The region was already settled, and agriculture initiated, during the Paleolithic era as evidenced by finds at Petralona and Franchthi caves two of the oldest human habitations in the world. The Neolithic Age c. Archaeological finds in northern Greece Thessaly, Macedonia, and Sesklo, among others suggest a migration from Anatolia in that the ceramic cups and bowls and figures found there share qualities distinctive to Neolithic finds in Anatolia.
These inland settlers were primarily farmers, as northern Greece was more conducive to agriculture than elsewhere in the region, and lived in one-room stone houses with a roof of timber and clay daubing. The Cycladic Civilization c. During the Cycladic Period, houses and temples were built of finished stone and the people made their living through fishing and trade.
This period is usually divided into three phases: Early Cycladic, Middle Cycladic, and Late Cycladic with a steady development in art and architecture. The latter two phases overlap and finally merge with the Minoan Civilization, and differences between the periods become indistinguishable. The Minoan Civilization BCE developed on the island of Crete, and rapidly became the dominant sea power in the region.
The Minoans developed a writing system known as Linear A which has not yet been deciphered and made advances in ship building, construction, ceramics, the arts and sciences, and warfare. King Minos was credited by ancient historians Thucydides among them as being the first person to establish a navy with which he colonized, or conquered, the Cyclades. This first palace was destroyed c.
Great attention was paid to intricacy of architecture and design with less effort spent on defensive walls. As the pottery of this period shows a unity of culture throughout Crete, it has been determined that the culture of Knossos prevailed at this time and the island was a unified nation under a central government.
This palace had four entrances, one from each direction, all leading to the central court. As the corridors within were dark and circuitous, it is thought that this gave rise to the story of the labyrinth of Minos. The throne room was particularly impressive. The Snake Goddess of the Minoans was the supreme deity who may have been an early version of the Greek goddess Eurynome. Images and figures of the Snake Goddess now at the Iraklion Museum have been found at Knossos and elsewhere in Crete dating from this period.
Further evidence of the goddess is the repetition of the motif of the double axe, most notably in the Hall of the Double Axes in the palace. There is no doubt that the double axe symbolized an important goddess of the Minoans but it is not clear whether it was the Snake Goddess or another.
For centuries, Knossos was considered only a city of myth and legend until, in CE, it was uncovered by the English archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans and excavations were begun. Through frescoes on the walls, the excavated site revealed more about the Minoan sport of bull jumping and the ancient story of Theseus and the Minotaur half-man-half-bull seemed more probable than fanciful.
The story of the labyrinth also was given more credence once the intricate interior of the palace was uncovered. They were great seafarers and traders, talented potters, painters, jewelers, weavers and carvers of stone. Reconstructed Minoan Fresco from Avaris, Egypt. The prehistoric Aegean was the first truly international age, and much of the art shows influence across cultures: Minoan wall painting owes much to Egyptian art; late Bronze Age Cypriot pottery imitates Mycenaean pieces.
Today, the sites and art of the Minoans and Mycenaeans are some of the most popular of the ancient world. Sign up for our newsletter! Receive occasional emails about new Smarthistory content. The four columns carrying the hall roof stood round a large central hearth, the focus of the feasts of the heroic society celebrated in Homer's poems. Mycenean script Linear B has been identified as an early form of Ancient Greek.
Something of the Minoan freshness is missing from paintings which decorated the palaces of the Mycenean rulers, whose different interests were illustrated in rather rigid and formal hunting expeditions and chariot processions. Plastic art was essentially limited to relief sculpture rather than statues , and is exemplified by the Lion Gate c.
Much of the Cretan artist's ability later served Mycenean patrons: the Vaphio cups, embossed with scenes showing the capture of wild bulls, were found in one of the Shaft Graves at Mycenae.
Such objects as the gold so-called " Mask of Agamemnon ", also from a Shaft Grave, show the stiffer and more reserved Mycenean taste. Other cups and bronze daggers were inlaid with gold, silver and niello, and the Myceneans appear to have discovered the art of enamelling metal with coloured glass. There was a long tradition, learned originally from Egypt, of carving cups and bowls from marble and other coloured stones.
The interior was hollowed out with a tubular drill fed with sand and water, and the finishing was by laborious grinding with sand or emery. See also: Greek Metalwork. Like Cretan pottery, Mycenean ceramic art was also decorated with sea creatures as well as delicate flowers and grasses, though typically without the Minoan liveliness and elegance.
The Myceneans also favoured pictorial scenes of riders in chariots and hunting, and later on, birds and animals drawn in outline, the bodies filled in with fine patterns possibly inspired by embroidery or weaving. These appeared on bowls, jars, drinking goblets and flasks with a double handle on top in the form of a stirrup. Aegean cultures were largely sea-faring, and these sea-faring peoples had a different outlook from their land-based neighbours.
Man as a voyager has to act as an individual, not as an anonymous member of a highly organised rigid society. He needs a different sense of time and scale from that of the cultivator and herdsman tied to his land.
This sense of independence and self-confidence was to have profound influence on the mainland-based Greeks - the successors of Aegean culture, who occupied the Peleponnese and the islands.
They took over, too, the seafarers view of man and society, which had a major effect on their attitude and which led in turn to their achievements in art, science and philosophy, which had such a profound impact on Renaissance art and later movements. More Resources on the Arts of Antiquity. All rights reserved. Aegean Art c. What is Aegean Art? Cycladic Culture The earliest example of Aegean art appeared in the Cyclades, a group of islands that includes Naxos, Paros, Milos, Santorini and others.
Minoan Culture Minoan art , centred on the island of Crete, lasted from about to BCE, when it was destroyed by earthquake and invasion. Minoan Palace Architecture The first palace at Knossos was destroyed by earthquake in about BCE, together with other smaller palaces. Minoan Painting and Sculpture The walls of the Cretan palaces were colourfully adorned with fresco painting. Minoan Jewellery and Decoration The Minoans excelled in goldsmithing and the intricate art of jewellery.
Minoan Pottery Much of the elegance of Cretan civilisation can be seen in the painted decoration and shapes of its ancient pottery , noted for a variety of bold designs and all-over decoration. Mycenean Architecture Mycenean architecture, for instance, was designed to be impregnable: cities were protected by thick walls of massive irregular blocks of stone, which still survive impressively at Tiryns, and at Mycenae.
Mycenean Painting and Sculpture Something of the Minoan freshness is missing from paintings which decorated the palaces of the Mycenean rulers, whose different interests were illustrated in rather rigid and formal hunting expeditions and chariot processions.
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