Ancient Crete: The Double Axe and Minoan Linear A
CLAS 133A, Greek Art
December 6, 2006
Ancient Crete: The Double-Axe and Minoan Linear A
MFA object # 58.1009
Votive Double Axe
Late Minoan I A, about 1550-1500 B.C.E
From the Arkalochori Cave on Crete
Gold
When Heinrich Schliemann with his literal belief in Homer discovered Hissarlik (his Troy) and Mycenae, he opened up a whole new idea in classical archaeology- that of myths being reality. Before his discoveries, the earliest recorded date in Greek history was the 778 B.C.E- the date of the first Olympic Games. Anything before that was considered by the scholarly community as pure legend. Schliemann set the ground work with his excavations in Hissarlik and Mycenae. He intended also to excavate Crete, but that task failed and was soon picked up by Arthur Evans. Crete was mentioned in the Odyssey during the hero Odysseus’s journey home from Troy:
“Amidst the wine dark seas lies Crete, a fair rich island populous beyond compute with ninety cities of mixed speech, where several languages coexist...the capital is Knosos, ruled by Minos, who from his ninth year talked familiarly with Zeus.”1
Arthur Evans was first interested in a group of seal-stones he noticed at an antiquities dealer. He was told that they came from Crete and he was very curious at their inscriptions. He believed that they may be an early form of writing, and decided to visit Crete to find out more. Reports say that he fell in love with Crete from the moment he set foot on the land. He dug for Minos’s palace at a strange hill called Kephala at Knossos, and found evidence of the earliest Mediterranean (possibly European) culture. The excavation of this new world and renovation of the palace consumed him, and his interests in the scripts diminished. They would later be picked up by other scholars. The myth that is the key to understanding and examining Knossos is that of Theseus and the Minotaur. In the myth, Theseus goes to Knossos in a group of six other youths and seven
December 6, 2006
Ancient Crete: The Double-Axe and Minoan Linear A
MFA object # 58.1009
Votive Double Axe
Late Minoan I A, about 1550-1500 B.C.E
From the Arkalochori Cave on Crete
Gold
When Heinrich Schliemann with his literal belief in Homer discovered Hissarlik (his Troy) and Mycenae, he opened up a whole new idea in classical archaeology- that of myths being reality. Before his discoveries, the earliest recorded date in Greek history was the 778 B.C.E- the date of the first Olympic Games. Anything before that was considered by the scholarly community as pure legend. Schliemann set the ground work with his excavations in Hissarlik and Mycenae. He intended also to excavate Crete, but that task failed and was soon picked up by Arthur Evans. Crete was mentioned in the Odyssey during the hero Odysseus’s journey home from Troy:
“Amidst the wine dark seas lies Crete, a fair rich island populous beyond compute with ninety cities of mixed speech, where several languages coexist...the capital is Knosos, ruled by Minos, who from his ninth year talked familiarly with Zeus.”1
Arthur Evans was first interested in a group of seal-stones he noticed at an antiquities dealer. He was told that they came from Crete and he was very curious at their inscriptions. He believed that they may be an early form of writing, and decided to visit Crete to find out more. Reports say that he fell in love with Crete from the moment he set foot on the land. He dug for Minos’s palace at a strange hill called Kephala at Knossos, and found evidence of the earliest Mediterranean (possibly European) culture. The excavation of this new world and renovation of the palace consumed him, and his interests in the scripts diminished. They would later be picked up by other scholars. The myth that is the key to understanding and examining Knossos is that of Theseus and the Minotaur. In the myth, Theseus goes to Knossos in a group of six other youths and seven