m Aegean civilization is the general term

for the prehistoric civilizations in Greece

and the Aegean.
m 6
 
 is a general term for
the Bronze Age civilizations of Greece
around the Aegean Sea
m here are three distinct but
communicating and interacting
geographic regions covered by this
term: Crete, the Cyclades and the Greek
mainland.
m Crete is associated with the Minoan
civilization from the Early Bronze Age.
m Eight periods of the Bronze Age were
incised, white-filled decoration on
pottery, whose motifs are found
reproduced in monochrome pigment
age.
m hese periods fill the whole Bronze Age,
with whose close, by the introduction of
the superior metal, iron, the Aegean Age
is conventionally held to end.
m ©ron came into general Aegean use about
1000 B.C., and possibly was the means by
which a body of northern invaders
established their power on the ruins of the
earlier dominion.
m hroughout the nine Knossian periods,
following the Neolithic period, at the close
of a span of more than two thousand years,
at the least, would go far to prove that the
civilization continued fundamentally and
essentially the same throughout.
m ©t is supported by less abundant remains of
other arts.
m ©n religion, beginning with a uniform nature
worship passing through all the normal
stages down to the anthropism in the latest
period. here is no appearance of intrusive
deities or cult-ideas.
m he Aegean civilization was indigenous,
firmly rooted and strong enough to persist
essentially unchanged and dominant in its
own geographical area throughout the
Neolithic and Bronze Ages.
m or a time the surviving remains were
thought to have originated with
Egyptions or Phoenicians, but with more
remains uncovered this was shown to be
untrue.
m he Aegean civilization developed three
distinctive features.
m An indigenous writing system existed
which consisted of characters with which
only a very small percentage were
identical, or even obviously connected,
with those of any other script.
m he decipherment in the 1950s of Linear
B unlocked the meaning of this script,
but an earlier script Linear A remains
undeciphered.
m Aegean Art is distinguishable from those of other
early periods and areas.
m ©ts borrowings from other contemporary arts are
clear, especially in its later stages, but received an
essential modification at the hands of the Aegean
craftsman, and the product is stamped with a new
character, namely realism and is a precursor of
Hellenic art.
m he fresco-paintings, ceramic motifs, reliefs, free
sculpture and toreutic handiwork of Crete have
supplied the clearest proof of it, confirming the
impression already created by the goldsmiths' and
painters' work of the Greek mainland .
m he arrangement of Aegean palaces is of two main
types:
m irst, the chambers are grouped around a central
court, being linked one with the other in a
labyrinthine complexity, and the greater oblongs are
entered from a long side and divided longitudinally
by pillars.
m Second, the main chamber is of what is known as the
megaron type, isolated from the rest of the plan by
corridors, is entered from a vestibule on a short side,
and has a central hearth, surrounded by pillars and
perhaps open to the sky; there is no central court,
and other apartments form distinct blocks.
m A type of tomb, the dome or "bee-hive,"
of which the grandest examples known
are at Mycenae. he Cretan 'larnax'
coffins, also, have no parallels outside
the Aegean.
m Evidence of monarchy at all periods on
Crete can be found by the great Cretan
palaces and the fortified citadels of
Mycenae, iryns and Hissarlik, each
containing little more than one great
residence, surrounded by smaller buildings
for the townsfolk.
m Pockets of local developments of art before
the middle of the 2nd millennium BC
suggest the early existence of separate
traditions, of which the strongest was the
Minoan.
m After that date the evidence strongly
suggests that one political dominion was
spread for a brief period, or for two brief
periods, over almost all the area.
m he great number of tribute-tallies found
at Knossos perhaps indicates that the
center of power was always there.
m he fact that shrines have so far been found
within palaces and not certainly anywhere
else indicates that the kings kept religious
power in their own hands. Perhaps they
were themselves high-priests.
m Religion in the area seems to have been
essentially the same everywhere from the
earliest period, consisting of features like the
cult of a Divine Principle, resident in
dominant features of nature (sun, stars,
mountains, trees, etc.) and of controlling
fertility.
m uhen the iconic stage was reached, about
2000 BC, we find the Divine Spirit represented
as a goddess with a subordinate young god,
as in many other east Mediterranean lands.
m ©n the ritual, fetishes, often of miniature form,
played a great part: all sorts of plants and
animals were sacred: sacrifice (not burnt, and
not human), dedication of all sorts of offerings
and simulacra, invocation, etc., were
practiced.
m his early nature-cult explains many anomalous
features of Hellenic religion, especially in the
cults of Artemis and Aphrodite.
m here is a possibility that features of a primeval
matriarchate long survived; but there is no
certain evidence.
m heatre-like structures found at Knossos and
Phaestus, within the precincts of the palaces,
were perhaps used for shows or for sittings of a
royal assize, rather than for popular assemblies.
m he Minoan remains contain evidence of an
elaborate system of registration, account-
keeping and other secretarial work, which
perhaps indicates a considerable body of law.
m he line of the ruling class was
comfortable and even luxurious from
early times.
m his can be seen by the fine stone
palaces, richly decorated, with separate
sleeping apartments, large halls,
ingenious devices for admitting light and
air, sanitary conveniences and
marvellously modern arrangements for
supply of water and for drainage.
m After 1600 B.C. the palaces in Crete had
more than one story, fine stairways, bath-
chambers, windows, folding and sliding
doors, etc. ©n this later period, the
distinction of blocks of apartments in
some palaces has been held to indicate
the seclusion of women in harems, at
least among the ruling caste. Minoan
frescoes show women grouped apart,
and they appear alone on gems.
m At least on Crete there was evidently a
large-scale olive- and vine-culture. Chariots
were in use in the later period, as is proved
by the pictures of them on Cretan tablets,
and therefore, probably, the horse also was
known. ©ndeed a horse appears on a gem
impression. Main pathways were paved.
Sports, probably more or less religious, are
often represented, e.g. bullfighting,
dancing, boxing, armed combats.
m Commerce was practised to some extent in
very early times, as is proved by the distribution
of Melian obsidian over all the Aegean area
and by the Nilotic influence on early Minoan
art. Cretan vessels were found exported to
Melos, Egypt and the Greek mainland. Melian
vases came in their turn to Crete.
m After 1600 BC there is very close commerce
with Egypt, and Aegean things had their way
to all coasts of the Mediterranean. No traces of
currency have come to light, unless certain
axeheads, too slight for practical use, had that
character.
m he Aegean written documents have not
yet proved (by being found outside the
area) to be epistolary (letter writing)
correspondence with other countries.
m Discoveries, later in the twentieth
century, of sunken trading vesels round
the coasts of the region have brought
forth an enormous amnount of new
information about those times.
m he dead in the earlier period were laid (so
far as we know at present) within cysts
constructed of upright stones. hese were
sometimes inside caves. After the burial the
cyst was covered in with earth. A little later,
in Crete, bone-pits seem to have come into
use, containing the remains of many burials.
Possibly the flesh was boiled off the bones
at once ("scarification") or left to rot in
separate cysts a while. the skeletons would
be collected and the cysts re-used.
m ©n the later period, a peculiar "bee-hive" or "tholos"
tombs became common, sometimes wholly or partly
excavated, sometimes (as in the magnificent
Mycenaean "treasuries") constructed domewise. he
shaft-graves in the Mycenae circle are also a late
type, paralleled in the later Minoan cemetery.
m he latest type of tomb is a flatly vaulted chamber
approached by a horizontal or slightly inclined way,
whose sides converge above. At no period do the
Aegean dead seem to have been burned.
ueapons, food, water, cosmetics and various trinkets
were laid with the corpse at all periods.
m Ceramic art reached a specially high
standard in technique, form and
decoration by the middle of the 3rd
millennium BC on Crete.
m he same may be said of fresco-
painting, and probably of metal work.
Modelling in terra cotta, sculpture in
stone and ivory, engraving on gems,
were following it closely by the
beginning of the 2nd millennium.
m After 2000 BC all these arts revived, and
sculpture, as evidenced by relief work,
both on a large and on a small scale,
carved stone vessels, metallurgy in gold,
silver and bronze, advanced farther. his
art and those of fresco- and vase-
painting and of gem-engraving stood
higher about the 15th century B.C. than
at any subsequent period before the 6th
century.
m he richness of the Aegean capitals and
columns may be judged by those from
the "reasury of Atreus" now set up in the
British Museum; and of the friezes we
have examples in Mycenaean and
Minoan fragments, and Minoan
paintings.
m he magnificent gold work of the later
period, preserved to us at Mycenae and
Vaphio, needs only to be mentioned. ©t
should be compared with stone work in
Crete, especially the steatite vases with
reliefs found at Hagia riada. On the
whole, Aegean art at its two great
periods, in the middle of the 3rd and 2nd
millennia respectively, will bear
comparison with any contemporary arts.