1.
Heraklion
–
Heraklion is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete. It is the fourth largest city in Greece.3 km2, Heraklion is the capital of Heraklion regional unit. The Bronze Age palace of Knossos, also known as the Palace of Minos, is located nearby. The Arab raiders from Andalusia who founded the Emirate of Crete moved the capital from Gortyna to a new castle they called ربض الخندق rabḍ al-ḫandaq Castle of the Moat in the 820s. After the Byzantine reconquest, the city was known as Megalo Kastro or Castro. The ancient name Ηράκλειον was revived in the 19th century and comes from the nearby Roman port of Heracleum, english usage formerly preferred the classicizing transliterations Heraklion or Heraclion, but the form Iraklion is becoming more common. Heraklion is close to the ruins of the palace of Knossos, though there is no archaeological evidence of it, Knossos might well have had a port at the site of Heraklion as early as 2000 BC. They built a moat around the city for protection, and named the city ربض الخندق and it became the capital of the Emirate of Crete. The Saracens allowed the port to be used as a haven for pirates who operated against Imperial shipping. In 961, Byzantine forces under the command of Nikephoros Phokas, later to become Emperor, landed in Crete, after a prolonged siege, the city fell. The Saracen inhabitants were slaughtered, the city looted and burned to the ground, soon rebuilt, the town was renamed Χάνδαξ, Chandax, and remained under Greek control for the next 243 years. Chandax was renamed Candia and became the seat of the Duke of Candia, the city retained the name of Candia for centuries and the same name was often used to refer to the whole island of Crete as well. To secure their rule, Venetians began in 1212 to settle families from Venice on Crete, after the Venetians came the Ottoman Empire. During the Cretan War, the Ottomans besieged the city for 21 years, from 1648 to 1669, in its final phase, which lasted for 22 months,70,000 Turks,38,000 Cretans and slaves and 29,088 of the citys Christian defenders perished. The Ottoman army under an Albanian grand vizier, Köprülü Fazıl Ahmed Pasha conquered the city in 1669, under the Ottomans, the city was known officially as Kandiye but informally in Greek as Megalo Castro. During the Ottoman period, the harbour silted up, so most shipping shifted to Chania in the west of the island, in 1898, the autonomous Cretan State was created, under Ottoman suzerainty, with Prince George of Greece as its High Commissioner and under international supervision. During the period of occupation of the island by the Great Powers. At this time, the city was renamed Heraklion, after the Roman port of Heracleum, in 1913, with the rest of Crete, Heraklion was incorporated into the Kingdom of Greece
Heraklion
–
The
Venetian fortress of Rocca al Mare (1523–1540) guards the inner harbor of Heraklion.
Heraklion
–
The snake goddess (c.1600 BCE) in
Heraklion Archaeological Museum.
Heraklion
–
St. Matthew of the Sinaites Byzantine church
Heraklion
–
Α part of the Venetian harbour (used as shipyards).
2.
Crete
–
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, 88th-largest island in the world and the fifth-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and Corsica. Crete and a number of surrounding islands and islets constitute the region of Crete, the capital and the largest city is Heraklion. As of 2011, the region had a population of 623,065, Crete forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece, while retaining its own local cultural traits. It was once the centre of the Minoan civilization, which is regarded as the earliest recorded civilization in Europe. The island is first referred to as Kaptara in texts from the Syrian city of Mari dating from the 18th century BC, repeated later in Neo-Assyrian records and it was also known in ancient Egyptian as Keftiu, strongly suggesting a similar Minoan name for the island. The current name of Crete is thought to be first attested in Mycenaean Greek texts written in Linear B, through the words
Crete
–
NASA photograph of Crete
Crete
–
Lefka Ori
Crete
–
Port of Heraklion
Crete
–
Lefka Ori (White mountains).
3.
Greece
–
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
Greece
–
Fresco displaying the Minoan ritual of "bull leaping", found in
Knossos,
Crete.
Greece
–
Flag
Greece
–
The
Lion Gate,
Mycenae
Greece
–
The
Parthenon on the
Acropolis of Athens is one of the best known symbols of
classical Greece.
4.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
–
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
5.
Minoan civilization
–
The Minoan civilization was an Aegean Bronze Age civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean islands which flourished from about 2600 to 1100 BC. It preceded the Mycenaean civilization of Ancient Greece, the civilization was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of British archaeologist Arthur Evans. It has been described as the earliest of its kind in Europe, the term Minoan, which refers to the mythical King Minos, originally described the pottery of the period. Minos was associated in Greek mythology with the labyrinth and the Minotaur, according to Homer, Crete once had 90 cities. The Minoan period saw trade between Crete and Aegean and Mediterranean settlements, particularly the Near East, traders and artists, the Minoan cultural influence reached beyond Crete to the Cyclades, Egypts Old Kingdom, copper-bearing Cyprus, Canaan and the Levantine coast, and Anatolia. Some of its best art is preserved in the city of Akrotiri on the island of Santorini, although the Minoan language and writing systems remain undecipherable and are subjects of academic dispute, they apparently conveyed a language entirely different from the later Greek. The reason for the end of the Minoan period is unclear, theories include Mycenaean invasions from mainland Greece, the term Minoan refers to the mythical King Minos of Knossos. Its origin is debated, but it is attributed to archeologist Arthur Evans. Minos was associated in Greek mythology with the labyrinth, which Evans identified with the site at Knossos. However, Karl Hoeck had already used the title Das Minoische Kreta in 1825 for volume two of his Kreta, this appears to be the first known use of the word Minoan to mean ancient Cretan, Evans said that applied it, not invented it. Hoeck, with no idea that the archaeological Crete had existed, had in mind the Crete of mythology, although Evans 1931 claim that the term was unminted before he used it was called a brazen suggestion by Karadimas and Momigliano, he coined its archaeological meaning. Instead of dating the Minoan period, archaeologists use two systems of relative chronology, the first, created by Evans and modified by later archaeologists, is based on pottery styles and imported Egyptian artifacts. Evans system divides the Minoan period into three eras, early, middle and late. These eras are subdivided—for example, Early Minoan I, II and III, another dating system, proposed by Greek archaeologist Nicolas Platon, is based on the development of architectural complexes known as palaces at Knossos, Phaistos, Malia and Kato Zakros. Platon divides the Minoan period into pre-, proto-, neo-, the relationship between the systems in the table includes approximate calendar dates from Warren and Hankey. The Thera eruption occurred during a phase of the LM IA period. Efforts to establish the volcanic eruptions date have been controversial, the eruption is identified as a natural event catastrophic for the culture, leading to its rapid collapse. Although stone-tool evidence exists that hominins may have reached Crete as early as 130,000 years ago, evidence for the first anatomically-modern human presence dates to 10, the oldest evidence of modern human habitation on Crete are pre-ceramic Neolithic farming-community remains which date to about 7000 BC
Minoan civilization
–
Minoan civilization
Minoan civilization
–
Minoan
copper ingot.
Minoan civilization
–
Fresco showing three women who were possibly
queens. [
citation needed]
6.
Bull-leaping
–
Bull-leaping is a motif of Middle Bronze Age figurative art, notably of Minoan Crete, but also found in Hittite Anatolia, the Levant, Bactria and the Indus Valley. It is often interpreted as a depiction of a performed in connection with bull worship. Frescoes in Tell el-Daba dating to the 18th dynasty show similar designs besides genuinely Egyptian motifs and they could also have been included as palace decorations because the palace was built for an Aegean princess diplomatically married to a Hyksos pharaoh. Furthermore, a vase was discovered in Hüseyindede in 1997. Bull-leaping is thought to have been a key ritual in the religion of the Minoan civilization in Bronze Age Crete, as in the case of other Mediterranean civilizations, the bull was the subject of veneration and worship. Representation of the Bull at the palace of Knossos is a symbol in the art. The assumption, widely debated by scholars, is that the iconography represents a ritual sport and/or performance in human athletes literally vaulted over bulls as part of a ceremonial rite. Bull-leaping is still practiced in the south west of France, where it is known as the course landaise. The town of Mont-de-Marsan in Gascony is renowned for its fine sauteurs or leapers and écarteurs dressed in brocaded waistcoats and they compete in teams, attempting to use their wide repertoire of skillful evasions and acrobatic leaps to avoid the cows charges. The cow is typically guided by the use of a rope attached to its horns. In France the courses landaises are held from March to October on the occasion of festivals in cities and villages, including Nogaro, Mont-de-Marsan, Dax, Castelnau-dAuzan. A similar but even more dangerous tradition of non-violent bull-leaping, recortes, is practiced in parts of Spain. Athletes, known as recortadores, compete at dodging and leaping over bulls without the use of the cape or sword, another example of related sport is Jallikattu, a Pongal celebration related sporting event in Tamil Nadu, India. In this sport, the participants are trying to leap onto a bull and this ancient event has been depicted in rock art dated at least to the 3rd century BC. Torero Bullfighting Collon, D. Bull-Leaping in Syria, Egypt, mcInerney, J. Bulls and Bull-leaping in the Minoan World, Expedition Magazine 53.3, n. pag. Marinatos, Nannó, The Export Significance of Minoan Bull-Leaping Scenes, Egypt, marinatos, Nannó, Minoan Religion, Ritual, Image, and Symbol, Studies in Comparative Religion. Columbia, South Carolina, University of South Carolina Press,1993, the bull-leaping fresco from below the Ramp House at Mycenae, a study in iconography and artistic transmission, ABSA91. Sipahi, Tunç, New Evidence From Anatolia Regarding Bull Leaping Scenes in the Art of the Aegean, younger, J. Bronze Age Representations of Aegean Bull-Games, III, Aegaeum 12, 507–46
Bull-leaping
–
The
Bull-Leaping Fresco from the Great Palace at
Knossos,
Crete
Bull-leaping
–
The bull-leaper, an
ivory figurine from the palace of
Knossos, Crete. The only complete surviving figure of a larger arrangement of figures. This is the earliest three dimensional representation of the bull leap. It is assumed that thin gold pins were used to suspend the figure over a bull.
Bull-leaping
–
The
Minoan Bull-leaper sculpture at the
British Museum.
Bull-leaping
–
The Speed and Daring of Juanito Apiñani in the Ring of Madrid (1815-16). Etching and aquatint by
Francisco de Goya.
7.
Phaistos Disc
–
The Phaistos Disc is a disk of fired clay from the Minoan palace of Phaistos on the island of Crete, possibly dating to the middle or late Minoan Bronze Age. Now, the island of Crete is part of modern Greece, the disk is about 15 cm in diameter and covered on both sides with a spiral of stamped symbols. Its purpose and meaning, and even its original place of manufacture, remain disputed. This unique object is now on display at the museum of Heraklion. The Phaistos Disc captured the imagination of amateur and professional archaeologists, while it is not clear that it is a script, most attempted decipherments assume that it is, most additionally assume a syllabary, others an alphabet or logography. Although the Phaistos Disc is generally accepted as authentic by archaeologists and this grouping of four rooms also served as a formal entry into the palace complex. It was found in the cell of an underground temple depository. These basement cells, only accessible from above, were covered with a layer of fine plaster. Their content was poor in artifacts, but rich in black earth and ashes. In the northern part of the cell, in the same black layer. The Phaistos Disc is generally accepted as authentic by archaeologists, the assumption of authenticity is based on the excavation records by Luigi Pernier. This assumption is supported by the discovery of the Arkalochori Axe with similar. The possibility that the disc is a 1908 forgery or hoax has been raised by two scholars, according to a report in The Times the date of manufacture has never been established by thermoluminescence. In his 2008 review, Robinson does not endorse the forgery arguments and it will either confirm that new finds are worth hunting for, or it will stop scholars from wasting their effort. A gold signet ring from Knossos, found in 1926, contains a Linear A inscription developed in a field defined by a spiral—similar to the Phaistos Disc, a sealing found in 1955 shows the only known parallel to sign 21 of the Phaistos disc. This is considered as evidence that the Phaistos Disc is a genuine Minoan artifact. Yves Duhoux dates the disc to between 1850 B. C. and 1600 B. C. on the basis of Luigi Perniers report, jeppesen dates it to after 1400. Doubting the viability of Perniers report, Louis Godart resigns himself to admitting that archaeologically, best suggests a date in the first half of the fourteenth century B. C. based on his dating of tablet PH1
Phaistos Disc
–
The Phaistos Disc (side A)
Phaistos Disc
–
Palace complex at
Phaistos
Phaistos Disc
–
Side B (Original)
Phaistos Disc
8.
Jewelry
–
Jewellery or jewelry consists of small decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes, for many centuries metal, often combined with gemstones, has been the normal material for jewellery, but other materials such as shells and other plant materials may be used. It is one of the oldest type of archaeological artefact – with 100, historically, the most widespread influence on jewellery in terms of design and style have come from Asia. Jewellery may be made from a range of materials. Gemstones and similar such as amber and coral, precious metals, beads, and shells have been widely used. In most cultures jewellery can be understood as a symbol, for its material properties, its patterns. Jewellery has been made to nearly every body part, from hairpins to toe rings. The word jewellery itself is derived from the jewel, which was anglicised from the Old French jouel. In British English, Indian English, New Zealand English, Hiberno-English, Australian English, both are used in Canadian English, though jewelry prevails by a two to one margin. Numerous cultures store wedding dowries in the form of jewellery or make jewellery as a means to store or display coins, alternatively, jewellery has been used as a currency or trade good, an example being the use of slave beads. Many items of jewellery, such as brooches and buckles, originated as functional items. Jewellery can also symbolise group membership or status, wearing of amulets and devotional medals to provide protection or ward off evil is common in some cultures. These may take the form of symbols, stones, plants, animals, body parts, in creating jewellery, gemstones, coins, or other precious items are often used, and they are typically set into precious metals. Alloys of nearly every metal known have been encountered in jewellery, bronze, for example, was common in Roman times. Modern fine jewellery usually includes gold, white gold, platinum, palladium, titanium, most contemporary gold jewellery is made of an alloy of gold, the purity of which is stated in karats, indicated by a number followed by the letter K. American gold jewellery must be of at least 10K purity, many whimsical fashions were introduced in the extravagant eighteenth century. Cameos that were used in connection with jewellery were the attractive trinkets along with many of the objects such as brooches, ear-rings. Some of the necklets were made of pieces joined with the gold chains were in and bracelets were also made sometimes to match the necklet
Jewelry
–
Amber pendants
Jewelry
–
Diamond temptation design
Jewelry
–
The Queen
Farida of Egypt red coral parure by Ascione manufacture, 1938, Naples,
Coral Jewellery Museum
Jewelry
–
The
Daria-i-Noor (meaning: Sea of Light) Diamond from the collection of the national jewels of Iran at
Central Bank of Islamic Republic of Iran
9.
Malia, Crete
–
Malia is a coastal town and a former municipality in the northeast corner of the Heraklion regional unit in Crete, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Hersonissos and it lies 34 kilometres east of Heraklion, the Cretan capital city. The town was the seat of the municipality of Mália, the municipal unit also includes the villages of Mochos, Krasi, and Stalida, and has a total land area of 60.720 square kilometres. The town is a tourist attraction, primarily for its significant archaeological site, the Minoan town ruins lie three km east of the site and cover an area of approximately 1 square kilometre. The original name for the town is not known, the palace of Malia, dating from the Middle Bronze Age, was destroyed by an earthquake during the Late Bronze Age, Knossos and other sites were also destroyed at that time. The palace was rebuilt toward the end of the Late Bronze Age. Most of the ruins visible today date from this period of construction. The palace features a giant central courtyard, 48m x 23m in size, on the south side are two sets of steps leading upwards and a maze of tiny rooms. Also here is a carved stone called a kernos stone. On the north side of the courtyard were storage rooms with giant earthenware pithos jars and these were used for holding grain, olive oil and other liquids, the floor of these rooms has a complex drainage system for carrying away spilled liquids. The palace of Malia was discovered in 1915 by Joseph Hadzidakis and it was fully excavated from 1922 onwards by the French School at Athens in collaboration with Greek scholars. In 1921 the French School of Athens was invited to continue its work,1981, Pascal and Claude Darcque Bourrain further investigated the NO corner of the palace. The soundings in the years 1981 and 1982, conducted by Olivier Pelon have brought new insights into the precursors of the palace, since 1988, the excavations of Alexandre Farnoux and Jan Driessen have been continued. The Palace of Malia has an area of 7,500 m2 and is oriented as all Minoan palaces to NS. With regard to design and equipment, it is smaller and more modest compared to Knossos and Phaestos, around this Central Court the district or ensembles are arranged, whose communication was made possible through corridors and routes. Each of these quarters has been assigned a function, but each of these chamber ensembles should be considered on its own. Olivier Pelon differentiated 4 functional areas, representative, residential, cultic-religious and economic From the Central Court, thereby the typical projections and recesses of the Minoan Palace façades arise. The façade was given a different meaning, Undoubtedly, the west façade is the most important in Malia, in the center, it consists of carefully hewn cuboid blocks of sandstone, which are built on a base along the entire width
Malia, Crete
–
Malia and bay of Malia
Malia, Crete
–
Malia Strip during the day
Malia, Crete
–
Ruins of the Palace
Malia, Crete
–
A model of the Palace
10.
Arkalochori Axe
–
The bronze Arkalochori Axe is a second millennium B. C. Minoan votive double axe excavated by Spyridon Marinatos in 1934 in the Arkalochori cave on Crete, the labrys is inscribed with fifteen symbols. It has been suggested that these symbols might be Linear A, the labrys and the Phaistos Disc are conserved in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum. Of the fifteen signs, two appear to be unique, the following suggestions for comparison with Linear A and Phaistos Disc glyphs are attributed to Torsten Timm. Reading top to bottom, right to left, the symbols are
Arkalochori Axe
–
Arkalochori Axe - the central central portion of the bronze labrys bears inscriptions - circa second millennium B.C.
11.
Snake Goddess
–
Snake goddess is the name commonly given to a type of figurine depicting a woman holding a snake in each hand, as were found in Minoan archaeological sites in Crete. The first two of such figurines were found by the British archaeologist Arthur Evans and date to the period of Minoan civilization. The figurines have also interpreted as showing a mistress of animals-type goddess and as a precursor to Athena Parthenos. The first two Snake Goddess figurines to be discovered were found by Arthur Evans in 1903, in the repositories of Knossos. The figurines are made of faience, a technique for glazing earthenware and this material symbolized in old Egypt the renewal of life, therefore it was used in the funeral cult and in the sanctuaries. After firing this produces bright colors and a lustrous sheen and these two figurines are today exhibited at the Herakleion Archeological Museum in Crete. The larger of these figures has snakes crawling over her arms up to her tiara, the smaller figure holds two snakes in her raised hands, which seems to be the imitation of a panther. These were usually symbols of an earth goddess, in particular, one of the snake goddesses was found in a few scattered pieces, and was later filled with a solution of paraffin to preserve it from further damage. The goddess is depicted just as in other statues The expression on her face is described as lifelike, another figure found in Berlin, made of bronze, looks more like a snake charmer with the snakes on top of her head. Many Minoan statues and statuettes seem to express a pride, clay sculptures with raised hands and curling snakes were found in the House of the double axes in Knossos, in Asine, in Gournia, and in Myrtos. Objects with snakes curling up the sides of clay tubes were found in Cyprus. The snake goddesss Minoan name may be related with A-sa-sa-ra, an interpretation of inscriptions found in Linear A texts. Although Linear A is not yet deciphered, Palmer relates tentatively the inscription a-sa-sa-ra-me which seems to have accompanied goddesses, with the Hittite išhaššara, the serpent is often symbolically associated with the renewal of life because it sheds its skin periodically. A similar belief existed in the ancient Mesopotamians and Semites, the Pelasgian myth of creation refers to snakes as the reborn dead. However, Nilsson noticed that in the Minoan religion the snake was the protector of the house, among the Greek Dionysiac cult it signified wisdom and was the symbol of fertility. Barry Powell suggested that the snake goddess reduced in legend into a heroine was Ariadne. Some scholars relate the snake goddess with the Phoenician Astarte and she was the goddess of fertility and sexuality and her worship was connected with an orgiastic cult. Her temples were decorated with serpentine motifs, in a related Greek myth Europa, who is sometimes identified with Astarte in ancient sources, was a Phoenician princess who Zeus abducted and carried to Crete
Snake Goddess
–
Minoan Snake Goddess figurines c 1600 BCE.
Heraklion Archaeological Museum
Snake Goddess
–
The younger snake goddess, from the palace of
Knossos.
Heraklion Archaeological Museum
Snake Goddess
–
Objects from the temple Repositories (
Knossos) after its discovery in 1903
Snake Goddess
–
.A woman (probably a goddess) holding snakes in both hands, from
Gotland, Sweden
12.
Spyridon Marinatos
–
Spyridon Nikolaou Marinatos was a Greek archaeologist. Marinatos began his career in Crete as director of the Heraklion Museum along with Georgia Andrea in 1929 where he met Sir Arthur Evans and he conducted several excavations on Crete at Dreros, Arkalochori, Vathypetro and Gazi, all of which resulted in spectacular finds. In 1937, he director of the Antiquities service in Greece for the first time. Shortly afterwards, he became professor at the University of Athens and he turned his attention to the Mycenaeans next, regarding them as the first Greeks. He excavated many Mycenaean sites in the Peloponnese, including a royal tomb at Routsi. He also dug at Thermopylae and Marathon uncovering the sites where the battles had occurred. His most notable discovery was the site of Akrotiri, a Minoan port city on the island of Thera, the city was destroyed by a massive eruption which buried it under ashes and pumice. The tsunamis created by the eruption destroyed coastal settlements on Crete as well, guided by the local Nikos Pelekis, Marinatos began excavations in 1967 and died at the site in 1974, after suffering a massive stroke. According to another version, he died during the excavation as he was hit by a collapsing wall and he was director-general of antiquities for the Greek Ministry of Culture during the Greek military junta of 1967–74. The acquaintance he cultivated with the colonels who were in power in Greece, especially the leader of the military junta, professor Marinatos was a nationalist in many regards whose ideals, some of his political opponents allege, influenced his archaeological work. Eventually, Marinatos was fired too, by the dictator Ioannides and his Crete and Mycenae was originally published in German in 1960. His most important article was about the destruction of Minoan Crete. His excavations at Thera have been published in six slender volumes, life and Art in Prehistoric Thera was one of his last publications in 1972. His name is mentioned in the video game Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, which features a plot involving Thera. The book Voyage to Atlantis, written by James W Mavor, Jr. details the 1967 excavation of Thera, the book mentions how Dr. Marinatos was, at the same time, aiming to become the Director of Antiquities at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. The book also makes note of the atmosphere in Greece at the time
Spyridon Marinatos
–
The grave of Spyridon Marinatos at the excavation site of
Akrotiri on Santorini
13.
World War II
–
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
World War II
–
Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the
Battle of Wanjialing, Australian
25-pounder guns during the
First Battle of El Alamein, German
Stuka dive bombers on the
Eastern Front in December 1943, a U.S. naval force in the
Lingayen Gulf,
Wilhelm Keitel signing the
German Instrument of Surrender, Soviet troops in the
Battle of Stalingrad
World War II
–
The
League of Nations assembly, held in
Geneva,
Switzerland, 1930
World War II
–
Adolf Hitler at a German
National Socialist political rally in
Weimar, October 1930
World War II
–
Italian soldiers recruited in 1935, on their way to fight the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
14.
Roman Catholic
–
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church or the Universal Church, is the largest Christian church, with more than 1.28 billion members worldwide. As one of the oldest religious institutions in the world, it has played a prominent role in the history, headed by the Bishop of Rome, known as the Pope, the churchs doctrines are summarised in the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed. Its central administration is located in Vatican City, enclaved within Rome, the Catholic Church is notable within Western Christianity for its sacred tradition and seven sacraments. It teaches that it is the one church founded by Jesus Christ, that its bishops are the successors of Christs apostles. The Catholic Church maintains that the doctrine on faith and morals that it declares as definitive is infallible. The Latin Church, the Eastern Catholic Churches, as well as such as mendicant orders and enclosed monastic orders. Among the sacraments, the one is the Eucharist, celebrated liturgically in the Mass. The church teaches that through consecration by a priest the sacrificial bread and wine become the body, the Catholic Church practises closed communion, with only baptised members in a state of grace ordinarily permitted to receive the Eucharist. The Virgin Mary is venerated in the Catholic Church as Queen of Heaven and is honoured in numerous Marian devotions. The Catholic Church has influenced Western philosophy, science, art and culture, Catholic spiritual teaching includes spreading the Gospel while Catholic social teaching emphasises support for the sick, the poor and the afflicted through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The Catholic Church is the largest non-government provider of education and medical services in the world, from the late 20th century, the Catholic Church has been criticised for its doctrines on sexuality, its refusal to ordain women and its handling of sexual abuse cases. Catholic was first used to describe the church in the early 2nd century, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in the letter from Saint Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans, written about 110 AD. In the Catechetical Discourses of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, the name Catholic Church was used to distinguish it from other groups that call themselves the church. The use of the adjective Roman to describe the Church as governed especially by the Bishop of Rome became more widespread after the Fall of the Western Roman Empire and into the Early Middle Ages. Catholic Church is the name used in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church follows an episcopal polity, led by bishops who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders who are given formal jurisdictions of governance within the church. Ultimately leading the entire Catholic Church is the Bishop of Rome, commonly called the pope, in parallel to the diocesan structure are a variety of religious institutes that function autonomously, often subject only to the authority of the pope, though sometimes subject to the local bishop. Most religious institutes only have male or female members but some have both, additionally, lay members aid many liturgical functions during worship services
Roman Catholic
–
Saint Peter's Basilica,
Vatican City
Roman Catholic
–
St. Peter's Basilica,
Vatican City
Roman Catholic
–
Pope Francis, elected in the
papal conclave, 2013
Roman Catholic
–
Traditional graphic representation of the Trinity: The earliest attested version of the diagram, from a manuscript of
Peter of Poitiers ' writings, c. 1210
15.
Neolithic
–
It ended when metal tools became widespread. The Neolithic is a progression of behavioral and cultural characteristics and changes, including the use of wild and domestic crops, the beginning of the Neolithic culture is considered to be in the Levant about 10, 200–8800 BC. It developed directly from the Epipaleolithic Natufian culture in the region, whose people pioneered the use of wild cereals, which then evolved into true farming. The Natufian period was between 12,000 and 10,200 BC, and the so-called proto-Neolithic is now included in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic between 10,200 and 8800 BC. By 10, 200–8800 BC, farming communities arose in the Levant and spread to Asia Minor, North Africa, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. Early Neolithic farming was limited to a range of plants, both wild and domesticated, which included einkorn wheat, millet and spelt, and the keeping of dogs, sheep. By about 6900–6400 BC, it included domesticated cattle and pigs, the establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, not all of these cultural elements characteristic of the Neolithic appeared everywhere in the same order, the earliest farming societies in the Near East did not use pottery. Early Japanese societies and other East Asian cultures used pottery before developing agriculture, unlike the Paleolithic, when more than one human species existed, only one human species reached the Neolithic. The term Neolithic derives from the Greek νέος néos, new and λίθος líthos, stone, the term was invented by Sir John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system. In the Middle East, cultures identified as Neolithic began appearing in the 10th millennium BC, early development occurred in the Levant and from there spread eastwards and westwards. Neolithic cultures are attested in southeastern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia by around 8000 BC. The total excavated area is more than 1,200 square yards, the Neolithic 1 period began roughly 10,000 years ago in the Levant. A temple area in southeastern Turkey at Göbekli Tepe dated around 9500 BC may be regarded as the beginning of the period. This site was developed by nomadic tribes, evidenced by the lack of permanent housing in the vicinity. At least seven stone circles, covering 25 acres, contain limestone pillars carved with animals, insects, Stone tools were used by perhaps as many as hundreds of people to create the pillars, which might have supported roofs. Other early PPNA sites dating to around 9500–9000 BC have been found in Jericho, Israel, Gilgal in the Jordan Valley, the start of Neolithic 1 overlaps the Tahunian and Heavy Neolithic periods to some degree. The major advance of Neolithic 1 was true farming, in the proto-Neolithic Natufian cultures, wild cereals were harvested, and perhaps early seed selection and re-seeding occurred. The grain was ground into flour, emmer wheat was domesticated, and animals were herded and domesticated
Neolithic
–
An array of Neolithic artifacts, including bracelets, axe heads, chisels, and polishing tools. Neolithic stone artifacts are by definition polished and, except for specialty items, not chipped.
Neolithic
–
Algerian cave paintings depicting hunting scenes
Neolithic
–
Female figure from
Tumba Madžari,
Republic of Macedonia
Neolithic
–
Skara Brae, Scotland. Evidence of home furnishings (shelves)
16.
Mochlos
–
Mochlos is a modern island in the Gulf of Mirabello in eastern Crete, and the archaeological site of an ancient Minoan settlement. There is evidence that Mochlos was not an island in Minoan times, the name Mochlos also applies to the small fishing village and resort located on the main island of Crete, opposite Mochlos island. The island is administered from Tourloti which is only 9 km away, Mochlos was first excavated by Richard Seager in 1908 at the western end of the island, where a prepalatial cemetery was found. At that time, tombs, pithos burials and pit graves were uncovered, in the 1970s, Jeffrey Soles documented the tombs and cemetery uncovered by Seager. The cemetery was in use from Early Minoan II to Middle Minoan IA, the main Minoan settlement is at the south end of the island. The earliest buildings are from Early Minoan IB and the ruins visible today on Mochlos date from Late Minoan IB, northwest of the modern town of Mochlos, a three-storey building was found from the Late Minoan I period. The building included two pillar crypts, a staircase and a kitchen and this building is the largest of the Late Minoan I town. Two buildings were also uncovered behind the town of Mochlos. One was used for crafting bronze, ivory and stone, the other was for making pottery. Excavations continued 1989-1994 under the direction of Jeffrey Soles from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, some excavations continue, but the core work on the project is study and publication of data. Ten Late Minoan I metal hoards were recently excavated at Mochlos, among them are foundry hoards, traders hoards and ceremonial assemblages. Lead isotope analyses indicate that copper oxhide ingots and fragments from these hoards originated in Cyprus
Mochlos
–
The island of Mochlos with town in the foreground.
Mochlos
–
Minoan gold necklaces, 2500-1500 BC, from Mochlos and Platanos
17.
Knossos
–
Knossos is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and is considered Europes oldest city. The name Knossos survives from ancient Greek references to the city of Crete. The coins came from the Roman settlement of Colonia Julia Nobilis Cnossus, a Roman colony placed just to the north of, the Romans believed they had colonized Knossos. The second palace was built on a grander scale over the old Palace after an earthquake destroyed it. The structure and ruins we see today are from the second Palace, during the Bronze Age, the town surrounded the hill on which the palace was built. The site was discovered in 1878 by Minos Kalokairinos, the excavations in Knossos began in AD1900 by the English archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans and his team, and they continued for 35 years. The palace was excavated and partially restored under the direction of Arthur Evans in the earliest years of the 20th century. Its size far exceeded his expectations, as did the discovery of two ancient scripts, which he termed Linear A and Linear B, to distinguish their writing from the pictographs also present. The palace of Knossos was undoubtedly the ceremonial and political centre of the Minoan civilization and it appears as a maze of workrooms, living spaces, and storerooms close to a central square. The palace was abandoned at some time at the end of the Late Bronze Age. The occasion is not known for certain, but one of the disasters that befell the palace is generally put forward. The hill was never again a settlement or civic site, although squatters may have used it for a time, however, fieldwork in 2015 revealed that during the early Iron Age, Knossos was rich in imports and was nearly three times larger than indicated by earlier excavations. Except for periods of abandonment, other cities were founded in the vicinity, such as the Roman colony. The population shifted to the new town of Chandax during the 9th century AD, by the 13th century, it was called Makruteikhos Long Wall, the bishops of Gortyn continued to call themselves Bishops of Knossos until the 19th century. Today, the name is used only for the site now situated in the expanding suburbs of Heraklion. In the first palace period around 2000 BC the urban area reached a size of up to 18,000 people, in its peak the Palace and the surrounding city boasted a population of 100,000 people shortly after 1700 BC. The name Knossos was formerly Latinized as Cnossus or Cnossos, and occasionally Knossus, Gnossus and this site history is to be distinguished from the ancient. In Greek mythology, King Minos dwelt in a palace at Knossos and he had Daedalus construct a labyrinth, a very large maze in which to retain his son, the Minotaur
Knossos
–
Restored North Entrance with charging bull fresco
Knossos
–
A
labrys from
Messara.
Knossos
–
View to the east from the northwest corner. In the foreground is the west wall of the Lustral Basin.
Knossos
–
View to the south. The hill in the background is Gypsades. Between it and Knossos is the Vlychia. The South Entrance is on the left.
18.
Malia (city)
–
Malia is a coastal town and a former municipality in the northeast corner of the Heraklion regional unit in Crete, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Hersonissos and it lies 34 kilometres east of Heraklion, the Cretan capital city. The town was the seat of the municipality of Mália, the municipal unit also includes the villages of Mochos, Krasi, and Stalida, and has a total land area of 60.720 square kilometres. The town is a tourist attraction, primarily for its significant archaeological site, the Minoan town ruins lie three km east of the site and cover an area of approximately 1 square kilometre. The original name for the town is not known, the palace of Malia, dating from the Middle Bronze Age, was destroyed by an earthquake during the Late Bronze Age, Knossos and other sites were also destroyed at that time. The palace was rebuilt toward the end of the Late Bronze Age. Most of the ruins visible today date from this period of construction. The palace features a giant central courtyard, 48m x 23m in size, on the south side are two sets of steps leading upwards and a maze of tiny rooms. Also here is a carved stone called a kernos stone. On the north side of the courtyard were storage rooms with giant earthenware pithos jars and these were used for holding grain, olive oil and other liquids, the floor of these rooms has a complex drainage system for carrying away spilled liquids. The palace of Malia was discovered in 1915 by Joseph Hadzidakis and it was fully excavated from 1922 onwards by the French School at Athens in collaboration with Greek scholars. In 1921 the French School of Athens was invited to continue its work,1981, Pascal and Claude Darcque Bourrain further investigated the NO corner of the palace. The soundings in the years 1981 and 1982, conducted by Olivier Pelon have brought new insights into the precursors of the palace, since 1988, the excavations of Alexandre Farnoux and Jan Driessen have been continued. The Palace of Malia has an area of 7,500 m2 and is oriented as all Minoan palaces to NS. With regard to design and equipment, it is smaller and more modest compared to Knossos and Phaestos, around this Central Court the district or ensembles are arranged, whose communication was made possible through corridors and routes. Each of these quarters has been assigned a function, but each of these chamber ensembles should be considered on its own. Olivier Pelon differentiated 4 functional areas, representative, residential, cultic-religious and economic From the Central Court, thereby the typical projections and recesses of the Minoan Palace façades arise. The façade was given a different meaning, Undoubtedly, the west façade is the most important in Malia, in the center, it consists of carefully hewn cuboid blocks of sandstone, which are built on a base along the entire width
Malia (city)
–
Malia and bay of Malia
Malia (city)
–
Malia Strip during the day
Malia (city)
–
Ruins of the Palace
Malia (city)
–
A model of the Palace
19.
Linear A
–
Linear A is one of two currently undeciphered writing systems used in ancient Greece. Linear A was the script used in palace and religious writings of the Minoan civilization. It was discovered by archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans and it is the origin of the Linear B script, which was later used by the Mycenaean civilization. In the 1950s, Linear B was largely deciphered and found to encode an early form of Greek, although the two systems share many symbols, this did not lead to a subsequent decipherment of Linear A. Using the values associated with Linear B in Linear A mainly produces unintelligible words, if Linear A uses the same or similar syllabic values as Linear B, then its associated language, dubbed Minoan, appears unrelated to any known language. Linear A has hundreds of signs and they are believed to represent syllabic, ideographic, and semantic values in a manner similar to Linear B. It primarily appears in the direction, but occasionally appears as a right-to-left or boustrophedon script. An interesting feature is that of how numbers are recorded in the script, the highest number that has been recorded is 3000, but there are special symbols to indicate fractions and weights. Linear A has been unearthed chiefly on Crete, but also at other sites in Greece, as well as Turkey, the extant corpus, comprising some 1427 specimens totalling 7362–7396 signs, if scaled to standard type, would fit easily on two sheets of paper. Discoveries have been made at the locations on Crete, Prior to 1973. Since then, other locations yielded inscriptions, according to Finkelberg, most—if not all—inscriptions found outside of Crete were made locally. This is indicated by such factors as the composition of the material on which the inscriptions were made. Also, close analysis of the inscriptions found outside of Crete indicates the use of a script that is somewhere in between Linear A and Linear B, combining the elements of both. Kea Kythera Melos Samothrace Thera Mycenae Tiryns Hagios Stephanos, Laconia Linear A was a contemporary and possible child of Cretan hieroglyphs, several tablets inscribed in signs similar to Linear A were found in the Troad. While their status is disputed, they may be imports, as there is no evidence of Minoan presence in the Troad, Classification of these signs as a unique Trojan script is not accepted by other linguists. It is difficult to evaluate a given analysis of Linear A as there is point of reference for reading its inscriptions. The simplest approach to decipherment may be to presume that the values of Linear A match more or less the values given to the deciphered Linear B script, in 1957, Bulgarian scholar Vladimir I. Georgiev published his Le déchiffrement des inscriptions crétoises en linéaire A stating that Linear A contains Greek linguistic elements
Linear A
–
Linear A incised on tablets found in
Akrotiri, Santorini.
Linear A
–
Linear A
Linear A
–
Linear A tablet –
Chania Archaeological Museum.
Linear A
–
Linear A incised on a vase, also found in Akrotiri.
20.
Ancient Egypt
–
Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. It is one of six civilizations to arise independently, Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh Narmer. In the aftermath of Alexander the Greats death, one of his generals, Ptolemy Soter and this Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom ruled Egypt until 30 BC, when, under Cleopatra, it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province. The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River valley for agriculture, the predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, and social development and culture. Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world and its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for centuries. The Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much of human history, nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile valley through the end of the Middle Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago. By the late Paleolithic period, the climate of Northern Africa became increasingly hot and dry. In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times, the Egyptian climate was less arid than it is today. Large regions of Egypt were covered in treed savanna and traversed by herds of grazing ungulates, foliage and fauna were far more prolific in all environs and the Nile region supported large populations of waterfowl. Hunting would have been common for Egyptians, and this is also the period when many animals were first domesticated. The largest of these cultures in upper Egypt was the Badari, which probably originated in the Western Desert, it was known for its high quality ceramics, stone tools. The Badari was followed by the Amratian and Gerzeh cultures, which brought a number of technological improvements, as early as the Naqada I Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used to shape blades and other objects from flakes. In Naqada II times, early evidence exists of contact with the Near East, particularly Canaan, establishing a power center at Hierakonpolis, and later at Abydos, Naqada III leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along the Nile. They also traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the desert to the west. Royal Nubian burials at Qustul produced artifacts bearing the oldest-known examples of Egyptian dynastic symbols, such as the crown of Egypt. They also developed a ceramic glaze known as faience, which was used well into the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets, and figurines. During the last predynastic phase, the Naqada culture began using written symbols that eventually were developed into a system of hieroglyphs for writing the ancient Egyptian language. The Early Dynastic Period was approximately contemporary to the early Sumerian-Akkadian civilisation of Mesopotamia, the third-century BC Egyptian priest Manetho grouped the long line of pharaohs from Menes to his own time into 30 dynasties, a system still used today
Ancient Egypt
–
The
Great Sphinx and the
pyramids of Giza are among the most recognizable symbols of the civilization of ancient Egypt.
Ancient Egypt
–
A typical Naqada II jar decorated with gazelles. (Predynastic Period)
Ancient Egypt
–
The
Narmer Palette depicts the unification of the Two Lands.
21.
Linear B
–
Linear B is a syllabic script that was used for writing Mycenaean Greek, the earliest attested form of Greek. The script predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries, the oldest Mycenaean writing dates to about 1450 BC. It is descended from the older Linear A, an earlier script used for writing the Minoan language, as is the later Cypriot syllabary. Linear B, found mainly in the archives at Knossos, Cydonia, Pylos, Thebes and Mycenae. The succeeding period, known as the Greek Dark Ages, provides no evidence of the use of writing and it is also the only one of the prehistoric Aegean scripts to have been deciphered, by English architect and self-taught linguist Michael Ventris. Linear B consists of around 87 syllabic signs and over 100 ideographic signs and these ideograms or signifying signs symbolize objects or commodities. They have no value and are never used as word signs in writing a sentence. The application of Linear B appears to have been confined to administrative contexts, in all the thousands of clay tablets, a relatively small number of different hands have been detected,45 in Pylos and 66 in Knossos. It is possible that the script was used only by a guild of professional scribes who served the central palaces, once the palaces were destroyed, the script disappeared. Linear B has roughly 200 signs, divided into syllabic signs with phonetic values, the representations and naming of these signs have been standardized by a series of international colloquia starting with the first in Paris in 1956. Colloquia continue, the 13th occurred in 2010 in Paris, many of the signs are identical or similar to those in Linear A, however, Linear A encodes an as-yet unknown language, and it is uncertain whether similar signs had the same phonetic values. The grid developed during decipherment by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick of phonetic values for syllabic signs is shown below, initial consonants are in the leftmost column, vowels are in the top row beneath the title. The transcription of the syllable is listed next to the sign along with Bennetts identifying number for the sign preceded by an asterisk, in cases where the transcription of the sign remains in doubt, Bennetts number serves to identify the sign. The signs on the tablets and sealings often show considerable variation from each other, discovery of the reasons for the variation and possible semantic differences is a topic of ongoing debate in Mycenaean studies. Many of these were identified by the edition and are shown in the special values below. The second edition relates, It may be taken as axiomatic that there are no true homophones, the unconfirmed identifications of *34 and *35 as ai2 and ai3 were removed. Other values remain unknown, mainly because of scarcity of evidence concerning them, note that *34 and *35 are mirror images of each other but whether this graphic relationship indicates a phonetic one remains unconfirmed. In recent times, CIPEM inherited the authority of Bennett
Linear B
–
Linear B
Linear B
–
Linear B tablet discovered by Arthur Evans
Linear B
–
Tablets
22.
Phaistos
–
Phaistos, also transliterated as Phaestos, Festos and Latin Phaestus, currently refers to a Bronze Age archaeological site at modern Phaistos, a municipality in south central Crete. Ancient Phaistos was located about 5.6 km east of the Mediterranean Sea and 62 km south of Heraklio, the second largest city of Minoan Crete. The name, Phaistos, survives from ancient Greek references to a city in Crete of that name, shown to be, in fact, the name is substantiated by the coins of the classical city. They display motifs such as Europa sitting on a bull, Talos with wings, Heracles without beard and being crowned, or Zeus in a form of a naked youth sitting on a tree. On either the obverse or the reverse the name of the city, or its abbreviation, is inscribed, such as ΦΑΙΣ or ΦΑΙΣΤΙ and these few dozen coins were acquired by collectors from uncontrolled contexts. They give no information on the location of Phaistos, the simple geometric problem posed by these distances from known points was solved with no difficulty by the survey. The location pinpointed was the end of a hill, or ridge. A village of 16 houses remained on the ridge, but the vestiges of fortification walls indicated a city had existed there. A half-century later, on removing the houses, Federico Halbherr, excavation ended in 1904, to begin again after another half-century, in 1950. By this time it was understood that the palace had been constructed at the beginning of the Proto-Palace Period, after 1955 the place name,
Phaistos
–
View of Phaistos
Phaistos
–
Entryway to the palace
Phaistos
–
Detail of the archaeological site of Phaistos
Phaistos
–
Bird clasping a fish. Decoration of a clay alabastron from Kalyvia, Phaistos, Crete. Early postpalatial period (1350-1300 B.C.)
23.
Archanes
–
Archanes is a former municipality in the Heraklion regional unit, Crete, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Archanes-Asterousia, the municipal unit has an area of 31.516 km2. It is also the site of an ancient Minoan settlement in central Crete. The discovery of ancient roads leading from Archanes to Juktas, Anemospilia, Xeri Kara, Archaeological evidence indicates that ancient Archanes spread out over the same area as the modern town of Archanes. Spyridon Marinatos and N. Platon excavated minor areas in the region, in 1964, Yannis Sakellarakis dug trial trenches at the Tourkoyeitonia site and uncovered the first evidence of a palace site. Since 1966, Archanes has been excavated by the Greek Archaeological Society under the supervision of John Sakellarakis, in the Minoan era, aqueducts delivered water to Kephala Hill from spring water sources at Archanes, which are also the source of the Kairatos River. Troullos is the easternmost site of the Archanes settlement, Tourkoyeitonia, in central Archanes, is the site of its palace, likely built in the Middle Minoan period. Excavations began here in 1964 by J. Sakellarakis, a variety of Porphyrite stone lamps, vases, amphorae, cooking pots, cups, lamps, tools and every-day domestic items such as tweezers have been unearthed as the site. Southwest of Tourkoyeitonia, more of the palace is found, while little remains of the architecture, the walls that are preserved are Middle Minoan III–Late Minoan IA. Linear A tablets and the model of a house were excavated at The Archive along with MMIII-LMIA pottery and several unworked pieces of crystal, obsidian. The man-made enclosure of a spring, first partially excavated in 1921 by Sir Arthur Evans was later completed by J. Sakellarakis in 1964, the floor is laid with pebbles and the walls are poros-stone. Evidence indicates that it was built between Middle Minoan IB and Middle Minoan IIIA, destroyed during Late Minoan IA and then restored, the Reservoir is within the palace grounds. A large paved area, is dissected by walkways which in the form a triangle, is found at the site called The Theatre Area or Aghios Nikolaos. Two stepped altars are found here, one on a walkway, there is a painting of a reconstruction of this area in Sakellarakis Crete Archanes guidebook on page 49 which does this area more justice than a description. The economy revolves around grape and olive processing and marketing, both products account for some 96% of its total agricultural products. The Agricultural Cooperative of Archanes, set up in 1931, is one of the oldest in Greece, a quarter of the wine production is exported to Germany, France and the Netherlands, and the rest of the production is largely marketed domestically. Since the late 1990s, attempts have been made to convert part of wine making step by step to organic, Archanes Municipality Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Archanes
Archanes
–
Archanes Αρχάνες
Archanes
Archanes
–
A street in Archanes
24.
Clay
–
Clay is a fine-grained natural rock or soil material that combines one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure. Clays are plastic due to water content and become hard, brittle. Depending on the content in which it is found, clay can appear in various colours from white to dull grey or brown to deep orange-red. Although many naturally occurring deposits include both silts and clay, clays are distinguished from other fine-grained soils by differences in size, silts, which are fine-grained soils that do not include clay minerals, tend to have larger particle sizes than clays. There is, however, some overlap in size and other physical properties. The distinction between silt and clay varies by discipline, geologists and soil scientists usually consider the separation to occur at a particle size of 2 µm, sedimentologists often use 4–5 μm, and colloid chemists use 1 μm. Geotechnical engineers distinguish between silts and clays based on the plasticity properties of the soil, as measured by the soils Atterberg limits, ISO14688 grades clay particles as being smaller than 2 μm and silt particles as being larger. These solvents, usually acidic, migrate through the rock after leaching through upper weathered layers. In addition to the process, some clay minerals are formed through hydrothermal activity. There are two types of deposits, primary and secondary. Primary clays form as residual deposits in soil and remain at the site of formation, secondary clays are clays that have been transported from their original location by water erosion and deposited in a new sedimentary deposit. Clay deposits are associated with very low energy depositional environments such as large lakes. Depending on the source, there are three or four main groups of clays, kaolinite, montmorillonite-smectite, illite, and chlorite. Chlorites are not always considered to be a clay, sometimes being classified as a group within the phyllosilicates. There are approximately 30 different types of clays in these categories. Varve is clay with visible annual layers, which are formed by deposition of those layers and are marked by differences in erosion. This type of deposit is common in glacial lakes
Clay
–
Gay Head cliffs in
Martha's Vineyard consist almost entirely of clay.
Clay
–
Electron microscope photograph of smectite clay – magnification 23,500
Clay
–
Quaternary clay in
Estonia
Clay
–
Deforestation for clay extraction in
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil. The picture is of Morro da Covanca, Jacarepaguá.
25.
Beehive tomb
–
A beehive tomb, also known as a tholos tomb, is a burial structure characterized by its false dome created by the superposition of successively smaller rings of mudbricks or, more often, stones. The resulting structure resembles a beehive, hence the traditional English name, tholoi were used for burial in several cultures in the Mediterranean and West Asia, but in some cases they were used for different purposes such as homes, ritual, and even fortification. Although Max Mallowan used the name for the circular houses belonging to the Neolithic culture of Tell Halaf. In Greece, the vaulted tholoi are a monumental Late Bronze Age development, in concept, they are similar to the much more numerous Mycenaean chamber tombs which seem to have emerged at about the same time. Both have chamber, doorway stomion and entrance passage dromos but tholoi are largely built while chamber tombs are rock-cut, a few early examples of tholoi have been found in Messenia in the SW Peloponnese Greece, and recently near Troezen in the NE Peloponnese. These tholoi are built on ground and then enclosed by a mound of earth. A pair of tumuli at Marathon, Greece indicate how a built rectangular central chamber was extended with an entrance passage, after about 1500 BCE, beehive tombs became more widespread and are found in every part of the Mycenaean heartland. In contrast, however, to the early examples these are almost always cut into the slope of a hillside so that only the third of the vaulted chamber was above ground level. This masonry was then concealed with a small mound of earth. The tombs usually contain more than one burial, in places in the tomb either on the floor, in pits and cists or on stone-built or rock-cut benches. After a burial, the entrance to the tomb was filled in with soil, the chamber is always built in masonry, even in the earliest examples, as is the stomion or entrance-way. The dromos in early examples was usually just cut from the bedrock, in later examples such as the Treasury of Atreus and Tomb of Clytemnestra, all three parts were constructed of fine ashlar masonry. The chambers were built as corbelled vaults, with layers of stone placed closer together as the vault tapers toward the top of the tomb, the entrances provided an opportunity for conspicuous demonstration of wealth. That of the Treasury of Atreus, for example, was decorated with columns of red, the larger tombs contained amongst the richest finds to have come from the Late Bronze Age of Mainland Greece, despite the tombs having been pillaged both in antiquity and more recently. Although the Vapheio tholos, south of Sparta, had been robbed and these contained, among other valuable items, the two gold “Vapheio cups” decorated with scenes of bull taming which are among the best known of Mycenaean treasures. Circular structures were built in the Near East, including the examples known as tholoi found in the Neolithic Halaf culture of Iraq, Syria. They were probably used as houses and as storage structures, but ritual use may also have occurred. Other, later examples are found in Cyprus, where they were used as homes, there is no clear connection between these domestic, circular buildings and later tholos tombs
Beehive tomb
–
Cross section of
Treasury of Atreus, a beehive tomb
Beehive tomb
–
Dromos entrance to the Treasury of Atreus
Beehive tomb
–
The Lion Tholos Tomb at
Mycenae. Of note are the ashlar stomion (of conglomerate) and dromos while the chamber itself remains made of smaller stones, placing the tomb in Wace's second group
Beehive tomb
–
tholos of the
Nuraghe Arrubiu
.svg)
