Lentoid is a geometric shape of a three-dimensional body, best described as a circle viewed from one direction and a convex lens viewed from every orthogonal direction. It has no strict mathematical definition, but may be described as the volume enclosed within overlapping paraboloids.
The term is most often used in describing jewelry and cellular phenomena in microbiology.
Since ancient times, the lentoid shape has been used to fashion jewelry and seals for identification made from a variety of gemstones and metals. In Minoan Crete, for example, Minoan seals have been found with complex carving on lentoid stones. [1] The lentoid shape was one of the most commonly recovered seal shapes from Minoan Knossos on Crete dating to the Bronze Age, as evidenced by the finds at that Bronze Age palace. [2]
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, flourishing from c. 3000 BC to c. 1450 BC and, after a late period of decline, finally ending around 1100 BC. It represents the first advanced civilization in Europe, leaving behind massive building complexes, tools, artwork, writing systems, and a massive network of trade. The civilization was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans. The name "Minoan" derives from the mythical King Minos and was coined by Evans, who identified the site at Knossos with the labyrinth and the Minotaur. The Minoan civilization has been described as the earliest of its kind in Europe, and historian Will Durant called the Minoans "the first link in the European chain".
Knossos is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and has been called Europe's oldest city.
Phaistos, also transliterated as Phaestos, Festos and Latin Phaestus, is a Bronze Age archaeological site at modern Faistos, a municipality in south central Crete. Ancient Phaistos was located about 5.6 km (3.5 mi) east of the Mediterranean Sea and 62 km (39 mi) south of Heraklion, the second largest city of Minoan Crete. The name Phaistos survives from ancient Greek references to a city in Crete of that name at or near the current ruins.
Cycladic culture was a Bronze Age culture found throughout the islands of the Cyclades in the Aegean Sea. In chronological terms, it is a relative dating system for artefacts which broadly complements Helladic chronology and Minoan chronology (Crete) during the same period of time.
Gournia is the site of a Minoan palace complex on the island of Crete, Greece, excavated in the early 20th century by the American archaeologist, Harriet Boyd-Hawes. The original name for the site is unknown. The modern name comes from the abundant hollow vessels found all over the site. Gournia lies in the municipality of Ierapetra in the prefecture of Lasithi.
Pseira is an islet in the Gulf of Mirabello in northeastern Crete with the archaeological remains of Minoan and Mycenean civilisation.
Minoan pottery has been used as a tool for dating the mute Minoan civilization. Its restless sequence of quirky maturing artistic styles reveals something of Minoan patrons' pleasure in novelty while they assist archaeologists in assigning relative dates to the strata of their sites. Pots that contained oils and ointments, exported from 18th century BC Crete, have been found at sites through the Aegean islands and mainland Greece, on Cyprus, along coastal Syria and in Egypt, showing the wide trading contacts of the Minoans.
Amnisos, also Amnissos and Amnisus, is a Bronze Age settlement on the north shore of Crete that was used as a port to the palace city of Knossos. It appears in Greek literature and mythology from the earliest times, but its origin is far earlier, in prehistory. The historic settlement belonged to a civilization now called Minoan. Excavations at Amnissos in 1932 uncovered a villa that included the "House of the Lilies", which was named for the lily theme that was depicted in a wall fresco.
Mochlos is a modern island in the Gulf of Mirabello in eastern Crete, and the archaeological site of an ancient Minoan settlement. There is evidence that Mochlos was not an island in Minoan times, but was attached to the mainland and acted as an eastern harbor.
Vaphio or Vapheio is an ancient site in Laconia, Greece, on the right bank of the Eurotas, some five miles south of Sparta. It is famous for its tholos or "beehive" tomb, excavated in 1889 by Christos Tsountas. This consists of a walled approach, about 97 feet long, leading to a vaulted chamber some 33 feet in diameter, in the floor of which the actual grave was cut.
The Heraklion Archaeological Museum is a museum located in Heraklion on Crete. It is one of the greatest museums in Greece and the best in the world for Minoan art, as it contains the most notable and complete collection of artefacts of the Minoan civilization of Crete.
The Minoan chronology dating system is a measure of the phases of the Minoan civilization. Initially established as a relative dating system by English archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans between 1900 and 1903 based on his analysis of Minoan pottery during his excavations at Knossos on Crete, new technologies including carbon dating and DNA analysis have led to significant revisions to the date ranges.
Minoan religion was the religion of the Bronze Age Minoan civilization of Crete. Modern scholars have reconstructed it almost totally on the basis of archaeological remains rather than texts. Minoan religion is considered to have been closely related to Near Eastern prehistoric religions, and its central deity is generally agreed to have been a goddess. Prominent Minoan sacred symbols include the bull and its horns of consecration, the labrys, the serpent, and to some extent, the ankh.
Mycenaean pottery is an assemblage of terra cotta ceramics and ceramic styles originated, manufactured, or heavily used by the civilization termed Mycenaean in Greek history and prehistory. "Mycenaean" is a culture name rather than an archaeological one. It was originally a neologism of Heinrich Schliemann, a 19th-century archaeologist, who excavated at Mycenae, a geographic location in the northeast Peloponnesus. Believing in the factuality of the first known work of European literature, the Iliad, Schliemann assigned the geographic and cultural names of that work to his archaeological findings. The citadel at Mycenae thus became the capital and seat of the high king of the Achaeans, Agamemnon, who predominated over all the other kings of Hellas, or Greece. The language of the culture was not known at the time. Prophetically, he predicted that it would be Greek, which was finally substantiated long after his death.
Minoan art is the art produced by the Bronze Age Aegean Minoan civilization from about 3000 to 1100 BC, though the most extensive and finest survivals come from approximately 2300 to 1400 BC. It forms part of the wider grouping of Aegean art, and in later periods came for a time to have a dominant influence over Cycladic art. Since wood and textiles have decomposed, the best-preserved surviving examples of Minoan art are its pottery, palace architecture, small sculptures in various materials, jewellery, metal vessels, and intricately-carved seals.
The Bull-Leaping Fresco, as it has come to be called, is the most completely restored of several stucco panels originally sited on the upper-story portion of the east wall of the palace at Knossos in Crete. Although they were frescos, they were painted on stucco relief scenes and therefore are classified as plastic art. They were difficult to produce. The artist had to manage not only the altitude of the panel but also the simultaneous molding and painting of fresh stucco. The panels, therefore, do not represent the formative stages of the technique. In Minoan chronology, their polychrome hues – white, pale red, dark red, blue, black – exclude them from the Early Minoan (EM) and early Middle Minoan (MM) Periods. They are, in other words, instances of the "mature art" created no earlier than MM III. The flakes of the destroyed panels fell to the ground from the upper story during the destruction of the palace, probably by earthquake, in Late Minoan (LM) II. By that time the east stairwell, near which they fell, was disused, being partly ruinous.
Minoan seals are impression seals in the form of carved gemstones and similar pieces in metal, ivory and other materials produced in the Minoan civilization. They are an important part of Minoan art, and have been found in quantity at specific sites, for example in Knossos, Mallia and Phaistos. They were evidently used as a means of identifying documents and objects.
The Minoan bull leaper is a bronze group of a bull and leaper in the British Museum. It is the only known largely complete three-dimensional sculpture depicting Minoan bull-leaping. Although bull leaping certainly took place in Crete at this time, the leap depicted is practically impossible and it has therefore been speculated that the sculpture may be an exaggerated depiction. This speculation has been backed up by the testaments of modern-day bull leapers from France and Spain.
The Throne Room was a chamber built for ceremonial purposes during the 15th century BC inside the palatial complex of Knossos, Crete, in Greece. It is found at the heart of the Bronze Age palace of Knossos, one of the main centers of the Minoan civilization and is considered the oldest throne room in Europe.
Minoan civilization in the Bronze Age was located on the island of Crete. Focusing on the palatial periods between c. 1900 and c. 1300 b.c.. Art that focuses on just scenes of war alone is impossible as there are many other references that can be made not relating to war at all. There are various meanings that can be interpreted from different perspectives and that is what Molloy wants readers to understand. There could be an overlap of religion, politics, social meanings added to an iconography of warfare. “Practitioners of violence” are called warriors, just an identity who performed their social acts depending on their society. These social acts ranges from bull-leaping, boxing, hunting, sports, combat, fighting and more. Malloy divides the art relating to warfare in Bronze Age Crete into four categories “glyptic art circulating in both social and administrative contexts; stone and ceramic portable art for repeated intimate consumption (dining/processions); coroplastic/bronze figural art for religious activity; and frescoes and relief mouldings fixed in architectural settings”.
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