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Sacred Caves
Sacred caves and peak sanctuaries are characteristic holy places of ancient Minoan civilization, 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, Crete, Trapeza and Psychro Cave, 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. One author, Tyree (1974), restricts "sacred caves" to those with architectural additions such as "paved areas, partition walls, and low walls surrounding stalagmites", as well as the presence (upon excavation) of "cult implements" of various kinds. Some were "burial caves", used in the Neolithic and Early Minoan periods as secondary burial sites for a community. It is thought that the primary burial site was probably a ''tholos'' beehive tomb in the area, from which remains were ...
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Kamares, Crete
Kamares () is a village in south-central Crete, Greece. It is the location of the archaeological site of Kamares Cave, a Minoan sacred cave. The sacred cave at Kamares is slightly offset from a saddle in the Psiloriti Range virtually aligned with the location of nearby Phaistos. Some of the best examples of Middle Minoan pottery have been recovered from the Kamares cave.Gerald Cadogan (1991) '' Palaces of Minoan Crete'', Routledge, 164 pages Kamares has provided the type name for Kamares ware Kamares ware is a distinctive style of Minoan pottery produced by the Minoans in Crete. It is recognizable by its light-on-dark decoration, with white, red, and orange abstract motifs painted over a black background. A prestige style that requir ..., a ceramic type dating from MM IA, or the First Palace Period. This pottery is a light-on-dark polychrome ware, with forms including jugs and cups. See also * Hagia Triada References Populated places in Heraklion (regional unit) ...
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Landforms Of Crete
A landform is a land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. They may be natural or may be anthropogenic (caused or influenced by human activity). Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement in the landscape is known as topography. Landforms include hills, mountains, canyons, and valleys, as well as shoreline features such as bays, peninsulas, and seas, including submerged features such as mid-ocean ridges, volcanoes, and the great oceanic basins. Physical characteristics Landforms are categorized by characteristic physical attributes such as elevation, slope, orientation, structure stratification, rock exposure, and soil type. Gross physical features or landforms include intuitive elements such as berms, cliffs, hills, mounds, peninsulas, ridges, rivers, valleys, volcanoes, and numerous other structural and size-scaled (e.g. ponds vs. lakes, hills vs. mountains) elements including various kinds of inland and oceanic waterbod ...
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Caves Of Greece
Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance underground (such as rock shelters). Caves which extend further underground than the opening is wide are called endogene caves. Speleology is the science of exploration and study of all aspects of caves and the cave environment. Visiting or exploring caves for recreation may be called ''caving'', ''potholing'', or ''spelunking''. Formation types The formation and development of caves is known as ''speleogenesis''; it can occur over the course of millions of years. Caves can range widely in size, and are formed by various geological processes. These may involve a combination of chemical processes, erosion by water, tectonic forces, microorganisms, pressure, and atmospheric influences. Isotopic dating techniques can be applied to cave sediments, to determine the time ...
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Minoan Religion
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 such as Minoan paintings, statuettes, vessels for rituals and Minoan seals, seals and rings. Minoan religion is considered to have been closely related to Religions of the ancient Near East, 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 (mythology), bull and the horns of consecration, the labrys double-headed axe, and possibly the serpent (mythology), serpent. The old view was that, in stark contrast to contemporary cultures in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Syria, Minoan religious practice was not centred around massive formal public temples. However, it is now thought the Minoan ...
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Asphendou Cave Petroglyphs
The small Asphendou Cave in western Crete preserves a number of overlapping petroglyphs on a limestone speleothem that may have been made between the Upper Palaeolithic and the early Bronze Age. The oldest of these, that possibly dates from the Upper Palaeolithic, depicts a number of quadrupeds which may represent extinct '' Candiacervus'' deer. Overlapping some of these are a layer of paddle-shaped carvings. Patterns formed from rock cupules were added at some later point, likely around the end of the Neolithic or start of the Bronze Age. The final layer mostly consists of a few boats. When first researched in the 1960s, the identification of the quadrupeds was uncertain. It was thought they might be kri-kri goats and date from the Bronze Age. A reanalysis in 2018 was able to clearly map the different layers, and draw on knowledge of ''Candiacervus'' that post-dated the petroglyphs' discovery to date the oldest layer to somewhere within the Late Pleistocene or Upper Palaeolith ...
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Stravomyti
Stravomyti Cave is an ancient Minoan cave on Crete. Geography Stravomyti Cave is 400 meters above sea level on Mt. Juktas' southwest slope. Archaeology Stravomyti Cave first saw use during Neolithic times, as a refuge and burial. During the Early Minoan period, the quality of pottery suggests that people lived in the caves. Thereafter, it was used for storage and worship. The cave may have once been a shrine to a female deity - Artemis In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Artemis (; ) is the goddess of the hunting, hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, transitions, nature, vegetation, childbirth, Kourotrophos, care of children, and chastity. In later tim ..., Diktynna or perhaps Eileithyia. References * Sakellarakis, J. and E. 1991 ''Crete Archanes'' (guidebook) Neolithic sites in Crete Minoan sites in Crete Ancient caves of Greece {{Crete-geo-stub ...
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Kamares Ware
Kamares ware is a distinctive style of Minoan pottery produced by the Minoans in Crete. It is recognizable by its light-on-dark decoration, with white, red, and orange abstract motifs painted over a black background. A prestige style that required high level craftsmanship, it is suspected to have been used as elite tableware. The finest pieces are so thin they are known as "eggshell ware". The style first appeared during the Middle Minoan IA period (c. 2100 BCE) and remained an active part of Minoan culture until the Late Minoan IA period (c. 1450 BCE). Though manufactured in Crete, Kamares pottery was traded across the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean, and has been found as far away as the Levant and Egypt. Description Kamares ware is characterized by its use of light-on-dark decoration. Such pots are typically decorated with combinations of abstract curvilinear designs and stylized plant and marine motifs which are painted in white and of red, orange, and yellow over t ...
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Hagios Charalambos
''Agios'' (), plural ''Agioi'' (), transcribes masculine gender Greek words meaning 'sacred' or 'saint' (for example Agios Dimitrios, Agioi Anargyroi). It is frequently shortened in colloquial language to ''Ai'' (for example Ai Stratis). In polytonic script it is written ''Hagios'' () (for example Hagios Demetrios). It is also transliterated as, inter alia, ''Haghios'', ''Ayios'', ''Aghios'' (for example Ayios Dhometios, Aghios Andreas Beach, respectively) in the singular form, and ''Haghioi'', ''Ayioi'', ''Aghioi'', ''Ayii'' in the plural (for example Ayioi Omoloyites, Nicosia, Aghioi Theodoroi, Ayii Trimithias respectively). The feminine is ''agia'', ''ayia'', ''aghia'', ''hagia'' or ''haghia'' (Greek: or in polytonic form ), for example ''Agia Varvara'' (Saint Barbara). See also * * Agia (other), the feminine form of the word in Greek * Agis (other) * Agii (other) * Agius, a surname * ''Agos'', an Armenian newspaper * Agoi Nigeria, ...
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