HSC - Ancient History Greece: The Bronze Age – Society in Minoan Crete Minoan Social Structure

1. MINOAN: POLITICAL ORGANISATION AND
SOCIAL STRUCTURE

2. Ruler/s
female?
Minoan
Society
Autonomous
political units
Elite woman
prominent at
Knossos
Priesthood –
sacrifice +
priestesses
Craftspeople
– farmers /
herders
Agriculture
important –
goats and
sheep

3. PROBLEMS WITH EVIDENCE
 Fragmentary evidence = hypotheses
 Evidence society was ‘stratified’:
Comparisons with similar societies of the time = Near
Eastern and Egyptian = ruler / elite
Palaces, large country houses and the remains of
simple houses = different class groups

4. EVANS
 ‘Minos’ – title like pharaoh
 Ruled like a ‘priest king’ –
evidence “Prince of the
lilies” fresco + the
“chieftain cup” – young
Minoan prince
 Influenced by other
civilisations & Frazer –
‘The Golden Bough’

5. PALACES
 Palaces: Knossos, Mallia Phaistos, Zakros
 Knossos is the largest – influence over others?
 Colin Renfrew: society organised as a series of
‘chiefdoms’ – economy / political / religious
 Robert Koehl: each palace - own aristocracy

6. PALACES
 Peter Warren: political structure based on
‘hierarchy of built structures’ – size of building
related to status of occupants
 Concept of ‘high king’ in Knossos and tribal leaders
in other areas
 Period of peace allowed investment + unfortified
palaces means no threat – social acceptance of
ruler?

7. WA-NA-KA = WANAX (KING)
 Mycenaean control – late
period Crete (1450 BC -)
– Linear B
 Male? Minoan?
 Mycenaean? Puppet
ruler?
 Occurs in the singular –
ruled over Crete?
 Found at Knossos

8. GENDER
 Evans: Male king?
 Context? Early 20th
century – sexist?
 Patriarchal
assumptions
 Jane Harrison (1903):
matriarchy (ignored)
 Revisionist historians
have interpreted
evidence that supports
Harrisons’ theory
 ‘Ruler’ often
represented as female
 Warren: Religious?
Politician? – Female
 Waterhouse: No
apparent signs of
warfare or struggle –
lead by priestesses?
 Boulotis: kingship was
the ‘norm’ – ‘master
impression’ evidence

9. MALE OR FEMALE?

10. PALACE ELITE
 Palace – large house / villa relationship – met with
palace occupants – aristocrats?
 Koehl: Banquets? Communal dining halls and
resting rooms (Mallia / Knossos / Phaistos – have
large halls north of central court)
 Evidence of food debris and cooking utensils
 ‘Camp stool’ fresco - Knossos – elite male
gathering?

11. BUREACRACY
 Administrative need – palace office structure
showed need for organisation
 Administer rations / assign flocks + herds / regulate
collection of raw materials and produce
 Supervise scribes who kept records – clay tablets,
papyrus, parchments
 Clay seals - evidence of bureaucratic control

12. PRIESTS AND PRIESTESSES
 Evidence – seal stones e.g.: short cropped hair, a
garment draped around body or a sacrificial axe
carried over the shoulder
 Women – full time? elite women? Social elite?
Young women of child bearing age – associated
with the pouring of libations, making offerings and
performance of sacrifices
 Belief that religion was focussed on gaining ‘divine
favour’ = prosperity

13. CRAFT + AGRICULTURAL WORKERS
 Meaning is inferred – objects / buildings / remains
 Masons, carpenters, potters, painters, carves of
stone and ivory, metalworker – cauldrons or
jewellery
 Part – time? Not clear if it was gender specific
 Spent significant amount of time farming
 Palace craft workers – fulltime?
 Evidence of intensive farming
 Linear B tablets – produce and cattle numbers
 Assigned flocks? Indentured labour?
 ‘Harvester vase’ – farmers in procession?

14. SLAVES
 ‘Likely’ that slaves existed – common in Bronze age
Eastern Mediterranean
 Owned by elite? Traded?
 Attached to palaces? Skilled craftspeople?
 Evidence: Linear B tablets – Mycenaean – ‘do-e-rola’
– connected to ‘doulos’ (Slave – Greek) –
contracts for sale of slaves