The Minoans: The Old Temple Period

The West Porch with the west facade behind it, at Knossos

As the brief Sumerian renaissance faltered and its culture was replaced by the Babylonians, the first megalithic signs of hierarchy on Crete were evolving. After around 100 years (by 2,000 BCE) Minoan scribes transformed their hieroglyphics into a new system, called Linear A. While aesthetically it is less elaborate, it refined and democratized the use of symbolism by Minoans. The need for faster writing continued to trend towards the simplification of the written Cretan language, in turn allowing for more people to learn the language. This opened the door for foreigners to learn the language, either after intermarriage or for trading, expanding the trading network and general cultural periphery of the Minoans. This helped their culture leap from not only their origin, but to other Aegean islands as well. Strangely enough, even with its successor deeply implanted in Cretan culture, the use of hieroglyphs did not vanish. The antique symbols were re-purposed, no longer representing the mode of everyday communication. Instead, they were used on specific objects or in a ritual context. The context of hieroglyphic signs are radically different than the context of Linear A. Linear A was the language of bureaucratic record keeping, personal seals, and trade contracts. Cretan hieroglyphics were used even hundreds of years after the ubiquity of Linear A, and it is not known what these hieroglyphs eventually came to symbolize. Their transition from a working script to an antiquated script may have been similar to various other transitions seen throughout recorded history known as sacred languages.

A fragment of Linear A writing

A tablet in Linear A from Zakros

A Minoan cylindrical seal using Linear A

The proliferation of writing, seals, and trade across Crete points to the ever expanding class of merchants and the general increase in wealth during this period. As wealth expanded, it centralized, and by 1,930 BCE the first palace structure at Knossos was built. Since the old period palaces were rebuilt/redesigned and used through the new period, it's difficult to completely understand the original structure of the Knossian palace. As Knossians erected their first megalithic structure on the island, they laid the foundations of the classical Minoan palace economy.

Generally, the institutions sitting in the palace survived through the wealth of the countryside. Periodically the crops or other objects were brought (or ordered) to the nearest palace, and redistributed across society. Redistribution was at the discretion of the ruling class, who also allotted themselves some of the wealth. This created the classical Minoan luxury focused and class based aristocracy. Orders to the countryside were reinforced, either by political or religious force (or both) it is not known. Different types of artisans were given patronage by this palace class, eventually being set up in and around the palace proper. The close connection between these early bands of artisans and their rulers/patrons was not accidental, they lived too close to shirk their taxes but operated in areas with the highest foot traffic in town. The art and craftsmanship of pottery was not squelched but continued its unending process of innovation. By 1,800 BCE a new style of pottery, Kamares ware, became popular but only among this new palace class.

A Kamares ware cup from the old palace at Phaistos, around 1,800 BCE

Kamares ware jug from Phaistos, 1,800-1,700 BCE

“The Fish Vase”, a Kamares ware jug

A flower petal or star design, Kamares ware

Kamares ware vases and cups from Phaistos and Knossos, made between 1,800-1,700 BCE

Knossos had set off a chain reaction, and between 2,000-1,900 BCE a wave of megalithic building swept the island, solidifying what top-down hierarchies had emerged in the prior few hundred years. The construction of such a building was symbolically similar to a countryside castle in medieval Europe, it exuded dominance over the local populace and projected your power at the expense of neighborly nobles. It is difficult to describe with high accuracy what exactly these buildings were used for, no record explicitly states their entire use, and the structures housed both cultic areas and food storage. They likely represented merging of both, projecting religious authority and political power through an aristocratic priesthood. Surprisingly the King did not stay in the temple-palace at Knossos, there was a complex interconnection between different groups, families, classes, and titles all within local Minoan politics. Those who did live and rule in the temple were wealthy, and shared similar enough unique clothing to be deemed a new class: the priestesses. This new class procured scribes to record the structure's stores in Linear A, and gave patronage to nearby potters to make Kamares ware (as well as many other specialty craft items).

A goblet with sculpted flowers, Kamares ware, made around 1,700 BCE. The flowers were made separately and attached after the goblet was completed

A beautifully decorated Kamares ware bowl from Phaistos

It should be said that the majority of people associated with a palace-temple were not wealthy priestesses, but were slaves, artisans, attendants, cooks, scribes, or guards. The entire civilization of megalithic structure building and expensive elite en vogue pottery rested on the shoulders of local farmers. Without the commoner's tithes of grain, the palace-temple hierarchy would have quickly collapsed, bringing down the rest of their precarious aristocracy. It is disingenuous to say the Minoan society as a whole wrote Linear A and made Kamares ware: the only people who could write were scribes, and only a select few artisans were given the patronage to craft Kamares ware. Commoners throughout the rest of society used pottery as well, and while it was not as extravagant as Kamares ware, it included its own styles made by its own popular artists. While merchants, potters, and artisans in general carved out a space for themselves, another channel to wealth was through writing. While the contemporaneous Babylonians in Mesopotamia sent their children to scribal schools, it is not known how Minoan scribes were trained and brought into the exclusive palace-temple system. If you could not pay to have your child taught to write, their economic success was not entirely stilted. Most people used seals as a method of signing their name to documents, allowing the illiterate inclusion into financial deals. While it is debated how far seal use proliferated throughout society, generally the use of seals gave the average personal both financial independence and power.

Ivory cone seal with spiral design, 2,300-2,000 BCE Minoan

While it is much easier to speak about a well represented king or priestess, it is absolutely necessary to talk about the lives of the rest, the invisible common people. They constituted the majority of Minoan society, and exhibited their culture as genuinely as any rich land owner. The great mass of farmers, fishers, traders, and laborers together form a silent majority within the historical record. Their discourse were stored in houses and leveled, instead of in large temple repositories and preserved. Their clothing was refitted, gifted, or ripped up, instead of being painted onto the walls of megaliths. From their silence, they become the most mysterious aspect of Minoan society, and the most appealing to reconstruct.

The Fisherman Fresco, the topknots on his shaven head are a hairstyle indicative of youth

For the moment, let's divert the straightforward chronological political history of Crete, and view their history laterally instead of sequentially. As the Old Temple period begins, Minoan society both flourishes, and many of its details are better preserved. Let's broaden the understanding of those individual cultural aspects, which constitute classical Minoan society during the Old and New Temple periods.

A Quick Aside on Notation and Chronology

With the creation of temple hierarchies on Crete, the political lives of everyday Cretans dramatically changed. The change is so radical that it creates a periodic divide, the boundary between EM (early Minoan) and MM (middle Minoan). While this common classification assumed Minoan society “began” around with the start of the EM period around 3,000 BCE, such a stifled formulation of society (truly only an archeological complex) is difficult to accurately define. While there is the rise and fall of the Minoan archeological complex, there are no finite divisions in Minoan civilization as any drawn lines are entirely artificial.

The beginning of Minoan society is arbitrary too, pinning its birth on material objects wrongfully asserts the primacy of those objects as the individual's identity. If some pottery is assigned to be the earliest Minoan pottery, what exactly changes when one crosses this boundary line? Its inventors had no changed their personal identities, they kept their name, language, family, land, clan, titles, and habits. If you followed the ownership patterns of the elite, warriors carried obsidian spearheads in the 4^th millennium BCE and by the Old Temple period carried bronze ones. Different chronologies use this evidence to begin their EM period around 3,500 BCE instead (such as Andonis Vasilakis).

Constructing an end to Minoan civilization is somewhat easier, since specific habits such as fresco art (and its Cretan styles) and palace construction (and the scribal lifestyle) vanished entirely. These aspects of culture are still only material, there is no population interruption between the late bronze age (LBA) and the classical period (CP) on Crete. The distinction between LBA Minoan culture and that of the early iron age (EIA) culture is similar to the distinction between the CP Roman Empire and Byzantium.

One of many Bronze Age Aegean chronologies, I'll be using this one for simplicity's sake

Many images and objects people currently associate with the Minoans, such as palace-temples, priestesses, and bull leaping, are specifically from the MM and LM (late Minoan) periods. In popular culture these images are immediately considered Minoan, EM period people don't generate the same reaction. Popular culture rightfully so acknowledges a huge cultural leap between the two periods. If you examined the life of a fresco painter in LM Crete (around 1,450 BCE), and compared that person's life and habits to a fresco painter 1,000 years prior, every aspect of that person's existence would be drastically different. Their language, identity, beliefs, and artistic influences were confined within the immediate past. Identities were tribal and transitory: there is no evidence that Knossos led a confederation of city states, but was only one of many. The only connections those two fresco painters would have shared is location, urbanization, and a quasi-familiar religion.

In the next few sections, I'll talking about a general Minoan culture, which refers to people extant during the MM and LM periods. It can be said that the rise of the palace hierarchy along with its political baggage (around 2,000 BCE) is the beginning of a kind of golden age across the island. This period is the height of megalithic building, international trade, and artistic craftsmanship on the island's bronze age. It also has the most associated evidence. But, it is crucial to remember that the term Minoan is an invention. It's a catchall term, by the omniscient Arthur Evans, for objects made by many political identities in many periods on Crete and many nearby islands. The Old and New Temple periods only lasted around 600 years, and are themselves one small material snapshot of a much larger and more complex culture. In referring to Minoan culture, I'm primarily pointing to 2,000-1,100 BCE, tied into the popular conception of the term. Minoan or Cretan culture as an archeological complex stretches back through the neolithic, and forward into the Hellenistic era. Any culture brought under such a microscope will turn out to have subtle yet integral nuances.

References

The Minoans, by Rodney Castleden http://amzn.to/1EaVS2X

Minoan Chronology by Andonis Vasilakis http://www.minoancrete.com/chron.htm

The Minoans: The Common People

Detail of the crowd of commoners surrounding a grove and priestesses, from the Sacred Grove miniature fresco

The history of the island is often simply the history of deposited objects. These objects can explain the mind of their bearers, as elaborately decorated pottery serves to illuminate the evolving thought process within local aesthetics. More often than not, this sequential series of artifacts leaves out the rest of the potter. Models often given intricate views into personal lives, and such models of boats and houses are fantastic finds. In a twist of fate, these spectacular objects only raise more questions than answers. They posit the existence of fishers, and construction workers, yet those workers are invisible within the object. Any evidence about their actual lives is absent, the only remains of their entire existence is the material result of their labor, an object itself full of meaning for Minoans yet silent on any details. The existence of models suggests a change in the way society views potters and pottery. Detailed models suggests the possible specialization of artisans, and artists who could master unusual shapes. Votive models suggest a general faith, especially by those who had the excess to give. Toy models suggest a world of childhood imagination, and the leisure of the wealthy. While we can imagine such objects in the hands of Minoans, the actual lives of the majority remain silent.

A Minoan clay sistrum (a rattling percussive musical instrument), 2,100-2,000 BCE

A celebrant playing a sistrum, from the Harvester Vase, 1,500-1,400 BCE

A bronze cleaver with ivory handle, from the palace at Agia Triadha

A great question remains, if there is no literature, how do we ask questions about the average Cretan's life? The first place to start is with what literature we do have, translations of Linear B. While this script was used exclusively during the LM period, the wealth of information uncovered on these buried tablets can also apply to the MM period. These tablets describe what the majority of farmer villagers could grow and give to their rulers. They grew: grain, barley, vetch, chick/pigeon/cultivated peas, sesame, hemp, flax, castor oil, grapes/raisins/wine, olives/oil, quince, figs, pistachios, palms/dates, almonds, and collected bees/honey (their only source of natural sugar). Just as during the classical period, olive oil and wine were popular and daily use commodities. Bees are found on many objects within the Minoan culture, pointing to the important status of beekeepers. We still use honey today, but it is important to remember that during the bronze age it was the paramount (and only) sugary food snack.

A golden bee ornament, made between 1,700-1,600 BCE

A Minoan bee smoker from the House of Sacrificed Oxen at Knossos, 1,700-1,450 BCE

A grape crushing workshop at Vathypetro, Crete

A terracotta oven from the Minoan colony of Akrotiri on the island of Thera, 1,700-1,600 BCE

Farmers used wooden plows probably with leather wrapped around its handles. During the Chalcolithic (primarily the LN) period, they dug furrows with copper blades. Probably one of the first bronze tools was a plow blade. Farmers relied on animals, rearing: cattle, goats, pigs, sheep, and primarily the heavy lifters oxen. From Linear B records at the palace of Knossos, oxen are given names such as: Dusty, Noisy, Fair, Red, Sandy, Dapple, White-Foot, White-Muzzle, and Red-Rump. With such affectionate, yet commonly descriptive names, the Linear B tablets at Knossos remind us that some people continue to have a sense of humor. Thousands of years later, it would still be hilarious to name an ox Red-Rump (or Red-Ass if you would allow the translation some flexibility). Possibly the names of farm animals were given by the children of the farmers, as children often do this to pets today (with parents then applying the name seriously to the animal).

Bronze sickles from Greece, the first metal sickles on Crete were from the MM period

Terracotta sculpture of a bull, made around 1,200 BCE of Minoan craftsmanship

Frescoes are also an invaluable source of information about the lives of individuals. Fresco scenes of birds and cats show us that the Minoan imagination extant 3-4,000 years ago was as enraptured by such animals as modern humans are today.

A Minoan river landscape fresco showing a cat chasing a bird

Frescoes also show us celebrations, giving us a sense of what a Cretan would do for fun. Banquets and feasts are still common and popular today, although now called dinner parties. Anyone who could afford to do so, would have taken the opportunity. Simple aspects of human nature, such as our social appetite, were appeased in the same way 4,000 years ago. The wealthy elite of Old Temple Knossos could afford to host a large group, and at some point of excess the host was (presumably) expected to hire musicians. Live music was common at parties of the Minoan elite. Group feasts, now called pot-lucks or picnics, still exist and continue their societal function. Such community driven events cut across all boundaries and classes, being hosted on special days to celebrate some figure or event throughout the year. In an era without immediate community connection through the internet, these events functioned as group bonding activities. We moderns should consider ourselves lucky that we live in an age of prolific recorded music. Truly that aspect of large parties has become democratized, now almost anyone can afford to have public music at gatherings. Events with a party atmosphere: eating, drinking, speaking to friends, playing or listening to music, are just as enjoyable now as they were thousands of years ago.

The Musician Fresco from the Aegean island of Andros

Multiple ceramic sistra from Agios Charalambos cave in Lasithi Crete, MM period

People enjoyed sports such as boxing, wrestling, running, or jumping. It is not known whether people participated in these sports while in private or public celebrations. Wrestling and boxing matches are shown in frescoes and on a rhyton from Agia Triadha. During the classical period, Pindar wrote about the pleasures of life which someone in Elysium would continue to enjoy. This gives us a great description of fun activities at the time, shedding light on their LBA counterparts. There is another illuminating description of life's little pleasures in Book 8 of the Odyssey.

“For them the sun shines at full strength, while we here walk in night. The plains around their city are red with roses, and shaded by incense trees heavy with golden fruit, and some enjoy horses and wrestling, or table games and the lyre, and near them blossoms a flower of perfect joy, perfume always hovers above the land, from the frankincense strewn in deep-shining fire of the gods' altars...” - Pindar

A Minoan couple in color, by Dedasaur

A painted plaster reproduction of the gaming board from the Temple of Knossos. These boards were racing games, pitting two players against each other and involving dice for randomness. Variations of the game were played for secular and religious purposes, although those two connotations may not have been separate

A detailed photo of a reproduction of the gaming board and pieces from Knossos. It should be noted that this elaborate gaming board was found in the Temple Palace at Knossos, and commoners would have had a simpler version

“The things we take a perennial delight in are the feast, the lyre, the dance, clean linen in plenty, a hot bath, and our beds.” - Homer, from Book 8 of the Odyssey

A marble figurine of a harpist, probably funerary, from Keros in the Cyclades, 2,500-2,200 BCE

Detail from the Agia Triadha sarcophagus showing the male lyre player in a priestess dress

The Boxers Fresco

A boxer wearing a smooth possibly leather helmet, on an Agia Triadha rhyton, by Stelios Zacharias

A model of a woman (priestess?) sitting on a swing, from Agia Triadha, 1,450-1,300 BCE

Minoan Slavery

There is one group all to commonly left out of bronze age frescoes and mythical literature, the slave. While a small fraction of people were priestesses, rulers, or scribes, the vast majority of people were either laborers or farmers. This large productive class was itself divided into the free and the enslaved. LBA (late bronze age) slavery was similar to the CP practice, with slaves being prisoners of war or debtors. Often CP slaves had some avenues to leave slavery, but of course only the lucky could actually earn their way to freedom. Many people entered and exited slavery at least once in their lifetime (mainly from debt), there was less of a stigma attached to the term. Slavery was still probably inter-generational, as adults and children are listed as slaves in the Knossian and Pylian records. Slaves occupied some of the worst jobs in Minoan society: grinding grain, spinning wool, carding flax, and rowing galleys. Pylian tablets mention that 600 slaves are required for a fleet, and being a galley slave was the worst possible position for anyone to be in during combat. There were no escape hatches, and if you could flee few knew how to swim.

An illustration of LBA naval warfare

Slaves also occupied some of the best and most valued jobs, Pylian and Knossian tablets mention a significant number of slaves being sent to the temple. They became attendants and servants to the priests and priestesses (called 'slaves to the god' and 'slaves to the priestess' respectively). From the Pylian tablet PY Ae 303, the slaves of the priestess were paid for with “sacred” gold, and were attached to a specific shrine. From the Knossian tablet Gg 713, “for Marineus [a god], one female servant.” and another Knossian tablet mentions, “to the House [sanctuary] of Marineus, ten men.” It is unknown whether these temple servants were freemen or slaves. Since gold was not a universal currency but only a high value barter good, these temple slaves were certainly a high value commodity. The Pylian tablet Eo 224 gives the name of a female slave under a priestess who was a leaseholder. While this life was still slavery, many individuals forced into this life probably felt some vindication in aiding their deities. It is not known whether the Minoans on Crete used large numbers of temple-slaves like their mainland counterparts, but given the similar political structures between Pylos and Knossos it seems very likely. Slaves held a dual role in LBA Aegean society being both lease holders, debtor pariahs, and sacred servants. Galley slaves were the most abused members of Minoan society, yet their calloused hands moved Minoan fleets across the Aegean and assured Minoan political dominance.

Detail of the Procession fresco, frescoes showing temple attendants are possibly depicting slaves

References

The Minoans, by Rodney Castleden http://amzn.to/1EaVS2X

Minoan Agriculture http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Post/1273500

Named Individuals and the Pylian State http://bit.ly/1BiUDR3

Ch. 1, Linear B as a Source for Social History http://bit.ly/1yqf5Pv

The Minoans: Fashion

Left: Reproduction of the Ladies in Blue fresco from Knossos. Center: Priest King fresco restored. Right: reproduction of a woman carrying an ivory pyxis from Tiryns

Minoan male and female dress, from mir-kostuma.com

The most spectacular scenes of the daily lives of Minoans is seen in their fresco art. Many frescoes are so vivid and full of energy that you can't help but feel an affinity for them. From these scenes we are given accurate and colorful depictions of how the Minoans viewed themselves. It is truly remarkable that such woven works of art survived, as any and all elaborate dresses seen in frescoes have long since disintegrated. One great example of fashion, class, and culture is the Theran Naval Fresco. Nobles are shown in robes, commoners in tunics, and rustics in sheepskin, alluding to three general occupation based groups in society. Whoever could afford bronze or copper razors used them, and tweezers were used as well. Minoan fashion was in a constant state of flux, constantly changing year to year through a localized version of our now global fashion industry. Long hair was common: men, woman, nobles, and bull keepers wore it, whereas those who kept short hair were either soldiers or those who needed it for practical reasons due to their work. Everyone wore jewelry, if they could afford it. Depictions of the lower classes are surprisingly common, and while details of their clothing are not seen so visibly in frescoes, metalworkers made statuettes of everyday worshipers to be left at religious sites. These metal depictions of commoners were a very frequent item found at such sites. Commoners are also seen in seals and in frescoes occasionally, and generally the most common clothing of the period for most people was wool.

Modern illustration of Minoan male and female dress

An example of a warp-weighted loom seen in Minoan frescoes

Leaf shaped bronze razor from funerary building 3 in Arkhanes Crete, made around 1,400 BCE

Bronze razor from Phylos, made around 1,200 BCE

Bronze tweezers from Crete, made between 3,000-1,000 BCE

A diagram of Minoan cosmetic tools

Frescoes unintentionally show the artist's ideal self-image through their own aesthetic lens. Because of this, other Minoans are seen with their attractive features elaborated: straight noses, almond eyes, popping eyebrows, long black hair, tan and athletic bodies, and slim waists and legs. Both men and women are portrayed as beautifully perfect, but of course the world is never so kind. Minoan art excludes those who do not adhere to this stereotype, and most people may not have had the money to wear colored cloth with exquisite and complex designs. While the majority of clothing are left out of the picture, the clothing which is seen was manufactured by master craftsmen. Some designs are too complex to be woven, and were probably block printed, embroidered, appliqueed, or put on using a mixture of methods.

The Queen's fresco, reminiscent of the ideal female aesthetic found in classical period art

Clothing then as now was gendered, and women's clothing was much more elaborate than men's. Women wore dress tops designed similarly to modern t-shirts, but with a long slit from the neck to the navel. This long opening left women two options, one was to have the breasts covered and the other to have them exposed. Women with their breasts exposed is commonly seen in ritual contexts, and presumably it had some uncommon significance. It is presumed that reciprocally then to have the flaps covering yourself was the normal practice, although it should be said that there is no hard evidence detailing the norms, religious customs, or if there was even a difference between the two styles. Women also wore wide belts and embroidered aprons but only in a ritual context, thus these pieces of clothing suffer too from a lack of any information on their actual usage. It was standard for women to wear hats, whereas men would not, and by 1,700 BCE it was fashionable for women to wear tall pointed hats. By this period, men would also wear such hats but only in a ritual context.

Woman from the Procession of Ladies fresco at Akrotiri

The Saffron Gatherer fresco

Detail of the Xeste 3 fresco at Akrotiri

A woman in a fresco from the House of the Ladies

“Le Parisienne” Minoan fresco from Sanctuary Hall at the Piano Nobile in the palace of Knossos, 1,450-1,350 BCE

Reconstruction of part of relief fresco of an elaborate dress from Pseira, Found in Yphantiki kai Yphantres sto Proistoriko Aigaio, Crete University Press, pg 229

Detail of the arm of that dress from the same source

Detail of the lower section of that dress from the same source

Pre-Temple (2,400-2,100 BCE) female Minoan fashion, by Tadarida

Old Temple (2,100-1,600 BCE) female Minoan fashion, by Tadarida

Late Minoan (1,600-1,000 BCE) female Minoan fashion, by Tadarida

Mycenaean (1,400-1,250 BCE) female fashion, by Tadarida

A diagram of women's hair styles from frescoes at Knossos, Thera, and Tiryntha

Male gendered clothing was intentionally skimpy, and during the MM and LM periods different variations of loincloths were all the rage. Presumably in the early MM period men would wear codpieces held up with a belt, which throughout the MM period slowly changed as people wrapped cloth around their upper thighs, turning their loincloths into a simple kilt. Eventually, certainly by the LM period, men would sew the middle of the kilt together to create shorts, and throughout the LM period men's shorts were elaborately patterned and included a decorated tassel hung from a sporran (a pouch tied around the waist used as a pocket). Also during the LM period men would forgo the kilt altogether and only wear a codpiece.

Detail from the Stiersprung fresco of a bull leaper, 1,600-1,450 BCE

Prince of the Lillies fresco

Painting of two male servants at Knossos

Servant with a blue vessel fresco at Knossos

EM (codpiece) and MM (kilt/shorts) male fashion, by Tadarida

A diagram of Minoan male loincloth styles

A man from Knossos wearing hat, made around 1,400 BCE or earlier, now at Herakion Museum, from pg 69 of The Arts in Prehistoric Greece by Sinclair Hood

The most brilliant example of male fashion from Crete is not actually from the island proper. It is a painting on the wall of a tomb in Egypt. It shows various Minoans bearing gifts for the Pharaoh in celebration of the recently departed Egyptian adviser Rekhmire. He had died around 1,450 BCE and was the Grand Vizier to multiple Pharaohs, he was well liked and respected among the local aristocracy. The fact that foreign Cretans felt obliged to celebrate the life of a Grand Vizier is testament to the connection between Egyptian aristocracy and Minoan aristocracy. The Egyptian artist or artists who were tasked with painting the procession scene were put in a serious bind: they had to paint those gift bearing Minoans presumably before they had even arrived, and the artist/s had not seen a Minoan in some time. The artist/s made a professional decision and painted Minoans as they had remembered them: wearing cod pieces with a particular hem line. When the Minoans actually arrived, their fashion had changed! Kilts had become all the rage and no one wore cod pieces anymore. The Egyptian artist/s were able to quickly fix this mistake before the tomb was sealed, simply painting kilts over top of the old cod piece.

Reconstruction of the frescoes from the tomb of User on the left, and Rekhmire on the right, depicting Cretan envoys and their clothing

Minoans bringing tribute to Egypt, in the tomb of Rekhmire. It is interesting to note their typical Cretan style done in an Egyptian manner. Also note the fantastically elaborate shoes

Detail of the shoes of the Cretan envoys, by the author. While the tomb was made in the late 1,400s BCE, Cretans were known for exporting elaborate shoes by at least the 19^th century BCE. King Zimri-Lim of Mari gave King Hammurabi of Babylon a “pair of leather shoes in the Caphtorian [Cretan] style”, but Hammurabi returned them. The tablet which describes this event gives no reason for Hammurabi's ill manners, but only a few years later he conquered Mari and killed Zimri-Lim

Various styles of Minoan shoes, all of which are Minoan except for B which is Hittite

The procession from Keftiu at the tomb of Rekhmire, by A. R. Burns

The procession from Keftiu continued, at the tomb of Rekhmire, by A. R. Burns

The recording of gifts from Keftiu by the Egyptian officals, at the tomb of Rekhmire, by A. R. Burns

Another fascinating painting from the tomb of Rekhmire, an elephant being brought as tribute. It is unknown whether this was either a small Syrian or Asian elephant (which existed in Mesopotamia until around 700 BCE), or simply a miniaturized drawing of a normal sized elephant

References

The Minoans, by Rodney Castleden http://amzn.to/1EaVS2X