The Grand Staircase, Pseira
Posted on 02/27/2021 4:57:54 PM PST by SunkenCiv
The small Minoan town on the island of Pseira was first excavated by the American archaeologist Richard Seager in the first decade of the 20th century and more recently by Philip P. Betancourt and Costis Davaras, whose work from 1986 provides much of the information used here. The town began life as a small settlement as early as the Final Neolithic period and continued to grow throughout the Minoan period, reaching its highpoint during the Late Minoan IB period when the Minoan palaces were also at their height...
A very impressive tall, steep flight of steps, known as the Grand Staircase, leads up from the beach to the town. Archaeologists have divided the town into four sections of which the two most impressive are Area A which extends from the top of the Grand Staircase southwards, down to the tip of the peninsula, and Area B, which extends uphill to the left of the Grand Staircase. Areas C and D are on the other side of the beach. Beyond Area D is the town cemetery.
(Excerpt) Read more at minoancrete.com ...
It's a good pic, but won't display for some blankity-blank reason.
First Minoan Shipwreck: An unprecedented find off the coast of Crete
Archaeology Magazine | January/February 2010 | Eti Bonn-Muller
Posted on 2/23/2010, 8:38:02 PM by SunkenCiv
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2457922/posts
Author of the website may be Ian Swindale, uploader of the vid.
And no hoop skirts. :^)
I wonder if the Minoans on Crete predate the Phoenicians in Lebanon.
Good question. They did. Minoans seem to have been all over the western Med first as well.
Who knows? Maybe they had hoop skirts but they were entirely made of organic materials.
According to R. W. Hutchinson, Prehistoric Crete (1962), there is no definite evidence for people in Crete in the Paleolithic period but acknowledges that the average archaeologist working in Crete might not recognize a Paleolithic artefact. I don't know if the picture has changed since 1962. Sir Arthur Evans found evidence of Neolithic habitation at Knossos. The Neolithic seems to go to about 3000 B.C. when the Early Minoan period starts. When the Neolithic era on Crete began is unclear. J.D.S. Pendlebury (a noted British archaeologist who was killed in the German invasion of Crete in 1941) says that Evans suggested that the Neolithic may go back as early as 8000 B.C. but Pendlebury thinks the earliest Neolithic settlers arrived at most a few centuries before 4000 B.C.
It may be that recent studies of the spread of farming from the Near East to Greece and Crete may give a clearer idea of when there were Neolithic inhabitants on Crete. They seem to be ancestral to the later Minoan population (but immigrants from Asia Minor could have entered Crete later as well).
The heyday of Minoan civilization is after 2000 B.C.
I'd post a pic of the Knossos Snake Goddess, but the reaction here to nipples (and a pagan totem) wouldn't be worth my time. :^) Big hoop-lookin' skirt on that beeotch.
What do you think of the myth (or perhaps not myth) that the Canaanites/Phoenicians originated around what is now Bahrain?
Reminds me of the time I took a Japanologist to see the Kanheri Buddhists caves in Bombay (dating to 300 BC). She was used to the esoteric Zen Buddhism so was, ahem, “surprised” to see the buddhist monks caves with paintings of big bosomed, tiny-waisted apsaras
Heh... a carving of lakshmi was found in Pompeii.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
