1. Mainland Near East Aegean Art Title: The Aegean World
In the area surrounding the Aegean Sea; 3 different cultures existed from the Bronze Age (3000 BCE) to c BCE
each centered around a different location
each peaked at diff times
and characterized by diff traits
all physical locations of many well-known, later, Greek myths
Aegean Art

2. Near East Egypt Aegean area relative to Near East, Europe and Egypt
Aegean relative to other Europe, Near East and Egypt—ignore the fact that this map shows cultures of 1740—was only good image I could find of the whole region
Egypt
Aegean area relative to Near East, Europe and Egypt

3. Cyclades; small islands;
3 Aegean cultures:
Cyclades; small islands;
peak = Bronze Age, c BCE; characterized by marble figures, mostly women and musicians
Minoan; Crete;
peak = 1900 – 1450 BCE; characterized by elaborate buildings, colorful paintings, work in precious materials
Mycenae; Mainland Greece;
peak = 1600 – 1100 BCE; characterized by fortified citadels, tombs, gold and bronze work
c – 900 BCE; period of turmoil in the region caused most of their written record to be lost or forgotten, so little was known about these cultures until the 19th century when a couple archeologists inspired by Homer’s Illiad and Odyssey decided to search for the actual locations of those stories.
Cyclades = sickladees
Mycenae = myseenee
In present-day Turkey, they found what is now believed to be Homer’s Troy (in one of the layers of excavation).
Almost all of what we know about these three cultures has been learned from their surviving art and architecture, because of the lost records, and the fact that they have only so recently been studied.

4. Cyclades; c BCE
-small islands in the Aegean Sea (approx. 30)
-origins of the culture are obscure, but thriving culture by late Neolithic/early Bronze Age
-sea faring people; items found on shipwrecks indicate trade with Egypt and Near East
-most identified with carved white marble figurines, usually of women (left) and musicians (below)
-some male figures found, including musicians and acrobats
-small size might be b/c the stone fractured easily
-carvings originally painted
-harpist is fully developed sculpture-in-the-round, though still simplified form
Named Cyclades refers to the circular arrangement of the islands surrounding traditionally sacred island of Delos
Known for their skill with bronze using imported ores from Europe and the Near East during the bronze age—bronzes were prized for export
By middle and later Bronze Age, the culture of the Cyclades was subsumed by Minoan, and later, Mycenean culture
Artist: cyclades
Title: Two figures of women; Harp Player
Medium: Marble
Size: heights 13" (33 cm) and 25" (63.4 cm); Harp Player = 11” tall
Date: c. 2500–2200 BCE
Source/Museum: Cyclades. / Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens. Courtesy of the N. P. Goulandris Foundation.

5. Cycladic sculpture, Menil Collection, Houston
Cycladic Art; Menil Collection; Houston
Figures are very stylized, not just simplified—shapes are not just broken down into essential forms (like ovals for the head), but transferred into other shapes, like the triangle (instead of the oval) for the head 5

6. Minoan Civilization on Crete; c. 1900 BCE to 1375
-Crete: largest island in the Aegean
-Discovered by 19th century British archeologist Sir Arthur Evans; he named it Minoan after the legend of King Minos (whose wife had a half- man, half-monster son with god Poseidon; Minotaur)
-Knossos; palace complex
-Culture divided into 2 periods:
-Old Palace, c – 1700 BCE
-New Palace, c – 1450 BCE

7. Palace Complex at Knossos; as it would have appeared (reconstructed above) during the New Palace Period
Palace was rebuilt from Old Palace Period after it was destroyed by earthquakes and fires
Palace site had been occupied since Neolithic times, then built over in Bronze Age
Term “palace” implies Kings—common term for 19th century archeologists, but we don’t really know social or political structure of the society, so we don’t know if they had kings, or if they lived here
Outside made of mud bricks and rubble covered with dressed stone (1st use of dressed stone in Aegean)—inside wood columns and other interior elements
Evidence of workshops in and around the complex and stone lined pits for grain storage; also living quarters
Complex itself is on squarish plan with central courtyard. Living quarters had sunlit courtyards and colorful painted murals
Minoan
Title: Reconstruction of the palace complex, Knossos, Crete; Knossos, aerial photograph of the site

8. Pendant of Gold Bees; Minoan, Old Palace; c. 1700-1550 BCE; ~2” high
Old Palace artists developed sophisticated ceramics and metalwork
Kamares ceramics: thin walls, good color and graceful, stylized painted decoration
Metalwork rivaled Near East and Egyptian work
Artist: n/a
Title: Kamares Ware Jug
Medium: Ceramic
Size: height 10 ⅝" (27 cm)
Date: c. 2000–1900 BCE
Source/Museum: Phaistos, Crete / Archaeological Museum, Iraklion, Crete
Title: Pendant of Gold Bees
Medium: Gold
Size: height approx. 1 13⁄16" (4.6 cm)
Date: Old Palace Period, c. 1700–1550 BCE
Source/Museum: Chryssolakkos, near Mallia, Crete / Archaeological Museum, Iraklion, Crete
Kamares Ware Jug; Minoan, Old Palace; c BCE; ~11” tall

9. New Palace Period: c. 1700-1450 BCE
-Palace at Knossos rebuilt after c eruption on Cycladic island of Thera and earthquake destroyed most of it
-New Palace period considered “flowering of Minoan art”
-Later Greek legends referred to the palace as the “Labyrinth,” which means “house of the double axes.” The double axe motif was used throughout the palace. The palace layout was so complex and confusing that labyrinth eventually came to mean maze, and became part of the Minotaur myth.
-Confusing layout possibly designed for defense; also partially the result of successive rebuilding and additions over the centuries
Analysis shows that builders originally laid out the complex on a grid plan, but had to adapt to earthquake damage, causing part of the confusing layout.
Like old palace tradition, rooms are arranged along a central space, not a long axis like in Egypt
Minotaur myth: the minotaur monster lived in the labyrinth and every year demanded human flesh, so King Minos ordered 14 young men from Athens to be sent as a sacrifice yearly. Theseus (son of king Aegeus in Athens) wanted to free his people from this by killing the monster, so a princess from Crete, Ariadne, gave him a sword and thread (to find his way out of the maze) and he defeated the monster.
Theseus was supposed to raise a white flag on return to Athens to signify success, but forgot to, and so his dad threw himself into the sea, and that’s how it got the name Aegean.

10. Characterized by colorful wall murals called Frescos
New Palace painting:
Characterized by colorful wall murals called Frescos
buon fresco; painted on wet plaster
fresco secco; painted on dry plaster
Preferred colors: red, yellow, black, white, green and blue
Flat areas of color and outlined shapes
Much inspiration from the natural world and turned natural forms into stylized decorative patterns
Artist: new palace Minoan
Title: Young Girl Gathering Saffron Crocus Flowers
Medium: Detail of wall painting
Size: n/a
Date: 1630 BCE
Source/Museum: Room 3 of House Xeste 3, Akrotiri, Thera / Thera Foundation, Petros M Nomikos, Greece

11. Unlike anything previously encountered in ancient art—just landscape; no people. Band of blue, yellow and orange over the rocks may reflect actual shadow colors in the area
Feels like a celebration of life and nature—very different from the stiff, static work of the Egyptians
Artist: Minoan
Title: Landscape (Spring Fresco)
Medium: Wall painting with areas of modern reconstruction
Size: n/a
Date: Before 1630 BCE
Source/Museum: From Akrotiri, Thera Cyclades / National Archaeological Museum, Athens

12. Wall painting with areas of modern reconstruction Height approx. 24 ½“
From a room at Knossos with several paintings of bulls as the subject. One of the most famous Minoan images. May represent an initiation or fertility ritual.
Artist: new palace Minoan
Title: Bull Leaping
Medium: Wall painting with areas of modern reconstruction
Size: Height approx. 24 ½" (62.3 cm)
Date: Late Minoan period, c. 1550–1450 BCE
Source/Museum: From the palace complex, Knossos, Crete / Archaeological Museum, Iraklion, Crete
Bull Leaping
Wall painting with areas of modern reconstruction
Height approx. 24 ½“
Late Minoan period, c. 1550–1450 BCE
From the palace complex, Knossos, Crete

13. Woman with Snakes found at Knossos (New Palace); ~12” high. Faience.
Minoan sculpture:
Usually small
Carved from wood, ivory, precious metals, stone and faience (like Egyptian hippo)
Woman with Snakes found at Knossos (New Palace); ~12” high. Faience.
Found in a storage pit with other ceremonial objects
Typical flounced Minoan skirt
Scholars don’t know if this represents a goddess or a human priestess/attendant
Artist: Minoan
Title: Woman Or Goddess with Snakes
Medium: Faience
Size: height 11⅝" (29.5 cm)
Date: New Palace period, c. 1700–1550 BCE
Source/Museum: As restored, from the palace complex, Knossos, Crete / Archaeological Museum, Iraklion, Crete

14. Rhyton: vessel for pouring liquid
-Minoans carved them from steatite (greenish or brown soap stone)
-Almost certainly for ceremonial purposes
-May have been covered in gold leaf
Harvester Vase; New Palace period; 4 ½” diameter
-Shows lively depiction of the figures in space, with open mouths (chanting)
Much more exuberant image of people than we have seen anywhere else.
Artist: Minoan New Palace
Title: Harvester Vase
Medium: Steatite
Size: diameter 4 ½" (11.3 cm)
Date: New Palace Period, c. 1650–1450 BCE
Source/Museum: Hagia Triada, Crete / Archaeological Museum, Iraklion, Crete

15. Minoan; New Palace period Bull’s-Head Rhyton
Steatite with shell rock crystal and red jasper the gilt-wood horns restored
height 12"
c.1550–1450 BCE
Very realistic rendering of the bull—detail and realism not seen since prehistoric cave paintings in Europe
Title: Bull’s-Head Rhyton
Medium: Steatite with shell rock crystal and red jasper the gilt-wood horns restored
Size: height 12" (30.5 cm)
Date: c.1550–1450 BCE
Source/Museum: Palace complex, Knossos, Crete / Archaeological Museum, Iraklion, Crete

16. Decoration is more naturalistic, loose
Minoan New Palace Ceramics: tradition of Old Palace Kamares ware continues.
Decoration is more naturalistic, loose
“Marine style”- depicts sea life
Artist: Minoan new palace
Title: Octopus Flask
Medium: Marine style ceramic
Size: height 11" (28 cm)
Date: c. 1500–1450 BCE
Source/Museum: Palaikastro, Crete / Archaeological Museum, Iraklion, Crete
Title: Vapheio Cup
Medium: Gold
Size: height 3 ½" (3.9 cm)
Date: c. 1650–1450 BCE
Source/Museum: Found near Sparta, Greece / Archaeological Museum, Iraklion, Crete
Shows men trying to capture bulls in various ways. Olive trees could mean it’s a sacred grove, indicating it could show a story from some lost heroic tale
Minoan New Palace Metalwork: Minoan metalworkers were highly sought after by the Myceneans (culture from mainland, gaining power by 1400 BCE)
This cup, found on mainland, either made by Minoans, or by Minoan trained metalworker

17. Myceneans:
-On the mainland (of what became Greece), a Greek-speaking people moved in from the North c BCE and displaced the Neolithic culture there
-Culture referred to by scholars as Helladic (from the word Hellas, the Greek name for Greece)
-Culture existed concurrently with Cycladic and Minoan cultures in the Aegean
-By 1450 BCE; Minoan culture in the Aegean is in decline and a Helladic people called Mycenean, (named for mainland city of Mycenae) came to dominate the Aegean
-Myceneans rule c – 1100 BCE

18. Also buried their dead in elaborate, vaulted tombs made of cut stone
Mycenean architecture differs from Minoan in that they built well fortified citadels for protection
Also buried their dead in elaborate, vaulted tombs made of cut stone
Site occupied since Neolithic times
Walls rebuilt 3x from 1340 – 1200 BCE—each time, stronger and enclosed more space
Lion Gate; installed in 1250 BCE wall construction
Ruler’s residence is highest pt of the city; residence contained large audience hall: megaron—more direct then complex Minoan structures
Artist: Mycenean
Title: Citadel at Mycenae (Aerial View); Title: Reconstruction of Citadel At Mycenae
Date: Site occupied c. 1600–1200 BCE; walls built C. 1340, 1250, 1200 BCE
Source/Museum: Greece

19. Lion Gate; c. 1250 BCE, Mycenean
Opens to “Great Ramp”—formal entranceway into the citadel
Similar to Near Eastern entry-ways with lion/animal guardian figures, but significance of these animals is not really known
Heads are gone, so we don’t actually know if they are lions—bodies look like it, but could have had different heads—eagle heads (griffins); human heads (sphinxes). Not even clear if the animals were male or female—no genitalia. Heads might have been gold leafed.
Lions stand on mycenean alter, which supports a column.
Might be the symbol of a palace, or a king or deity—not known; either way, impressive, important entrance to the citadel
Artist: Mycenean
Title: Lion Gate, Mycenae
Date: c BCE
Source/Museum: Historic photo

20. Earliest burials in shaft graves; 20-25 ft deep
Mycenean Tombs:
Became most sophisticated architectural structures of the entire Aegean period
Earliest burials in shaft graves;
20-25 ft deep
Wealthy dead were laid out with
jewelry and other riches
Mask of Agamemnon found in a
shaft grave
Shaft grave
Above ground tombs were looted before the 19th c; but some shaft tombs were not. 19th c archeologists found 30 lbs of gold objects in the shaft graves of royals on Mycenae. ($500,000 today)
Mask originally thought to be the mask of Agamemnon b/c 19th c thought Mycenae was his home, but this mask was not his and has nothing to do w/ the trojan war. In Greek myth, Agamembon was the king thought to have led the Myceneans against the Trojans in the Trojan war
Mask is very different from others found at the site, and some think Schliemann (archeologist) added features like the mustache to make it seem more heroic by his culture’s standards
Artist: Mycenean
Title: “Mask of Agamemnon”
Medium: Gold
Size: height approx. 12"(35 cm)
Date: c. 1600–1550 BCE
Source/Museum: Funerary mask, from the royal tombs, Grave Circle A, Mycenae, Greece / National Archaeological Museum, Athens

21. Other fine metalwork found in shaft graves: Dagger Blade (above)
Golden Lion’s Head Rhyton (right)
Dagger made by cutting out shapes of copper, silver & gold and inlaid them into the bronze blade; fine detail added with niello (lead, silver, copper and sulphur alloy rubbed into engraved details). Shows a lion attacking a deer.
Artist: Mycenean
Title: Dagger Blade with Lion Hunt
Medium: Bronze inlaid with gold, silver, and niello
Size: length 9⅜" (23.8 cm)
Date: c. 1550–1500 BCE
Source/Museum: Shaft Grave IV, Grave Circle A, Mycenae, Greece / Archaeological Museum, Athens
Title: Golden Lion’s Head Rhyton
Date: sixteenth century BCE
Source/Museum: Shaft grave IV, south of Lion gate, Mycenae, / National Archaeological Museum, Athens

22. More than 100 such tombs have been found
By 1600 BCE, on the mainland, rulers began to be buried in above-ground burial places called tholos tombs, or beehive tombs, because of their rounded, conical shape
More than 100 such tombs have been found
Treasury of Atreus; c BCE
Treasury of Atreus; c BCE; remarkable engineering feat b/c of size of corbelled arch roof inside; height of 43’ and diameter of 47’ the next European structure to out do it was the Pantheon in Rome built in the 1st cent, CE—1300 years later
Artist: Mycenean
Title: Cutaway Drawing of Tholos,
One of most grand tholos tombs
Original entrance 34’ high with 16’ door, faced with bronzed plaques

23. Two Women with A Child; Ivory; height 2¾“; c. 1400–1200 BCE
Mycenean sculpture heavily influenced by Minoans—either copied their style or hired Minoan artists to make the work. This carved grouping (3” high) shows traditional Minoan skirts and natural observation (think snake woman sculpture).
Don’t know what the scene represents
Evidence of Minoan artistic influence on Mycenae
Title: Two Women with A Child
Medium: Ivory
Size: height 2¾" (7.5 cm)
Date: c. 1400–1200 BCE
Source/Museum: Found in the palace at Mycenae, Greece, / National Archaeological Museum, Athens
Two Women with A Child; Ivory; height 2¾“; c. 1400–1200 BCE

24. Warrior Vase; Ceramic; height 16“; c. 1300–1100 BCE
Myceneans continued the fine ceramic work of the Minoans—decoration on this late vase shows less emotion than Minoan examples (Harvester Vase) and more regularity; marching soldiers, but characteristically Aegean features
Between 1100 – 900 BCE; period of turmoil overtakes the Aegean, but a new Helladic culture (the Greeks) is forming and it will look back on the Aegean cultures as the source for many legends and myths.
Title: Warrior Vase
Medium: Ceramic
Size: height 16"(41 cm)
Date: c. 1300–1100 BCE
Warrior Vase; Ceramic; height 16“; c. 1300–1100 BCE

25. The Low-Down