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[yialousa1971]

Archaeologists Uncover Evidence of a Minoan Presence Among Ancient Canaanites

By Dan McLerran Mon, Apr 11, 2011

Excavations at a large Middle Bronze Age Canaanite Palace in the western Galilee region of present-day Israel are revealing mounting evidence of an ancient Minoan cultural presence in ancient Canaan during the 17th century B.C.E.,

A recent and ongoing excavation at the remains of an expansive Middle Bronze Age Canaanite palace in the western Galilee region of present-day Israel is opening a new window on the possible presence of ancient Minoans at an ancient Canaanite palace, revealing what may be the earliest known Western art found in the eastern Mediterranean.

Known as Tel Kabri (located near its namesake kibbutz not far from historic Acco and the resort town of Nahariya on the coast of Israel), the site features an early Middle Bronze Age (MB I) palace dated to the 19th century B.C.E., making it, along with ancient Aphek and possibly Megiddo, the earliest MB palace discovered in present-day Israel. This conclusion was drawn as a result of excavations conducted there as recently as December 20, 2010 to January 10, 2011. But the tell-tale signs of an Aegean presence or influence at the site show up in a later developmental phase of the palace structure some 150 to 200 years later in the overlying MB II palace dated to the 17th century. Reports Dr. Eric Cline of George Washington University and Co-Director of the excavations along with Assaf Yasur-Landau of Haifa University, "Excavations conducted by [Aharon] Kempinski and [Wolf-Dietrich] Niemeier from 1986 to 1993 at the site of Tel Kabri -- now identified as the capital of a Middle Bronze Age Canaanite kingdom located in the western Galilee region of modern Israel -- revealed the remains of a palace dating to the Middle Bronze (MB) II period (ca. 1700 - 1550 B.C.E.). Within the palace, Kempinski and Niemeier discovered an Aegean-style painted plaster floor and several thousand fragments originally from a miniature Aegean-style wall fresco."(1) The new excavations under the direction of Cline and Yasur-Landau have added to the discovery. Reports Cline, et al., "During the 2008 and 2009 excavations at Tel Kabri more than 100 new fragments of wall and floor plaster were uncovered. Approximately 60 are painted, probably belonging to a second Aegean-style wall fresco with figural representations and a second Aegean-style painted floor."(2)

Three other archaeological sites in the Middle East are known to have yielded Aegean-style frescoes and paintings: Tell el-Dab'a in Egypt, Qatna in Syria and Alalakh in Turkey. The Tel Kabri fresoes and paintings are, however, the only evidence of Minoan or Cycladic-style artwork in present-day Israel (or among the ancient Canaanites) and they are dated as significantly older than those found at Tell el-Dab'a and Qatna. They are roughly contemporary with those at Alalakh, although, because it is still early in the investigations at Kabri and recent excavations have revealed an earlier palace structure 150 years older, the ultimate age relationship is still uncertain.



To be sure, identification of the painted plaster and fresco artifacts as distinctly Aegean in style hinges upon careful diagnostic analysis of the finds. Clear examination is blurred by thousands of years of time and the effects of their earthen environment context, including possible effects of their reuse by the ancient inhabitants for fill and floor patching during reconstruction or renovations by a later remodeling of the palace. But the process and features evident from physical examination alone point to unmistakeable conclusions that the artwork is Aegean. Aside from the style and colors of the fragments themselves, (closely resembling others found at the site of Knossos in Minoan Crete and on the Cycladic island of Santorini or ancient Thera, home to the ruins of Minoan Akrotiri), Cline emphasizes trademark Aegean or Minoan processes of production that are not normally found at typical ancient Canaanite sites. "This technique of painting on a plaster wall while it is still wet is an Aegean technique," he maintains. "It is rarely found in the ancient Near East where they typically painted after the plaster was dry. Secondly, they applied a technique of using strings to help in the painting process. They took strings and just tightened them and, upon contacting the wet plaster, created a perfectly straight line. We have evidence of that in plaster. Another technique was to take a string and dip it in, for example, red paint, and then tighten it quickly against a surface to make a perfectly straight line. And we have found evidence of that here." Another Aegean technique seen in Kabri was the use of knife marks to delineate the border of painted bands.



Plaster fragments excavated at Tel Kabri, showing signs of fresco painting technique and style characteristic of Minoan fresco art found at ancient Akrotiri on the island of Santorini (ancient Thera) and at Knossos on Crete. Courtesy Tel Kabri Excavations Project




Fresco of blue monkeys from the excavations of bronze age Akrotiri on the Greek island of Santorini (ancient Thera). The style depicts a typical white-and-blue color scheme found throughout ancient Minoan fresco paintings. Some fragments recovered at Tel Kabri depict the same color scheme and style. Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain




Fresco of Dolphins from the excavations of Knossos on the greek island of Crete, showing the typical white-and-blue color scheme. Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

Additionally, the excavations during the summer of 2009 and the winter of 2010/2011 have revealed emerging clues of a possible Minoan influence on the architecture of the site. A stone structural feature unearthed outside of the northern wall of the palace in 2009 shows a configuration characteristically attributable to Minoan construction. "It's only one level of stones thick," says Cline. "But it zig-zags. You usually see that on Crete, where it is a ceremonial walkway around a palace. It is either a walkway or the bottom of a wall......I think it is a roadway or walkway and that it may well be going around the palace. This roadway may be headed toward the missing west entrance to the palace."

The excavations at Tel Kabri are still young, but the finds to date have set the stage for much more to come. All indications thus far point to the probability that more frescoes will be found, further supporting the Minoan connection. Looking at the larger picture, researchers hope to be able to reconstruct the life-cycle of the Canaanite palace, determine its actual size, and find answers to a host of new questions that have emerged as the investigations have progressed.

"It's like no other site I have seen because it [the palace] is so huge yet it was really only occupied during the Middle Bronze Age," says Cline. "There is a lot more to learn. I think that we've only just begun to scratch the surface."


http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/april-2011/article/archaeologists-uncover-evidence-of-a-minoan-presence-among-ancient-canaanites

[supporttheunderdog]

Very Interesting, and a wonderful example of the strength and depth of the pre-Greek Ancient world. It is no surpriseto me that links should be found between the Minoan civiiasation and the area of the Eastern Med.

The Minoans were of course NOT Greek but Minoan with their own language, gods, etc., and who were linked to the cradle of Civiliasation in the fertile cresecent: the peoples who became the Greeks probably stole many ideas of the Minoans to create their civilisation, and who later claimed they invented it.

The proto-Greek language and religion were only introduced into what later became mainland Greece in about 2000 BC ) by a group of wandering warrier peoples, who were the first of the Hellenistic peoples (ie those who claime descent from Mythical King Hellene) and who later formed the Mycenaean civilisation, which conquered the Minoan Civilisation in about 1500 BC. Until then the Hellens could not write, and it was the Minoans who taught them this trick..

[yialousa1971]

The Minoans were Hellenic you fool. Remember Linear B, they said that wasn't Greek but it was!

[SpartanGamer]

The Minoans were Hellenic you fool. Remember Linear B, they said that wasn't Greek but it was!

Dog is a fascist Imperialist with a chip on his shoulder against Greek civilization. He is of the type that have, for centuries, striven to split Greece into little pieces because they give each region a different name and they cannot comprehend the complexity arising from our inordinately long recorded history. That's how they took Cyprus.

[supporttheunderdog]

I have nothing aginst Greek Civilisation, only the Greek version of imperialism that makes it Ok for the ancient greeks to have indulged in colonialism and conquuest, as thy did,but no one else since.

The classical Greeks had a profound influence on so many aspects of European Civilisation, in the areas of Drama, Philosophy, political thought, mathematics, Geometry, engineering, with such people as Aristitle, Plato, Socaters, Euripedes, Zeno of Citum, Archimedes, Pythagoras, Euclid, and of course Homer. Greece was the model Rome looked to, and Greek thouight was highly infleuntial on the !5th/16th Cetury West European renaissance and, in turn, on the reformation, with people like Erasmus, More, etc.

However Early 18th Century romanticism put the Ancient Greeks on pedestal, virtualy to the exclusion of other civilisations of the past, such as those in Anatolia, such as the Hittites, and the Wilusians (the inhabitants of Troy), etc.

As to how and when the area now known as Greece became Greek, in the mainland that was no earlier than the period say 2000bc to 1600 BC, due to imperialist / colonial acts of the proto Greek speaking Hellene tribes, in particular the Achaeans at trhis time, who entered the area from the North and conquered the non-Greek Speaking Pelasgian peoples.

The Minoans at this time were not Greek - they did not speak a language related to Greek and only ended up doing so as a result of further Imprialistic colonialism by the Achaeans in about 1500 BC, which post dates the Caanan findings.

It was from the Minoans that the Mycenaeans learnt to write, and no doubt acquired other skills, which created the Mycenaean civilisation that dominated the area from about 1500 BC to about 1100 BC, and which extended to acts of imperilism and colonialism in what is now Cyprus.

With the collapse of the core of Mycenean civilisation it is obvious the Mycenaeans forgot how to write as the Cypriots had to teach them again, giving them a script, just as th Minoans had.

Later on one had that greatest facist imperialist of them all, Alendander the Great: he and his successors (such as the Ptolomys) performed acts of imperialistic aggression in Cyprus, supprussing the indpendant Kingdoms

As for how we got Cyprus, which has a long and vibrant history independendant to that of Greece, we did not take it as a result of dividing Greece in to pieces - until the Roman conquests, Greece was in pieces tand it was only they that created the first united political entit, but which did not include Cyprus.

We in fact took you from out of Ottoman rule in 1878 by treaty: not by dividing Greece into parts.

[Sotos]

I have nothing aginst Greek Civilisation, only the Greek version of imperialism that makes it Ok for the ancient greeks to have indulged in colonialism and conquuest, as thy did,but no one else since

You are talking about a time more than 4000 years ago. Are you saying that what was OK 4000 years ago should still be OK today? Maybe we should start trading slaves then, and say that if if was ok for the English to do that just a few centuries ago it should be OK for us to do it today? And why did you fight against Hitler when he invaded Britain? When you Germanic Anglos invaded Britain some centuries earlier it was OK, so why wasn't Hitler allowed to do the same? Like Spartan gamer said you are a fascist Imperialist with a chip on your shoulder against anything Greek.

[SpartanGamer]

However Early 18th Century romanticism put the Ancient Greeks on pedestal ...

So what's your problem? That has nothing to do with "Greek Imperialism" and more to do with the realisation/awakening by some Brit toffs, who were repulsed by the conduct of Britain's colonialism and looked to the ideals of the Classical world.

But, that wasn't the only time other civilisations turned to the Greek Classical world. As you said the Romans did so immediately; but then the Arabs/Moors adopted as much of the Greek world as they could, a thousand years earlier. The Brits were rather late-comers.

But, none of this had anything to do with "Greek Imperialism" and everything to do with "trial and error" leading people back to what had already been established by the inquisitive Greeks - who were a product of their environment - well spread out and flourishing tribes of like-minded people who competed with each other to improve the lot of mankind.

Now get over it!

[ZoC]

I have nothing aginst Greek Civilisation, only the Greek version of imperialism that makes it Ok for the ancient greeks to have indulged in colonialism and conquuest, as thy did,but no one else since.

The classical Greeks had a profound influence on so many aspects of European Civilisation, in the areas of Drama, Philosophy, political thought, mathematics, Geometry, engineering, with such people as Aristitle, Plato, Socaters, Euripedes, Zeno of Citum, Archimedes, Pythagoras, Euclid, and of course Homer. Greece was the model Rome looked to, and Greek thouight was highly infleuntial on the !5th/16th Cetury West European renaissance and, in turn, on the reformation, with people like Erasmus, More, etc.

However Early 18th Century romanticism put the Ancient Greeks on pedestal, virtualy to the exclusion of other civilisations of the past, such as those in Anatolia, such as the Hittites, and the Wilusians (the inhabitants of Troy), etc.

As to how and when the area now known as Greece became Greek, in the mainland that was no earlier than the period say 2000bc to 1600 BC, due to imperialist / colonial acts of the proto Greek speaking Hellene tribes, in particular the Achaeans at trhis time, who entered the area from the North and conquered the non-Greek Speaking Pelasgian peoples.

The Minoans at this time were not Greek - they did not speak a language related to Greek and only ended up doing so as a result of further Imprialistic colonialism by the Achaeans in about 1500 BC, which post dates the Caanan findings.

It was from the Minoans that the Mycenaeans learnt to write, and no doubt acquired other skills, which created the Mycenaean civilisation that dominated the area from about 1500 BC to about 1100 BC, and which extended to acts of imperilism and colonialism in what is now Cyprus.

With the collapse of the core of Mycenean civilisation it is obvious the Mycenaeans forgot how to write as the Cypriots had to teach them again, giving them a script, just as th Minoans had.

Later on one had that greatest facist imperialist of them all, Alendander the Great: he and his successors (such as the Ptolomys) performed acts of imperialistic aggression in Cyprus, supprussing the indpendant Kingdoms

As for how we got Cyprus, which has a long and vibrant history independendant to that of Greece, we did not take it as a result of dividing Greece in to pieces - until the Roman conquests, Greece was in pieces tand it was only they that created the first united political entit, but which did not include Cyprus.

We in fact took you from out of Ottoman rule in 1878 by treaty: not by dividing Greece into parts.

ahem...

[supporttheunderdog]

I have nothing aginst Greek Civilisation, only the Greek version of imperialism that makes it Ok for the ancient greeks to have indulged in colonialism and conquuest, as thy did,but no one else since.

The classical Greeks had a profound influence on so many aspects of European Civilisation, in the areas of Drama, Philosophy, political thought, mathematics, Geometry, engineering, with such people as Aristitle, Plato, Socaters, Euripedes, Zeno of Citum, Archimedes, Pythagoras, Euclid, and of course Homer. Greece was the model Rome looked to, and Greek thouight was highly infleuntial on the !5th/16th Cetury West European renaissance and, in turn, on the reformation, with people like Erasmus, More, etc.

However Early 18th Century romanticism put the Ancient Greeks on pedestal, virtualy to the exclusion of other civilisations of the past, such as those in Anatolia, such as the Hittites, and the Wilusians (the inhabitants of Troy), etc.

As to how and when the area now known as Greece became Greek, in the mainland that was no earlier than the period say 2000bc to 1600 BC, due to imperialist / colonial acts of the proto Greek speaking Hellene tribes, in particular the Achaeans at trhis time, who entered the area from the North and conquered the non-Greek Speaking Pelasgian peoples.

The Minoans at this time were not Greek - they did not speak a language related to Greek and only ended up doing so as a result of further Imprialistic colonialism by the Achaeans in about 1500 BC, which post dates the Caanan findings.

It was from the Minoans that the Mycenaeans learnt to write, and no doubt acquired other skills, which created the Mycenaean civilisation that dominated the area from about 1500 BC to about 1100 BC, and which extended to acts of imperilism and colonialism in what is now Cyprus.

With the collapse of the core of Mycenean civilisation it is obvious the Mycenaeans forgot how to write as the Cypriots had to teach them again, giving them a script, just as th Minoans had.

Later on one had that greatest facist imperialist of them all, Alendander the Great: he and his successors (such as the Ptolomys) performed acts of imperialistic aggression in Cyprus, supprussing the indpendant Kingdoms

As for how we got Cyprus, which has a long and vibrant history independendant to that of Greece, we did not take it as a result of dividing Greece in to pieces - until the Roman conquests, Greece was in pieces tand it was only they that created the first united political entit, but which did not include Cyprus.

We in fact took you from out of Ottoman rule in 1878 by treaty: not by dividing Greece into parts.

ahem...

Sorry if I offended you my little Phonecian, but you were based in Athens for a large part of your career.....

[ZoC]

yes, sure... i'm based in london now, but that don't make me a brit.