Ancient History Minoans Everyday Life
Greece: The Bronze Age – Society in Minoan Crete
Everyday Life (1)
By Emily Gold
Entertainment and leisure activities:
Acrobatics was used in most leisure activities that the Minoan people used to keep themselves entertained, as running and leaping supplied to success in warfare ad hunting.
Bull-leaping was the most famed and controversial of all Minoan sports, this sport consists of an athlete who would sprint head-long at a charging bull, grab the bulls horns and jump onto its back, then the athlete would descend of the animal from its behind. Many scholars argue whether bull-leaping was a true sport in the Minoan Society as some believe it would have been extremely dangerous to have participated in this sport, yet other scholars state that many frescoes and paintings have been found with the depiction of bull-leaping, so this must have been a popular and real sport in the Ancient Greek era.
Boxing in the Minoan society was a sport that involved skill, force and strategy. The sport was that one man verses the other in a contest in which they fight. There would have been an audience that would gather and watch the contestants box. The boxing matches were also used to show male dominance over the other male. Most of the boxers were depicted as young adolescents, and also the boys drinking out of a cup from Aghia Triada have been interpreted as ‘bouts between young boys that were part of an initiation’ ritual that showed a stage on the path to manhood. The clothes for protection that these men or boys would wear were protective headgear and boxing gloves. They also wore necklaces and bracelets that suggest a high position.
Another leisure and activity was hunting, this was a sport that was exclusively male, hunting was depicted on daggers, seal-stones, cups and ivory objects that were found by archaeologists.
The Minoans hunted animals such as lions, bulls, wild goats, wild boars and deer. This was a favourite pastime of the Minoan men who were members of the
Everyday Life (1)
By Emily Gold
Entertainment and leisure activities:
Acrobatics was used in most leisure activities that the Minoan people used to keep themselves entertained, as running and leaping supplied to success in warfare ad hunting.
Bull-leaping was the most famed and controversial of all Minoan sports, this sport consists of an athlete who would sprint head-long at a charging bull, grab the bulls horns and jump onto its back, then the athlete would descend of the animal from its behind. Many scholars argue whether bull-leaping was a true sport in the Minoan Society as some believe it would have been extremely dangerous to have participated in this sport, yet other scholars state that many frescoes and paintings have been found with the depiction of bull-leaping, so this must have been a popular and real sport in the Ancient Greek era.
Boxing in the Minoan society was a sport that involved skill, force and strategy. The sport was that one man verses the other in a contest in which they fight. There would have been an audience that would gather and watch the contestants box. The boxing matches were also used to show male dominance over the other male. Most of the boxers were depicted as young adolescents, and also the boys drinking out of a cup from Aghia Triada have been interpreted as ‘bouts between young boys that were part of an initiation’ ritual that showed a stage on the path to manhood. The clothes for protection that these men or boys would wear were protective headgear and boxing gloves. They also wore necklaces and bracelets that suggest a high position.
Another leisure and activity was hunting, this was a sport that was exclusively male, hunting was depicted on daggers, seal-stones, cups and ivory objects that were found by archaeologists.
The Minoans hunted animals such as lions, bulls, wild goats, wild boars and deer. This was a favourite pastime of the Minoan men who were members of the
Bibliography: Books: * The Minoans and the Mycenaeans – Aegean Society in the Bronze Age – Gae Callender Websites: * http://wsu.edu/~dee/MINOA/WOMEN.HTM * http://www.fjkluth.com/minoan.html * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoan_civilization * http://www.explorecrete.com/cuisine/cora-honey-wine.htm *