Monday, February 12, 2007

New chronology proposed for Minoan civilization


I think the Minoans and their connection to early Greek civilizations are fascinating so I was particularly interested in a new chronology put forth recently:

"It’s generally thought that these cultural developments in the eastern Mediterranean occurred during the 16th century B.C., along with the New Kingdom period in Egypt, when Egypt expanded its influence into western Asia.

The new studies suggests that these developments probably took place instead during the preceding “Second Intermediate Period,” when Egyptian power was weak and a foreign Canaanite dynasty even conquered northern Egypt for a while.

According to the new chronology, the Late Bronze Age civilizations in the Aegean and on Cyprus may have developed in association with 18th- and 17th-century Canaanite and Levantine civilizations and their expanding maritime trade world. These cultures were very different from the Egyptians’ in terms of culture, language and religion.

For more than a century, archaeologists have developed the chronology for this region by painstakingly comparing the various civilizations’ artifacts and artistic styles, such as how spirals were painted on pots or how metalwork was done. To pin the cultural periods to calendar dates, they then linked them to the accepted dates for the Egyptian pharaohs.

Since the 1970s, scientists have been measuring radiocarbon dates from the same areas, which don’t match with this artifact-based timeframe. Because of uncertainty about the dating methods, however, the radiocarbon results haven’t been convincing enough to overturn the archaeologists’ conclusions."

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13 comments:

  1. the people are BRONZE brown not WHITE it;s sad that the color on the paintings from the MINOAN people are white.. the white people are crazy. everyone knows that the MINOAN are black

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  2. Anonymous6:23 PM

    In Minoan art women are depicted as having white skin and the males are shown with dark skin it's just the style they used.

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  3. If you want to see some color changing,go to the tombs of Mali. the statue were pure black,after the white men finsihed and placed the staute on there web site it was WHITE I was very affended yes I was what about the MUSTACH era.
    the picture in the catacombs of great fighters where redone to be white and a mustach put on to hide the big lip."a perfect mustach" shaveing was not out yet!!! you see I'm not sure if they are doing this to fool the people or rob the people... the truth is they"whites" are digging up black people grave. and to cover there tracks they'r pretending that the dead are white so they have a right??? they are digging up black people grave putting there claim to it. we know as black people we know .. all we have to do is sit back it will reveal itself.BLACKS ARE BACK

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  4. Anonymous2:27 PM

    SUCH PREOCCUPATION WITH SKIN COLOUR!

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  5. Anonymous10:37 PM

    Yes the women are light skinned (but not pale white with blue eyes and blonde hair or anything)... they also have large breasts.

    Usually pictures like this represent fantasy and wishful thinking rather than depictions of reality.

    Serena, calm down and learn to spell.

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  6. Anyone stop to consider perhaps the women were indoors more than the men? Hence the contrast. So many symbolic meanings and possiblities.

    If that is the way their culture believed, who are we to say it was wrong or racist. We get so caught up in our modern racism issues (not to say there wasn't in those days) we sometimes forget to step outside the frame and see the whole picture. (A.K.A. being objective with an open mind.)

    For example, shaking someones hand in another country can be a great insult. Chew on that for a while...

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  7. The most interesting item in this setting is the complex game begin played. It depicts some sort of social gathering and suggesting nothing sexual despite our modern sensibilities.

    Minoan woman were evidently educated. The two playing the game seem to be paying attention to it. This is in contrast to modern social gatherings, where interest in a game is usually limited to salacious content, whereas this game suggests complexity, perhaps logic and math.

    There is more to this image that is not shown here. The partial "dress" standing to the left depicts a woman carrying a vessel, perhaps she was refreshing guests drinks. Several cups are depicted near guests. The woman holding the vessel appears in the same dress and hair style as the others, suggesting she is not a servant or of a different social class than the people whose drinks she may have been refreshing.

    Wow!

    The depiction suggests no departure from what may actually be observed in a typical Monoan social gathering. Notice the pictures on the well decorated wall. The pictures also depict people. It is likely painting of social gatherings adorn the walls in rooms where social gatherings take place.

    Jerry

    Also there

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  8. Does anyone know if this image was produced in era or if it is was authored in modern time as an impression intended to be accurate and based on archeological evidence?

    Jerry

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  9. If the image was produced by the Minoan, then we can infer a lot. The elaborate hair and clothing styles suggest these woman did not do manual labor. It also suggests a four thousand year old technology capable of producing intricately woven and died fabric.

    Despite bare breasts, there is no suggestion of any sexual activity. The image is not intended to suggest that these woman did not do manual labor because they were prostitutes. Further the image suggests, that these woman were well educated.

    Most games at social gatherings are played by all. The two woman's separate play of a non verbal game played with a board and game pieces suggest that woman were educated and appreciated games of logic and strategy. This is stereotypically a male preoccupation, even in our own culture. It is not typical for woman to play games of strategy.

    The image shown above is cropped. There is more to this image. In the whole image we see a woman in the foreground holding a vessel with which she presumably refreshed the drinks of other woman near where we see cups set on floor and table. The woman refreshing drinks is wearing the same elaborate hair styles and clothing as the others suggesting she is not a servant but the host of the party.

    What a remarkably revealing image of ancient life. It would be a shame if it was produced in modern times for the purpose of education and not by the culture itself.

    Does anyone know?

    Jerry

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  10. Anonymous3:51 AM

    It is very much a modern creation

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  11. Anonymous9:25 AM

    it is VERY obviously a modern picture. If you look up actual minoan wall paintings you will see the difference at once.

    Gotta add tho, your deductions are not too far from historical facts: Minoan woman had same rights as men and only worked in house chores. Their clothes were rich and elaborate and they used make up and jewlery.

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  12. Anonymous9:50 PM

    their boobs are big

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  13. Well for all the retards that say they are black, you are forgetting one thing, THEY ARE GREEKS, whom are termed "white people". The men are represented darker, and women represented lighter, so that they could distinguish the two. Im even willing to say that they looked kinda like the artist's depiction up there.

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