#John Boardman PhD

[oldschoolfrp]

Starblazer 1 collecting cobwebs (uncredited, Ares No 1, SPI, March 1980)  The accompanying article, Dr John Boardman’s “No, You’re Not Going to the Stars,” reviews the history of interstellar travel in science fiction then explains with detailed tables and formulae why it can’t happen.  The rest of the issue is devoted to fiction, a complete game, and reviews of games, books, and films that mostly begin with the premise that it can.

[aboutanancientenquiry]

Minoan Kingship and the Solar Goddess

A Near Eastern Koine

Author: Nanno Marinatos

An illustrated guide to Minoan images and symbols

Publication Date

Paperback: 09/01/2013

ABOUT THE BOOK

Ancient Minoan culture has been typically viewed as an ancestor of classical Greek civilization, but this book shows that Minoan Crete was on the periphery of a powerfully dynamic cultural interchange with its neighbors. Rather than viewing Crete as the autochthonous ancestor of Greece's glory, Nanno Marinatos considers ancient Crete in the context of its powerful competitors to the east and south. Analyzing the symbols of the Minoan theocratic system and their similarities to those of Syria, Anatolia, and Egypt, Marinatos unlocks many Minoan visual riddles and establishes what she calls a "cultural koine," or standard set of cultural assumptions, that circulated throughout the Near East and the eastern Mediterranean at the time Minoan civilization reached its peak. With more than 150 illustrations, Minoan Kingship and the Solar Goddess delivers a comprehensive reading of Minoan art as a system of thought.

Contents

Preface [ix]1.

 Introduction [1]

2. The King and Queen in Art [12]

3. The King and Queen as High Priests [32]

4. Thrones of Gods—Thrones of Kings [50]

5. The House of God [66] 6. Who Sees the Gods Face to Face? [78]

7. Minoan Prophecy and Royal Power [86]

8. The Cosmic Mountain as a Frontier [103]

9. The Double Axe, the Ankh, and the Ox Head [114]

10. The Rosette, Half-Rosette, and “Incurved Altar” [131]

11. Minoan Afterlife Beliefs [140]

12. The Solar Goddess of Kingship [151]

13. The Storm God [167]

14. Translating the Gods of the Religious Koine [186]

15. Conclusions: A Tribute to Sir Arthur Evans [193]

Notes [197]

Bibliography [225]

Figures and Credits [247]

Index [255]

Nanno Ourania Marinatos (Oυρανία -Ναννώ- Μαρινάτου), PhD, Professor Emerita, Classics and Mediterranean Studies, University of Illinois, Chicago (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanno_Marinatos )

According to the review of the book by British  classical archaeologist and art historian John Boardman (https://muse.jhu.edu/article/472181 ):

 “Of all ancient civilizations, the one we might most cheerfully assign to invasion from outer space is the Minoan. It had no obvious antecedents in Greece and no real following, except for the short period of Mycenaean takeover. Arthur Evans, who discovered the Minoans at Knossos, drew the more obvious comparisons with the arts and religions of the East and Egypt—none terribly close and wholly overworked by a culture that viewed its arts and their messages in a way quite unparalleled elsewhere, and intelligible to us only because its practitioners were not little green men but a rather special breed of Homo sapiens. Their religious apparatus was peculiar to them (double axes, horns), and the personnel humanoid, but for a demon that owes a little to Egypt. Religious scenes bear slight resemblance to those of southern or eastern neighbors, and the strongly individual style of figure and animal drawings as well as scene composition is particular to them. Nanno Marinatos, daughter of the most vigorous Greek explorer of the Minoans, has worked this area before, but her new book places them more persuasively in the context of their neighbors, as well as of their own idiosyncratic view of the world, than as forerunners of the classical—which is quite inconceivable. Yet to include them in a “Near Eastern koine” stretches the idea of a koine almost to bursting point. They were the children of their age, as were their neighbors, but more dependent on a strong individuality of approach and vision, perhaps promoted by their physical remoteness from the Levant and Egypt—a remoteness they bade to reduce by travel, as had all occupants of Greece’s relatively sterile land, and in this respect alone foreshadowing the behavior and achievement of their successors there.”

For other reviews of Pr. Marinatos book and thesis on the Minoans see:

https://www.aegeussociety.org/en/book_reviews/review-of-nanno-marinatos-2010-minoan-kingship-and-the-solar-goddess-a-near-eastern-koine-urbana-university-of-illinois-press/

https://www.academia.edu/1236290/Review_of_Nanno_Marinatos_Minoan_Kingship_and_the_Solar_Goddess_A_Near_Eastern_Koine._Urbana_and_Chicago_University_of_Illinois_Press_2010

[swubg]

Lecturers from the Department of Culture and the Department of History took part in the prestigious SIXTH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON BLACK SEA ANTIQUITIES The Congress was organized at the end of September 2017 by the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Education and Research of Romania, the University of Bucharest, Ovidius University in Constanta and the National Archaeological Museum in Constanta. The scientific event was dedicated to Professor Sir John Boardman (Oxford University) to celebrate his exceptional achievements and his 90th birthday.More than 150 scientists from prestigious universities and scientific institutions from Europe, Asia and America took part in the congress. The South-West University was presented with scientific research by Prof. DSc. Vasil Markov "Archaeological Evidence of the Thracian-Greek Cultural Contacts from the South-Eastern part of the Dobrudja Plateau during the Hellenistic Period" and Ch. Assist. Prof. Alexandar Portalsky, PhD "Colonization of Miletus in the Propontis and Pontus - the View from Sardis". The scientific work of the two scientists was met with remarkable interest by more of researchers.Congress papers will be published in a separate volume, as a referenced and indexed edition of the prestigious Archaeopress Publishing House of Oxford University.

http://www.swu.bg/news/09-10-2017-international-congress-in-romania.aspx