Minoan Frescoes at Tel Kabri: Aegean Art in Bronze Age Israel

Biblical Archaeology Review ^ | 6/21/2013 | Noah Wiener

[SunkenCiv]

Over 100 years of excavations on Crete have exposed elegant Minoan frescoes that once adorned the walls of the island’s Bronze Age palaces. This distinctively colorful Aegean art style flourished in the Middle Bronze Age (1750-1550 B.C.). The nearby inhabitants of Akrotiri, a city on the Cycladic island of Thera (modern Santorini), painted numerous artworks in the style of the Minoan frescoes before the island was decimated by a volcanic eruption in the late 17th or 16th century B.C.

Until recently, there was no archaeological evidence of Minoan frescoes beyond the islands of the Aegean. Art exhibiting Aegean characteristics has been uncovered at recent excavations in Egypt, Syria and Turkey—and at the Canaanite palace of Tel Kabri in Israel. In the July/August issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Tel Kabri excavators Eric H. Cline and Assaf Yasur-Landau explore how Aegean art, architecture and painted plaster fragments, reminiscent of Minoan frescoes, ended up at Canaanite Tel Kabri.

Aegean art at Tel Kabri was first discovered in 1989, when Aharon Kempinksi and Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier uncovered a checkerboard floor with depictions of Aegean flora as well as 2,000 painted plaster fragments exhibiting characteristics similar to Minoan frescoes. The current Tel Kabri excavation, under the direction of BAR authors Eric H. Cline and Assaf Yasur-Landau,* has uncovered many more pieces of painted wall plaster. In addition to Aegean art, the team recently exposed an expensive building lined with Aegean-style orthostat blocks and dowel holes similar to those found in Aegean palaces.

Why would the Canaanite ruler of Tel Kabri want to adorn his palace with Aegean art reminiscent of Crete’s Minoan frescoes?

[SunkenCiv]

Excavations at Tel Kabri have uncovered fragments of painted plaster reflecting an Aegean art style seen on Cycladic and Minoan frescoes. Why did the Canaanite ruler of Tel Kabri employ Aegean art and architecture? Photo: Nurith Goshen.

[gorush]

So old and, yet, so young. :{)

[SatinDoll]

Because...they were Philistines.

[SunkenCiv]

Remains of Minoan-style painting discovered during excavations of Canaanite palace
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2383594/posts

Did Unemployed Minoan Artists Land Jobs in Ancient Egypt?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2422780/posts

New Fragments of Aegean-Style Painted Plaster from Tel Kabri, Israel
http://www.ajaonline.org/node/847

http://digkabri2013.wordpress.com/2013-season/

https://www.google.com/images?q=Tel+Kabri&oe=utf-8&hl=en&sa=X

Theses for the Reconstruction of Ancient History (#26, 27, 99-)
http://www.varchive.org/ce/theses.htm

Beth-Shan
http://www.varchive.org/ce/bethshan.htm

“The Scandal of Enkomi”
http://www.varchive.org/dag/enkomi.htm

[SunkenCiv]

One of *those* topics.

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[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

:’)

http://www.phoenixdatasystems.com/goliath/contents.htm

[SunkenCiv]

http://www.algora.com/52/book/details.html

[Berosus]

Ten years ago, Manfred Bietak discovered a small palace at Tell ed-Daba in the eastern Nile delta, decorated with Minoan-style art. He dated it to the beginning of the New Kingdom. I’m sure there’s a connection with the one in Israel.

[what's up]

I have heard something close...that the Philistines were Myceneans.

"Phil" + "Hestia"...in Greek "love of the hearth" = Philistine.

My understanding is there is a good chance that after Troy when the dark ages came upon Greece the Myceneans moved to Canaan in large numbers.

Although I believe a few had already lived there for some time because "The Way of the Philistines" (the path Moses did not take which is mentioned in the Book Of Exodus) was already in existence (c. 1440 BC).

[bigheadfred]

LOL

[SunkenCiv]

Ahmose’s Links with Minoan Crete
http://www.specialtyinterests.net/dyn18.html#almc

Evidence for the Mycenaean Age Paralleling the El Amarna Age
http://www.specialtyinterests.net/dyn18.html#evm

Hammurabi and the Revised Chronology
http://www.varchive.org/ce/hammurabi.html

Mycenae and Scythia
http://www.varchive.org/dag/mas.htm

Haremhab’s Great Edict
http://www.varchive.org/tac/haredict.htm

The First Greeks in Egypt
http://www.varchive.org/tac/greeks.htm

Caphtor
http://www.varchive.org/ce/baalbek/caphtor.htm

Tarshish
http://www.varchive.org/ce/baalbek/tarshish.htm

Tarshish
http://www.varchive.org/nldag/tarshish.htm

Sicily
http://www.varchive.org/dag/sicily.htm

[SunkenCiv]

I posted above a few links about that. :’)

[SunkenCiv]

The only www ref I could find was here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2745507/posts?page=45#45

The Trojan War didn’t take place until centuries after the Exodus, and there is no trace of a Greek Dark Age — the latter results from the conventional pseudochronology of Egypt.

[yarddog]

Crete has always fascinated me. For one thing it’s origins seem to be almost totally lost.

There are hints. In Greek Mythology, Crete is the powerhouse of the Mediterranean while Athens is just a small backwater. I think it was mysterious even to the ancient Greeks.

[SunkenCiv]

http://www.phoenixdatasystems.com/goliath/c1.htm

[snip] Abimelech, whose name is Semitic, was king of the Philistines. His captain, Phicol, had a non-Semitic name. [/snip]

http://www.phoenixdatasystems.com/goliath/c5/c5a.htm

[snip] Since we do not yet possess sufficient epigraphic material of a Philistine language (with the exceptions perhaps of the Deir Alla tablets and the seal at Ashdod, both still undeciphered), this etymology for Achish may be premature. The commentary also cites Mitchell (1967, 415), who points out that the name Achish was found on an Eighteenth Dynasty (Late Bronze Age) Egyptian writing board with Cretan (kftyw) names... The name Goliath, like Achish, is not Semitic, but rather Anatolian (McCarter 1980, 291, Mitchell 1967, 415; Wainwright 1959, 79). [/snip]

http://www.phoenixdatasystems.com/goliath/c4/c4a.htm

[snip] The most striking finds in this Deir el-Balah dig site were uncovered while excavating the cemetery, namely, anthropoid clay coffins with removable lids in the shape of heads. None of the heads pictured on these coffins, however, wore the feathered headdress of the Sea Peoples (see p. 59); their headgear was of an Egyptian style. [/snip]

http://www.phoenixdatasystems.com/goliath/endnotes.htm

[snip] 11. Albright uses the study of names and the Luwian dialect to place the origin of the Philistines in southwest Anatolia... 1. Naveh (1985, 9, 13 n. 14) states that Ikausu, the name of the king of Ekron in the seventh century b.c., is a non-Semitic name that can be associated with that of the Achish of Gath in David’s time. The name in the seventh century has a shin ending that is non-West Semitic. [/snip]

[yarddog]

Some of these History Channel shows are so bad that I hesitate to mention it but here goes anyway.

Maybe 5 years ago they had one about ancient Israel and the Philistines. They actually called the Philistines (The Sea People) and suggested they came from Greece.

[SunkenCiv]

Anthropoid Coffins from Deir el-Balah
http://pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il/~msjan/coffins.html

Uncovering an Egyptian Outpost in Canaan from the Time of the Exodus [sic]
http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/reviews/deir-el-balah/

Deir el-Balah: A Geological, Archaeological, and Historical Reassessment of an Egyptianizing 13th and 12th Century B.C.E. Center [pdf]
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/25066966?uid=3739656&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21102171744753

[SunkenCiv]

URL too long

[SunkenCiv]

Yeah, that comes up once in a while (the idea, not the show). I think there was at least one topic about that very idea, and perhaps about that show — maybe Jacobovich? He tried to make the (mythical) mid-2nd m BC Thera supereruption responsible for parting of the Red Sea, a tsunami which drowned the pharaoh’s army, and then attributed somebody or other to, hmm, the Mycenaeans? Minoans? (because a volcano hundreds of miles away can manipulate huge bodies of water by remote control) I have that disk around here, uh, somewhere. James Cameron produced it. Ah, there were a bunch of ‘em:

https://www.google.com/search?q=jacobovici+exodus+site:freerepublic.com

Philistines Sea Peoples:
https://www.google.com/search?q=philistines+sea+peoples+site%3Afreerepublic.com