#Minoan history

[uwmspeccoll]

Excavations at Thera

The destruction of Pompeii by the volcano Vesuvius has become synonymous with the nature disaster of volcanic eruptions. The eruption of Vesuvius, among the deadliest in history, was the first natural disaster of its kind to have a first-handwritten account and this documented event has persisted in the public consciousness for nearly two millennia. Yet, despite being the one of the most famous and the deadliest, the eruption of Vesuvius is far from the most destructive. That honor might well go to the eruption of Thera in the 16th or 17th century BCE.

Excavations conducted on this Cycladic Island (among the Aegean Islands), such as the ones recorded in Excavations at Thera a seven-volume set of reports written by by the noted Greek archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos and published by Archaiologikē Hetaireia en Athēnais between 1967-1971, showed that during the Minoan period (2000-1200 BCE) Thera once held an integral port city. Remains showed that though the city was flourishing, its inhabitants abandoned the island for reasons that would soon become apparent to the excavators. It didn’t take long for archaeologists to discover that Thera once held an oval shape, differing greatly to the crescent it is today. Further inspection revealed that several ancient structures were far underwater, pointing to the island collapsing in on itself after their construction. It wasn’t long before the pieces were put together, leading to the discovery that Thera once held an active volcano that erupted in the Minoan period, destroying the island in its entirety.

The collapse of the Minoan civilization has been a mystery that persists to this day, yet finding this once active volcano led many to draw lines of connection between the two events. The reports written by Professor Marinatos reference this theory as near fact when describing the history of the ancient civilization. Such a theory does make a good amount of sense as this eruption would have been much greater than that of Vesuvius with estimated effects reaching all the way to China with reports of a series of harsh winters. Yet as excavations on both the Cycladic Islands and Crete continued, the date for the eruption got pushed back as the fall of the Minoan civilization crept forward. Currently the most accurate date for the eruption of Thera is 1628 BCE with some room for error while the fall of the Minoans sits between 1200-1100 BCE.  

View more of my Classics posts.

– LauraJean, Special Collections Undergraduate Classics Intern

[tellmeomuse]

minoan weaponry

Hi all! Thanks for your patience with me as I recover from covid.

I've touched on Minoan weaponry in the past, but I just wanted to do a somewhat more in-depth post before things start to get hairy in the upcoming chapters. Let's just say it'll be good to know what Minoan weapons look like going forward. :')

So here's a post on Patreon about Minoan weaponry, especially bladed weaponry. It's surprisingly prevalent in the archaeological sites we've excavated

(Note: while I did manage to scare up some images from Wikimedia for this blog post, I just want to state for the record that if you ever want to see more examples of any of the artifacts I'm talking about, please feel free to look through the Heraklion Archaeological Museum's digital archives! Their images aren't public domain so I haven't been using them in my blog posts, but they're perfectly viewable online if you'd like to do so!)

[heroineimages]

More Minoans!

Minoan fashion

[memories-of-ancients]

Carnelian stamp seal featuring a kitty, Minoan, 1900-1600 BC

from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

[pimsri]

Paleo art inspired by Minoan frescoes

[heroineimages]

Neat!

Clay model of a Minoan house

* 17th century BCE

* Archanes

* Archaeological Museum of Heraklion

source: Zde, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

[flaroh]

The Lovers of Akrotiri 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩🐦‍⬛🌺🌞

Junes illustration is a sweet scene of two Minoan girlfriends, that plays on the saffron gatherer motif but this time with a stylised lily landscape reminiscent of the “Spring Fresco of Akrotiri”. 🐦‍⬛🌺🌞

Their dresses are based on frescos of women and goddesses from the Minoan city of Akrotiri that was preserved in a volcanic eruption in the 16th century BCE🌋

[artist-ellen]

Historical Mermay 2024: Minoan Mermaid!

This one was a little bit down to the wire. I did the sketching and inking 3 different times before I was happy enough with it. Even now I still have doubts. This illustration is based on at least two Minoan murals of women, but things like the hairstyle are wildly mermaid-exaggerated because I have a theme and that theme is princess hair. XD I also tried to work within some of the mural's color-palettes but I don't think I succeeded very well. Too many texture layers? I can't tell, I can't dwell on it any more.

Like last year this Mermay challenge prompt list comes from the amazing chloe.z.arts on IG. I'm going to do my best to keep up with the prompts, wish me luck!

I am the artist! Do not post without permission & credit! Thank you! Come visit me over on: instagram, tiktok or check out my coloring book available now \ („• ֊ •„) /

https://linktr.ee/ellen.artistic

[da-pu-ri-to-jo-po-ti-ni-ja]

✨ tag yourself ✨ but with Aegean Scripts! Mainly Bronze Age, with a sprinkle of Iron Age (Cypriot Syllabary).

[heroineimages]

Seriously, this looks cool as fuck...

A Gallery of Reconstructed Palaces

In this gallery, we present reconstructions of seven famous palaces through history. The palaces, presented here in the chronological order of their construction, are:

Continue reading…

[avpol]

Minoans!

[the-cricket-chirps]

Dolphins Fresco, Palace of Knossos (& detail)

c. 1700-1450 B.C.

[kat-cant-draw]

Minoan lady with a snake no correlation to the snake goddess at all

[memories-of-ancients]

Gold signet ring inscribed with Linear A writing, Minoan, 1700-1600 BC

from The Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete

[capelin356]

Minoan Ladys

[electricalpylon]

I have the confidence of those men that think they could land an airplane but instead I just feel like I could be the first person to decode Linear-A if I really put my mind to it