#minoans

Detail of the “Saffron Gatherers” 3,675-year-old fresco from Akrotiri, the Bronze Age city of Santorini entombed by volcanic ash.

Greek Farmer Stumbles Onto 3,400-Year-Old Tomb Hidden Below His Olive Grove

The Crete local was trying to park his vehicle when he accidentally unearthed the ancient Minoan grave

Sometime between 1400 and 1200 B.C., two Minoan men were laid to rest in an underground enclosure carved out of the soft limestone native to southeast Crete. Both were entombed within larnakes—intricately embossed clay coffins popular in Bronze Age Minoan society—and surrounded by colorful funerary vases that hinted at their owners’ high status. Eventually, the burial site was sealed with stone masonry and forgotten, leaving the deceased undisturbed for roughly 3,400 years.

Earlier this summer, a local farmer accidentally brought the pair’s millennia-long rest to an abrupt end, George Dvorsky reports for Gizmodo. The farmer was attempting to park his vehicle beneath a shaded olive grove on his property when the ground gave way, forcing him to find a new parking spot. As he started to drive off, the unidentified local noticed a four-foot-wide hole that had emerged in the patch of land he’d just vacated. Perched on the edge of the gaping space, the man realized he’d unintentionally unearthed “a wonderful thing.”

According to a statement, archaeologists from the local heritage ministry, Lassithi Ephorate of Antiquities, launched excavations below the farmer’s olive grove at Rousses, a small village just northeast of Kentri, Ierapetra, in southeast Crete. They identified the Minoan tomb, nearly perfectly preserved despite its advanced age, in a pit measuring roughly four feet across and eight feet deep. The space’s interior was divided into three carved niches accessible by a vertical trench.

In the northernmost niche, archaeologists found a coffin and an array of vessels scattered across the ground. The southernmost niche yielded a second sealed coffin, as well as 14 ritual Greek jars called amphorae and a bowl.

Forbes’ Kristina Kilgrove writes that the high quality of the pottery left in the tomb indicates the individuals buried were relatively affluent. She notes, however, that other burial sites dating to the same Late Minoan period feature more elaborate beehive-style tombs.

“These [men] could be wealthy,” Kilgrove states, “but not the wealthiest.”

Unlike many ancient tombs, the Kentri grave was never discovered by thieves, Argyris Pantazis, deputy mayor of local communities, agrarian and tourism of Ierapetra, tells local news outlet Cretapost. In fact, the site likely would have remained sealed in perpetuity if not for the chance intervention of a broken irrigation pipe, which watered down the soil surrounding the farmer’s olive grove and led to his unexpected parking debacle.

“We are particularly pleased with this great archaeological discovery, as it is expected to further enhance our culture and history,” Pantazis added in his interview with Cretapost. “Indeed, this is also a response to all those who doubt that there were Minoans in Ierapetra.”

According to Archaeology News Network, most Minoan settlements found on Crete are located in the lowlands and plains rather than the mountainous regions of Ierapetra. Still, a 2012 excavation in Anatoli, Ierapetra, revealed a Minoan mansion dating to between 1600 and 1400 B.C., roughly the same time period as the Kentri tomb.

This latest find offers further proof of the ancient civilization’s presence—as Mark Cartwright notes for Ancient History Encyclopedia, the Minoans are most renowned for their labyrinthine palace complexes, which likely inspired the classic Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. According to legend, Queen Pasiphae of Crete gave birth to the Minotaur, a fierce half-man, half-bull hybrid, after falling for a bull sent to Earth by the Greek god Zeus. The Minotaur, doomed to an eternity spent wandering the halls of an underground labyrinth and killing anyone it encountered, was eventually defeated by the demigod Theseus, who relied on an enchanted ball of thread provided by the king’s daughter, Ariadne, to escape the maze.

Much of the Minoans’ history remains unclear, but Forbes’ Kilgrove reports that natural disasters, including the eruption of the Thera volcano, an earthquake and a tsunami, contributed to the group’s downfall, enabling enemies such as the Mycenaeans to easily invade. Analysis of the excavated Kentri tomb may offer further insights on the Minoan-Mycenaean rivalry, as well as the Cretan civilization’s eventual demise.

By Meilan Solly.

(Discovered in Summer 2018)

So every time I see the minotaur, I think "good for her."

also they use more than the labrys or even just axes.

Thank you for your question!

The answer is actually both yes and no. I assume your talking about the makeup look with a white face and little suns/flowers painted on the cheeks and chin in red. This makeup look is shown on this Mycenaean plaster head:

A lot of people in modern times have taken it to mean that this was the makeup look of Mycenaean women (of the higher elite that is). It was popularized by a 3D model made by the great artist Petros Haralampides, based on some ancient sources:

There were some real life renditions that popularized it as well, but I’m not going to show them in this post. I can’t find the source of those pictures anymore, so I don’t know if the people in it are still comfortable with it being shared.

The type of makeup is however a bit more complicated than a lot of people think. Showing Helena with this type of makeup isn’t wrong, since we accept her as a half-goddess. You see, this type of makeup is almost never shown on mortals. Most examples we have, are mythical or religious figures that wear this type of makeup. The plaster head is often seen by outsiders as some type of royal or something, but research actually leans in more towards a female sphinx or a goddess of some kind. Goddess figurines from the Mycenaean period show variations on the makeup shown on the plaster head. 

The makeup is also used mostly regarding goddesses that have a more adult look to it, I don’t think that in any case a maiden would be shown with this type of makeup. 

The only picture we see that comes remotely close to this type of makeup is the makeup on the frescoes of Thera, Akrotiri:

If this is a variation on the goddess makeup, it’s more simplified. The fresco probably displays some sort of tribute or coming of age ceremony to a primary goddess. The murals of Akrotiri always form some sort of confusion, for me personally as well tbh.Thera, Akrotiri was destroyed by earthquakes before the Mycenaeans conquered it. It was a town inhabited by Minoan settlers. We also don’t know when these murals were actually made, we just know it must be somewhere between them settling there and the earthquake. Technically speaking, both the late Minoan and thus also the Akrotiri murals, coincide with the Mycenaean empire rising. There’s a chance there was a cultural affinity between the Therans, the Minoans and the Mycenaeans at that time and that they could be used interchangeably. At the moment that’s what is happening. The murals of Thera are being used for depicting both Minoans and Mycenaeans. Personally, I think there must’ve been some sort of cultural affinity at that time. Especially murals like the ones shown above from Akrotiri.

They give a more Mycenaean feel. These two were found in the House of the Ladies in Akrotiri. The woman on the right is leaning over to touch another woman, probably a young lady. The scene has been interpreted as a coming of age ceremony. The reconstructions of this young lady look like this: 

All styled in a more familiar Minoan style, like the Saffron pickers.

So whether or not, you accept the pale face with red cheeks of this mural as a simplified version of the makeup look shown on the goddess figurines or the plaster head, is up to you. 

So to get back to the original point. It seems that that type of makeup was mainly used to depict mythical or religious figures, the makeup probably had some sort of meaning to depict some type of goddesses. I wouldn’t use this type of makeup to depict some random Mycenaean princess, but for Helena or Circe for example that’s different, these two women were a half-goddess and a minor goddess. I think, for accuracy, it’s best to keep the makeup for divine beings.