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Lustral Basin
The lustral basin is an architectural form used in Minoan architecture. Consisting of a small sunken room reached by a staircase, they are characteristic of elite architecture of the Neopalatial period (c. 1750-1470 BC). They are hypothesized to have been used either as shrines, baths, or as part of an initiation ritual. The term was coined by Sir Arthur Evans, who hypothesized that they were used for lustration. Description Lustral basins are small square chambers sunk into the floor of the surrounding room. They are entered via a descending L-shaped staircase and are open at the top, allowing their occupants to be viewed from above. Lustral basins are found at sites throughout Crete as well as at Akrotiri in the Cyclades. However, no examples have been found on the mainland. Lustral basins were common in elite buildings such as Minoan palaces and villas. Each palace had at least one lustral basin, with Phaistos having four of them. At Knossos, one is adjacent to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phaistos 75
Phaistos (, ; Ancient Greek: , , Linear B: ''Pa-i-to''; Linear A: ''Pa-i-to''), also transliterated as Phaestos, Festos and Latin Phaestus, is a Bronze Age archaeological site at modern Faistos, a municipality in south central Crete. It is notable for the remains of a Minoan palace and the surrounding town. Ancient Phaistos was located about east of the Mediterranean Sea and south of Heraklion. Phaistos was one of the largest cities of Minoan Crete. The name Phaistos survives from ancient Greek references to a city on Crete of that name at or near the current ruins. History Bronze Age Phaistos was first inhabited around 3600 BCE, slightly later than other early sites such as Knossos. During the Early Minoan period, the site's hills were terraced and monumental buildings were constructed on them. Like other large Minoan cities, there was a palace that was built in an area that had been used earlier for communal feasting. The palace was built on a hill in the East and an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peak Sanctuary
Minoan civilization, Minoan peak sanctuaries are widespread throughout the island of Crete (Greece). Most scholars agree that peak sanctuaries were used for religious rites high in the mountains of Crete. Human and animal figurines, as well as signs of religious architecture, have been found at most peak sanctuaries. Additionally, votive clay body parts are found at many of these sites. Many of the sanctuaries fell out of use during the Late Bronze Age, when Mycenaeans from the Greek mainland became the dominant culture on the island. Eastern and east-central peak sanctuaries Most peak sanctuaries are found in east and east-central Crete. * Petsofas is the only Minoan site with clay weasel and tortoise figurines * Traostalos * Kalamafki (also Kalamaki) * Ziros Korphi tou Mare * Xykephalo * Vigla (other), Vigla (also Viglos) * Zou Prinias * Plagia * Etiani Kephala * Modi: among the finds at the Modi peak sanctuary were clay human and animal figurines.Jones, Donald W. 199 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buildings And Structures Completed In The 18th Century BC
A building or edifice is an enclosed structure with a roof, walls and windows, usually standing permanently in one place, such as a house or factory. Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, and have been adapted throughout history for numerous factors, from building materials available, to weather conditions, land prices, ground conditions, specific uses, prestige, and aesthetic reasons. To better understand the concept, see ''Nonbuilding structure'' for contrast. Buildings serve several societal needs – occupancy, primarily as shelter from weather, security, living space, privacy, to store belongings, and to comfortably live and work. A building as a shelter represents a physical separation of the human habitat (a place of comfort and safety) from the ''outside'' (a place that may be harsh and harmful at times). buildings have been objects or canvasses of much artistic expression. In recent years, interest in sustainable planning and building practi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kouloura
A kouloura, or kouloures (Greek plural ''koulourai''), is a circular subsurface pit with stone walls found in certain settlements within Ancient Crete, including the Minoan palaces at Phaistos, Knossos, and Malia. According to the stratigraphy, the kouloura were all constructed around MM II (1850–1750 BC). Etymology The name ''kouloura'' was coined by Arthur Evans during his expedition to Knossos in 1903. He named the pits after kouloura, the round Greek bread, because of the similar shape of the two objects. Discovery and locations The first four kouloures were discovered in 1903 at Knossos by Arthur Evans. Subsequently, discovered eight additional kouloura at Malia, and the duo of Luigi Pernier and Doro Levi unearthed four at Phaistos. These pits have always been found within the confines of major sites, including the West Court of Knossos and the Upper Court of Phaistos. Function Multiple theories have been put forward regarding the function of these kouloura in Ancient M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fishtank
An aquarium (: aquariums or aquaria) is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aquatic reptiles, such as turtles, and aquatic plants. The term ''aquarium'', coined by English naturalist Philip Henry Gosse, combines the Latin root , meaning 'water', with the suffix , meaning 'a place for relating to'. The aquarium principle was fully developed in 1850 by the chemist Robert Warington, who explained that plants added to water in a container would give off enough oxygen to support animals, so long as the numbers of animals did not grow too large. The aquarium craze was launched in early Victorian England by Gosse, who created and stocked the first public aquarium at the London Zoo in 1853, and published the first manual, ''The Aquarium: An Unveiling of the Wonders of the Deep Sea'' in 1854. Small aquariums are kept in the home by hobbyis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Impluvium
The ''impluvium'' (: ''impluvia'') is a water-catchment pool system meant to capture rain-water flowing from the ''compluvium'', an area of roof. Often placed in a courtyard, under an opening in the roof, and thus "inside", instead of "outside", a building, it is a notable feature in many architectural traditions. Greco-Roman ''impluvium'' In Greco-Roman architectural studies, the ''impluvium'' refers to the sunken part of the Atrium (architecture), atrium in a Greek or Roman house (''domus''), designed to carry away the rainwater falling from the ''compluvium'' of the roof. It is usually made of marble and placed about 30 cm below the floor of the atrium, and emptied into a subfloor cistern. Construction and use Inspection (without excavation) of ''impluvia'' in Paestum, Pompeii and Rome indicated that the pavement surface in the ''impluvia'' was porous, or that the non-porous stone tiles were separated by gaps significant enough to allow a substantial quantity of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Initiation
Initiation is a rite of passage marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. In an extended sense, it can also signify a transformation in which the initiate is 'reborn' into a new role. Examples of initiation ceremonies might include Christian baptism or confirmation, Jewish bar or bat mitzvah, acceptance into a fraternal organization, secret society or religious order, or graduation from school or recruit training. A person taking the initiation ceremony in traditional rites, such as those depicted in these pictures, is called an ''initiate''. Characteristics William Ian Miller notes the role of ritual humiliation in comic ordering and testing. Mircea Eliade discussed initiation as a principal religious act by classical or traditional societies. He defined initiation as "a basic change in existential condition", which liberates man from profane time and histor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adyton
In Classical architecture, the ''adyton'' ( , 'innermost sanctuary, shrine', ) or (Latin) was a restricted area within the ''cella'' of a Greek temple, Greek or Roman temple. The ''adyton'' was frequently a small area at the farthest end of the cella from the entrance; at Delphi it measured just . The ''adyton'' often would house the cult image of the deity. ''Adyta'' were spaces reserved for oracles, priestesses, priests, or acolytes, and not for the general public. ''Adyta'' were found frequently associated with temples of Apollo, as at Didyma, Bassae, Clarus, Delos, and Delphi, although they were also said to have been natural phenomena (see the story of Nyx (mythology), Nyx). Those sites often had been dedicated to deities whose worship preceded that of Apollo and may go back to prehistoric eras, such as Delphi, but who were supplanted by the time of Classical Greek culture. In modern scholarship, the term may denote the innermost sacred space of a temple in the Ancient ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Classical Greece
Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years (the 5th and 4th centuries BC) in ancient Greece,The "Classical Age" is "the modern designation of the period from about 500 B.C. to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C." ( Thomas R. Martin, ''Ancient Greece'', Yale University Press, 1996, p. 94). marked by much of the eastern Aegean and northern regions of Greek culture (such as Ionia and Macedonia) gaining increased autonomy from the Persian Empire; the peak flourishing of democratic Athens; the First and Second Peloponnesian Wars; the Spartan and then Theban hegemonies; and the expansion of Macedonia under Philip II. Much of the early defining mathematics, science, artistic thought (architecture, sculpture), theatre, literature, philosophy, and politics of Western civilization derives from this period of Greek history, which had a powerful influence on the later Roman Empire. Part of the broader era of classical antiquity, the classical Greek era ended after ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anointing
Anointing is the ritual, ritual act of pouring aromatic oil over a person's head or entire body. By extension, the term is also applied to related acts of sprinkling, dousing, or smearing a person or object with any perfumed oil, milk, butter, or other fat. Scented oils are used as perfumes and sharing them is an act of #Hospitality, hospitality. Their use to #Religion, introduce a divine influence or presence is recorded from the earliest times; anointing was thus used as #Health, a form of medicine, thought to rid persons and things of dangerous spirits and demons which were believed to cause disease. In present usage, "anointing" is typically used for ceremonial blessings such as the #Royalty, coronation of European monarchs. This continues an #Judaism, earlier Hebrew practice most famously observed in the anointings of Aaron as high priest and both Saul and David by the prophet Samuel (Bible), Samuel. The concept is important to the figure of the Messiah or the Christ (Hebre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unguent
An unguent is a soothing preparation spread on wounds, burns, rashes, abrasions or other topical injuries (i.e. damage to the skin). It is similar to an ointment, though typically an unguent is oilier and less viscous. It is usually delivered as a semi-solid paste spread on the skin, and it is often oily in order to suspend the medication or other active ingredients. During the Victorian era, the use of the unguent macassar oil on the hair became so popular that antimacassars were invented to prevent damage to furniture.Fleming, John & Hugh Honour. (1977) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Decorative Arts. '' London: Allen Lane, p. 26. Mercurochrome unguent Various preparations of mercurochrome unguent are occasionally used as adjunct therapy Adjuvant therapy, also known as adjunct therapy, adjuvant care, or augmentation therapy, is a therapy that is given in addition to the primary or initial therapy to maximize its effectiveness. The surgeries and complex treatment regimens use ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
