1. The Aegean Chapter 4

3. Objectives Evaluate the role of Archaeology in interpreting ancient Aegean material culture. Compare and contrast the art and architectural styles of three Aegean Bronze Age cultures: – Cycladic, in the Cyclades – Minoan, on Crete and Thera – Helladic and Mycenaean, on Greece

4. The Cyclades, a group of islands in the southwestern Aegean, comprises some thirty small islands and numerous islets. Many of the Cycladic Islands are particularly rich in mineral resources—iron ores, copper, lead ores, gold, silver, emery, obsidian, and marble. These earliest settlers probably cultivated barley and wheat, and most likely fished the Aegean Sea. They were sculptors in stone and at this time in the Early Bronze Age, metallurgy developed and shipbuilding, and the exporting of their mineral resources in trade. Cycladic Islands

5. Early Cycladic sculpture comprises predominantly female figures that range from simple modification of the stone to developed representations of the human form, some with natural proportions and some more idealized. Sculpture Steatopygous female figure, ca. 4500–4000 B.C.E; Final Neolithic Cycladic Marble; H. 8 5/16 in.

6. The Minoan on Crete The island of Crete was the center of Minoan civilization in Bronze-Age Greece that flourished from approximately 2200 to 1450 BCE. It is the largest of the Greek islands and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is mountainous and has natural harbors. The Minoans were a Bronze Age civilization of Ancient Crete whose early language, we have not deciphered. Sir Arthur Evans, responsible for the excavations at Knossos, defined the Minoan period of Crete as a major civilization from c. 1900-1300 B.C.E. According to Homer, Crete had 90 cities, of which Knossos was the largest and most important. It is believed that the island was divided into at least 8 political units during the height of Minoan civilization. There are signs of tectonic activity on the island of Crete, especially along the coasts. Around 1700 BCE, earthquakes destroyed many of the major Minoan palaces. Shortly after, Mycenaeans from mainland Greece took over Knossos and became the dominant presence on Crete.

7. The people who lived on the island of Crete during the Bronze Age are known today as Minoans, after the legendary king Minos of Crete. Minoan Bronze Age history is broken down into Early (EM), Middle (MM) and Late Minoan (LM).

8. Ceramics Middle Minoan pottery was transformed by the introduction of the fast pottery wheel, and Kamares Ware. This pottery is decorated with abstract designs, and patterns. The decoration is light-on-dark polychrome and sometimes includes animal or figural representations. Slightly later came the Marine Style, with octopi, realistic fish, dolphins, and nautiluses, and jagged, spiky seaweed and rocks. Kamares cup Minoan, about 1950-1850 BCE

9. Architecture The New Palace Period Late Minoan The city of Knossos was one of its main cities--and it contained its largest palace after the shattering earthquake that marks the beginning of the New Palace period, ca. 1700 B.C.E

10. The Minoan Languages We know little of the Minoan culture, compared to later Greek cultures, because much of their language has been lost. Two written languages are associated with Minoan culture; Linear A, first used during the early Minoan period, and Linear B, which doesn't appear on tablets until ca 1450, well past the height of the culture.

11. Frescos The Late Minoan period brought the famous fresco paintings of the great palaces, like the scene of acrobats or athletes leaping over a bull, dating from c. 1550-1450 BCE. The most famous image of bull-leaping is probably the Bull-Leaping Fresco from the palace at Knossos, Crete, Greece. The fresco depicts a young man performing what appears to be a handspring or flip over a charging bull. Two young women flank the bull. (We know the sexes of the stylized figures by the way they are painted—women’s are usually much lighter than men in ancient Greek art.)

12. Mycenaean- Helladic Mycenaean is the term applied to the art and culture of Greece from ca. 1600 to 1100 B.C.E The name derives from the site of Mycenae, where the Mycenaean fortified palace once stood. They produced utilitarian objects of pottery and bronze, as well as luxury items, such as carved gems, jewelry, vases in precious metals, and glass ornaments- primarily of vases, but their contents (oil, wine, and other commodities) were probably the chief objects of trade. Contact with Minoan Crete played a role in the shaping and development of the culture.. Besides being traders, the Mycenaeans were warriors and built bridges, fortification walls, and beehive-shaped tombs—all employing Cyclopean masonry—and a drainage and irrigation systems. Palace scribes employed a new script, Linear B, to record an early Greek language.

13. Cyclopean masonry is a term used to describe a type of megalithic architecture entailing the working of unusually large blocks of stone. The term was coined by Greeks in the Classical Age, reflecting the belief that only the Cyclops, gigantic, one- eyed creatures of myth, could have been strong enough to manipulate stones so immense. Architecture The Minoans, for instance, known for their spectacular palace complexes on Crete, used post-and-lintel construction. The residents of Mycenaean citadels, however, found it necessary to build far greater fortifications

14. Tombs Shaft Graves late Bronze Age burial sites from the era in which the Greek mainland came under the cultural influence of Crete. The graves were those of royal or leading Greek families. The graves, consisting of deep, rectangular shafts above stone-walled burial chambers, lie in two circles, with gold and silver and carvings of chariots. Beehive tombs

15. A beehive tomb, also known as a tholos tomb ("domed tombs"), is a burial structure characterized by its false dome created by rings smaller to larger mudbricks or, stones. The resulting structure resembles a beehive