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Priestess
with Offerings
Digital Sketch, fresco detail, Santorini © Sage Starwalker. All rights reserved. (based on the digital photo of a Minoan fresco in Dr. J's Illustrated Guide) |
Cycle II Activities -- The Matricentric Culture of the "Minoans" Pick one Matricentric culture and study its religion, language, traditions and culture.
"Archaeologists -- but not some goddess-worshippers -- generally accept that Arthur Evans basically invented the popular conception of Bronze Age Crete, the 'Palace of Minos,' the Cretan Labyrinth, and so on." Bull-leapers, then and now
- RELIGION
- Polytheistic, matriarchal, goddess religion (no gods until later periods).
- Read my report on Minoan Religion, which includes info on goddesses, temples, offerings, priestesses, places of worhip, rituals, festivals, and sacred objects and symbols
- LANGUAGE
- Minoan language belongs to its own category of "Mediterranean" languages. Our knowledge of it is based on 3000 clay tablets dating from two different periods; the older is written in Linear A, the later in Linear B.
- Read my report on Minoan Language, which includes a section on art as a conveyor of information and cultural meaning.
- TRADITIONS
- Festivals, burials, sports, the absence of war, and more.
- Read my report on Minoan traditions.
- CULTURE
- Neolithic and Bronze Age origins of the culture; matrilineal descent; racial components of the population, architecture, geography, gender, the female name and origins of the Temple of Knossos
- Read my report on Minoan culture.
References and Other Resources
Bibliography:
Minoan Religion
Bibliography:
Thera and the Bronze Age
Bibiliography:
Women in the Aegean
Greek
Religion
Greek
Religion
Life
in Minoan Crete
Minoan
Art
Minoan
Crete
Pasiphae
Pasiphae,
Queen of Minoan Crete
R.F. Willetts,
Aristocratic Society in Ancient Crete; Civilization of Ancient
Crete; Cretan Cults and Festivals; and Cretan Studies
The Mistress
The
Neolithic Cultures of Thessaly, Crete, and the Cyclades