Posted on 07/30/2005 7:03:20 PM PDT by Little Bill
Excavated in the summer of 1979, this four-room building set within a low enclosure (temenos) wall serves as a reminder that our views about a past culture may be subject to sudden and drastic change as the result of a single new discovery. The building, oriented roughly to the cardinal points and entered from the north, lies on the northern slopes of Mt. Iuktas some seven kilometers south of Knossos
. In plan, it consists of an east-west corridor at the front off of which open three non-connecting rectangular rooms oriented north-south. In the east room were found large numbers of clay vessels containing agricultural produce, many of them arranged on a series of three steps, perhaps an altar, at the back (south) end of the room.
In the central room, more vases containing agricultural produce were found. These too tended to be located toward the south (rear) end of the room, in the vicinity of a raised platform on which were found two terracotta feet, all that remained, in the excavators' opinion, of a cult statue made mostly of wood, only the carbonized remains of which were actually discovered.
Near the statue and its base, part of the limestone bedrock was left exposed above floor level rather than being cut down and the excavators identify this outcrop as a "sacred stone" over which blood offerings may have been poured.
In the west room, three skeletons were found in positions which indicated that all three had met a violent end: (1) An 18-year-old male, the skeleton so tightly contracted that he is considered to have been trussed in a fashion comparable to that of the sacrificial bull on the Ayia Triadha sarcophagus, was found lying on his right side on a platform in the center of the room.
Among his bones was a bronze dagger 0.40 m. long, on each side of which was incised the frontal head of a boar. Close beside the platform (or sacrificial altar) had stood a pillar with a trough around its base, the trough probably designed to catch the blood from animal (and human) sacrifices. The dead youth's bones were discolored in such a way (those on his upper/left side being white, those on his lower/right side being black) as to suggest to a visiting physical anthropologist that the youth, estimated to have been 5' 5" tall, had died from loss of blood. (2) A 28-year-old female of medium build was found spreadeagled in the southwest corner of the room. (3) A male in his late thirties, 6' tall, was found on his back near the sacrificial platform, his hands raised as though to protect his face, his legs broken by fallen building debris. On the little finger of his left hand he wore a ring of silver and iron. On a thong around his wrist he wore a stone seal on which the intaglio device was a boat.
In the corridor constituting the front room of the building, aside from rows of still more vessels containing agricultural produce, was found a fourth skeleton, too poorly preserved for sex and age to be determinable. Scattered widely around this body were found 105 joining fragments of a bucket-shaped clay vessel bearing a red-spotted bull in relief as decoration on one side.
This was the only vase of the roughly four hundred vessels recovered from the building to be found littered over such a wide area, and the excavators theorize that it was dropped in the corridor by the fourth person when (s)he was felled by the collapsing debris of the building.
The sanctuary was destroyed by fire, probably as the result of an earthquake, at the end of MM II, possibly in the same earthquake which destroyed the Old Palaces at Knossos and Phaistos at this time. The collapsing roof and masonry of the upper walls killed three of the four individuals found within the structure, but the eighteen-year-old was probably already dead..
I agree, in that I think that people have a misconseption of the peaceful, loving, artsy, people (sarcasm) who inhabited Minoan Crete in the Bronze age.
Because of the artistic talants of the Minoans the lefty flower children of our Universities have impressed their idealistic beliefs on their interpitations of the Minoan culture.
http://www.fhw.gr/chronos/02/crete/images/thriskia/anemospila.gif
Temple reconstruction.
http://www.uk.digiserve.com/mentor/minoan/anemospilia.htm
Temple to day, thanx to sunken civ
Hmmm, if these weren't highly educated scientists, I would have read that scene, as boy rapes and kills girl, gets killed by girl's father, who burns down the place in his dispair. All of this happening in the mens room (urinal at base of piller).
But that's why they don't invite me on these digs.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
"Wow, and what do you call your act?"
"The Aristocrats!"
Of possible interest to this thread:
"Although long thought to be a peaceful people, recent evidence uncovered at a temple structure near one of the palaces shows that the Minoans engaged in human sacrifice."
From
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/History/Minoans.html
When I was there a few years back (absolutely beautiful place to visit), it was commonly acknowledged that Minoans practiced human sacrifice and although not "warlike" - whatever that means - were ready willing and able to defend their mercantile interests through their ships and the Minoan Civiliation is often called a "thalossocracy" that is, a "sea power" - though most of the ships seemed to have been used defensively (against pirates and the like) and not offensive in nature.
:') The Thallasocracy is a modern myth that originated in Britain, where Arthur Evans' work on Knossos and the Minoans is still close to gospel. Naturally it also plays well in Greece.
Kourion: The Monuments Of The City
Cytop Net | 1998 | staff
Posted on 12/25/2004 7:32:09 PM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1308481/posts
Actually thalassocracy "plays" well because the Minoans were expert seafarers bringing in taxes from the islands and defending their mercantile interests.
As for Evans - rather than my writing it - this should dispel that "myth":
http://www.hellenicbookservice.com/Kriti/cretan_history.htm
The Minoans had widespread trade; empires are built by the point of the sword and spear, and the Minoan dominion (however large it was) wasn't the quaint Victorian vision of Evans. For the most part, the Minoans' trade routes -- as well as Crete itself -- were taken over by the Mycenaeans.
It got worse. Marja Gumbas started her Mother Goddess BS about that time and I felt that we Indo European thugs and oppressors of womyn were being given a bad rap, so I started looking closer.
It is my opinion that the civilization of the Minoans was probably similar to that of Pylos in the way it operated. To me there seems to be many similarity's based on the archeology.
Amazon Warrior Women
PBS | Current | PBS
Posted on 08/04/2004 8:51:53 PM PDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1185293/posts
Amazon Warrior Women
PBS | Current | PBS
Posted on 08/04/2004 8:51:53 PM PDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1185293/posts
The Argonaut Epos and Bronze Age Economic History
Economics Department, City College of New York
Revised May 14, 1999 | Morris Silver
Posted on 08/25/2004 10:30:51 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1199756/posts
Arzawa
The House of David (not the vanished religious sect by that name) | circa 2002 | David R Ross
Posted on 11/26/2004 7:32:25 PM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1289143/posts
The Case of Victor Davis Hanson: Farmer, Scholar, Warmonger
The Occidental Quarterly | Winter 2004 | F. Roger Devlin, Ph.D
Posted on 05/19/2004 12:31:33 PM PDT by robowombat
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1138659/posts
In Search of the Real Troy
Saudi Aramco World
January/February 2005
Volume 56, Number 1
Graham Chandler, Photographed by Ergun Cagata
Posted on 02/20/2005 2:33:23 PM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1347422/posts
Inscription in Carian and Greek
Anistoriton | 27 Dec. 1997 | (editors)
Posted on 07/17/2004 6:20:07 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1173453/posts?page=10#10
Inscription in Carian and Greek
Anistoriton | 27 Dec. 1997 | (editors)
Posted on 07/17/2004 6:20:07 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1173453/posts?page=10#10
The Linear B Tablets and Mycenaean Social, Political, and Economic Organization
Lesson 25, The Prehistoric Archaeology of the Aegean | Revised: Friday, March 18, 2000 | Trustees of Dartmouth College
Posted on 08/29/2004 8:19:46 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1202723/posts
The Linear B Tablets and Mycenaean Social, Political, and Economic Organization
[Dorians / Achaeans -- their origin?]
Dartmouth College | 1996 | faculty
Posted on 11/28/2004 7:29:26 PM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1290075/posts
New Discoveries In Syria Confirm Theory On Spread Of Early Civilization
Newswise.com | 6-2-2002 | Carrie Golus
Posted on 06/03/2002 1:42:03 PM PDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/694010/posts?page=30#30
New Ice-Core Evidence Challenges the 1620s age
for the Santorini (Minoan) Eruption
Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 25, Issue 3, March 1998, Pages 279-289 | 13 July 1997 | Gregory A. Zielinski, Mark S. Germani
Posted on 07/29/2004 12:25:45 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1180724/posts
Non-Attic Characters
University of California, Irvine, Thesaurus Linguae Graecae
September 7 2003 (rev 9-28-2003) | Nick Nicholas
Posted on 07/18/2004 6:43:19 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1173901/posts
Non-Attic Characters
University of California, Irvine, Thesaurus Linguae Graecae
September 7 2003 (rev 9-28-2003) | Nick Nicholas
Posted on 07/18/2004 6:43:19 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1173901/posts
Quarry, Setting and Team Marks: The Carian Connection
University of Leiden (Netherlands) | 1998 | (about) Sheldon Lee Gosline
Posted on 10/08/2004 3:20:42 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/1239452/posts
The Scholars and the Goddess
Culture/Society Miscellaneous
Source: The Atlantic Monthly
Published: January 2001 Author: Charlotte Allen
Posted on 01/11/2001 16:26:14 PST by Benoit Baldwin
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a5ddea64a54.htm
So Who Is Buried in Midas's Tomb?
NYT | 12/25/2001 | JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
Posted on 12/24/2001 10:12:01 PM PST by a_Turk
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/596541/posts
Troy the Movie
Vanity | JFC
Posted on 05/25/2004 7:00:32 AM PDT by JFC
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1141816/posts?page=39#39
The Truth About An Epic Tale Of Love, War And Greed (Troy)
The Telegraph (UK) | 3-24-2004
Posted on 03/25/2004 12:03:11 PM PST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1105131/posts
The Warriors Of Paros
Hellenic News | 12-19-2004
Foteini Zafeiropoulou/Anagnostis Agelarakis
Posted on 12/19/2004 11:52:54 AM PST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1304656/posts
Was There a Trojan War?
Archaeology | May/June 2004 | Manfred Korfmann
Posted on 07/29/2004 11:43:38 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1181498/posts?page=3#3
Who Really Discovered America?
Hope Of Israel
Posted on 07/14/2002 2:08:47 PM PDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/716088/posts
Who really discovered America? (Evidence that the Jews did!)
Far Shores - Ancient Mysteries
FR Post - April 13 2004 | William F. Dankenbring
Posted on 04/13/2004 6:26:18 AM PDT by vannrox
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1116677/posts
Yemen's Great Past and Future.
Accessing Yemen's Historical Importance and Future Role.
The Yemen Barometer | 6/6/04 | Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
Posted on 06/07/2004 1:26:25 AM PDT by Muhammad Shams Megalommatis
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1148990/posts
I remember reading about this in National Geographic, too. I think in the late '70's.
I found it. Feb. 1981 issue of National Geographic. Starts on page 204. My copy is pretty worn(and covered with baby powder) so I can't lend it out:)
You know, if they'd put that stuff on the web, we'd all have a lot more space in our attics.
You know, if they'd put that stuff on the web, we'd all have a lot more space in our attics.
National Geographic does maintain an online archive back to Jan.1996.http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/archives.html?fs=www7.nationalgeographic.com
Etruscan Ruins Show How Ancients Lived
IOL | 4-7-2002 | Shasta Darlington
Posted on 04/08/2002 5:05:24 AM PDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/661712/posts
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.
