Minoan warm period

One thing no one talks about when they analyse the conquering of the Minoans by the Mycenaeans is this: 

What influence did Minoan warming have on Minoan agriculture and their ability to feed their population? And the reputation of their ruling priestly caste?

What prompted me to ask this question was this interesting X thread which tries to answer the question: How come Mycenaeans were able to so (seemingly) easily conquer the Minoan civilisation even though we know that Minoans had a strong army and navy...

Great account btw, with great threads...

The main hypotheses presented in this thread is that Thera volcanic eruption and the series of earthquakes and preceded it caused a wave of refugees from the Cycladic islands to descend on Crete, causing population explosion, and eventually food shortage...

I lived on Crete. It is a huge, fertile island, with lots of arable land, the garden of Greece, that supplies the Greek mainland with fruit and vegetables.

I am pretty sure that it was able to sustain the Bronze Age Cretan population plus any refugees that could have come to the island from the Cyclades...Providing the climate didn't get too hot...

Which is exactly what happened during the Minoan warming period...I don't know what kind of effect that would have had on the local Cretan climate. Most likely negative. This paper states that:

"Climate modelling results show a decrease in precipitation and an increase in temperature from 2001 to 2100, resulting in 18-56% decrease of flow, 15-34% decrease of soil moisture and 22-65% decrease of groundwater reservoir volume"...

The temperature during Minoan warming was even higher...That would have had a catastrophic effect, triggering famine and the loss of power of the ruling theocracy, which probably claimed that they can in some way control the weather (all religions do that to some extent)...

Mostly through sacrifices, usually animal sacrifices...

You can read more about this in "Minoan Sacrificial Ritual, Cult Practice and Symbolism"...

I also wrote about Minoan animal sacrifices in these two articles: "Minoan bull sacrifice" and "Agia Triada sarcophagus".

In them I proposed, based on the analysis of the animal and plant calendar markers depicted on this sarcophagus that this scene from the Minoan Hagia Triada Sarcophagus didn't depict funeral scene but a sacrifice of calves and a boat to (Proto) Poseidon. 

It turns out I could have been right: When Odysseus’ son Telemachus voyages to Pylos, he witnesses the sacrifice of 81 bulls to Poseidon. Archaeologists have found what’s likely an inventory for a very similar real-life ceremony recorded on tablets unearthed at Pylos! 

You can read about it here...

But there is evidence that during extremely difficult times Minoans, like many other peoples in similar situations, practiced human sacrifices too. 

In the summer of 1979, Giannis and Efi Sakellarakis, excavated the so-called Temple of Anemospilia, which was located at the northern foothills of Mount Juktas and in close proximity to the important Minoan site of the Archanes. 

The Temple was a symmetrically rectangular building, consisting of three rooms on the south side and a vestibule on its north side, having a clear palatial orientation. 

It was destroyed by an earthquake and a subsequent fire...

This is a depiction of what the temple contained inside (based on archaeological findings) at the moment of its destruction:

The important thing is what was found in the western room. 

It contained three bodies:

an approximately 28-year-old woman, lying face down;

an approximately 37–38-year-old man, lying on his back;

an approximately 18-year-old male, lying on a slightly raised structure/platform.

The last individual was discovered on a raised platform in such a tight fetal position which indicated that he was bound. A bronze blade was found associated with his body. 

The archaeologists argued that all the forensic evidence indicated that he had been killed shortly before the earthquake/fire. 

The adult man and woman were interpreted as the priest and priestess.

Their reconstruction of the events was:

Earthquakes threaten the community.

Priests attempt to appease the deity with a human sacrifice.

Sacrifice is underway. The sacrificial victim is already dead. Blood is being collected for libation.

Another earthquake strikes.

Building collapses and kills everyone inside...

You can read more about this in "Drama of Death: Human Sacrifice in a Minoan Temple"

I am sure that the sudden climate only increased the number of sacrifices, but also decreased the belief of the local population in the effectiveness of these sacrifices and in the power of the priests who performed them...

The same happened with Latin American native cultures...

This probably caused unrests. Maybe even an uprising against the ruling elite. Maybe even a civil war. Which probably prompted one of the Minoan leaders to hire Mycenaean mercenaries to help him fight whoever he was fighting, his own population or other Minoan leaders...

Mycenaeans were known as arms for hire in the whole of Mediterranean...Egyptians used them. So I would say Minoans did too...But as we know from history, mercenaries often turn on their employers in the failing states...

Once on the island, in the middle of the chaos caused by the earthquakes and the climate change, Mycenaeans seized control first of the city state they were meant to protect and then of the rest of the island...

Simple...

I honestly can't see any other reason...

All the ancient civilisations were ruled by the elites who based their power on their ability to feed the population...

The temples and palaces were centres of agricultural administrations first and foremost and were responsible for agricultural organisation and support. 

And when they failed to fulfil this duty...

PS: You might find this interesting. In this old article, "Legendary battle" originally proposed this: Is it possible that the "Combat agate" was worn by a Minoan warrior to commemorate a once famous Minoan victory over Mycenaeans? Only to be taken off his dead wrist by an avenging Mycenaean warrior, buried in the warrior grave found near Pylos, Greece?   

But now that we know that The Griffin Warrior was not genetically Mycenaean (The 2022 Science study and UC research confirm no steppe ancestry. Actually, they confirm the exact opposite—his DNA shows local origins, rooted in Neolithic Aegean populations, not Yamnaya)...

Maybe this Minoan jewel was never taken off "a dead Minoan hand"...

Maybe Mycenaeans didn't conquer Minoan Crete completely replacing Minoan elite with their own...Maybe the story is much more complicated...Maybe a new, mixed elite was formed which then took over the whole of Aegean...The huge cultural influence Minoans had on Mycenaeans supports this... 

Mycenaean ostrich egg with seasons

Engraving on an Ostrich Egg from Mycenae, Greece. From great text: "Ostrich egg-shell cups of Mesopotamia and the ostrich in ancient and modern times" 

Is this just a random scene or were the animals deliberately arranged like this?

In my article "Symbols of the seasons" I talked about animal markers for 4 seasons:

Ram: Spring (Feb-Apr)

Bull: Summer (May-Jul)

Lion: Autumn (Aug-Oct)

Goat: Winter (Nov-Jan)

This has to do with mating and birthing seasons of these animals...Lambing of wild Eurasian sheep (Spring), Calving of wild Eurasian cattle (Summer), Mating of Eurasian lions (Autumn), Mating of wild Eurasian goats (Winter)...

These are most common symbols of the seasons

Achaemenid rhytons (1st millennium BC) depicting ram (spring), bull (summer), lion (autumn), goat (winter)...

Spring (Jan/Feb-Apr/May)

Summer (Apr/May-Jul/Aug)

Autumn (Jul/Aug-Oct/Nov)

Winter (Oct/Nov-Jan/Feb)

In my article about the symbols of the seasons, I mention that if you wanted to represent all seasons as grazing animals, then the symbol for autumn would be deer, which mates in autumn...

Achaemenid rhytons (1st millennium BC) depicting ram (spring), bull (summer), deer (autumn), goat (goat)...

Spring (Jan/Feb-Apr/May)

Summer (Apr/May-Jul/Aug)

Autumn (Jul/Aug-Oct/Nov)

Winter (Oct/Nov-Jan/Feb)

So if we look at the Mycenaean ostrich egg scene, we can see that from right to left: 

Ram: Spring

Bull: Summer

Deer: Autumn

What's missing is Goat: Winter

But what about the lion(s)?

There is an article that I published a while back entitled "Lions vs buffalos" about this Akkadian seal

In it, I asked a question: was lion, apart from being symbol of autumn, maybe a symbol of the whole hot sunny dry part of the year? Being a solar symbol linked with the sun's heat (the hottest part of the year in the northern hemisphere is Leo)

This would then explain why on the Mycenaean scene we have a lion depicted in all three panels depicting three sunny seasons: spring, summer, autumn.

But there is one more interesting detail on this image. I think that this scene actually depicts a specific moment in the solar year. The end of summer and beginning of Autumn. Leo. The hottest part of the year. Why would I think so?

You see how both Ram-Spring and Bull-Summer are attacked by lions, but Deer-Autumn is still roaming free???

Origin of saffron

During the excavations of the the Temple Repositories at Knossos, among many early 2nd millennium BC faience (glazed ceramic) objects, Arthur Evans unearthed ceramic crocuses and models of female garments decorated with crocuses...

I found this image in the "Bronze Age Flower Power: The Minoan Use and Social Significance of Saffron and Crocus Flowers". Really cool article...

In it the author, Rachel Dewan, states that: "...If Evans’ interpretation of the faience models as votive offerings is correct, than here again is evidence for significant links between women, textiles, crocuses, and the divine..."

In the conclusion of her article, Rachel Dewan says: "It is clear from the iconographic evidence that crocuses and saffron were regarded as more than mere crops by the inhabitants of  the Bronze Age Aegean...

As a functional ingredient within the dyeing and perfuming industries, an effective medical treatment, a meaningful cultural symbol most likely used in cultic activities, and a profitable commodity, the plant was revered by the Minoans...

The  numerous correlations between this valuable plant and Minoan females, seen both in iconographic representations  and  archaeological finds, suggests that saffron was held in particularly high esteem by women who embraced it as a symbol of female identity and culture...

By the Mycenaean period, saffron’s value and versatility were well-established, and its detailed recording in Linear B documents reflects its status as a treasured commodity worthy of palatial attention...Saffron ideogram on tablets from Knossos highlighted in yellow...

Interestingly, however, crocus imagery became a rare motif in Mycenaean art throughout the Aegean, suggesting that the plant lost some of  its symbolism in this later period, even as its economic importance remained..."

So there are two unanswered questions here:

1. Why was crocus revered by Minoans before the Mycenaean conquest?

2. Why was crocus not revered by Mycenaeans?

The answers to the first of these questions is: because of climate. The climate in Crete which shaped Minoan mythology...

The climate in Crete is divided into two seasons: 

The dry and hot season May-Sep...

The wet and cool season Oct-Apr...

This is temperature and precipitation chart for Knossos (Modern Heraklion) area of Crete...

The end of the dry season is the moment of prayer in Crete...The rivers and wells are dry...The soil is dry and cracked...Everyone is looking at the sky, waiting for the arrival of the first rain clouds...

And then the Cretan Ibex goat mating season starts, and the first rains arrive...The land turns green. The wells and riverbeds start filling up. The life returns... 

Which is why Ibex goat was venerated as the goat of rain by Minoans. I talked about this in my article "Goat riding thunder gods"...

And right after the first rains, the wild flowers appear everywhere. Including saffron crocuses which flower in November - December...They were picked by Minoan women, as depicted on these Minoan frescoes...

I talked about this in my article "Saffron"...

These flowers were picked because of their vivid crimson stigmas...About 400 hours of labour is needed to produce just one kilogram of saffron...Which is why saffron was worth its weight in gold...Still is by the way...

We know this because saffron was the only spice to be measured by weight, in the same small, intricate values used for gold, suggests that it was considered to be a valuable commodity, carefully monitored by the palace...

The appearance of the saffron ideogram (CROC) on 59 whole or partial Linear B tablets is indicative of its economic importance. It was a valuable commodity...The reason for this is because it was used in the production of luxury goods...

Because of its extremely strong color, saffron was  used to die clothes yellow, the color which was from Eastern Mediterranean to Mesopotamia considered to be the color of divinity and royalty...

Because of its aroma and color, saffron was used as a food spice and as a compound in cosmetics, like cremes, body paint, and perfumes...

Because of its medicinal properties, saffron was used in preparation of medicines. As a matter of fact it was in the past one of the most famous medicinal plants...Amongst medicinal plants known in the Near East and Mediterranean, saffron has the largest number of applications...

Here is the interesting bit: the spice’s most common ancient reference is as a pain-reliever for menstrual cramps and childbirth. Saffron can act as an abortive in high doses, and may have functioned as an early form of birth control...

A women's plant...

Rachel Dewan quotes Robert Arnott who notes the prominent role that herbal healing would have played within the ancient Aegean, particularly amongst ancient midwives and female healers. I talked about the old midwife cult in my article about Balkan village midwives "Baba's day"... 

Rachel Dewan then says that "The fact that women, rather than men, are shown in scenes involving crocuses and saffron has led many scholars to suggest that the Minoans were aware of the gynecological benefits of saffron, and thus exploited the plant’s medicinal properties..."

Indicating that maybe this plant was sacred to Minoan women precisely because of its obstetrical-gynecological medical application...And I do agree that this is part of the reason why saffron crocus was sacred to the Minoan women...

But I also believe that the saffron crocus acquired religious significance because of when it flowered: right after the first rains...

The plant directly connected with feminine beauty and fertility flowered at the moment when Mother Earth's beauty and fertility was restored by her first "period": the first trickle of water in dry riverbeds after the first winter rains...You could make a religion out of it...

Now what about the decline of the crocus veneration under Mycenaeans...

To answer this question we have to look at the saffron crocus plant itself...The saffron crocus plant grown commercially today is Crocus Sativus...

But this is not the crocus flower picked by Minoans...They picked this: Crocus Cartwrightianus, the wild ancestor of the Crocus Sativus...

If we look at the natural distribution of this wild saffron Crocus Cartwrightianus we can see that it is found in Crete, Cyclades islands and Attica...

Now the Crocus Sativus is a triploid with 24 chromosomes. This makes the plant sterile due to its inability to pair chromosomes during meiosis. Which means that it has to be propagated by corms...And transplanted from place to place by humans...

The ancestor of the Crocus Sativus, which is unknown in the wild is Crocus Cartwrightianus.

Now today I came across the article "Saffron (Crocus sativus) is an autotriploid that evolved in Attica (Greece) from wild Crocus Cartwrightianus".

In this interesting article we read that: "...From Minoan frescos it is clear that more than 3600  years ago humans already harvested and used wild saffron in the southern Aegean...

The first clear indication for the cultivation of triploid saffron can be found in Historia Plantarum (350 BCE–287 BCE) where Theophrastus described the plant as being propagated by corms...

Our GBS (genotyping-by-sequencing) data point to the small Greek region around Athens as the place where Crocus Sativus evolved. We assume that sometime in between 1600 BCE and 350 BCE a triploid Crocus Cartwrightianus cytotype originated in Attica and was selected by humans...

They must have realized that they have a highly aromatic and stable type at hands that keeps the valuable properties of saffron through time and (vegetative) generations..."

Now "between 1600 BCE and 350 BCE" is a huuuuge time period...Can we narrow down the time when the domestication of Crocus Sativus happened? Well I think we can...

Something extremely important happened "between 1600 BCE and 350 BCE". The eruption of Thera, which according to archaeological data occurred in c. 1500 BC. It and the tsunami that followed caused cataclysmic destruction and the decline of the Minoan civilization of Crete...

This turn of events gave the opportunity to the Mycenaeans to spread their influence throughout the Aegean. Around c. 1450 BC, they were in control of Crete itself, including Knossos, and colonized several other Aegean islands, reaching as far as Rhodes...

I would here argue that the domestication of Crocus Sativus, if it happened in Attica, definitely didn't happen before the Mycenaean conquest of Minoan territories...Because I don't think that Mycenaeans knew what the source of saffron was before that...

Here is my theory: The wild Crocus Cartwrightianus was before Minoans endemic to Crete and this was the only place where it was originally found...

Minoans brought it to their colonies on Cycladic islands where they planted it, grew it and harvested it for saffron...The substance worth its weight in gold...

What I think is that Minoans probably kept the whole thing as a sacred secret...Partially because if you keep the source of your product secret you make sure no one else can take over your market by stealing few plants and planting them in their back garden...

But also because for Minoans saffron crocus was not just valuable. It was sacred...You wouldn't want some foreign devils laying their filthy barbaric eyes or hands on your sacred plant...

Then Thera exploded and Mycenaeans invaded Crete...Mycenaeans of course knew about saffron and now they were able to get their hands on the plant that saffron was extracted from...And of course they brought it to their mainland home and planted it in their back garden...

I believe that this is when Crocus Cartwrightianus left Minoan territory for the first time and was for the first time planted in Attica...

The plant was originally grown and harvested as a "wild plant"...Just like it was on Crete... Eventually at some point "between 1450 BCE and 350 BCE" somewhere in Attica someone came across the mutated Crocus Cartwrightianus and hey presto, Crocus Sativus...

Mycenaeans only saw economic importance of saffron crocus...As a male dominated warrior society, to Mycenaeans, the whole link between feminine beauty and fertility and the beauty and fertility of the Mother Earth was alien, unimportant and most likely laughable...

This was part of the Minoan culture and religion which they hated and probably actively eradicated...Which is why after the arrival of Mycenaeans, saffron crocus disappears from divine images and remains only in profane accounting tables...

That's it...What do you think?

Legendary battle

The so called "The Griffin Warrior" is a person buried in the Bronze Age, Mycenaean shaft tomb dating to around 1450 BC, which was discovered near the ancient city of Pylos in Greece. This is what the content of the tomb looked like:

This warrior was buried in his best clothes and with all his best weapons and jewellery and status objects. This burial practice stems from the ancient belief that the things buried with the dead will be transferred with the dead from "this world" to "the other world"...

All the weapons were positioned to the right of the body: a magnificent one meter long sword with a golden hilt, under which lay a similarly designed dagger...

A classic Mycenaean boar tusk helmet was also found. The helmet was made from about 20 or more wild boar tusks which were split lengthwise. This is another boar tusk helmet found earlier in another Mycenaean burial, so you can see what these helmets looked like in real life...

We were able to reconstruct these helmets because we have found many depictions of them being worn by Mycenaean warriors...Like this one from the silver battle krater from shaft grave IV at Mycenae...

Have you ever thought how would you make a helmet like this? Well first you would have to kill at least 10 wild boars...Have you ever seen what a fully grown wild boar looks like? This is the beast you had to kill WITH A SPEAR...10 OF THEM!!!

Do you think that each warrior wearing one of these helmets had to kill the wild boar himself in order to have the helmet made? I think so. Which leads me to believe that these boar helmets were a status symbol which meant: I am a tough mother f*cker...

"Wild boar mating season is November to January... Prior to mating, the males develop their subcutaneous armour (!!!) in preparation for confronting rivals". If you went to kill wild boar during the main hunting season, winter, you were confronting an armoured killing machine...

"The boar's testicles double in size during the mating period, and the glands secrete a foamy yellowish liquid" I would say that if you were a Mycenaean hero, you were definitely going to be hunting boar then. To show you have "bigger balls" than the beast... :)

Griffin Warrior was buried with 50 seal stones, made of semiprecious materials, with Minoan designs (!!!) 

Most of the stones were found on the warrior’s right side, some probably worn as part of bracelets, and others gathered in a bag or pouch that decayed long ago...

The seal stones were originally used by the Minoans for administrative purposes. They were used as personal (family) stamps. 

Why was a Mycenaean Griffin warrior buried with a collection of Minoan seal stones???

I believe that each one of these seals was a war trophy. Each one represented a dead Minoan warrior...Killed personally by this man...

A war trophy brought to Mycenae from Crete during a war that was fought to avenge a defeat of the Mycenaeans by the Minoans depicted on the now famous Combat Agate seal stone from the Griffin warrior tomb...

E what??? 

Ever since I saw the Combat Agate, a magnificent Minoan made (according to all archaeologists) gem, found in a Mycenaean warrior grave, I was troubled by what I was looking at...

Because what I was looking at was a Minoan warrior (judging by the way he is dressed and by his hairstyle), killing a kilt wearing Mycenaean warrior (judging by his helmet), while another kilt wearing Mycenaean warrior lies dead...This made no sense to me at all...Until today...

These kind of gems (according to archaeologists) were worn like bracelets. They were drilled through and a string or a leather strip was pulled through and tied around the wrist. Combat agate was one such gem...

Well, Minoans seemed to have worn them like this. As can be seen on the Combat agate. Here is a detail of the scene depicted on it. The Minoan warrior wears a gem bracelet around the wrist of the hand grabbing the Mycenaean warrior's helmet crest (according to archaeologists)...

By the way, this is a perfect example why having anything that sticks out of your helmet in order to make it look cool, is really really bad idea in combat. The warrior on the left has grabbed the really cool looking crest on the helmet of the warrior on the right and has twisted his neck around. If the guy on the right is not already dead because his neck has snapped, he will be, when the guy on the left stabs him. Which is why any helmet that is not for show has nothing sticking out, as anything sticking out can be used as a leaver to twist your head around or sideways and basically break your neck or put you into disadvantaged position...

Back to the main theme of the article.
It is kind of obvious that if this gem was made by Minoans that it depicted Minoan victory...Which is the main reason why I think that Combat Agate and all the other Minoan gems found in Mycenaean Griffin Warrior grave were war trophies...Taken off dead Minoans...

And Combat agate was a very special gem stone. Because the scene depicted on it is not any random Minoan victory over Mycenaeans. It was a "famous", "legendary" Minoan victory over Mycenaeans. Why? Because this is not the only depiction of this scene found so far...

The combat scene in this gold cushion seal (from Grave III of Grave Circle A in Mycenae) closely resembles the one in the Pylos Combat Agate...Again we have long haired Minoan warrior killing Mycenaean warrior wearing helmet...

We find the same scene depicted on this gold seal ring with military scene, from tomb IV of mound A of Mycenae, 16th century BC...

This was not just any battle between any two heroes. This was a stuff of legends. A legendary victory for Minoans. And a legendary defeat for Mycenaeans...

The defeat which Mycenaeans could not forget and which they had to, and they did, avenge one day. And I believe that the Griffin Warrior was one of the avengers. Maybe even the leader of the avengers...At least judging by the fact that one of the objects found in the "Griffin warrior tomb" was a staff with a bull's head top...Status symbol definitely. But what kind of status? Priest? King? Priest King?

And taking the Combat agate, which celebrated that legendary defeat of the Mycenaeans, off the dead cold hand of the Minoan warrior who wore it as a symbol of the legendary victory of the Minoans, was the ultimate symbol of revenge...

Now here is something very interesting. In "Mycenæ: a narrative of researches and discoveries at Mycenæ and Tiryns" published in 1880, Schliemann talks about this legendary duel of heroes. Except he doesn't see Minoan and Mycenaean warriors. He sees this:  

Ha!!! 

What are we looking at here? Was there another much older legend talking about Minoan-Mycenaean wars which later became Iliad? Was there another legendary battle between (to us) unknown Minoan hero and unknown Mycenaean hero which later became battle between Achilles and Hector? 

We know that legends, as they are passed from generation to generation, change with times. New elements are added, names, identities, religion, reason for existence and actions of heroes change to reflect the identity, beliefs, hopes and fears of people who retell these legends..

Is this what we have here?