Volume 3, Issue 3
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Volume 3, Issue 3 |
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Archives A Digression on Krete - Part
Three, Published: 11/03/2003 Once you think you have a decent
interpretation based on reasonable evidence, usually something turns up to
invalidate what you've discussed with a certain authority. Far too often
when presented with this a lot of us tend to stick with what was said and
done before, because to acknowledge you were wrong on something you
presented yourself as an authority, would invalidate that
authority. Well, I have no problem there. I'm certainly
no authority, and as I continue this adventure into the Anthropogene's
past, I expect to misstep quite a few times. I have no peer review and no
editor to catch me on my mistakes, so the onus is on me, or on anyone
willing to call me on it. For example, when I started these articles
on the island we now call Crete. I decided that the label of Minoan could
not apply as the rulers known as Minos came later and were firmly rooted
in the age of Greece. I also rejected the name Keftiu - since that was a
label applied to these people by the Egyptians. However, "Krete" doesn't work either. I
based that name on the fact that the Linear B style was an archaic form of
classical Greek. The problem with that approach is Linear B came into
vogue in the period of the legends described in the first
article. In other words, I might as well call them
Minoans, it's about as accurate. What did they call themselves? The Egyptians called them Keftiu, which
either translates as "the island of Keft" or "the People of Keft." From
the Bible we have references to the Caphtorites in Genesis and Amos. The
Akkadians called them Kap-ta-ra. So it's a decent extrapolation that we are
talking about Keft or Kapht - take your pick. Since I started with Krete,
I'll stick with that name. But at some point I may go back and revise all
three essays on this matter. I also had to change the following. My
intent for this week was to contrast what I considered to be the opposing
views of Charles Pellegrino and Hans Georg Wunderlich on our subject
matter. But upon closer examination since they are both interested in
different aspects of Krete, we can probably attain a synthesis of their
views. Unfortunately, I have to be brief and sketchy on some subjects if
I'm to conclude. ORIGINS: What are the origins of the Kretans? There
are two possible explanations. Briefly, there is a close relationship
between the Etruscan language and the Hittite language. There are some
linguistic links that would include the Kretans. But at this time I
haven't really looked into this aspect. So it can be thought that perhaps
they migrated from Asia Minor at some point. Or Are they African in origin, of what would
later be called the Berbers? I base this on purely personal observations
based on the people shown in the artwork and present day acquaintances of
Berber extraction. For the record, the correct name for these people is
Imazighen. There is even a oral tradition that relates that the Tuaregs of
the Imazighen once lived in a city that sunk beneath the waves. But it
would be very iffy to make a linkage there for reasons I'll explain in a
later article. THE DEATH CULTS: I had a thought that writing itself is a
response against death. We can memorialize and remember the past with the
written word. Fiction itself (with the exception of the Hardy Boys who are
more pre-occupied with food than such issues!) revolves around death.
Horror fiction focuses on it. All tragedy revolves around death. Without
death you could not have epics, adventures or mysteries for without it
what would be at stake? Comedy pokes and belittles our fear. Romance
novels spurn death, but use it for contrast - who would care about Romeo
and Juliet if they had lived? The fear that inspired them is embedded in
the ancient stories. Gilgamesh seeks immortality and ventures into the
underworld where shades, not spirits reside. Again in Grecian times, we
have Ulysses visiting the shades. The intimation that death would be a
shadow of life, seems to have inspired creative efforts to make sure the
dead were remembered in life. In religion we see our efforts to transcend
death. One can understand why the focus changed with the advent of the
monotheistic religions of the West that promised more than a pallid
flittering in the underworld. There was no hope for the downtrodden in
these ages. Peasants did not go to Elysium, nor were they granted
immortality like Hercules and such chosen few. It is in burials that we see the first
stirring of civilization. It is a strange thought, but it is in the primal
desire to preserve the memory of those who have died that have inspired
the the burial mounds, the pyramids, the mausoleums, the cemeteries and
necropolises that are everywhere. We see over and over again in these
early societies that the preservation and worship of the dead, especially
those of higher class is paramount to the social structure. The constructions that Arthur Evans labelled
as palaces were Knossos, Phaistos and Mallia. One of these buildings,
probably the one at Knossos is known to us as The Labyrinth. The dwelling
place of the man-eating Minotaur. It is worth noting that it is not
recalled in the later Greek legends as a palace, but as a place of fear
and of death. While we number the Pyramids of Giza among
the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, there was one wonder not included
on that list that eclipsed them. The Egyptian Labyrinth of the
Dead. The Egyptian labyrinth pre-dates the Kretan
labyrinths. It appears that the Kretans, who were not an isolated people,
but well-travelled cosmopolitans borrowed from the one culture that they
appeared to have a mutual respect for. In 1974, Hans Georg Wunderlich took into
account the Greek legends and took a closer look at the physical evidence
much to the dismay of the traditionalists. Instead of palaces, he came to
the conclusion that the Kretan "palaces" were indeed copies of the
Egyptian Labyrinth, in form as well as function. They were mausoleums.
Places for the storage and embalming of the nobility in the afterlife.
One example he points out are the famous
bathtubs. They bear too much of a similarity to sarcophagi. Also, the
architectural layout of the palaces themselves are not consistent with
living quarters. Recently, evidence was discovered of ritual
sacrifice at Archenes and also of sacrifice and cannibalism at the Little
Palace at Knossos. It is tempting to jump to conclusions, since sacrifice
was common among the other cultures the Kretans were in contact with at
the time, but these discoveries may also be indicative of extreme stress.
The sacrifice at Archenes was interrupted by
the eruption of Thera itself since the building had collapsed, and before
making the claim that the sacrificed children were the tribute of Athens
for the Minotaur - it is worth noting that in the aftermath of Thera,
cannibalism became common elsewhere as a survival reflex. Even in Xia
China under the rule of King Jieh, the outer provinces turned to
cannibalism at this time due to harvest failures brought about by the
atmospheric dust. THE ROLE OF
WOMEN We know that the Kretans were
very active traders and seamen, and with the majority of the male
population engaged in maritime activities that required lengthy stays away
from the "Motherland" at their foreign quarters in Egypt, Canaan and
elsewhere - the women could have become responsible for the ordering of
the society at home - and the result was a more egalitarian society than
what was the norm. A situation comparable to Nantucket in it's heyday as a
whaling community is a possibility. Where woman do take a dominant
position is within the practice of the Kretan religion, as indicated by
the archaeological evidence. Men however, are very rarely seen in dominant
roles in the artwork uncovered. Images of women occur far more frequently
when it comes to worship. Goddesses, or aspects of one
single Great Goddess (the Earth Mother?) were worshipped. One goddess may
have been Potnia, though based on the translations it sounds to me more
like a title. Based on the numerous cult shrines, the existence of other
such deities such as Diktynna or Britomartis are possible. There may have
been goddesses of the caves, the tree, the doves and the serpents - it is
unclear. If Krete did play an important part in the
Semitic influx into Egypt, which we can assume from the Kretan quarters in
Avaris, then it can be hypothesized that they may have been responsible
for a great cultural shift that almost happened. Charles Pellegrino postulates that
Hatshepshut was the Pharoah who ruled prior to Thera and it's all
important date in time. Is it coincidence (imagine Leonard Nimoy saying
that) that a woman rose to power when Egypt was at it's most open
culturally to outside influences? Her murder and attempted deletion from
the historical record of Kemet (Egypt) by Thutmosis, her successor may
have been a conservative response caused by Thera. Look what happened to
that island of women! It must have been an affront to the Gods! THERA: TYPHOEUS ASCENDANT Thera, now known as Santorini
is one of the Cyclades, inhabited islands that were undoubtedly under the
aegis of Krete. What happened there has been described in minute detail by
many other writers and with the full understanding of how devastating an
eruption Thera was. The date has now been firmly fixed as happening in the
autumn of 1627 BC. This date has been established through dendochronology,
carbon dating of decayed matter above and below the Nile ash layer, and
the ice layer from the GISP2 project. The mainland Greeks who
survived Thera remembered it in legend, here follows the account of Hesiod
in his Theogeny (translated by Evelyn-White) : "(ll. 820-868) But when Zeus had driven
the Titans from heaven, huge Earth bare her youngest child Typhoeus of
the love of Tartarus, by the aid of golden Aphrodite. Strength was with
his hands in all that he did and the feet of the strong god were
untiring. From his shoulders grew an hundred heads of a snake, a
fearful dragon, with dark, flickering tongues, and from under the brows
of his eyes in his marvellous heads flashed fire, and fire burned from
his heads as he glared. And there were voices in all his dreadful
heads which uttered every kind of sound unspeakable; for at one time
they made sounds such that the gods understood, but at another, the
noise of a bull bellowing aloud in proud ungovernable fury; and at
another, the sound of a lion, relentless of heart; and at anothers,
sounds like whelps, wonderful to hear; and again, at another, he would
hiss, so that the high mountains re-echoed. And truly a thing past help
would have happened on that day, and he would have come to reign over
mortals and immortals, had not the father of men and gods been quick to
perceive it. But he thundered hard and mightily: and the earth around
resounded terribly and the wide heaven above, and the sea and Ocean's
streams and the nether parts of the earth. Great Olympus reeled beneath
the divine feet of the king as he arose and earth groaned thereat.
And through the two of them heat took hold on the dark-blue sea,
through the thunder and lightning, and through the fire from the
monster, and the scorching winds and blazing thunderbolt. The whole
earth seethed, and sky and sea: and the long waves raged along the
beaches round and about, at the rush of the deathless gods: and
there arose an endless shaking. Hades trembled where he rules over the
dead below, and the Titans under Tartarus who live with Cronos, because
of the unending clamour and the fearful strife. So when Zeus had raised
up his might and seized his arms, thunder and lightning and lurid
thunderbolt, he leaped form Olympus and struck him, and burned all the
marvellous heads of the monster about him. But when Zeus had conquered
him and lashed him with strokes, Typhoeus was hurled down, a maimed
wreck, so that the huge earth groaned. And flame shot forth from the
thunder- stricken lord in the dim rugged glens of the mount when he was
smitten. A great part of huge earth was scorched by the terrible vapour
and melted as tin melts when heated by men's art in channelled
crucibles; or as iron, which is hardest of all things, is softened by
glowing fire in mountain glens and melts in the divine earth through the
strength of Hephaestus, when he . Even so, then, the earth melted in
the glow of the blazing fire. And in the bitterness of his anger
Zeus cast him into wide Tartarus." The story of the flood of Deukalion also
seems to fit. The tsunami that swept into Argos on the mainland would have
seemed to any survivor the act of Gods intent on cleaning the earth.
(Though I doubt even an eight hundred foot wave would have made it to
Parnassus as I look at a map...) And so one of the most promising of the
early civilizations stumbled and faltered, "a maimed wreck." That they
tried to regain their past glory is evident in the archeological record,
but it was not meant to be. Within four generations of Deukalion, the
Greek emmigrants would find only a remnant of the original people still
there, the Eteocretans. Those who left went to Libya, to Egypt, to Italy,
and Canaan. In time, their story would be forgotten, only mythology until
March 23, 1900 when Arthur Evans began to dig at Knossos. A final note on Krete: I realize that an
ancient description of the Thera eruption may not be discrete enough for
some. So just in case the anthropomorphic image of Typhon and Zeus
fighting over the wine-dark seas wasn't vivid enough.... On April 5, 1815 on the island of Sumbawa
the volcano known as Tambora erupted. It is estimated that 36 cubic miles
of ash were erupted reaching a probable height of 28 miles. At best count
about 10,000 direct deaths were caused by Tambora.. An estimated 82,000
were killed indirectly by the eruption by starvation, disease, and hunger.
How widespread was the damage caused? In
Danville Vermont, this account was published in the North Star paper of
some of the aftereffects: "... of the unparalleled severity of
the weather. It continued, without any essential amelioration, from the
6th to the 10th instant -- freezing as hard five nights in succession as
it usually does in December. On the night of the 6th, water froze an
inch thick -- and on the night of the 7th and morning of the 8th, a kind
of sleet or exceeding cold snow fell, attended with high wind, which
measured in places where it was drifted, 18 to 20 inches in depth.
Saturday morning the weather was more severe than it generally is during
the storms of winter. -- North Star, Danville, VT,
June 15, 1816 Source: David M. Ludlum, The Vermont Weather Book, Vermont
Historical Society, Montpelier, VT: 1996. The island of Sumbawa itself was large
enough to survive the eruption, so as far as I can determine from research
there was no tsunami directly created. In 1627 BCE, Thera ejected 50 cubic miles of
ash. The island itself was obliterated leaving a half mile crater in the
Aegean Sea where a mountain island once stood. The tsunami that spread out
reached extreme heights when it hit the Greek and Turkish shores. Those
who survived then had to endure the "nuclear winter" effect. I don't know if I agree with Charles
Pellegrino, that if left untouched Krete would have gone on to reach
technological heights that could have equalled the present day. It is too
big a what if. There were plenty of other cultures who had equal
technological and cultural promise who failed who were not wiped out by
cataclysms. And while reading the account of the Anthropogene, remember
this. Between 1947-67 AD, there were 388,775
deaths from what we blithely call "natural" disasters. In the Korean war
1949-52 for major combat - the war has never ended by the way), five
million died. Humanity is a far worse danger to itself than any known
natural catastrophe. UPDATE: Recently I discovered this King-List at http://www.hostkingdom.net/crete.html. Satur I the Great (at Knossos) - fl. period 1725-1675 ? Satur sounds suspiciously like Saturn? The dating of this regnal chronology has not been adjusted to take into
account If valid then there are some theories that could be proposed: 1) The names have a definite Egyptian flavor. For the rulers of Krete
to adopt Egyptian 2) Co-rulers? A division of duties. Besides Knossos, there are other
cities that have rulers: 3) Some have proposed that Krete was a matriarchal society. This would
imply otherwise. After Nodamate, the chronology of Krete becomes Grecian. Revised: October 31,
2003 Last revision: December 23,
2004
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