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A few words about the prehistory of Crete regarding the dialogue below... There is a relevant bibliography for what I am mentioning!
#Crete #Prehistory #Neolithic #AegeanBronzeAge #Minoans #Mycenaeans #Anatolia
#Crete #Prehistory #Neolithic #AegeanBronzeAge #Minoans #Mycenaeans #Anatolia
1/ The Neolithic package in Crete appears for the first time around 7000 BC. in Knossos with a community of settlers from Western Anatolia, which did not know the technology of pottery (Pre-Pottery Neolithic). 
2/The interesting thing is that recent surveys have shown that within the community, chipped stone objects were found that bear characteristics of the Aegean Mesolithic tradition,which means that this short-lived community came into contact with local Mesolithic hunter-gatherers.
1/ There is the opinion that the Minoan Cretans were a peaceful people, who dominated through trade and their cultural superiority in the Aegean Basin during the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. But maybe was the reality different?
#Minoans #warfare #Crete #Aegean
#Minoans #warfare #Crete #Aegean
2/ It is clear that the economic prosperity through the involvement in the international trade of the time, as well as the particular Cretan religious worldview contributed decisively to the formation of the identity of both the Minoan elite and the rest of social groups.
3/ At the same time, however, and according to a more penetrating interpretation of the archaeological data, it appears that war was in fact a defining feature of Minoan society and that the model of the warrior-hunter-athlete was one of the dominant expressions of male identity.
1/ One of the differences between Linear A' and the newer Linear B' is the presence of texts of Linear A' outside the limits of the Aegean area and in fact in distant Israel, where two inscribed evidences of it have been found.
#LinearA #TelLachish #TelHaror #Minoans
#LinearA #TelLachish #TelHaror #Minoans
2/ The first inscribed evidence of Linear A in Israel was found at Tel Lachish in 1987. It was found engraved on the shoulder of a large limestone vessel, probably a large, deep bowl or krater, of which only this one large fragment was found.
3/ The inscribed sherd of the vessel, although it was found in a stratigraphic level chronologically connected to the first half of the 12th century BC, probably due to stratigraphic disturbance it comes from an earlier chronological level. Unless it was an heirloom.
1/ The palatial period of Minoan Crete is intertwined with the appearance and consolidation of Linear A', which during the Neopalatial Period was the main writing system. With the appearance of the first palaces, the Linear A must have already been in use.
2/This fact is demonstrated by the existence of the considered oldest sample of Linear A', a part of a tablet from the Southwestern House in Knossos (KN 49), which dates to MM IIA (1800 BC). However, there is the opinion that the birthplace of Linear A was the palace of Phaistos.
