The Minotaur’s Island
July 30, 2010 by admin · 5 Comments
Description
The glorious rise — and mysterious fall — of Europe’s first civilization Best known for the myth of the Minotaur — a monstrous half-man, half-bull imprisoned in Daedalus’s labyrinth — Crete gave birth to Europe’s first civilization nearly 5,000 years ago, more than two millennia before Homer composed The Iliad. Then it collapsed in fire and violence. Join historian Bettany Hughes as she follows the footsteps of Arthur Evans, Harriet Boyd, and other famed arch… More >>
I have never seen it. I haqve seen other Bettany Hughes history series on Australia’s public TV network, the ABC and they are all great *****.
I was surprised to find out that I cannot view the DVD because it is region specific. So what a waste of money. This has never been the case before with DVD’s purchased from the US. I have assumed that if “released” the region specific thing was not an issue. This series is years old – why the embargo still?
Rating: 1 / 5
Factually accurate as far as it goes, this rather monotonous documentary misses its potential. Well produced, it falls short on specifics, coherence, and artifacts. The camera is always on the host, Bettany Hughes, making her the focus of the documentary rather than the fascinating archaeological finds of Crete.
I’ve been reading several works on the Aegean Bronze Age, and perhaps this has lead to my disappointment. If I was a complete newcomer to the field, I might have found this more fascinating.
Rating: 3 / 5
What follows is what I posted on my blog. I should further add that I took a star because the video didn’t explore the mazes of the Minoan’s temple cities well at all! I found this film pretty good by most standards I see of archaeology films; it’s not slow and prodding while you wait for the story to give something interesting. Yes, maybe they, or the hostess/archaeologist, could have given even more details(and a lot better exploration of the mazes), but, as you read my blog thoughts, I think you’ll see that I got a lot of what I wanted out of this(with the rediculously speeding through the mazes fault maybe not being stressed enough by me!).
‘I recently posted some initial thoughts about the Minoans. Now, I’ve gone through some more learning. Of course, some of what I initially said is wrong – like no bones, no burn marks, and I’m sure some other stuff; well, I’m going to post some more . . . with pictures to boot!
The minoans apparently developed the Island from three thousand B.c. to about 1400 B.C. It’s kind of interesting that there isn’t anything found of human settlement of the Cretan Island before 3000 B.C. since the mesopotamians and the cannanites, and the Egyptians had settled since certainly around 7000 B.C. It’s interesting that they seem to have gone away around 1400 B.C. not the least of which is a massive volcanic eruption, the whole seige of Troy story with Homer was a little bit before this time. Well, on to what I have to say about the Minoans.
My initial idea about comparing the Minoans and the Machu Pichu mountain city is not completly wrong; but, the Minoans appear to be far more complex. For the last few weeks I’ve been tempted to compare the Minoans to the Easter Island and what happened there – the island ran out of resources, and the islanders resorted to cannabalism. The Minoans(I forget what the Egyptians called them; they note them in art work . . . scholars can tell that the Egyptians note them from comparative artwork on Egyptians wall art; but, honestly, i don’t think using what the Egyptians called them any better than using what we call them; so, I’ll go ahead and call them Minoans) island was bigger, allowing them to develop bigger before such cannabalism would take affect. Subsequently, the Minoans became big enough to start trading with everybody around them including the Egyptians.
I for one have been hoping for literature of some kind, and some has turned up; the languages have only been decifered recently, and the scholarly work can only be at an initial reading. But, there certainly doesn’t appear to be anything really exciting religious or mathematical science. At least if your trying to find religious or mathematical science writing; but those elements can be found in the art.
The Minoans seem to be infatuated with Bulls, and the Minoan art is amazing by most archaeological standards which is a big reason for the fascination(including mine) with the Minoans; there’s a hope for something interesting showing up. Well, the Bulls do have a significance, as the constellation taurus is a that of a bull, and the whole precession of the equinoxes; i’d say there’s plenty of clues that the precession of the equinoxes has a place in the religions about ‘ages’; astrology and astrotheology. Of course, the image of the Bulls is bound up with the Minoan(or the Greeks account of the Minoans) religion of the Minotaur and the maze it lived in. The maze is what made me more interested than ever in the Minoans.
Scholars have traced the Minoan interest in mazes to the Egyptians who built some mazes after building the pyramids to put their Pharohs; this maze doens’t exist anymore; but, the famous Greek historian Herodotus mentions them. The Minoans may very well have been inspired to build their temples in a maze pattern because of the Egyptian example, but I know that the Summarians and Babylonians solved mazes as a kind of mathematics puzzle, and mathematical science is one of the primary things I’m interested in archaeology. Like the calendars of Egypt, mazes in Summaria and Babylonian mathematics was a form of mathematics for them. So, I find it kind of cool that the Minoans built their temples in the maze pattern. And so, they deserve to get place on my prestigious blog! Perhaps as significant and interesting is the mixing up with the dark side of the force figurativelly speaking; the Minotaur hiding and living in the mazes of the Minoan island.
The whole Minotaur in the mazes of Knossis primarily speaks to my analogy with Machu Pichu as a kind of intimidation device for the surrounding cultures; the Minoans clearly didn’t want people invading and plundering just for the hell of it; good psychological warfare can go some ways I suppose. The minoans are proof of fear mongering in other artwork as well.
The Minoans seemed to have evolved out of the goddess traditions that seemed to have perhaps dominated from stone ages through the Bronze age clearly with the Minoans untill supplanted with the Man dominering societies of the iron age and one could say even to today’s world. But, the goddess religions of the Minoans weren’t innocent of fear mongering as they’re goddesses were snake goddesses; their sculptures show their goddesses either holding snakes, or having snakes curled around them from fingertip wrapped up around the shoulders to fingertip.
The Minoans certainly had some feel for cultural fun above being a military state as their architecture was certainly more often than not pure artwork(no arches) than built with redundancy to hold up to bombardments and keeping people out; instead, they resorted to fear mongering in a fear mongering world(which we’re still not out of); and, they built their architecture to some rather intellectual maze forms; but, clearly they were not immune to the allure and fascination with the dark side and fear mongering.
The Minoans were ultimatelly did in by a volcanic eruption; the island had done trading to keep from having to stupe to cannabalistic levels, but now most of those trading centers were detroyed; they soon turned to cannabalism; others may very well have gotten off the island; they may have evolved into the Phonicians who for one innovated the alphabetic languages of the Greeks and Hebrews. I’ve more or less given enough about how those two cultures different cultural evolutions set the stage for the battles between rationalism and irrationalism in the city of Alexandria and the central role played out there for all our cultures today.’
Rating: 4 / 5
Hosted by historian Bettany Hughes, The Minotaur’s Island is an amazing documentary on DVD about Europe’s first civilization, Crete. The Minoans had a thriving culture nearly five thousand years ago, more than two millennia before Homer created “The Iliad”. Then their civilization died, leaving behind little record. Archaeologists continue to discover new wonders that bring insight into Minoan culture – magnificent palaces, hinged doors, flush toilets, painted designs of acrobatic individuals leaping over bulls, and much more. Did Minoan society meet its doom from natural disasters, foreign invaders, religious strife, or a perfect storm combination of factors? The Minotaur’s Island explore the many clues to the daily life and final end of this amazing ancient civilization. Highly recommended. 98 minutes, color, full screen.
Rating: 5 / 5
The Minotaur’s Island offers an enjoyable way to acquire an overview of Minoan civilization and its fall. The very articulate and photogenic Bettany Hughes obviously has a passion for ancient civilizations, and her dramatic narration makes her enthusiasm contagious. Visually, the documentary focuses on archeological finds, from pottery and statuettes all the way up to the colossal palace which was unearthed at Knossos. These artifacts, along with surviving paintings, suggested to early 20th century explorers and scholars that this had been a surprisingly free and modern-seeming society compared to the rigid hierarchies of the eastern Mediterranean, such as Egypt. But it turned out that these scholars had been lured by the grace and refinement of the Minoans’ artistic abilities into projecting too much of modern European culture onto them. Later we are shown that subsequent discoveries revealed a darker side to Minoan civilization more in keeping with what is known of other early cultures, in that human sacrifice was evidently a part of their religious practice. Ms. Hughes explores the evidence for the cult of the Mother Goddess playing a central role in this culture, and shares some of her thoughts on the possibly darker, pagan aspects of Minoan belief. There is discussion of the influence of other regions upon the Minoans, particularly the Egyptians and Greeks. The latter part of the program is devoted to an examination of the fall of this culture, presenting evidence that it was caused by a combination of natural disasters and a destructive religious civil war which was prompted by the failure of the deities to prevent those disasters. I thought it was a plus for the documentary that that there were very few reenactments by modern actors, a device that often winds up lending an air of hokiness to the presentation. When the camera isn’t focused on artifacts or archeological digs, we are given some magnificent views of the island scenery, with Ms. Hughes rambling about by motor scooter, boat, or foot. Though there is overall a very pleasant atmosphere, it is also a solid and professionally delivered presentation. In my experience, this is probably about as good as it gets for documentaries about ancient civilizations.
Rating: 5 / 5