Archaeology Team 3 Minoan Religion: What did they believe?

What you need to do In the following slides you will be shown a picture of Knossos, a plan of Knossos, some pictures of different sections of the palace, and then some specific artifacts. Based on the information that you compile from these pieces, you will need to put together a fairly good picture of what Minoan religion was like. You will need to record on a separate piece of paper some observations about the sites. Below that you will list the artifacts. Based on what you observe, I want you to write down what you think the artifacts purpose was. Write this down first. Then, look at the websites for some additional information to see if you’re right. Show the class the presentation that I have put together and explain to them what the sites and artifacts mean.

King Minos Legendary King of Crete. Check out more information about him at this website:

Knossos: Bird’s Eye

Temples Although there are some shrine-rooms and temple repositories, there is no temple found in the plans on this site, just living quarters, storage areas, and palaces. Try to find out: There wasn’t a temple found on the grounds at Knossos? Were there temples found on Crete?

Knossos Plan

Temple Repository Most of the artifacts were found in containers like these.

Artifact 1: What is this? Look at the artifact carefully. Think of possible ideas of what it might be. On a piece of paper write down your initial guesses, then write down what it really was.

Artifact 2: What are these? Obviously more than one of these statuettes has been found at Knossos. What are the signifcance of these two? Fill out the artifact worksheet about one of these two statuettes.

Artifact #3 and #4: What are these?

Conclusion So, you should have a paper with the list of pictures and artifacts. For each one, you should have guessed what the significance was and describe what you saw. Then, after looking at the website, you should have written down the information that you gained. You should also have filled out the artifact sheet for the snake goddesses. Now make sure that you are ready to tell the rest of the class what you have learned.