We know of the Minoans only through their ruins. Splendid as they are, with their remarkable architectural logic, their hypnotic art, and the richness of cultural artifacts, they spoke a language we don't understand and they wrote in a script which we can't read.
So the voices of the Minoans, their stories, their history as they understood it, is lost to us.
Even if we do by some miracle decipher their writing and penetrate the mists of their language, we may not end up with much of anything.
For all of their writing seems to be one thing: accounts and records.
The Minoans were, after all, a great mercantile people and they kept profoundly accurate records of their transactions.
The archaeological evidence points to only a few reasonable certainties about Minoan history.
Around 3000 BC, Crete was settled by a people who probably came from Asia Minor, who, by 2000 BC was already living in cities, trading with other nations in the Mediterranean, and employing a hieroglyphic system of writing, probably derived from Egyptian hieroglyphics.
This hieroglyphic writing would eventually evolve into a linear script. They built magnificent palace centers at Knossos, Phaistos, and Kato Zakros; these palaces seem to have dominated Cretan society.
We have no idea what language they spoke, but they certainly spoke a non-Hellenic language (that is, a language not closely related to Greek) and probably spoke a non-Indo-European language.
The Greeks called non-Hellenic languages "barbaric," from the word "barbar," which means "speaking nonsense" ("bar bar bar bar").
They called people who spoke barbaric languages, "barbarians"; so the Greeks in many ways distinguished themselves from other people by the language they spoke.
The Eteo-Cretans, then, originators of Greek civilization itself, had become the barbarians in the Greek world.
Minoan civilization was based on a society where there was little inequality amongst men and women (Hooker, 2009).
Women played an important role in public life as they served as priestesses, functionaries and administrators, and participated in all sports that Cretan males participated in (e.g. bull-jumping) (Hooker, 2009).
Women participated in all occupations that were available to men, including skilled craftswomen, entrepreneurs and bureaucrats (hooker, 2009).
Cretan society was matrilineal (mother’s kinship recognized) (Hooker, 2009).
Sacred symbols include the bull and its horns, the labrys, the serpent, and nature (Hooker, 2009).
Women traditionally wore clothing that left their breasts bare and a long skirt with a narrow waist, men wore a kilt or loincloth (Chadwick, 2009).
A social hierarchy was present dividing the people between nobles, citizens, and slaves (Hooker, 1996).
The majority of the population worked the land, as well as a small portion of Minoans produced crafts (Chadwick, 2009).
Religiously, the Minoan civilization worshipped female goddesses (Chadwick, 2009).
How were the different groups males/ females – aristocrats/commoners treated in the society?
Crete, so singular in everything else, seems to have avoided this.
Not only does Crete seem to be a class-based society where there is little class inequality, archaeological evidence suggests that women never ceased playing an important role in the public life of the cities.
They served as priestesses, as functionaries and administrators, and participated in all the sports that Cretan males participated in.
These were not backyard sports, either, like croquet. The most popular sports in Crete were incredibly violent and dangerous: boxing and bull-jumping. In bull-jumping, as near as we can tell from the representations of it, a bull would charge headlong into a line of jumpers.
Each jumper, when the bull was right on top of them, would grab the horns of the bull and vault over the bull in a somersault to land feet first behind the bull.
This is not a sport for the squeamish. All the representations of this sport show young women participating as well as men.
Women also seem to have participated in every occupation and trade available to men. The rapid growth of industry on Crete included skilled craftswomen and entrepreneurs, and the large, top-heavy bureaucracy and priesthood seems to have been equally staffed with women. In fact, the priesthood was dominated by women.
Although the palace kings were male, the society itself does not seem to have been patriarchal.
Evidence from Cretan-derived settlements on Asia Minor suggest that Cretan society was matrilineal, that is, kinship descent was reckoned through the mother.
We live in a patrilineal society; we spell out our descent on our father's side—that's why we take our father's last name and not our mother's last name.
While we can't be sure that Cretan society was matrilineal, it is a compelling conclusion since the religion was goddess-based.
·The protopalatial era began with social upheaval, external dangers, and migrations from mainland Greece and Asia Minor. ·During this time the Minoans began establishing colonies at Thera, Rodos, Melos, and Kithira. ·Around 2000 BC a new political system was established with authority concentrated around a central figure - a king. ·The first large palaces were founded and acted as centers for their respective communities, while at the same time they developed a bureaucratic administration which permeated Minoan society. ·Distinctions between the classes forged a social hierarchy and divided the people into ·nobles, peasants, and perhaps slaves.
Since we have only ruins and remains from Minoan culture, we can only guess at their religious practices.
We have no scriptures, no prayers, no books of ritual; all we have are objects and fragments all of which only hint at a rich and complex religious life and symbolic system behind their broken exteriors.
The most apparent characteristic of Minoan religion was that it was polytheistic and matriarchal, that is, a goddess religion; the gods were all female, not a single male god has been identified until later periods.
Many religious and cultural scholars now believe that almost all religions began as matriarchal religions, even the Hebrew religion (where Yahweh is frequently referred to as physically female), but adopted patriarchal models in later incarnations.
What precipitated the transition from goddess religions to god religions is still subject to much debate and controversy, but the adoption of a sedentary lifestyle because of agriculture may have fundamentally reoriented society towards patriarchal organization and the subsequent rethinking of goddess religions.
It is certain, however, that urbanization dramatically precipitated gender inequality as human life suddenly assumed a double quality: public life and private life.
The domination of public life, that is, administration, rule, and military organization, by men certainly produced a reorientation of religious beliefs.
The Cretans, however, do not seem to have evolved either gender inequality nor adapted their religion to a male-centered universe.
The legacy of the goddess religion seems to still be alive today. Both Greece and Crete are Greek Orthodox Christian.
In Greece, however, only women regularly swear by the name of the Virgin Mary, while in Crete both men and women swear by her name, particularly the epithet, "Panagia," or "All-Holy."
The head of the Minoan pantheon seems to have been an all-powerful goddess which ruled everything in the universe.
This deity was a mother deity, that is, her relationship to the world was as mother to offspring, which is a fundamentally different relation than the relationship of the father to his offspring.
This is an impossibly difficult difference to really understand, but Sigmund Freud in Moses and Monotheism hints at its fundamental aspect.
The relationship between a mother and offspring is a real, biological relationship that can be concretely demonstrated (the child comes from the mother).
The relationship to the father is also a biological relationship, but it can only be inferred (because the child doesn't come directly from the father's body).
It is inferred symbolically, that is, the child looks like the father.
One aspect of goddess religion, then, is a fundamentally closer relationship, kinship and otherwise, to the deity, wheras god religions tend to stress distance.
These, however, are only guesses because so little comes down to us about goddess religions of antiquity.
The world for the Minoans seems suffused with the divine; all objects in the world seem to have been charged with religious meaning.
The Minoans particularly worshipped trees, pillars (sacred stones), and springs.
The priesthood seems to have been almost entirely if not totally female, although there's evidence (precious little evidence) that the palace kings had some religious functions as well.
The Minoans worshipped goddesses.There seem to be several goddesses including a Mother Goddess of fertility, a Mistress of the Animals, a protectress of cities, the household, the harvest, and the underworld, and more.
Minoan sacred symbols include the bull and its horns of consecration, the labrys (double-headed axe), the pillar, the serpent, the sun-disk, and the tree.
It was assumed for many years that the Minoans were a non-violent and peaceful people.
Recently, however, archaeologists have uncovered evidence which raises doubts about many of the long held conceptions of Minoan Crete.
Recent finds, for example, uncovered at a temple structure near one of the palaces suggest to some that the Minoans might have engaged in human sacrifice.
Although not all agree that this was human sacrifice.
All archaeological evidence suggests that the Cretan states of the first half of the second millenium BC were bureaucratic monarchies.
While the government was dominated by priests and while the monarch seemed to have some religious functions, the principle role of the monarch seemed to be that of "chief entrepreneur," or better yet, CEO of the Cretan state.
For the Cretans operated their state as a business, and entrepreneurship seemed to be the order of the day. While the bulk of the population enjoyed the wealth of international trading, the circumstances of that trade was tightly controlled from the palace.
Beneath the king was a large administration of scribes and bureaucrats who carefully regulated production and distribution both within the state and without.
This administration kept incredibly detailed records, which implies that they exercised a great deal of control over the economy.
Was controlled by several city-states, the palaces, which were ruled over by a king and queen or a king and queen working with either a senate or a council of elders
Built housing for all their citizens not just royalty
Was a society of free citizens based on several classes of income
Gave their women just as many rights as their male counterparts
Gave their slaves the same rights as other Minoans minus the permission to participate in religious ceremonies
Used collective tombs for burial and both the rich and royal were buried along side one another
Worshipped one goddess with many faces, most likely, or multiple goddesses
Had no gods in their religion until late in their history and the gods that eventually appeared only appeared to serve as the husbands and sons of their goddesses
Worshipped nature in all its forms such as trees, springs, hillsides, etc
Not only had temples of worship in almost all their houses but they also had temples throughout Crete usually on a hilltop over looking bodies of water, a grove of trees, etc
Used the courtyards of their palace centers for religious ceremonies
The Minoans had their own language now referred to as Eteocretan, though little is known about it. It was written in a number of different scripts over the centuries.
Approximately 3,000 tablets bearing writing have been discovered so far, many apparently being inventories of goods or resources.
Between around 1900-1700 BC, hieroglyphics were used by the Minoans; this was succeeded by the Linear A script (1700-1450 BC), and Linear B (1450-1400 BC).
Minoan men wore loincloths and kilts. Women wore robes that were open to the navel and had short sleeves and flounced skirts. The patterns on clothes emphasized symmetrical geometric designs.
The statues of priestesses in Minoan culture and frescoes showing men and women participating in the same sports (usually bull-leaping) lead some archaeologists to believe that men and women held equal social status, and that inheritance might even have been matrilineal. The frescos include many depictions of people, with the sexes distinguished by colour: the men's skin is reddish-brown, the women's white. The colour serves as an identifying code in the pictures.
Chadwick, John. "Minoan Civilization." Encyclopedia Americana. 2009. Grolier Online. 18 Apr. 2009 <http://ea.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=0272080-00>.
History of Minoan Crete. Ancient Greece. 13 April 2009 http://www.ancient-greece.org/history/minoan.html.
Hooker, Richard. Ancient Greek Civilizations. (1996). 14 April 2009 <http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/aegean/pre-greece/minoan/minoan.html>.
Hooker, Richard. The History of the Minoans. 14 April 2009 <http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/MINOA/HISTORY.HTM>.
Hooker, Richard. Women in Minoan Culture. 14 April 2009 http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/MINOA/WOMEN.HTM.
How were the different groups males/ females – aristocrats/commoners treated in the society?
- Crete, so singular in everything else, seems to have avoided this.
- Not only does Crete seem to be a class-based society where there is little class inequality, archaeological evidence suggests that women never ceased playing an important role in the public life of the cities.
- They served as priestesses, as functionaries and administrators, and participated in all the sports that Cretan males participated in.
- These were not backyard sports, either, like croquet. The most popular sports in Crete were incredibly violent and dangerous: boxing and bull-jumping. In bull-jumping, as near as we can tell from the representations of it, a bull would charge headlong into a line of jumpers.
- Each jumper, when the bull was right on top of them, would grab the horns of the bull and vault over the bull in a somersault to land feet first behind the bull.
- This is not a sport for the squeamish. All the representations of this sport show young women participating as well as men.
- Women also seem to have participated in every occupation and trade available to men. The rapid growth of industry on Crete included skilled craftswomen and entrepreneurs, and the large, top-heavy bureaucracy and priesthood seems to have been equally staffed with women. In fact, the priesthood was dominated by women.
- Although the palace kings were male, the society itself does not seem to have been patriarchal.
- Evidence from Cretan-derived settlements on Asia Minor suggest that Cretan society was matrilineal, that is, kinship descent was reckoned through the mother.
- We live in a patrilineal society; we spell out our descent on our father's side—that's why we take our father's last name and not our mother's last name.
- While we can't be sure that Cretan society was matrilineal, it is a compelling conclusion since the religion was goddess-based.
· The protopalatial era began with social upheaval, external dangers, and migrations from mainland Greece and Asia Minor.· During this time the Minoans began establishing colonies at Thera, Rodos, Melos, and Kithira.
· Around 2000 BC a new political system was established with authority concentrated around a central figure - a king.
· The first large palaces were founded and acted as centers for their respective communities, while at the same time they developed a bureaucratic administration which permeated Minoan society.
· Distinctions between the classes forged a social hierarchy and divided the people into
· nobles, peasants, and perhaps slaves.
Hooker, Richard. The History of the Minoans. 14 April 2009 <http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/MINOA/HISTORY.HTM>.
Hooker, Richard. Minoan Religion. 14 April 2009 <http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/MINOA/RELIGION.HTM>.
Minoan Civilization. Phantis. 14 April 2009 <http://wiki.phantis.com/index.php/Minoan_civilization#Politics>.
The Minoans of Crete. 14 April 2009
<http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:FBKcmutNJO0J:worldofkorangar.com/minoans/THE_MINOANS_OF_CRETE.PPT+major+events+of+Minoan+Greece&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca>.
Minoan Civilization. Phantis. 14 April 2009 <http://wiki.phantis.com/index.php/Minoan_civilization#Politics>.
Minoan Civilization. Phantis. 14 April 2009 <http://wiki.phantis.com/index.php/Minoan_civilization#Politics>.
Violet. Reclusive Leftist. 10 May 2009 http://www.reclusiveleftist.com/2007/06/26/in-addition-to-running-water-and-flush-toilets-the-ancient-minoans-had-also-mastered-cloning/.
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