Here comes another installment of Minoan pottery types.  Now, I mentioned earlier that I did a lot of research for Knossos.  Among the generous replies from archaeologists like Dr. Colin Macdonald from the Athens School and Dr. Alexander MacGillivray, I sometimes managed to get information from graduate students (henceforth referred to as GS) in ( Read more... )

Knossos is both a mythical and a real place.  You can do anything you like with the fantasy Labyrinth and its mythological denizens without apprehension; no one will call you out for inaccuracy.

Knossos the real site, however, is more complicated.  Want to write a historical novel with attention to the utmost accuracy?  Here comes the bullet list.

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Crete in the southern Aegean generally isn't a place you'd associate with ice or snow, except in the highest places such as Mounts Dikte and Ida, but lo and behold, just last week I came across this recent photo from lowland Knossos:


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My latest painting is a reproduction of Emile Gillieron Sr.'s watercolor rendering of the Double-S and Papyrus Frond fresco found during the 1910-12 archaeological excavations at Tiryns.

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In the summer of 2015, archaeologists working in a previously unexplored field near the palace of Nestor at Pylos in southwestern Greece discovered an intact, early Mycenaean shaft grave burial dating to around 1500 B.C.  Within the tomb lay a single individual, a man surrounded by a wealth of weapons, gold jewelry, and other prestige objects.  He ( Read more... )

Before reading Woven Threads and working on the Saffron Goddess from the last post, I hadn't known that the Minoans used murex purple in their frescoes.  Yet having also learned that murex shells could yield quite a bit more purple dye than previously assumed, I was pleased to find traces of it in the blouse of the Saffron Goddess and elsewhere ( Read more... )

This week, I attempted some artwork to relieve the space between painting pieces of miniature furniture.  The subject I chose was the Saffron Goddess from Xeste 3 in Akrotiri.  From previous posts, you know I've developed an interest in the elaborately patterned textiles the Minoans and Therans produced, but it wasn't just the decoration I wanted ( Read more... )

I am currently reading Woven Threads: Patterned Textiles of the Aegean Bronze Age, by Maria Shaw and Anne Chapin.  It's a scholarly, more budget-friendly alternative to Bernice Jones' Ariadne's Threads, but lest you think it's a lesser book, it isn't.  The emphasis here is on pictorial depictions of Aegean patterned textiles, many from fresco ( Read more... )

The Minoans and Mycenaeans loved scent.  Those who could afford it wore frankincense, myrrh, and saffron.  There was also expensive oil of lilies and oil of roses, but other, less exotic ingredients such as coriander and thyme were widely available ( Read more... )

The Agamemneion is a shrine located on the left bank of the Chavos river at Mycenae.  It was first erected in 700 B.C., though it is unclear whether Agamemnon was the original focus of devotion.  The first votives, such as the inscribed pot below, appear much later, after the shrine was refurbished in the fourth century B.C.

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