The Minoans:
Influences:
The Minoans were the first Greek civilization. They appeared on the island of Crete. Minoans were greatly influence by two other ancient cultures: Egypt and Mesopotamia. The Egyptian greatly influence the Minoans in terms of apparent. Minoan architecture used columns just like the Egyptian. Minoan art style also seems very similar to also seems to copy Egyptian art by only showing people in profile, never frontally. Still, the Minoans added their own touches, making their figures much more natural looking than the still figures we find in Egyptian art.
Women:
Minoan women seem to have had much higher social status than in many other ancient civilizations. One of the reason would be that there were less powerful warriors, so they needed to give the females and opportunity to contribute to the society. Also, their religion is based on a goddess, a female, so the females would seem more glamorous in Minoan than other societies.
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Import and Exports
The Minoans had several main cities centered around palace complexes which collected the island's surplus wealth as taxes and redistributed it to support the various activities that distinguish a civilization: arts, crafts, trade, and government. Not only that, they traded like many food, cypress wood, wine, currants, olive oil, wool, cloth, herbs, and purple dye. Its imports consisted of precious stones, copper (most likely from Cyprus), ivory, silver, gold, and other raw material. In return, they got goods like bronze.
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Safety:
They have been so stable in terms of their position for two man reasons. First, they had a large fleet, which was useful for both trade and defense. Second, there was no major threat to its security at this time and therefore little need for fortifications. These two factors helped create a peaceful and prosperous civilization reflected in three aspects of Minoan culture: its cities and architecture, the status of its women, and its art, especially its pottery.
End:
Minoan civilization continued to prosper until it came to a sudden and mysterious end. A combination of archaeology and mythology provide clues to how this may have happened. The central event was a massive volcanic eruption that partially sank the island of Thera some eighty miles northeast of Crete and left a crater four times the size of that created by the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, the largest recorded volcanic eruption in recorded history! This eruption had three devastating effects: a shock wave which levelled Crete's cities, a tidal wave which destroyed its navy, and massive fallout of volcanic ash which poisoned its crops. Together these weakened the Minoans enough to let another people, the Mycenaean Greeks eventually take over around 1450 B.C.E.
Negative Aspects:
The Minoan lived by the volcano on the island of Crete. I am sure the volcano benefited them in may ways such as volcanic ashes furtileing their land and etc, but I am sure the volcano did more damage than help. The Minoan totally corrupted because of a volcano. That is when the Mycenaeans took over. The devastating eruption ruined lots of the Minoan artifacts making us work harder to figure out their culture. Secondly, the Minoans have been in a relaxed state since there weren't lots of threats. Suddenly, after the eruption, the Mycenaeans attacked. It made everything so hard for the Minoan. That is because they were in such a safe zone, they were not at all alert for what is going to happen, so that is why they all got killed.
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the mycenaeans:
The Mycenaeans were Greeks from the mainland who took advantage of the Minoans' weakened state to conquer Crete, as mentioned before. They were vigorous and active people who loved trading and some piracy over a wide area extending from southern Italy in the west to Troy and the Black Sea in the northeast. We barely know anything about Mycenaean history and society just like the Minoans. We do have some written records in a script called Linear B which concern themselves mainly with official tax records and inventories.
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Art:
The art, armor, and remains of fortifications, such as those at Mycenae, tell us the Mycenaeans were much more warlike than the Minoans. Greeks , after the Mycenaeans, didn't know that Mycenaean civilization existed and thought these massive walls and gates had been built by a mythical race of giants known as the Cyclopes.
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Society:
First of all, we know that the Mycenaean's society were divided into different city-states such as Mycenae, Pylos, Tiryns, and Athens. Most of these city-states consisted of highly strengthened central palace complexes which ruled over surrounding villages. The Mycenaeans tried to run these as states that only they owned such as the ones that existed in Egypt and Mesopotamia. We do not know if these city-states were completely independent or looked to one city, probably Mycenae, for leadership. However, sources, such as the Iliad tell us that the Mycenaeans could apparently unite in a common attempt to achieve a goal such as the Trojan War.:
WEalth:
Archaeological remains tell us that the Mycenaeans, at least the upper classes, were extremely wealthy from trade and probably occasional piracy. Gold funeral masks, jewelry, bronze weapons, tripods, and a storeroom with 2853 stemmed goblets all show the way to the Mycenaeans' wealth. Keep in mind this is only what the archaeologists have found. There is no telling how much of their wealth was stolen by grave robbers.
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Burial:
The Mycenaeans placed in the graves rich grave goods such as jewellery, weapons and serviceable vessels. Despite the fact that the impact of Crete on the Mycenaean world is generally intense, the offering of sumptuous grave goods was not a feature of the Minoan burial customs. This shows that the Mycenaeans were impacted by the Egyptians, but they did not do one things: mummification They showed no effort in conserving the body. This tells us that they do not believe in afterlife at all.
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significance:
Negative Aspects:
The Mycenaeans were one of the first to have slavery. It is very awkward for us to see a wealthy family having about a dozen slaves working for them while they are not payed well, and probably not even fed properly. It is unusual for us while it is completely right and normal for them! They probably think we are weird because we have no slaves what so ever! If we were to talk to them now, we would talk to them about how slavery is bad, and they would probably say, "What do you mean, bad? You can't work, you should enjoy your life. The slaves can do all the work for you. Why don't you take the opportunity when you can?"
The Mycenaeans were much more feisty then the Minoans. Meaning they had trouble being nice to the neighbouring cities. They often get into wars which really did not help them. In fact, they had fifty percent chance of losing, so that means they may often lose. When they do lose, the winner may steal land, slaves, and even damage their agriculture and economy. These wars really did no good for them!
The Mycenaeans were much more feisty then the Minoans. Meaning they had trouble being nice to the neighbouring cities. They often get into wars which really did not help them. In fact, they had fifty percent chance of losing, so that means they may often lose. When they do lose, the winner may steal land, slaves, and even damage their agriculture and economy. These wars really did no good for them!