Crete and Mycenae

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Crete and Mycenae

• CLA 210 Ross Scaife

See http//www.fhw.gr/chronos/02/crete/en/index2.
html
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Overview

• Distinctive Minoan culture develops in the 1st
  half of 2nd millennium strong Mycenaean
  ascendancy follows
• Egyptian and Theran connections reveal wider
  international relationships
• Possibly we also saw hints of trouble at Thera
  (recall the invasion fresco in the West House and
  boars tusk helmets hanging in the ships)

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Mycenaeans on Crete

• Destruction of new palaces c. 1500
• But Knossos continues in use
• Throne room seats new masters
• Linear B tablets indicate presence of new group
  speaking a different language (Greek)
• Artistic styles change too

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(No Transcript)
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Throne room, west side of Knossos (heavily
restored)
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(No Transcript)
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Linear B tablets
allotments of armor, chariots, and horses to
different men, probably warriors
Linear B is a principally syllabic script
written with some 89 different signs which have
been deciphered as representing both bare vowels
(i.e. a, e, i, o, u) and open syllables of the
form consonantvowel (e.g. pa, pe, pi, po, pu).
In addition to the syllabic signs there are over
one hundred ideograms (signs representing
physical objects, numerals, measures of weight
and of liquid and dry volumes, and a variety of
commodities). Forty-five of the Linear B syllabic
signs have close equivalents in Linear A... There
is therefore general scholarly consensus that
Linear B was derived from Linear A for the
purpose of writing a different, non-Minoan
language which happens to have been deciphered
by M. Ventris and J. Chadwick in 1952 as an
early form of Greek. - Rutter
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More samples of Linear B

• Koldos the shepherd holds a lease from the
  village 48 litres of wheat.
• One pair of wheels bound with bronze, unfit for
  service.
• Four slaves of Koradollos in charge of
  seed-corn.
• Two tripods Aigeus the Cretan brings them.

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The Linear B tablets have many personal names
and place-names but very little connected
descriptive Greek, making them hard to read
nonetheless, they are of enormous potential
value. Knossos seems to have been the only Cretan
center with a genuine archive recording income,
palace issues of expensive equipment like
chariots and bronze corselets, and outlays on
gifts to the gods (some Greek, some traditional
Cretan), mainly in the form of donations of oil
and cloth. The Knossos records are valuable in
allowing reconstruction of farming practices, the
wool industry, and military defense, as well as
in providing lists of personnel and places
scattered around the countryside of Crete that
owed or brought sheep and produce to the palace.
The bureaucratic apparatus seems to have been
well organized and extensive, whereas the rest of
Crete in the 14th and 13th centuries, though
rebuilt after the earlier disasters and the
abandonment of the 15th century and prosperous,
does not give evidence of the same degree of
control and record keeping. How far the
countryside was subservient to Knossos is not
known. Jeremy Rutter
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Late Minoan Painting

• Palace style pottery begins c. 1500
• Processional frescoes, tribute bearers
• Compare The Dancing Girl with La Parisienne
• Hagia Triada Sarcophagus

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Palace Style piriform jar with boars tusk
helmet motif
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Invasion scene from West House miniature fresco
at Thera
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Boars tusk helmets and armor from Dendra,near
Mycenae
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Palace Style amphora, with repeating labrys and
bulls head motifs
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LM III stirrup jar (right) Minoan Marine Style
(below)
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More Palace style amphorae
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The Mycenaean flavor of much of what is new in
LM II ceramics should be correlated with the
appearance of Mycenaean tomb types (especially
shaft and shaft-niche graves) and a Mycenaean
emphasis on the deposition of large quantities of
wealth in tombs (especially in the form of
weapons, metal vases, and jewelry) at about the
same time. Most authorities view these features,
all of which occur together in the so-called
"Warrior Graves" found in several distinct
cemeteries around Knossos at this time, as
evidence for the presence of a resident Mycenaean
population in the Knossos area, probably in the
form of a militarily dominant but numerically
insubstantial warrior aristocracy of some kind.
-- Jeremy Rutter
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Rhyton-Bearer Fresco from South Propylaia,
Palace of Minos at Knossos
Processional frescoes may reflect Mycenae tastes.
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La Parisienne
Dancing Girl
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Pigments used in Minoan frescoes
Immerwahr, S.A., Aegean Painting in the Bronze
Age, The Pennsylvania State University Press,
University Park and London 1990, p. 15.
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Hagia Triadha Sarcophagus
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Libations, procession, and spirit
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Model boats from an Egyptian tomb near the
pyramids
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"The pouring scene represents the mixing of
liquids, probably wine and water, in a krater in
honor of a goddess or goddesses symbolized by the
double axes mounted on either side of the krater.
The birds perched on the double axes probably
indicate the arrival of the deity(-ies) and have
been summoned by the music of the lyre...." The
ceremony takes place outside the tomb. "The
Minoan funerary libation would not require the
quantity of liquid being prepared in the krater,
and the scene might better be regarded as the
preparation for the Mycenaean funerary toast.
"The recipient in the presentation scene probably
represents the spirit of the deceased observing
that his obsequies are being performed with all
proper dignity and beginning to sink beneath the
ground on his way to the afterworld, as does the
ghost of Patroklos in the Iliad. His motionless
stance with arms concealed indicates he is
neither deity nor living human, nor is he wrapped
like an Egyptian mummy or laid out like the
corpses on the Tanagra larnakes. The rite being
performed may have been intended to secure for
the deceased a happy life after death in addition
to admission to the afterworld....The building
behind the recipient can be equated with the tomb
in which the sarcophagus was found.... The boat
might provide transportation for the journey to
the afterworld, and the cattle might represent
either sustenance for the journey or the bulls
supplied for funeral games in honor of the
deceased. The absence of parallels for the gifts
in cult presentation scenes may be evidence that
they are funerary. -- C. Long, The Ayia Triadha
Sarcophagus (Göteborg 1974).
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Other side procession, bull sacrifice, libation
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Tree shrine
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At the right is a shrine with a tree at its
center. To the left of the shrine is an altar,
above which is a libation jug and a basket-shaped
vase (kalathos) full of fruit (?). A woman stands
in front of the altar with her hands held palms
down above it. Behind her is a sacrificial table
on which a bull is strapped down for sacrifice.
Below the table and fixed in the ground is a
conical rhyton into which the bull's blood will
drain and thus seep into the earth. Next to the
rhyton and perhaps held in reserve for a second
stage of the sacrifice are two agrimia. Behind
the table is a flute player. Further to the left
is a procession of female figures, only the first
of whom is well preserved. This figure advances
to the right with her arms outstretched and palms
down. The indication of the hands' position and
the arrangements for the blood to drip into the
ground indicate that the sacrifice is to an earth
("chthonic") or underworld figure. It is probable
that this sacrifice is part of the funerary rites
on behalf of the deceased on the opposite
side. -- J. Rutter
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Next time
Mycenae
same bat time, same bat channel