive their inspiration on the one side from those of the old Aegean (Minoan) civilization, on the other from the Oriental (mainly Assyrian) models which penetrated to the coast through the Hittite civilization of Asia Minor.

In the first phase of this the Minoan civilization attains its acme, and the succeeding style already shows much that may be described as rococo.

The Minoan goddess is sometimes seen in her chthonic form with serpents, sometimes in a more celestial aspect with doves, at times with lions.

The earlier and later palaces at Cnossus and Phaestus, and the interrupted phases of each, seem to point to a succession of dynasties, to which, as to its civilization as a whole, it is certainly convenient to apply the name " Minoan."

The Nilotic influence visible in the vases, seals and other fabrics of the Early Minoan age, seems to imply a maritime activity on the part of the islanders going - back to the days of the first Egyptian dynasties.

Turning to the mainland of Greece we see that the astonishing remains of a highly developed prehistoric civilization, which Schliemann first brought to light in 1876 at Mycenae, Minoan and which from those discoveries received the general influence on main= name of " Mycenaean," in the main represent a trans land of marine offshoot from the Minoan stock.

At the same time, to whatever cause this serious setback of Minoan civilization was owing, it would be very unsafe to infer as yet any large displacement of the original inhabitants by the invading swarms from the mainland or elsewhere.

The third Late Minoan age corresponds generally with the Late Mycenaean stage in the Aegean world (see Aegean Civilization).

About a kilometre distant from the palace of Phaestus near the village of Kalyvia a Late Minoan cemetery was brought to light in 1901, belonging to the same period as that of Cnossus (Savignoni, Necropoli di Phaestos, 1905).

The bulk of the remains belong here, as at Hagia Triada, to the beginning of the Late Minoan period, but there are signs of reoccupation in the decadent Minoan age.

Archaeological evidence points clearly now to the conclusion that the splendid but overgrown civilization of the Mycenaean or " late Minoan " period of the Aegean Bronze Age collapsed rather suddenly before a rapid succession of assaults by comparatively barbarous invaders from the European mainland north of the Aegean; that these invaders passed partly by way of Thrace and the Hellespont into Asia Minor, partly by Macedon and Thessaly into peninsular Greece and the Aegean islands; that in east Peloponnese and Crete, at all events, a first shock (somewhat later than i soo B.C.) led to the establishment of a cultural, social and political situation which in many respects resembles what is depicted in Homer as the " Achaean " age, with principal centres in Rhodes, Crete, Laconia, Argolis, Attica, Orchomenus and south-east Thessaly; and that this regime was itself shattered by a second shock or series of shocks somewhat earlier than boo B.C. These latter events correspond in character and date with the traditional irruption of the Dorians and their associates.

In view of the splendour and wide influence of Minoan Crete, the age generally known as "Mycenaean" has been given the name of "Minoan" by Dr Arthur Evans as more properly descriptive (see Crete).

It represents a man in the act of turning a somersault over the horns of a charging bull, a unique rendering of a familiar theme in Minoan art.

The Minoan Brotherhood and Minoan Sisterhood are sibling paths in the Minoan Tradition, each with its own Mysteries and rites.

Archeological evidence suggests the practice of applying a penis sheath dates to the prehistoric Near East, Minoan Crete, archaic Greece, and Roman Italy.

This more primitive phase of the indigenous culture, of which several distinct stages are traceable, is known as the Early Minoan, and roughly corresponds with the first half of the third millennium B.C. The succeeding period, to which the first palaces are due and to which the name of Middle Minoan is appropriately given, roughly coincides with the Middle Empire of Egypt.

The beginnings of a school of wall painting also go back to the Middle Minoan period, and metal technique and such arts as gem engraving show great advance.

The succeeding Late Minoan period, best illustrated by the later palace at Cnossus and that at Hagia Triada, corresponds in Egypt with the Hyksos period and the earlier part of the New Empire.

Late Minoan art in its finest aspect is best illustrated by the animated ivory figures, wall paintings, and gesso duro reliefs at Cnossus, by the painted stucco designs at Hagia Triada, and the steatite vases found on the same site with zones in reliefs exhibiting life-like scenes of warriors, toreadors, gladiators, wrestlers and pugilists, and of a festal throng perhaps representing a kind of " harvest home."

Of the more conventional side of Late Minoan life a graphic illustration is supplied by the remains of miniature wall paintings found in the palace of Cnossus, showing groups of court ladies in curiously modern costumes, seated on the terraces and balustrades of a sanctuary.

In 1893, however, Arthur Evans observed some signs on scripMinot,an seal-stones from Crete which led him to believe that a hieroglyphic system of writing had existed in Minoan times.

It thus appears that a highly developed system of writing existed in Minoan Crete some two thousand years earlier than the first introduction under Phoenician influence of Greek letters.

There is evidence that the use in Crete of both linear and pictorial signs existed in the Early Minoan period, contemporary with the first Egyptian dynasties.

It is, however, during the Middle Minoan age, the centre point of which corresponds with the XIIth Egyptian dynasty, according to the Sothic system of dating, c. 2000-1850 B.C., that a systematized pictographic or hieroglyphic script makes its appearance which is common both to signets and clay tablets.

The evidence supplied by this and other Cretan sites shows that the principal Minoan divinity was a kind of Magna Mater, a Great Mother or nature goddess, with whom was associated a male satellite.

Although images of the divinities were certainly known, the principal objects of cult in the Minoan age were of the aniconic class; in many cases these were natural objects, such as rocks and mountain peaks, with their cave sanctuaries, like those of Ida or of Dicte.

The discovery that the great Minoan foundation at Cnossus was at once a palace and a sanctuary of the Double Axe and its associated divinities has now supplied a striking and it may well be thought an overwhelming confirmation of this view.

It is difficult, moreover, not to connect the repeated wall-paintings and reliefs of the palace illustrating the cruel bull sports of the Minoan arena, in which girls as well as youths took part, with the legend of the Minotaur, or bull of Minos, for whose grisly meals Athens was forced to pay annual tribute of her sons and daughters.

It appears certain from the associations in which they are found at Cnossus, that these Minoan bull sports formed part of a religious ceremony.

Actual figures of a monster with a bull's head and man's body occurred on seals of Minoan fabric found on this and other Cretan sites.

It is clear that the later traditions in many respects accurately summed up the performances of the " Minoan " dynast who carried out the great buildings now brought to light.

The appearance of ships on some of the most important seal-impressions is not needed, however, to show how widely Minoan influence made itself felt in the neighbouring Mediterranean regions.

In a deposit at Kahun, belonging to Early the XIIth Dynasty, c. 2000 B.C., were already found E relations imported polychrome vases of " Middle Minoan " with fabric. In the same way the important part played by Egypt.

The contents of the royal tombs, on the other hand, reveal a wholesale correspondence with the fabrics of the first, and, to a less degree, the second Late Minoan age, as illustrated by the relics belonging to the Middle Period of the later palace at Cnossus and by those of the royal villa at Hagia Triada.

In Crete, in the later period, when the rulers could trust to the " wooden walls " of the Minoan navy, there is no parallel for the massive fortifications that we see at Tiryns or Mycenae.

Minoan culture under its mainland aspect left its traces on the Acropolis at Athens, - a corroboration of the tradition which made the Athenians send their tribute children to Minoan influences Minos.

The Minoan remains at Orchomenus which are traceable to the latest period go far to substantiate the philological comparison between the name of Minyas, the traditional ancestor of this ancient race, and that of Minos.

Still farther to the north-west a distinct Minoan influence is perceptible in the old Illyrian lands east of the Adriatic, and its traces reappear in the neighbourhood of Venice.

These ancient indications of a Minoan connexion with Sicily have now received interesting confirmation in the numerous discoveries, principally due to the recent excavations of P. Orsi, of arms and painted vases of Late Minoan fabric in Bronze Age tombs of the provinces of Syracuse and Girgenti (Agrigentum) belonging to the late Bronze Age.

Some of these objects, such as certain forms of swords and vases, seem to be of local fabric, but derived from originals going back to the beginning of the Late Minoan age.

The recent exploration of a cemetery belonging to the close of the great palace period, and in a greater degree to the age succeeding the catastrophe, has now conclusively shown that there was no real break in the continuity of Minoan culture.

This third Late Minoan period - the beginning of which may be fixed about 1400 - is an age of stagnation and decline, but the point of departure continued to be the models supplied by the age that had preceded it.

It is certain that towards the close of this third and concluding Late Minoan period in the island certain mainland types of swords and safety-pins make their appearance, which are symptomatic of the great invasion from that side that was now impending or had already begun.

It will be convenient here to give a general view of the more important Minoan remains recently excavated on various Cretan sites.

The successive " Minoan " strata, which go well back into the fourth millennium B.C., reach down to a depth of about 17 ft.

The palace was approached from the west by a paved Minoan Way communicating with a considerable building on the opposite hill.

The traces of an earlier " Middle Minoan " palace beneath the later floor-levels are most visible on the east side, with splendid ceramic remains.

This monumental work seems to date from the close of the Middle Minoan age, but has been re-used for interments at successive periods (Evans, Archaeologic, 1906, p. 136 sqq.).

Pernier have brought to light another Minoan palace, much resembling on a somewhat smaller scale that of Cnossus.

The Phaestian palace belongs to two distinct periods, and the earlier or " Middle Minoan " part is better preserved than at Cnossus.

In contrast to the palace of Phaestus, the contents of the royal villa proved exceptionally rich, and derive a special interest from the fact that the catastrophe which overwhelmed the building belongs to a somewhat earlier part of the Late Minoan age than that which overwhelmed Cnossus and Phaestus.

Both the signet types and the other objects of art here discovered display the fresh naturalism that characterizes in a special way the first Late Minoan period.

The chest is of limestone coated with stucco, adorned with life-like paintings of offertory scenes in connexion with the sacred Double Axes of Minoan cult.

It is as yet difficult to determine the part which Rhodes played in prehistoric days during the naval predominance of the neighbouring island of Crete; but archaeological remains dating from the later Minoan age prove that the early Aegean culture maintained itself there comparatively unimpaired until the historic period.

During the Third Middle Minoan period, the lower limits of which approach 1600 B.C., this pictographic script finally gives way to a still more developed linear system - which is itself divided into an earlier and a later class.