The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age culture which was centered on the island of Crete. Known for its monumental architecture and its energetic art, it is often regarded as the first civilization in Europe.
Pyrgos is an archaeological site of the Minoan civilization near Myrtos in the municipality of Ierapetra on the south coast of Crete. Pyrgos provides evidence of settlements along the southern Ierapetra Isthmus. This site has had a long history due to its valuable location and geography. It is located close to the Myrtos valley and has a harbor with a nearby mountain range providing its protection. The settlement includes a courtyard, many rooms, a country house and a tomb.
Heraklion is one of the four regional units of Crete. The capital is the city of Heraklion.
A mountain in north-central Crete, Mount Juktas, also spelled Iuktas, Iouktas, or Ioukhtas, was an important religious site for the Minoan civilization. Located a few kilometers from the palaces of Knossos and Fourni and the megaron at Vathypetro, Mount Juktas was the site of an important peak sanctuary in the Minoan world. At the base of Juktas, at Anemospilia, is a site that has suggested to some that the Minoans practiced human sacrifice, but the evidence is currently somewhat in question.
Mount Ida, known variously as Idha, Ídhi, Idi, and Ita, is the highest mountain on the island of Crete, with an elevation of 2,456 metres (8,058 ft). It has the highest topographic prominence of any mountain in Greece. A natural park which includes Mount Ida is a member of UNESCO's Global Geoparks Network.
Karfi is an archaeological site high up in the Dikti Mountains in eastern Crete, Greece. The ancient name of the site is unknown; "Karfi" is a local toponym for the prominent knob of limestone that marks the peak of the site, especially when viewed from the north. Located approximately 1100 meters above sea level, and overlooking the northern entrance to the Lasithi Plateau, the dramatic situation of Karfi is somewhat akin to that of the famous Inca site of Machu Picchu in Peru. While there is some evidence that the site was used during the Middle Minoan period as a peak sanctuary, Karfi is best known as a large and extensively excavated town of the Late Minoan IIIC period at the beginning of the Greek "Dark Ages."
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, in Cyprus, along coastal Syria and in Egypt, showing the wide trading contacts of the Minoans.
Petsofas is the archaeological site of a Minoan peak sanctuary in eastern Crete. It overlooks the Minoan town of Palaikastro and was excavated by John Myres in 1903. He discovered a large number of clay figurines, including animal and human figures dating to 1400 to 1450.
Sacred caves and peak sanctuaries are characteristic holy places of ancient Minoan Crete. Most scholars agree that sacred caves were used by the Minoans for religious rites, and some for burial. While all peak sanctuaries have clay human figurines, only Idaeon, Trapeza and Psychro have them among the sacred caves. Clay body parts, also called votive body parts, common among peak sanctuaries, appear in no caves with the exception of a bronze leg in Psychro.
Psychro Cave is an ancient Minoan sacred cave in Lasithi plateau in the Lasithi district of eastern Crete. Psychro is associated with the Diktaean Cave, one of the putative sites of the birth of Zeus. Other legends place Zeus' birthplace as Idaean Cave on Mount Ida. According to Hesiod, Theogony, Rhea gave birth to Zeus in Lyctus and hid him in a cave of Mount Aegaeon. Since the late nineteenth century the cave above the modern village of Psychro has been identified with Diktaean Cave, although there are other candidates, especially a cave above Palaikastro on Mount Petsofas.
Tylisos is a town and a former municipality in the Heraklion regional unit, Crete, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Malevizi, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 131.064 km2 (50.604 sq mi). Population 2,867 in 2011. It is an ancient Minoan peak sanctuary and town. The Municipality of Tylisos was created in 1999 and includes 11 villages. The economy is based on agriculture, mainly grape cultivation and olive cultivation. At the same time stock farming of sheep, goats and chickens and beehive farms are abundant.
Atsipades is an archaeological site of a Minoan peak sanctuary in western Crete. It is an open-air peak sanctuary, situated on a mountain and open to the elements. It was discovered by K. Nowicki in 1985.
The Heraklion Archaeological Museum is a museum located in Heraklion on Crete. It is one of the largest museums in Greece and the best in the world for Minoan art, as it contains by far the most important and complete collection of artefacts of the Minoan civilization of Crete. It is normally referred to scholarship in English as "AMH", a form still sometimes used by the museum in itself.
Makry Gialos is a former municipality in Lasithi, Crete, Greece, with a population 3,894 in 2011. It is located on the south-east coast of Crete. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Ierapetra, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 159.229 km2 (61.479 sq mi). The seat of the municipality was in Koutsouras, 22 kilometers east of Ierapetra. It was established in 1998 when the communities of Schinokapsala, Orino, Stavrochori, Chrisopigi, Aghios Stefanos, Pefki, Lithines and Pervolakia amalgamated into one municipality (Δήμος).
Minoan religion was the religion of the Bronze Age Minoan civilization of Crete. In the absence of readable texts from most of the period, modern scholars have reconstructed it almost totally on the basis of archaeological evidence of such as Minoan paintings, statuettes, vessels for rituals and seals and rings. Minoan religion is considered to have been closely related to Near Eastern ancient religions, and its central deity is generally agreed to have been a goddess, although a number of deities are now generally thought to have been worshipped. Prominent Minoan sacred symbols include the bull and the horns of consecration, the labrys double-headed axe, and possibly the serpent.
Kommos is an archaeological site in southern Crete. During the Minoan period, it served as a harbour town for nearby Phaistos and Hagia Triada. After the Bronze Age, a sanctuary was built over the ruins of the earlier town. It is notable for providing evidence about international trade and local daily life.
The name poppy goddess is often used for a famous example of a distinctive type of large female terracotta figurine in Minoan art, presumably representing a goddess, but not thought to be cult images, rather votive offerings. It was discovered in a sanctuary of the Post-palace period at Gazi, Crete, and is now in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum.
The Sitia or Siteia Mountains, also known as the Sitiaka Range, are a group of four mountain ranges extending SW-NE in Lasithi in eastern Crete, Greece. Stretching from the southern coast to the plain of the city of Sitia on the northern coast, they tend to isolate east Crete from the rest of Crete, creating a refugium for the rare plant and animal species and a refuge for the ancient people practising the Minoan culture. In this ancient refuge are now to be found the ruins of Minoan sites at Mochlos, Kato Zakro, Palaikastro, and Kavousi. These are four of the major sites of East Crete, but the number of sites recorded or excavated is in the hundreds. Endemic species, many rare or endangered, are to be found in the gorges that cut from upland to ocean or valley on all sides.
The Palaikastro Kouros is a chryselephantine statuette of a male youth (kouros) excavated in stages in the modern-day town of Palaikastro on the Greek island of Crete. It has been dated to the Late Minoan 1B period in the mid-15th century BC, during the Bronze Age. It is now on display in the Archaeological Museum of Siteia. Standing roughly 50 cm tall, its large size by the standards of other figurines in Minoan art, and the value of its materials may indicate that it was a cult image for worship, the only one known from the Minoan civilization.
Minoan snake tubes are cylindrical ceramic tubes with a closed, splayed out bottom. Sir Arthur Evans interpreted them as "snake tubes", that is vessels for carrying or housing snakes used in Minoan religion. They are now usually interpreted as "offering stands", on which kalathoi, or offering bowls were placed in shrines. They are described as varying in material and construction despite sharing a common purpose. In the context of domestic shrines snake tubes are believed to have sat on top of or adjacent to a cult bench. In between the tubes would have been a goddess figurine and plaque which featured animal depictions.
