Minoans

Thoroughly researched, Rodney Castleden's Minoans: Life in Bronze Age Crete here sues the results of recent research to produce a comprehensive new vision of the peoples of Minoan Crete. Since Sir Arthur Evans rediscovered the Minoans in the early 1900s, we have defined a series of cultural traits that make the ‘Minoan personality’: elegant, graceful and sophisticated, these nature lovers lived in harmony with their neighbours, while their fleets ruled the seas around Crete. This, at least, is the popular view of the Minoans. But how far does the later work of archaeologists in Crete support this view? Drawing on his experience of being actively involved in research on landscapes processes and prehistory for the last twenty years, Castleden writes clearly and accessibly to provide a text essential to the study of this fascinating subject.

Around 3500 BC, the Minoan civilization emerged in the Bronze Age Aegean, taking root on Crete and neighboring Aegean Islands. The development of a complex urban society started around 2000 BC, reaching its peak and later declining from approximately 1450 BC to around 1100 BC during the early Greek Dark Ages. This civilization marked Europe's inaugural advanced society, leaving behind monumental architectural complexes, intricate art, and written systems. Their economic prosperity was fueled by an extensive commercial network spanning much of the Mediterranean. Sir Arthur Evans, a British archaeologist, rediscovered the civilization in the early twentieth century and coined the term "Minoan," drawing inspiration from the legendary King Minos and associating it with the labyrinth of the Minotaur at Knossos. Historian Will Durant hailed the Minoans as "the first link in the European chain" and described them as pioneers in Europe. The Minoans constructed expansive palaces featuring advanced plumbing systems and towering frescoes, with the palace of Knossos ranking as the most impressive, followed by Phaistos. Despite the grandeur of these structures, the exact purpose of the palaces, along with other aspects of Minoan governance and religion, remains uncertain. Trade played a pivotal role in Minoan society, connecting Crete with Aegean and Mediterranean settlements, particularly in the Near East. Their cultural influence extended to the Cyclades, the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Cyprus with its copper resources, Canaan, the Levantine coast, and Anatolia, facilitated by traders and artists. The preserved city of Akrotiri on Santorini, though devastated by the Minoan eruption, offers a glimpse into Minoan artistry.

How do archaeologists and artists reimagine what life was like during the Greek Bronze Age? How do contemporary conditions influence the way we understand the ancient past? This innovative book considers two imaginative restorations of the ancient world that test the boundaries of interpretation and invention by bringing together the discovery of Minoan culture by the British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans (1851–1941) and the work of the Turner Prize–winning video artist Elizabeth Price (b. 1966). Featured essays examine Evans’s interpretation and restoration of the Knossos palace and present fresh photography of Minoan artifacts and archival photographs of the dig alongside beautiful, previously unpublished watercolors and drawings by the archaeological illustrators and restorers who worked on the site: Émile Gilliéron père(1850–1924), Émile Gilliéron fils (1885–1939), Piet de Jong (1887–1967), and others. An interview with Price explores how her attraction to the Sir Arthur Evans Archive became the basis for her commissioned video installation at the University of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum and offers insight into her creative practice. Exhibition dates: October 5, 2017–January 7, 2018

This book assesses what we really know about the Minoans' life and times, defining the essential characteristics of a distinctive Cretan culture and setting this within its contemporary historical context which included not only Greece but the Eastern Mediterranean and Egypt. The author discusses the major themes of daily life such as social and economic organization, agriculture, architecture and religion, drawing upon the latest archaeological research including examples of Linear B and the evidence of recent excavations to paint a broad chronological picture of a fascinating and important culture. J. Lesley Fitton is an Assistant Keeper in the Department of Greek Roman Antiquities in the British Museum.

A new look at the Cult of the Saints in late antiquity: Did it really dominate Christianity in late antique Rome?

This book presents a plausible account of how thousands of tons of unusually pure copper ore from Isle Royale in northern Michigan's Lake Superior was mined and shipped to Europe by the Minoans 4500 years ago during the Bronze Age, and how Stonehenge in England was used as an aid to Minoan celestial navigation back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean. The author proposes that Minoan ocean navigators used stone circles, particularly Stonehenge, to advance the science of celestial astronomy of Bronze Age navigation and trade.

Lakota Winds narrates the battle of the Little Big Horn as seen through the eyes of the Sioux. It is a fast-paced story bringing to life that fateful encounter between Custer's 7th Cavalry and the Sioux and Cheyenne. Never again would Native Americans assemble in such numbers as they did on that day in 1876, and never again would they inflict such a punishing defeat upon the United States military. Lakota Winds recaptures these precious hours of Sioux heritage. Matowla, Tankala Pay-ta, Unci, Osota, and Ishna were all witnesses to this final episode of the era of the Plains Indian. These characters represent the thousands of Lakota and Cheyenne who were camped along the Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn River) that summer morning when Custer's troops attacked. Matowla, Pay-ta, Unci, and Ishna have been entrusted to act as vocal embassies for their historical counterparts. It will be their obligation to speak for a people whose voices have all but been stilled by the passage of time.