Minoans, Mycenaeans, and Bog Folks; Reflection Paper One
Summary
TLDRThis script delves into the origins of Western civilization, focusing on the Minoans and Mycenaeans of ancient Greece. It highlights the Minoan culture's early achievements in architecture, writing, and trade, influenced by Egyptian and Middle Eastern cultures. The script also discusses the mysterious Linear A script and the more mundane Linear B, which is mainly tax records. It touches on the Minoan's palace-based society, their extensive trade network, and the eventual rise and fall of the Mycenaeans, who adopted the Minoan's writing system and had a warlike society. The narrative concludes with the Greek Dark Ages and the preservation of Greek myths, which would later inspire the Greek Golden Age, while also briefly mentioning the Northern Europeans' progress during the Iron Age.
Takeaways
- 🏛 The Minoans, residing in the southern Greek islands, particularly Crete, were the first Europeans to develop a civilization with substantial evidence of culture, architecture, and writing systems.
- 🛠 The Minoan civilization was known for its extensive trading, influenced by Egyptian and Middle Eastern cultures, and their worship of bulls and cattle, depicted in murals showing activities like bull leaping.
- 🔠 The Minoans used two writing systems: Linear A, which remains undeciphered, and Linear B, which was decoded in the 1950s and primarily contained tax records.
- 🏰 The Minoan society was palace-based, with complex structures like the palace at Knossos, featuring small rooms and pathways for a redistributive economy.
- 🌍 The Minoans were engaged in trade with various cultures, as evidenced by the discovery of materials like amber from the Baltic Sea and jade possibly from China.
- 🕵️♂️ The Minoans were named by Sir Arthur Evans, who discovered their ruins in Crete and mistakenly associated them with the mythological Minotaur.
- 📉 Around 1450 BCE, the Minoan civilization began to decline, possibly due to the eruption of the Thera volcano and later conquest by the Mycenaeans.
- 🏰 The Mycenaeans, from mainland Greece, were a warlike society with walled cities and beehive-shaped tombs, known for their sophisticated metalworking and the use of Linear B script.
- 🛡 The Mycenaeans are believed to have been the civilization that sacked Troy and were influenced by Hittites and Egyptians, adopting a more Mediterranean lifestyle.
- 💥 The Mycenaean civilization fell around 1200 BCE due to attacks by the mysterious Sea Peoples, leading to the Greek Dark Ages characterized by a lack of written records and cultural regression.
- 📚 Despite the decline, oral traditions and myths were preserved and later recorded by figures like Homer and Hesiod, which would inspire the Greek Golden Age.
- 🗡 Northern Europeans during the Iron Age were less culturally advanced, with tools and practices that were not as sophisticated as those of the Mediterranean civilizations, and are known for the preservation of 'bog bodies' in peat bogs.
Q & A
Who were the Minoans and what is significant about their civilization?
-The Minoans were the first Europeans with a culture that left substantial evidence and are known for developing a civilization around 2900 BCE on the island of Crete in southern Greece. They are significant for their extensive trading, elaborate architecture, jewelry, murals, and writing systems like Linear A and Linear B.
What is the Minoan writing system known as Linear A, and has it been decoded?
-Linear A is an ancient Minoan writing system that has not yet been decoded. It is of great interest to scholars, and efforts to decipher it could reveal more about the Minoan culture.
What was the primary content of the decoded Linear B script?
-Linear B, which was decoded in the 1950s, primarily contains tax records, making it a rather mundane script in terms of narrative content.
How did the Minoan society function in terms of economy and resource distribution?
-The Minoan society functioned on a redistributive economy where individuals would produce goods such as pottery, olive oil, or fish, and bring them to the palace. There, they would trade their goods for other items they needed, creating a palace-based society.
What evidence suggests the Minoans had extensive trade networks?
-The Minoans' trade networks are evidenced by the discovery of materials like amber from the Baltic Seas and jade possibly from as far as China, indicating trade with people all over the known world at the time.
Who discovered the Minoan civilization and what was his initial impression?
-The Minoan civilization was discovered by Sir Arthur Evans in the early 20th century. His initial impression, influenced by the story of the Minotaur, was that the civilization was connected to the mythological tale, an idea now considered inaccurate.
What is the significance of the Mycenaeans in Greek history?
-The Mycenaeans were a powerful Greek group that rose after the Minoans. They are known for their walled cities, warlike society, and are believed to have been the civilization that sacked the city of Troy. They also adopted the Linear B writing system and had connections with other Mediterranean cultures.
What factors contributed to the decline of the Mycenaean civilization?
-The Mycenaean civilization began to fall apart around 1200 BCE due to attacks from the mysterious Sea Peoples and internal devastation, leading to a retreat inland and the beginning of the Greek Dark Ages.
What is the term used to describe the period following the Mycenaean civilization, and how was it characterized?
-The period following the Mycenaean civilization is known as the Greek Dark Ages, characterized by a scarcity of written records, less sophisticated architecture, and a decline in cultural production.
How did the Greek myths and stories contribute to the eventual rise of the Greek Golden Age?
-The Greek myths and stories, passed down as oral histories during the Greek Dark Ages, helped to inspire the Greek Golden Age by preserving the memory of heroic ancestors and a rich cultural past.
What is the significance of the bog bodies in understanding Northern European history during the Iron Age?
-Bog bodies, mostly of Celtic tribesmen, provide a unique insight into Northern European life during the Iron Age. Their preservation in bogs allows for the examination of their physical appearance, clothing, and even the contents of their stomachs, offering a rare glimpse into their culture and practices.
Outlines
🏛 Early European Civilization: The Minoans
The script introduces the Minoans, the first Europeans with a well-documented culture, who emerged around 2900 BCE on the island of Crete in southern Greece. Known for their extensive trading and influence from Egyptian and Middle Eastern cultures, the Minoans developed unique architectural styles, jewelry, and murals. They are also recognized for their undeciphered Linear A script and the more mundane, tax-related Linear B script. The Minoan society was palace-based, with a redistributive economy where goods were brought to the palace and exchanged. Trade was widespread, with materials like amber and jade imported from distant regions. Sir Arthur Evans, who discovered the Minoan civilization, mistakenly associated it with the myth of the Minotaur, a story involving a half-man, half-bull creature, which was later debunked.
🏺 The Mycenaeans and the Decline of Civilization
The second part of the script discusses the Mycenaeans, who rose to power around 1450 BCE and adopted a more sophisticated Mediterranean lifestyle. They were known for their walled cities, indicative of conflict with neighboring city-states, and their warlike society, evidenced by beehive-shaped tombs containing armor and weapons. The Mycenaeans are believed to have sacked the city of Troy and learned from the Minoans, using the Linear B script for their records. Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered the Mycenaeans, famously but erroneously identified a death mask as that of Agamemnon, reflecting a common issue of equating myth with historical fact. The script also covers the decline of the Mycenaean civilization around 1200 BCE due to attacks by the mysterious Sea Peoples, leading to the Greek Dark Ages, characterized by a lack of written records and sophisticated architecture, and a significant cultural regression.
🗡 The Legacy of Myth and the Rise of the Greek Golden Age
The final paragraph explores the cultural legacy of the Minoans and Mycenaeans, whose stories and myths were preserved through oral traditions during the Greek Dark Ages. These narratives, possibly sung to aid memorization, laid the groundwork for the later Greek Golden Age. The script also touches on the northern Europeans' slower progress, with the Iron Age's bog bodies providing insights into Celtic tribes' rituals and beliefs. The reflection paper prompt encourages students to consider the biases in how European history is taught, often starting with more advanced civilizations like Egypt and Mesopotamia, and to contemplate the significance of including or excluding the early developments of northern Europe in historical narratives.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Minoans
💡Linear A and Linear B
💡Palace society
💡Minoan Palace at Knossos
💡Mycenaeans
💡Sea Peoples
💡Greek Dark Ages
💡Bog Bodies
💡Cultural Borrowing
💡Reflection Paper
💡Oral Histories
Highlights
The Minoans are the first Europeans with a culture that leaves extensive evidence, around 2900 BCE.
The Minoans, particularly on the island of Crete, developed a civilization based on extensive trading.
Minoan culture was influenced by Egyptian and Middle Eastern cultures, with interests in the worship of bulls and cattle.
Murals from Minoan culture depict activities like bull leaping, showcasing their cultural practices.
Linear A and Linear B are the Minoan scripts, with Linear B being decoded in the 1950s and revealing tax records.
Linear A remains undeciphered, presenting a significant challenge and opportunity for scholars.
Minoan architecture, jewelry, and murals are well-preserved, indicating a sophisticated society.
The Minoan economy was redistributive, with a palace-based society where goods were traded at centralized locations.
Minoan trade networks extended as far as the Baltic Sea and possibly China, indicating extensive cultural exchange.
The Minoans were named by Sir Arthur Evans, who discovered their ruins and associated them with the myth of the Minotaur.
Evans' interpretation of Minoan culture was influenced by his belief in Greek mythology, which was not entirely accurate.
The Mycenaeans, another Greek civilization, rose to power around 1400 BCE and adopted the Linear B script.
Mycenaean society was warlike, with evidence of fortified cities and tombs containing armor and weapons.
The Mycenaeans are believed to have sacked the city of Troy, an event that may have been exaggerated in mythology.
The decline of the Mycenaeans began around 1200 BCE due to attacks by the mysterious Sea Peoples.
The Greek Dark Ages followed the fall of the Mycenaeans, characterized by a lack of written records and cultural regression.
Greek myths were preserved during the Dark Ages through oral tradition, which later inspired the Greek Golden Age.
Northern Europeans during the Iron Age had limited cultural progression compared to their southern counterparts.
Bog bodies provide insight into the lives of Celtic tribesmen, with evidence of ritualistic practices and human sacrifice.
Reflection paper prompts students to consider the biases in European history education and the importance of different cultural origins.
Transcripts
all right
so last little part of our origins of
uh western civ and european history here
we're looking at the minoans and the
minoans
are the first europeans to actually do
anything
um that is going to count as
a culture we have much evidence of
and to start to sort of
join the neighbors in producing longer
lasting buildings and writings and
things
i hate to use that word civilization
because there's so much
judgment in it um but around 2 900
bc or bce the minoans who are living in
these
islands in southern greece particularly
the island of crete
are going to develop a civilization that
is going to use the c
for extensive trading and we know that
they're going to do
a lot based on uh the egyptian culture
that they encounter
and also some of these middle eastern
cultures
so uh there's going to be a real
interest
in the worship of uh
bowls and cattle we have murals that
show things like uh
bowl leaping which is the guy doing a
handstand
on a bowl's back in the center of the
powerpoint there
we're going to see uh writing
particularly linear a which has not yet
been decoded and linear b
which was decoded in the 1950s
drives me nuts not knowing what linear a
says so if any of you want a life
project this is your big chance go
translate linear a
unfortunately linear b is mostly tax
records
um so incredibly boring stuff and i have
high hopes that
our few examples of linear a might say
something more interesting
at any rate we have elaborate
architecture jewelry murals and these
records on clay
tablets we know that no one's had a
palace society so buildings like the
minoan palace at nasus
in crete are full of small
windy uh pathways between little rooms
that were used for storage
to create what we call a redistributive
economy
so everyone would produce
say pottery or olive oil
or fish or whatever it is you do in
society you would bring
your goods your contribution to the
palace
and then you would trade what you had
brought there
for whatever everyone else had brought
there that you were missing
um and so we call this a a palace-based
society and we know that the minoans
were trading with people
all over because we found amber from
up on the baltic seas of northern europe
and jade
which we think comes from as far away as
china there
so not a bad place to be
we call them the minoans because they
were discovered
about 1900 by uh one of these sort of
late victorian edwardian british types
in a
white linen suit and a pith helmet uh
sir arthur evans
and sir arthur evans was in
crete and he found this twisty turny
palace at nasus and images of bulls and
he said
oh my gosh the story of the minotaur
must be
true um now sir arthur evans was
obviously
um deluded uh because
the story of the minotaur is
not true and he understood very little
about
minoan culture the story of the minotaur
is a story of an ancient greek queen
who cheats on her husband the queen with
a bowl
and produces a child that is half man
half
bowl that eats um
young male and female virgins and they
stick him in the basement of the palace
in a giant maze called the labyrinth and
send in his human victims until he's
killed by the hero
theseus so it's one of these fabulously
dysfunctional greek myths
and uh there was no man-eating bowl in
the basement of the palace at nasa's
just some storage rooms for olive oil
so sir arthur evans may be nuttier than
a fruitcake
in terms of taking these stories awfully
literally
he also um managed to pay
artists to touch up everything he found
so if you're looking at these painted
columns and murals and going
those were in awfully good shape yeah
yeah we don't color in artifacts anymore
to make them look cool
and we haven't decoded linear a so
there's a lot we still need to learn
about the minoans
what we do know is that around the year
1450
we began to see their settlements
shrinking
some of that is probably connected with
a volcano called thera
exploding near the island of santorini
some people might even think that this
is where that myth of atlantis comes
from although it's hard to say
at any rate they're going to be
conquered by their impressive neighbors
the mycenaeans
mycenaeans are the second powerful greek
group to rise up and get on board with
this more sophisticated mediterranean
style of living
and they come from the mainland in
greece
they have walled cities there and that
lets us know
that they're fighting with other
city-states
and other folks on a regular basis
we also have what we call follows little
beehive-shaped
tombs where people are buried with armor
and weapons
so we know there's a fairly warlike
society
we think that the mycenaeans are the
ancient greek civilization
that sacked the city of troy
when that happened not necessarily the
way it happened in homer's story
uh right the the great iliad and fall of
troy
that we all hear about in mythology uh
but
there was a war and it happened during
this civilization's
peak they began to learn from the
minoans and replace them
as the great power in the greek mainland
and islands as mentioned are in the
1400s
and they use that linear b writing
they also have links to hittites and
egyptians and other mediterranean people
who they're learning from
just like the minoans and that's part of
what helps them be sophisticated
they have very cool metal working and
one of the most famous
examples is the death mask made out of
gold foil you see in the top corner
when the mycenaeans were discovered by
the german amateur archaeologist
heinrich schliemann he famously said
ah this is the the face of agamemnon
i am looking into he had the same
problem as arthur evans in terms of
thinking that those greek myths
were uh fact instead of
you know myths but uh
but it is an incredible example of being
able to look into the past
the mycenaeans start to fall apart in
about 1200 and this is a result of what
we call the sea
people we don't know where the sea
people are
there are theories that these might have
been uh
dorians or phoenicians
what we do know is they start to attack
not just the mycenaeans
in greek areas but they're attacking a
lot of people in the mediterranean who
are scared of these vicious
pirate looters we also know
that the mycenaeans become so devastated
by these assaults that they move
up inland into the mountains they
abandon their more sophisticated cities
and this begins what we call the greek
dark ages
the greek dark ages will be a period
where there are very few written records
very little sophisticated architecture
and the art as you can probably tell by
these pictures goes
seriously downhill those little triangle
people
and that super sad looking horse
are a sign that we are not at the same
level of cultural production we have
been previously
this is a time however when some of
the great greek myths are starting to be
told as oral histories sung
actually we know most oral cultures sing
things because it's easier to remember
the rhythms
than to speak them and at the end of
that period
in the 8th and 9th centuries bc or bce
people like homer and hesiod are
starting to
tell these stories often enough that
they're remembered
although there are some who think homer
wasn't a real person we're not
going to get into that debate what we do
know is that these
are examples of individuals
who are remembering vague stories about
their ancestors
heroic minoans heroic mycenaeans what
life was like before the sea people
crashed the party
and that memory
that mythology those stories of heroes
and gods are going to help inspire a
rise to the greek golden age which we're
going to talk about in our next class
they're also eventually going to learn a
written alphabet from phoenician traders
so dark ages step
back but another chance to grow for
greece
last but not least what's going on up
north if the south
is learning from egypt and from middle
eastern countries
are northern europeans progressing uh
our answer is yeah not much
the northern europeans are now working
with iron so
they're able to deal with more complex
metals but their tools are still
not exactly sophisticated compared
to the civilizations around their
perimeter
if we look at an example of iron age
life
our most famous bodies are what we call
the
bog bodies and these are mostly celtic
tribesmen
in dutch german and
danish boggs bogs are basically like
cold weather swamps
and bodies that were thrown into them by
these cultures
were preserved in freaky ways almost
like otzi
notice that their skin is leathery and
although it's collapsed
there's incredible detail on their faces
and sometimes bits of clothing and hair
that have survived
we can also examine the contents of
their stomachs
these goofy reenactors in the middle
show kind of what bog life was like
and it's not super glamorous however
we know that they have some sort of
mythology or faith-based system
around water like many celtic societies
and we think they were thrown in either
as human sacrifice
um or as some form of ritual punishment
so what you're thinking about for this
first reflection paper
if you check under reflection paper one
on assignments
or under modules you will find that i
want you to think about
why european history classes almost
always start with
egypt and mesopotamia does it make sense
to you because these are the cultures
europe is going to learn from
and uses their foundation or do they
just need to own up that sometimes
your ancestors are some shriveled
leather and a bog
the minoans and the mycenaeans are great
but let's face it
they get a lot of that greatness those
greek europeans get some of that
greatness by learning from egyptians
and from mesopotamians
where does that leave us and can we talk
about southern europe and leave northern
europe out
um so this is completely up to you
either it makes sense to understand the
roots of knowledge
or maybe there needs to be more about
these anthropological origins
you decide for yourself if you were
writing a western sieve one
book where would you start what would
you put in it
that's your first reflection paper topic
if you have any questions or you want me
to take
a look at a draft don't forget to
contact me
i'm here to help take care
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