Speaker 1: And the first person known to us by tradition as
Speaker 1: having established a navy is Minos. He made himself master
Speaker 1: of what is now called the Hellenic Sea and ruled
Speaker 1: over the Cichlides, into most of which he sent the
Speaker 1: first colonies, expelling the Karians and appointing his own sons governors,
Speaker 1: and thus did his best to put down piracy in
Speaker 1: those waters, a necessary step to secure revenues for his
Speaker 1: own use. Well, hello there, welcome here, we are again
Speaker 1: deep into the history. Despite the show being called well,
Speaker 1: let's talk about myths, baby, I really can't do it
Speaker 1: without laughing. If you're just joining. Seven years ago, I
Speaker 1: decided to sing into a microphone just the title of
Speaker 1: the song not well, and now I can't stop. I
Speaker 1: am your host to live here today with the history
Speaker 1: of the place that gave us some of the most
Speaker 1: interesting myths. Crete, where the world of the Bronze Age
Speaker 1: Minnan's was so magnificent, so culturally connected with Asia and Africa,
Speaker 1: that it became the place where the continents met, where
Speaker 1: Europe gained its name, Where the palace of Kenosos was
Speaker 1: so monumental, so sprawling and full of winding staircases and
Speaker 1: storerooms that it inspired the Labyrinth, where bulls were so sacred,
Speaker 1: so important that they were painted onto walls and formed
Speaker 1: into so many pieces of art and items from daily use,
Speaker 1: that surely there was once a minotaur, a creature emblematic
Speaker 1: of the connection the Minoan people had with their bulls.
Speaker 1: Behind all these wonders of myth are very real people
Speaker 1: living their very real lives, only to have what remained
Speaker 1: long after they were gone inspire some of the most
Speaker 1: iconic and bizarre of Greek myths. Today, we are returning
Speaker 1: to the Bronze Age origins, covering the earliest of the
Speaker 1: two most important Proto Greek cultures, the Minoans of Crete.
Speaker 1: This is episode two fifty six. There once was a
Speaker 1: man named Minos the Bronze Age Minoans of Crete. There
Speaker 1: was probably not a real man named Minos. Just don't
Speaker 1: tell Thucydides, whose quote I read at the top of
Speaker 1: the episode. I talked about him on Tuesday too, as
Speaker 1: this beautiful example of just how tangible Greece's mythical history
Speaker 1: was to the people of later periods who were writing
Speaker 1: their own forms of history. Still, there was probably not
Speaker 1: a real guy with that name or if there was,
Speaker 1: his wife almost certainly didn't have sex with a bull,
Speaker 1: And if she did, and that's an enormous if bull sized,
Speaker 1: then she probably almost definitely, you know, didn't do it
Speaker 1: with the help of a bizarrely fascinating contraption made by
Speaker 1: a famed inventor. And if somehow, in the course of
Speaker 1: human history shifting possibility that she did, I mean, if
Speaker 1: we go that far, who the hell knows. Maybe there
Speaker 1: was a minotaur, but let's be real, none of that
Speaker 1: has any basis in historical reality, save for all the
Speaker 1: many wonderful things the Minoans left behind and then which
Speaker 1: managed to inspire such a bizarre myth of divine madness,
Speaker 1: ingenious and disturbing contraptions, and arguably one of the most
Speaker 1: iconic monsters of all time. Because there was absolutely a
Speaker 1: people of Bronze age crete and they do, at least
Speaker 1: now take their name from the mythical Minos. They lived
Speaker 1: on crete for many, many centuries, many many centuries, where
Speaker 1: they built the labyrinthine Palace at Canosos and filled it
Speaker 1: with a hell of a lot of bull eye iconography
Speaker 1: and goddess is wielding snake. One mustn't ever forget the
Speaker 1: snake wielding goddesses. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Can
Speaker 1: you tell I'm caught up in the mythology. This is
Speaker 1: Mikaiela's history series. Let's be honest. Where do we even start? Well?
Speaker 1: I mentioned on Tuesday's episode the period that we now
Speaker 1: call the Bronze Age spanned something like two thousand years
Speaker 1: and a wide range of cultures across the Mediterranean. But
Speaker 1: for all I love the whole of the ancient med
Speaker 1: we are most concerned with Greece on this podcast, and
Speaker 1: thus there are two main cultures that we talk about
Speaker 1: when it comes to the Bronze Age of Greece. Again,
Speaker 1: we will be looking at the other cultures who were
Speaker 1: doing such incredible things alongside and often before, the Greeks.
Speaker 1: That's just for a future episode. Today is all about
Speaker 1: the Minoans, who were primarily on crete, and next week
Speaker 1: the Mycenaeans, primarily on the mainland. And for all they
Speaker 1: were seriously fucking cool for Greece and the course of
Speaker 1: its history, they were pretty minor compaired to the people
Speaker 1: of the broader Mediterranean. But just because they weren't as
Speaker 1: big and impressive as the Egyptians, or the Mesopotamians or
Speaker 1: the Hittites around this time. That doesn't mean they weren't
Speaker 1: seriously cool. It just means I have to remind you that,
Speaker 1: for all Greece gets the credit for so many things
Speaker 1: from the ancient world, the Egyptians in Egypt, and the
Speaker 1: Mesopotamians in ancient Iraq and others for that matter, did
Speaker 1: a hell of a lot of things before Greece. It
Speaker 1: doesn't lessen any of the things that Greece did, let
Speaker 1: alone that Greece did first. It just reminds us that
Speaker 1: for all the hype the Greeks get for starting so
Speaker 1: called Western civilization, that tends to serve to lessen the
Speaker 1: impact of the darker skinned people who did so much else,
Speaker 1: so much earlier. As for the Greeks, though well at
Speaker 1: least compared to the Myceneans, the Minowins did a hell
Speaker 1: of a lot first. So let's get into the details,
Speaker 1: this nitty gritty of what was going on in crete
Speaker 1: during the Bronze Age. So habitation began pretty early on
Speaker 1: in the Neolithic period, which was followed in the early
Speaker 1: Minoan period by a migration of people from the East.
Speaker 1: From here we really begin to see an identifiable culture
Speaker 1: appear and that we call Minoan. It's best not to
Speaker 1: think of this as a result of the migration of
Speaker 1: those peoples. Like we've got to remember that the Mediterranean
Speaker 1: was always highly connected, and to say that the people
Speaker 1: living on the island originally were just like walking around
Speaker 1: not doing much else, like would be a mistake. People
Speaker 1: moved in, But this migration was adding to the cultures
Speaker 1: that already existed and the groups that were already there
Speaker 1: and just creating something new. This is not an invasion
Speaker 1: in any sense of the word. Like the movement was
Speaker 1: happening during this period was like largely migratory or trade related.
Speaker 1: And we will see like big groups of people moving
Speaker 1: around later in the series. And I just I don't
Speaker 1: want you to jump straight to assuming invasion when you
Speaker 1: hear about people moving around later on. There's always been
Speaker 1: movement in the res. When we're talking about Creede, we're
Speaker 1: really talking about a huge number of islands too, like
Speaker 1: right in the middle of the Aegean, in close proximity
Speaker 1: to what would become mainland Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon.
Speaker 1: The list goes on, and when it comes to create.
Speaker 1: There's lots of ceramic evidence from inland sites that show
Speaker 1: us that the people living on crete before the migration,
Speaker 1: we're kind of doing their own thing. Remember too, when
Speaker 1: it comes to this time period in Greece, what we
Speaker 1: tend to be working off of is purely archaeological evidence.
Speaker 1: It isn't until much later that the writing system that
Speaker 1: we call linear b you know, the one that we
Speaker 1: can decipher today, made its way to create from the
Speaker 1: mainland and replaced their own writing systems, which to this
Speaker 1: day we cannot decipher and so are left not in
Speaker 1: the dark but resorting to things beyond words. In these
Speaker 1: early days, we are working off entirely material culture, like
Speaker 1: the stuff people left behind and which survived. It's through
Speaker 1: these types of archaeological finds that we learned that coastal
Speaker 1: sites show evidence of contact with these outside cultures from
Speaker 1: the wider region. We know this because the finds in
Speaker 1: those coastal regions is often of like a higher value,
Speaker 1: you know, luxury materials. Essentially, it's evidence of trade in
Speaker 1: the wider Mediterranean, and often those place those items can
Speaker 1: be linked to where they were coming from too, Because yes,
Speaker 1: like I haven't will always remain a broken record when
Speaker 1: I remind you that ancient Greece never existed in a vacuum,
Speaker 1: and the ancient Mediterranean was always highly connected, like everyone
Speaker 1: was everywhere share in their cultures, like definitely having wars.
Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong, but there was a lot of
Speaker 1: great sharing of cultures. And it's important to remember that
Speaker 1: Crete is a very big island, Like I have heard
Speaker 1: Greek's joke that it's so big it's not even an island,
Speaker 1: like it's basically mainland. This is relevant that I tell
Speaker 1: you that it's big, you know, because it is the
Speaker 1: biggest Greek island, and that makes a big difference. But
Speaker 1: as someone who grew up on Vancouver Island, like I
Speaker 1: am obligated to point out that Crete can actually fit
Speaker 1: into my absurdly large island like over three times, why
Speaker 1: must I point out that my island is so much bigger.
Speaker 1: I honestly don't know. Like in my head, there's a
Speaker 1: competition for what counts as like a big island while
Speaker 1: still being very much an island disconnected from the mainland,
Speaker 1: and I just think that like we win in that
Speaker 1: competition that only exists in my mind. The point is
Speaker 1: that because Crete is so big, particularly compared to the
Speaker 1: other Greek islands, say for Evia, which you know is
Speaker 1: so close to the mainland it might as well be connected.
Speaker 1: So it's like it's this really unique player in the
Speaker 1: realm of the ancient Mediterranean because it is I imagine,
Speaker 1: the biggest island in the whole of the Mediterranean and
Speaker 1: very truly located in that eastern end, like the sea
Speaker 1: is right there. It fosters these connections with the outside
Speaker 1: world and specifically create you know, is in this really
Speaker 1: interesting location. Like I said, it's basically halfway between the
Speaker 1: Greek mainland and Egypt and then the rest of Africa
Speaker 1: and the levant to the south and the southeast. It's
Speaker 1: just right in the middle really if you're looking at
Speaker 1: you know, the mainlands of the region. It is so
Speaker 1: perfectly positioned to be in contact with everyone. At this
Speaker 1: time and later, obviously, the Mediterranean was like a super
Speaker 1: highway for the people of the whole region. It was
Speaker 1: a highly connected world. And not only did the sea
Speaker 1: offer that connection to other people, you know, their cultures
Speaker 1: and whatever materials and products they had to share at
Speaker 1: that time, but it also had so many resources itself.
Speaker 1: Like the sea means life for ancient people in such
Speaker 1: a real and varied way. So these coastal regions of
Speaker 1: Crete just have it all the sea trade, access to
Speaker 1: this wider Mediterranean, and all that it has to offer
Speaker 1: for the development of this new Minoan culture. And again,
Speaker 1: because Crete is so big, there are also inland settlements
Speaker 1: where there's land for agriculture and raising animals. Create is
Speaker 1: really mountainous too, so it's land was just there was
Speaker 1: so much possibility there. And while these coastal and inland
Speaker 1: settlements operated at the same time and collaboratively with one another,
Speaker 1: there's also this clear distinction between the two and what
Speaker 1: they could offer to the people living in each of them.
Speaker 1: The inland sites focused primarily on agricultural production, you know,
Speaker 1: that would go on to support the larger area, and
Speaker 1: then the coastal sites seem to remain this point of
Speaker 1: contact for trade and interacting with the outside cities and
Speaker 1: then obviously fishing and the like, everything that's coming from
Speaker 1: the sea. And so throughout Minoan history, these two spheres
Speaker 1: of habitation and production continue pretty reliably. They're always working
Speaker 1: off one of each other and collaborating to make this
Speaker 1: whole thing work. And how this ties in with migration
Speaker 1: is important. These sites of contact with the outside world,
Speaker 1: the coastal areas and where we see more influence and
Speaker 1: movement from the outside world. But this contact and the
Speaker 1: resulting changes aren't fundamentally creating something new or change the
Speaker 1: way the Minoan world worked. Like, yeah, you know, new
Speaker 1: ideas and technologies are coming through these ways. That's just
Speaker 1: a result of contact with other cultures that have been well,
Speaker 1: you know, culturing for a lot longer than the Minoans.
Speaker 1: But what's happening is also this movement of outside people
Speaker 1: coming in and not necessarily some kind of cultural takeover.
Speaker 1: Like I think it's hard for us to totally understand
Speaker 1: because we come from this world of imperialism and colonialism.
Speaker 1: But this isn't a case of colonizing. It's more about
Speaker 1: collaboration around the region. Not to say there weren't wars,
Speaker 1: but it just wasn't yet about creating some broad empire
Speaker 1: by colonizing and subjugating others and forcing new cultures upon them.
Speaker 1: The Mediterranean has always been a kind of shared space
Speaker 1: where multiple groups lived alongside each other and didn't feel
Speaker 1: the need to enforce their culture or religion on others
Speaker 1: or force out or get rid of those others. It's
Speaker 1: not like the world so often wants to do now
Speaker 1: over the last few centuries, specifically decades, even right now,
Speaker 1: but especially at this time, we were talking more about
Speaker 1: collaboration in terms of cultures. You might think of this
Speaker 1: for you know, a certain stretch of land to the
Speaker 1: south where from the ancient period onward multiple groups lived
Speaker 1: together at once. It was it was fine, it's relevant,
Speaker 1: it's all. A good example of this comes from an
Speaker 1: episode that I did sometime last year about you know,
Speaker 1: the Eastern origins of Aphrodite and Adonis. These are cultural
Speaker 1: characters who are very Greek, but we know that they
Speaker 1: were heavily influenced by the people of the region. It's
Speaker 1: more like they're working together to create their cultures rather
Speaker 1: than overtaking and forcing something new on a people. To
Speaker 1: an extent, obviously, like I'm generalizing a bit, it wasn't
Speaker 1: some perfect peaceful paradise where no one ever fought, But
Speaker 1: it just wasn't like anything like what would come later.
Speaker 1: This is a point that just ends up getting a
Speaker 1: little lost in our modern world, where cultural exchange can
Speaker 1: be really difficult to navigate. But like, because this isn't
Speaker 1: about overtaking and forcing something new on people who would
Speaker 1: then lose their pre existing culture or have it like
Speaker 1: snuffed out of them. Appropriation is not happening because the
Speaker 1: people who are living and interacting with each other are
Speaker 1: not taking other cultural practices and turning them into something
Speaker 1: that they are not. There's no bastardization of culture happening here.
Speaker 1: What it is is this sort of cultural like bilingualism,
Speaker 1: where ideas are shared and understood within the context of
Speaker 1: a given area and maybe create something new collaboratively. Think
Speaker 1: Rome and their religion, where they aren't just stealing the
Speaker 1: Greek gods and changing their names like sometimes people want
Speaker 1: to say, including myself ages ago, but they are understanding
Speaker 1: the gods of the Greeks or the Celts or any
Speaker 1: other individual that they came across within their own cultural
Speaker 1: framework and melding and forming them into something entirely new
Speaker 1: and entirely Roman, but which still holds the cultural memory
Speaker 1: of where it came from. This is not uncommon in antiquity,
Speaker 1: and especially in belief systems that are just inherently polytheistic,
Speaker 1: because there is space for more gods. This sharing of
Speaker 1: ideas not just in belief systems, but also in administrative
Speaker 1: or daily life is like really common when groups of
Speaker 1: people come together, sometimes someone else's system just happens to
Speaker 1: be more helpful. It's modern monotheism that makes this idea murky.
Speaker 1: That meant it was more of a competition about whose
Speaker 1: God was right or wrong rather than just like adding
Speaker 1: them into a pantheon. And eventually for the Minoans, this
Speaker 1: cultural exchange happens with the Mysonians on the mainland, and
Speaker 1: we start to see a lot of things shared between
Speaker 1: these two groups who will go on to become what
Speaker 1: we know as ancient Greece. You'll hear about it more
Speaker 1: in my conversation episode next week on the ancient Mysonians.
Speaker 1: But the contact between these two at least changed a
Speaker 1: lot of bureaucratic and administrative things for the Minoans, like
Speaker 1: recording records in linear B, the language that was brought
Speaker 1: over by the Mysonians, whereas alternatively, the Mysonians end up
Speaker 1: with a lot of art and things from the Minoans.
Speaker 1: It was very reciprocal, just ancient people's trading and sharing
Speaker 1: amongst themselves. The Myceonians conversation I'll have goes into a
Speaker 1: lot of fascinating details about this, including a moment where
Speaker 1: I learn why the Golden Fleece existed as a myth
Speaker 1: and why it was located in Kolkis. You all know
Speaker 1: how much I love to learn a little bit of myth.
Speaker 1: The logical is it etiology? You know, the origins, the
Speaker 1: why it's so weird. But I digress. Basically, it's not
Speaker 1: a fucking dumpster fire like what the Western world did
Speaker 1: to create the Americas, and it's it's not what's been
Speaker 1: happening and since nineteen forty eight by a certain place
Speaker 1: that shall remain nameless. Instead of the destructive nature of
Speaker 1: modern imperialism, you know that seeks to snuff out the
Speaker 1: pre existing cultures by enforcing a new culture or simply
Speaker 1: killing everyone horribly if they threaten the empire. But instead
Speaker 1: it's people around the Mediterranean making their way to create
Speaker 1: and contributing to the socioeconomic changes that are happening and
Speaker 1: building something new and again collaborative. I'm gonna keep harping
Speaker 1: on on how this differs from our modern world, because
Speaker 1: not only is I think it important and also somewhat
Speaker 1: difficult to wrap our heads around because at least in
Speaker 1: the West. We exist within this framework of imperialism the
Speaker 1: way things are done. But also because I think it's
Speaker 1: really interesting proof of the flaws and horrors of imperialism
Speaker 1: and how before it became about enforcing other cultures on
Speaker 1: somebody else, it was about collaborating within existing cultures, sharing,
Speaker 1: and just a generally more pleasant experience for everyone. And
Speaker 1: as we will see towards the collapse, there is also
Speaker 1: a lot that happens to quote unquote collapse these civilizations
Speaker 1: that is incredibly reminiscent of things we are dealing with now,
Speaker 1: and they figured out how to get through it. We
Speaker 1: might take a page. Ultimately, this is how the Minoan
Speaker 1: history begins, with little island towns that connect the wider
Speaker 1: Mediterranean and they start slowly making a name for themselves.
Speaker 1: People are moving in because honestly, who doesn't want to
Speaker 1: live on an island. I'm keeping that in MICHAELA wrote
Speaker 1: it because personally, I'm not a huge fan of living
Speaker 1: on my island. I would much rather create. But here
Speaker 1: we are, and these people are moving in to create,
Speaker 1: These Bronze age people four thousand years ago, and they
Speaker 1: are helping to stimulate life there add to the existing
Speaker 1: cultures and create something new and beautiful. So what comes
Speaker 1: next for the Minoans. We know they're building their culture
Speaker 1: and hanging out with everyone else in the wider med
Speaker 1: I have made that very clear, but what about the
Speaker 1: Minoans themselves? Well, toward the beginning of the Middle Minoan period,
Speaker 1: we start seeing a clear sign towards the emergence of
Speaker 1: the palatial system that will become basically the defining factor
Speaker 1: in both Minoan and Mysony in history. Palace is a
Speaker 1: bit of a holdover from their early discovery. Really, they
Speaker 1: are like these large complexes of the ruling elite and
Speaker 1: came to represent the cultures and how each one operated administratively.
Speaker 1: Like we will get there, but just know, I'm going
Speaker 1: to use the word palace and palatial. It's not what
Speaker 1: we think of. It is just these enormous complexes that
Speaker 1: kind of held and housed the culture broadly within them.
Speaker 1: And of course these palatial centers didn't just pop up overnight.
Speaker 1: There's indication that there was a gradual development over time
Speaker 1: to the centers that we know today, and they seem
Speaker 1: to have gone on to later inspire similar complexes on
Speaker 1: the mainland. By the Myceneans, like in Create, they were
Speaker 1: present on the island before the start of the Middle
Speaker 1: Minoan period, generally spanning from around twenty two hundred to
Speaker 1: nineteen hundred BCE, so long ago, just not quite in
Speaker 1: their final form yet, But the Middle Minoan period is
Speaker 1: generally defined by the emergence of these kind of finalized
Speaker 1: in whatever way palatial centers as major aspects of Minoan society,
Speaker 1: and with them comes this greater understanding of what society was.
Speaker 1: The palatial complexes of the Minoans and later the Mycenians
Speaker 1: have just captured the imagination throughout time. When Arthur Evans
Speaker 1: was excavating at Knosos, how the palace there was laid
Speaker 1: out brought to mind this idea of the labyrinth, just
Speaker 1: like it did to the ancient Greeks. To him, the
Speaker 1: center at Canosos was where the official labyrinth that housed
Speaker 1: the minotaur stood, and thus this was also where Minos ruled.
Speaker 1: He was really hooked on the myths, but he and
Speaker 1: so he named the people the Minoans after this mythical king,
Speaker 1: and we continue to call them that today. Obviously this
Speaker 1: name is a modern one and not necessarily what the
Speaker 1: people living there at the time understood themselves as but
Speaker 1: we can see from the later periods of Ancient Greece
Speaker 1: that they believed something similar via their own myth history.
Speaker 1: It's just that Evans was the one to make it official,
Speaker 1: and also to turn Kenosis into like a bit of
Speaker 1: a theme park rather than an archaeological site like early
Speaker 1: rich white men and archaeologists did some damage. What can
Speaker 1: I say? We aren't sure what the Minoans of the
Speaker 1: Bronze Age referred to themselves as, but we do get
Speaker 1: indications from other sites around the Mediterranean of like what
Speaker 1: other people called them. On the Aegean lists found at
Speaker 1: Amenhotep's the third Mortuary Temple in Egypt, we get the
Speaker 1: name keft you. It was at the top of this
Speaker 1: list of Minoan sites, which included Canoso, so it may
Speaker 1: have been what they were called kind of collectively. And
Speaker 1: then the Mesopotamians in ancient Iraq and the Canonites and
Speaker 1: the Phoenicians and the Levant seemed to call them kaftor.
Speaker 1: We can't say what they called themselves, but it's interesting
Speaker 1: to imagine what others called them. You know, these names
Speaker 1: and how we see them forming later Greek words It
Speaker 1: comes up in my final converse for this series. It's
Speaker 1: so fascinating to hear how they came to form later
Speaker 1: words that we know so well we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about when it comes to Troy. Oh, it's good. But
Speaker 1: back to the palatial complexes. The complexes and how they
Speaker 1: were organized tells us so much about how the Minoans functioned.
Speaker 1: Starting off small, they eventually grew into the large palatial
Speaker 1: centers that we see the remains of today. In order
Speaker 1: to build these centers as big as they were, a
Speaker 1: culture needs to the resources to plan it all out,
Speaker 1: to employ the craftsmen who will do the work, the materials,
Speaker 1: the labor, as well as an emerging social structure based
Speaker 1: on rank that would necessitate such a palace, let alone
Speaker 1: be capable of creating it. And so this emerging elite
Speaker 1: is important. It represents an expansion that was not seen
Speaker 1: before this point and will become very important in the collapse.
Speaker 1: Class division influences so many things in a group of people,
Speaker 1: from culture, administration, basic social structures of the cities, and
Speaker 1: as these cities grew and the palaces with them, they
Speaker 1: were interacting with the other cities of the region and expanding.
Speaker 1: But what we learn about Kenosos and other Cretan sites
Speaker 1: is that there doesn't appear to be like this es
Speaker 1: central figure in the elite class. Like there was no
Speaker 1: Minoan king, no mind as if it were, and no
Speaker 1: Wanax figure. As we see later on. The mainland burials
Speaker 1: were less rich, which suggested less competition amongst the elites
Speaker 1: to like really solidify these claims. The elite class here
Speaker 1: likely were more widespread in terms of power, It was
Speaker 1: just less concentrated on one person or family ruling over
Speaker 1: these cities and surrounding areas, not like what we might imagine.
Speaker 1: The central courtyard is a major aspect of these palacial centers,
Speaker 1: like the most important, large courtyards helped to shape the
Speaker 1: building around them, and they seem to have been used
Speaker 1: for public gatherings like festivals or other religious celebrations. Based
Speaker 1: on surviving frescoes frescoes, we understand that there was a
Speaker 1: religious element, you know, to these palatial complexes, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna get back to the frescoes, I promise, But the
Speaker 1: orientation of the courtyard emphasizes this along with the frescoes.
Speaker 1: Because the courtyards tended to be oriented towards mountains where
Speaker 1: sacred peaks or cave sanctuaries have also been found. They
Speaker 1: loved a good cave sanctuary on crete. I took a
Speaker 1: Bronze Age a gan archaeology class in I don't know,
Speaker 1: twenty eleven, and that is like one of the main
Speaker 1: things that I remember, alongside the goddess figurines. I have
Speaker 1: regaled you all with far too many times. But what
Speaker 1: of these sacred peaks and caves sanctuaries? What are they?
Speaker 1: You may ask, And if you didn't, then you should,
Speaker 1: because who doesn't love a cave? The main focus of
Speaker 1: Minoan religion, aside from a large tradition around funerary rituals
Speaker 1: very common at the time, appears to be fertility in
Speaker 1: the seasonal cycle, you know, just as one would expect
Speaker 1: from a community that relies so heavily on the land
Speaker 1: to sustain itself. Which is when I remind you about
Speaker 1: the large and I mean large volume of goddess figurines
Speaker 1: that have been found on crete and the wider regean.
Speaker 1: I know I just said it, but still we don't
Speaker 1: necessarily know what they were used for. But the volume
Speaker 1: of them that have been found is enormous. There are
Speaker 1: lots of reasons to believe in a central goddess worship
Speaker 1: type situation here, but infinite Mother Goddess questions aside. Since
Speaker 1: I covered them only last month, we return to the
Speaker 1: peaks and the cave sanctuaries. These are super important sites
Speaker 1: for Minoan religious worship on the island. Plus they are caves,
Speaker 1: but it was important for these sites to be visible
Speaker 1: to the surrounding areas, and that's why this central courtyard
Speaker 1: of palatial structures was oriented in such specific directions. And
Speaker 1: lots of votive offerings have been found in these sites,
Speaker 1: like clay figurines in the form of animals, humans and
Speaker 1: human body parts such as legs and eyes and so on.
Speaker 1: Fancier things too, like jewelry seals and the iconic Minoan
Speaker 1: double axes called labris h that Creed is known for.
Speaker 1: We'll get back to that. The main area of ritual
Speaker 1: practice within these sanctuaries tended to be flat rocks and
Speaker 1: concentrations of stones, particularly white ones, to mark the sacred area.
Speaker 1: The most sacred areas in cave sanctuaries were also marked
Speaker 1: by the stalagmites that naturally formed in the cave where
Speaker 1: there are instances of the double axes being carved into them.
Speaker 1: It's just so cool. The importance of the caves made
Speaker 1: its weight like deep into the mythology too. Just think
Speaker 1: of Zeus when he was spirited away right after he
Speaker 1: was born, hidden from his father's ravenous eyes on Mount
Speaker 1: Ida and crete. Like I talked about last week, this
Speaker 1: is another example of mythology forming around what evidence is
Speaker 1: left behind by earlier people. Plus just caves, folks like
Speaker 1: they are fun for worship. I have visited only one
Speaker 1: cave in Grace now it's on my list. It was
Speaker 1: on Paros, but holy gods, is it absolutely incredible. I also,
Speaker 1: and I'm just gonna share this anecdote without looking it
Speaker 1: up because this is just a singular memory I have
Speaker 1: from my Bronze Age archaeology course in the year twenty eleven,
Speaker 1: and that is that in one of these cave sanctuaries
Speaker 1: there was like a hole dug in for some kind
Speaker 1: of ritual purpose, and within it there was I don't
Speaker 1: know if it was water or what. Scientifically this seems wrong,
Speaker 1: but it's just what's in my memory. Don't quote me
Speaker 1: on it, but there was like something in the bottom,
Speaker 1: and when they lifted out, like whatever the finds were
Speaker 1: for their archaeological needs, there was like an olive that
Speaker 1: had been somehow still totally preserved because of whatever was
Speaker 1: in there for like thousands of years. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I need to learn more about this ancient olive. For now,
Speaker 1: I'm just sharing that information. For now, I'm just sharing
Speaker 1: that information. Heading down off the mountains of Crete and
Speaker 1: back to Kenosos, let's talk about those frescos, the wall paintings,
Speaker 1: and what they say about the practices of the Minoans,
Speaker 1: and generally just how beautiful they are. I want you
Speaker 1: to google them. I want you to google the wall
Speaker 1: paintings from both Crete and Aquroterii. I don't have time
Speaker 1: to get too deep into Quatia today or even mention
Speaker 1: it at all. We will get back to Aquriteri, but
Speaker 1: for now, I want you to google both of them.
Speaker 1: And this is where I tell you that it is
Speaker 1: time for bull leaping, or rather where I just tell
Speaker 1: you that there is one stunning fresco of a man
Speaker 1: leaping over a bull. They absolutely loved a bull, which
Speaker 1: is of course how they became eventually associated with the minotaur,
Speaker 1: but there is a whole episode's worth of curiosity as
Speaker 1: to how exactly that came together. I want to assume
Speaker 1: that there was no beastiality involved, but I suppose we
Speaker 1: can't be entirely certain either way. The frescoes, though, the frescoes,
Speaker 1: they are life changingly beautiful and give us this really
Speaker 1: unique insight into the Minoans. There's another fresco called the
Speaker 1: grand Stand Fresco, where women are gathered in one of
Speaker 1: the palatial center courtyards. These figures could be understood as
Speaker 1: like an a hiphany of the goddess, or maybe even
Speaker 1: a high priestess presiding over the activity. Women feature so
Speaker 1: heavily in these scenes, and combined with the heavy use
Speaker 1: of goddess figurines, it's just one of many indicators that
Speaker 1: goddesses were particularly important, especially compared to the later periods.
Speaker 1: This is pretty true of the mice Andeans too, though
Speaker 1: they did it differently. It will come up heavily in
Speaker 1: my conversation about them, so stay tuned. Basically, though, it
Speaker 1: just suggests that there was major goddess worship to a
Speaker 1: very different degree from later and possibly as the central
Speaker 1: figures of religious worship. There were male gods certainly, but
Speaker 1: the emphasis visually from what we have was very much
Speaker 1: on the women. Plus again, if you will see when
Speaker 1: you google, the women in a lot of the frescoes painting,
Speaker 1: the like dancing, and they wear these big long skirts,
Speaker 1: and they have these very cool tops that just have
Speaker 1: their boobs out, and I think it's wonderful. All of
Speaker 1: it's just the good old days. These kinds of visual evidence, though,
Speaker 1: have little suggestions of iconography that will go on to
Speaker 1: be so important in the grand scheme of crete, like
Speaker 1: the double edged axes, the labyris bulls, and the famous
Speaker 1: horns of consecration and that's right, yeah, labris as in
Speaker 1: the etymological root of labyrinth because create and again we
Speaker 1: are looking at the origins for these myths, like not
Speaker 1: a real minotaur in a labyrinth, but what evidence was
Speaker 1: left behind by earlier cultures and which was then seen
Speaker 1: and interpreted by the people who came later. Between the
Speaker 1: volume of bull iconography, the bull jumping, the heavy goddess worship,
Speaker 1: and the twisty, turney nature of the Palace of Kunosos,
Speaker 1: it is really easy to see where these later mythological
Speaker 1: mythic history kind of notions came from, and the Europa
Speaker 1: of it all too. The myth that says that Zeus
Speaker 1: brought Europa, this Phoenician princess from the Levant to create
Speaker 1: and thus created Europe. It says so much about how
Speaker 1: they later acknowledged the way that these cultures were so
Speaker 1: deeply interconnected and shared so much to create what became
Speaker 1: the wider realm of the ancient Mediterranean religion and worship. Aside,
Speaker 1: a lot of the palatial elements of the Minoans and
Speaker 1: the Myceonines line up. It seems that the Myceonians likely
Speaker 1: built theirs after seeing the palaces of the Minoans. The
Speaker 1: complexes serve as a kind of cultural center run by
Speaker 1: the ruling elites. In both cases, they provided things for
Speaker 1: the regular people of the land around them, facilitated group religion, traditions,
Speaker 1: everything just kind of unified the region around this major
Speaker 1: complex and the rich people who lived there and doled
Speaker 1: out whatever they were willing to part with in exchange
Speaker 1: or taxes, whatever forms that might have taken. It was
Speaker 1: the usual. There is an entire course worth of history
Speaker 1: and creed. So I am being annoyingly brief there are
Speaker 1: storerooms off the courtyards which might have been more widely
Speaker 1: accessible to a broader range of people too, like aka
Speaker 1: the poor, or at least the poor errer than the
Speaker 1: elites who lived in the luxury of the palace and
Speaker 1: the surrounding buildings. The function of those rooms might have
Speaker 1: been for storage of products, resources, and ritual tools that
Speaker 1: would have been maybe been used by these groups of
Speaker 1: people converging at the centers for festivals or whatever, and
Speaker 1: so just you know, more widely accessible. And these storerooms though,
Speaker 1: like there are so many just hallways lined with room
Speaker 1: after room after room filled with pots and everything. These
Speaker 1: rooms and how they were set up just really hammer
Speaker 1: home the labyrinthine nature of these palaces. Just imagine getting
Speaker 1: lost in endless hallways of storerooms and maybe there's a
Speaker 1: bowl painted on a wall, like they had to store
Speaker 1: their agricultural products and miscellaneous items somehow, and we got
Speaker 1: a labyrinth a minotaur out of it. These palaces were
Speaker 1: set up in such a way that it facilitated these
Speaker 1: group activities and operated as a kind of central hub
Speaker 1: for the whole community to gather and store the products
Speaker 1: of their work, their agricultural gains everything, and this is
Speaker 1: emphasized by the various texts that we have found within
Speaker 1: the Minoan palatial structures, at least those that we can decipher.
Speaker 1: Over time through the later Minoan periods, the cult of
Speaker 1: worship changed after a few centuries and then again when
Speaker 1: the Mycenaeans began interacting with them, trading and introducing things
Speaker 1: from the mainland in exchange for things from crete to
Speaker 1: take back with them. And this is when we get
Speaker 1: the introduction of female figures with the upturned arms, like
Speaker 1: my girls, the snake goddesses. They don't always have snakes,
Speaker 1: but I do love it when they do. Unfortunately, we
Speaker 1: don't know that much about them, aside from the fact
Speaker 1: that I personally think they are very fun in cool
Speaker 1: and they are everywhere on crete now. It is such
Speaker 1: a joy. And similarly, unfortunately we also don't know much
Speaker 1: about the writing systems they used on crete before linear
Speaker 1: B came in. See the two distinctly Minoan scripts Cretin
Speaker 1: hieroglyphic and linear A are still indecipherable to us today.
Speaker 1: I've talked a little bit linear A and my personal
Speaker 1: prayers that one day it will be translated, and I
Speaker 1: will know that I have something like grain storage tattooed
Speaker 1: on my fingers, or maybe better yet, like wine storage.
Speaker 1: But until that time, I just have cute little guys
Speaker 1: on my fingers, and we're gonna talk about where we
Speaker 1: found them. These these scripts have been found on clay tablets,
Speaker 1: primarily because they are more easily preserved by time, but
Speaker 1: elsewhere too. They appear on ceramics that were stored in
Speaker 1: the previously mentioned endless store rooms, and just as later,
Speaker 1: linear B was used to record the commercial and economic,
Speaker 1: you know, goings about of the palace. Likely this is
Speaker 1: what linear A and Creten hieroglyphics were doing as well.
Speaker 1: The use of these two different scripts is interesting though,
Speaker 1: because it seems that based on the characters, that there
Speaker 1: is some kind of connection between the two, even though
Speaker 1: they are distinct and they came from different parts of
Speaker 1: the island until you know, at some point they began
Speaker 1: they became unified enough to adopt linear A more widely.
Speaker 1: And because of this, you know, it's hard to say
Speaker 1: which one is older. Likely they were both used at
Speaker 1: the same times but were used by different political groups
Speaker 1: because again this regionality, and that is to say, the
Speaker 1: island you know, the island was not a unified society,
Speaker 1: and each urban center operated individually from each other and
Speaker 1: used whichever writing system was used in the area, which
Speaker 1: reminds us of later Greece, where you know, it was
Speaker 1: primarily individual city states operating separately and distinctly from each other.
Speaker 1: While there was a shared understanding that they were all
Speaker 1: Greek in some way, but they still were not unified.
Speaker 1: They were not one people. We do know though, that
Speaker 1: eventually the Minoans adopt linear B for some palace records.
Speaker 1: This means that not only ca we finally decipher those
Speaker 1: that survive, but we also can understand that they likely
Speaker 1: had enough interactions with the Mysonians, and we're sharing enough
Speaker 1: between their two cultures that it became practical to use
Speaker 1: a shared writing system. Because, like I mentioned on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: remember that most of what we have in linear B
Speaker 1: is just it's just these records, administrative stuff for the palace.
Speaker 1: We do know some things about the gods from those records,
Speaker 1: which you will hear more about when I talk about Myceni,
Speaker 1: but broadly it was I mean, I want to say boring. Obviously,
Speaker 1: it completely impacted so much about what we know about
Speaker 1: you know, what they created, what they traded, what they stored.
Speaker 1: I just I wish there was a story in there
Speaker 1: as all. And so just to really loop us all back,
Speaker 1: pull it all together, I want to point out that
Speaker 1: the interactions that Minoans and the Mysonians had, the way
Speaker 1: that they shared their culture in a very collaborative and
Speaker 1: I just want to say kind way at least compared
Speaker 1: to what we think of now, is that it's only
Speaker 1: through that sharing of their cultures that we can even
Speaker 1: decipher any of the records on Crete, because they took
Speaker 1: on this writing system that was used by the Mycenaeans,
Speaker 1: And of course it just happens that we can decipher
Speaker 1: that and we cannot decipher linear A. But it's a
Speaker 1: great example of how this kind of collaboration impacted everyone
Speaker 1: and everything. And as we'll see in conversations coming up
Speaker 1: to this applies to the wider Mediterranean, where we have
Speaker 1: records from Egypt that tell us things about the people
Speaker 1: of Crete and the people of the mainland. We have
Speaker 1: records from the Hittites that tell us who was going
Speaker 1: where and doing what, and what they called them, what
Speaker 1: the names for these people were in the cultures they
Speaker 1: were interacting with them. This kind of collaboration, this sharing
Speaker 1: of cultures across the Bronze Age Mediterranean, is what allows
Speaker 1: us to know so much about all of them even now,
Speaker 1: just as back then they were working together in this
Speaker 1: way that is just so vital to the whole of
Speaker 1: the region's success and growth and it's lasting power, to
Speaker 1: the point where I can share all of this with
Speaker 1: you some well over three thousand years later. And so
Speaker 1: on that note, I think I have gone on just
Speaker 1: long enough about the bull and the snake, godess obsessed
Speaker 1: people of Bronze Age crete, not that we won't return
Speaker 1: to them, because remember, this whole series is leading up
Speaker 1: to the big show, the Bronze Age collapse, all the
Speaker 1: things that came together in a kind of perfect storm
Speaker 1: that left the Mediterranean a very very different place than
Speaker 1: it had been for so many centuries millennia even, but
Speaker 1: of course that is still to come. Uh Oh, nerds
Speaker 1: and nerds, thank you all for listening. It's always a
Speaker 1: little different when I cover such dense historical topics. Who
Speaker 1: try to make it fun for me and you, But God,
Speaker 1: so they're all just so interesting. So I do a
Speaker 1: hope you know it was a clear for all of you.
Speaker 1: It is such an interesting thing to navigate trying to
Speaker 1: script these things because I love them all to death,
Speaker 1: but it is just not narrative storytelling in the way
Speaker 1: that I am used to. And on Tuesday, the Mycenaeans
Speaker 1: followed by a conversation with doctor Kim Shelton, who's an
Speaker 1: expert on Bronze Age Mycenie and oh my god, it
Speaker 1: was such a fun conversation. Oh I really, I really
Speaker 1: picked her brain about the goddess worship stuff. Who stay tuned,
Speaker 1: Let's talk about MIT's Baby is written and produced by
Speaker 1: me Live Albert. Michayla Smith is the Armies to my Olympians,
Speaker 1: better known as the sistant producer, and in this case, honestly,
Speaker 1: I mean eighty percent of the narrative episodes. That's all Mikayla,
Speaker 1: who all the research think the earliest of Bronze Age goddesses.
Speaker 1: For Mikayla, Laura Smith is a production assistant and audio engineer.
Speaker 1: And hopefully by the time this airs definitely not actually
Speaker 1: now that I say that, but next week hopefully Laura
Speaker 1: will have created a web page featuring not only these
Speaker 1: Bronze Age Collapse episodes, but also some extra episodes that
Speaker 1: fill in these mythological gaps. This mythic history that comes
Speaker 1: from the Bronze Age. Select music from this episode was
Speaker 1: by Luke Chaos. The podcast is part of the iHeart
Speaker 1: Podcast Network. Listen on Spotify or Apple or wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Help me continue bringing you the world
Speaker 1: of Greg mythology and the Ancient Mediterranean by becoming a patron,
Speaker 1: where you'll get access to old bonus episodes and more
Speaker 1: and hopefully new ones. When I am fully capable of
Speaker 1: existing as a reasonable human, visit patreon dot com slash
Speaker 1: Myths maybe, or click the link in this episode's description.
Speaker 1: I live and I love this stuff, even when it's history,
Speaker 1: though I do prefer we had just a little bit
Speaker 1: more mythology to go to, Like why didn't they leave
Speaker 1: us stories? Why didn't they leave us stories