4. Cycladic Civilization(3000 B.C.) The Cyclades is a group of thirty small Greek islands and numerous islets in the middle of the Aegean Sea. The Cycladic culture was once active here between 3200 and 2000 B.C.; what little we know about this society comes in large part from the art they left behind.
5. CYCLADIC IDOLS (2100 BC) Although several types of sculptures have been discovered including seated and standing musicians (most notably harpists), cup bearers, and double, and even triple, figure groupings – the most remarkable are standing (or reclining) figures, the majority of whom are frontal, naked women with arms crossed over the waist. The heads, resting on long necks, have flat faces and prominent noses, but no other features.
6. CYLADIC IDOLS(2100 BC) Their distinctive shape suggests a unique function, but without contemporary written documents this cannot now be deciphered. Nearly all examples come from cemeteries, suggesting a funerary role. But who or what do they represent? It is unlikely they portray the deceased because these female figures have been found in both women’s and men’s graves. It is more likely that they represent a divine or demonic being perhaps meant to protect the graves of wealthy individuals, since most Cycladic graves do not have such figures or even any grave offerings.
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8. MINOAN CIVILIZATION(2100 BC) The Minoan CiviliZation of Crete was the first advanced civilization in Europe. By 2500 BC most people had left the Neolithic way of life behind them, which they had endured in the Early period, and moved into the Minoan. The Minoan Civilisation was named after the mythical King Minos. During the Middle Period, it is likely that the civilization reached its peak, where metalwork and pottery was produced to a very high level of both skill and imagination.
9. OCTOPUS VASE(1500 BC) Ornamental patterns and plant motifs were painted on vessels in dark colors on a light background. By the end of the century, designs included marine flora and fauna, which scholars now call the "Marine Style." The Marine Style is found not only on Crete but also throughout the Aegean islands and on the Greek mainland. The examples all share the same decorative elements — triton shells, octopuses, seaweed, and other marine motifs — and all have similar compositions, implying perhaps a single workshop or, at least, shared influences.
10. OCTOPUS VASE(1500 BC) The Marine Style first appeared on wall paintings, clay reliefs, stone vessels, and faience objects before it was used for painted vessels. One of the most successful painters of this style is called the "Marine Style Master." This artist's definitive pieces are an elongated flask from Palaikastro, and a stirrup jar (so named because of its stirrup-shaped handles) from the "pantry of the shrine" at Kato Zakro. Both vases are only about 10.5 inches tall, but each is elaborately decorated with a frontal octopus, swimming diagonally across the body of the vessel.
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13. SNAKE GODDESS1600 BC Evans identified the three faience figurines as a "snake goddess" and two votaries. Of his "snake goddess," Evans actually found only the torso, right arm, head and tall hat; the rest of the figure has been reconstructed. One of the figurines Evans originally named a votary is now also usually called a "snake goddess" and is the better known of the two, although it too was missing parts: the head, the lower part of the snake held in the right hand, the entire left arm above the elbow, and portions of the skirt.
14. SNAKE GODDESS1600 BC Evansí identifications were based on the assumption that women dominated Minoan society and that these figurines represented "goddesses" worshipped by the Minoans as images of the Mother Goddess, like the earlier "Venus" of Willendorf in prehistoric Europe. Although snakes have been linked to fertility deities, there is little evidence of the worship of a snake goddess on Crete, and the exact nature of these figurines is not at all assured.
15. MINOAN PALACE(1900 BC) Around 1900 BC, the Minoans began building several huge palaces, the greatest of which was at Knossos (also spelled Cnossus). Originally, the palace was separate structures around a great central court. In about 1720 BC, however, an earthquake leveled most of Knossos. The multistoried palace was soon rebuilt, with spacious colonnades and flights of stairs connecting the various buildings.
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19. MINOAN FRESCOES(1400-1375 BC) Numerous fragments of wall paintings in 1901 in the ruins at the palace of Knossos on Crete. Among these, fragments recovered from the eastern wing in the so-called Court of the Stone Spout, are believed to have fallen from a room above and been crushed during the destruction of the palace around 1375 BC. Enough
20. MINOAN FRESCOES(1400-1375 BC) The figures inhabit a solid blue environment without a ground-line on which to stand, and all have their feet pointed sharply, as if they are hovering in mid-air. The neutral space surrounding the figures both separates the scene from reality and expresses the excitement and lightness of the acrobatic movements.
21. MINOAN FRESCOES(1400-1375 BC) Acrobatic ritual sports with bulls are represented in earlier miniature paintings and large stucco reliefs, but these panels show larger figures (a little over a foot tall) and a more narrative subject. This restored panel and its presumed companions are our best examples of Minoan bull leaping and have been christened "Toreador Scenes." But why and where such contests were held is unknown.
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24. Mycenaean civilization was dominated by a warrior aristocracy. Around 1400 BC the Mycenaeans extended their control to Crete, center of the Minoan Civilizationand adopted a form the Minoan script called Linear A to write their early form of Greek. The Mycenaean era script is called Linear B. The Mycenaeans buried their nobles in beehive tombs (tholoi), large circular burial chambers with a high vaulted roof and straight entry passage lined with stone. They often buried daggers or some other form of military equipment with the deceased. The nobility were frequently buried with gold masks, tiaras, armour, and jeweled weapons. Mycenaeans were buried in a sitting position, and some of the nobility underwent mummification. MYCENAEAN CIVILIZATION(1500 BC)
25. LINEAR B(1200 BC) Despite such a non-descriptive name, Linear B has proved to be the oldest surviving record of the Greek dialect known as Mycenaean, named after the great site of Mycenae where the legendary Agamemnon ruled. The script's usage spanned the time period between approximately 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE , and geographically covered the island of Crete, as well as the southern part of the Greek Mainland.The script was discovered by archeaologist Sir Arthur Evans in the early part of this century during excavations in Crete and the Greek mainland.
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28. MASK OF AGAMEMNON(1500 BC) According to legend, Schliemann sent off a telegram to the king of Greece, declaring that he "had gazed upon the face of Agamemnon." Although this event never occurred, the mask associated with this skull was called "the mask of Agamemnon." It is distinctive because of its thin nose, large mouth and lips, and prominent beard and mustache, but its name is a complete fabrication.
29. MYCENAEANCITADEL(1350-1200 BC) Although Mycenaean influence extended across mainland Greece to Crete, the major Mycenaean palace-citadels were located in the Peloponnese, the peninsula that constitutes southern Greece. Each palace-citadel was the seat of a monarch, called a wanax, who controlled the territory. Workers brought their agricultural products and other goods to the palace, where they were redistributed according to a hierarchical system rather than through free markets.
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33. LION GATE(1250 BC) Four huge monoliths of conglomerate, hammered-dressed and cut by a saw, form the two jambs (uprights), the threshold, and the lintel of a large, almost square opening (10 feet high; 9.5 feet wide) in the wall surrounding Mycenae. Originally closed by a double wooden door (pivot holes are still visible in the threshold and lintel), this gate was the major entry into this fortified Bronze-Age city.
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36. TREASURY OF ATREUS(13TH C.BC) the chamber tomb and the tholos tomb, both of which, unlike shaft graves, are found throughout the Mycenaean world. The chamber tomb, the simpler of the two, was cut directly into the rock of a hillside, but the tholos type, although also cut in a hillside, was built of cut blocks. Both served the purposes of burial and protection of the body of the deceased; however, the tholos, because of its size and construction, appears likely to have been exclusively for burials of the royal family.
37. TREASURY OF ATREUS(13TH C.BC) The most spectacular tholos, and one of the best preserved at Mycenae, is called the Treasury of Atreus. Pausanias, an intrepid traveler of the second century AD , gave the term "treasury" to this structure. He mistakenly believed that this tholos was a repository for the wealth of the Bronze Age king of Mycenae, Atreus, father of the great Agamemnon of Trojan War fame.
