Minoan Crete

by L. Vance Watrous

Along with Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Levant, Minoan Crete was one of the primary cultures of the prehistoric Mediterranean world. In this book, L. Vance Watrous offers an up-to-date overview of this important ancient society. Using archaeological evidence from palaces, houses, surveys,  caves, and mountain shrines, he describes and traces the development of Minoan Crete from the Neolithic era through the Late Bronze Age. Watrous also presents and interprets Minoan art works in a range of media, including fresco paintings, pottery, and seals, and explains how Minoan Crete affected the culture of classical Greece. Aimed at undergraduate and graduate students, this book can be used in courses on the ancient Mediterranean world and classical archaeology.

Genres: History, Greece, Nonfiction

248 pages, Paperback

Published March 18, 2021

Reviews

[Marc Lamot · Rating 3 out of 5]

L.V. Watrous (° 1943, emeritus University of Buffalo) is a veteran when it comes to earliest Greek history. In this recent book he summarizes his knowledge of ancient Crete, and especially the Minoan culture, roughly between 2,000 and 1400 BCE. As might be expected, he sometimes goes into great depth about the archaeological finds, with a detailed overview per site. Occasionally Watrous clings to outdated views, such as when he dates the famous eruption of the Santorini volcano at 1500 BCE, while there is now consensus that it occurred at least a century earlier; also in other chapters Watrous regularly is quite sloppy. In short, a reasonably good state of affairs, but still quite specialized and at some points outdated. (rating 2.5 stars)
A bit more in the review in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....

[Sense of History]

Creditable synthesis of our knowledge of the ancient Minoan culture on the Greek island of Crete, roughly between 2,000 and 1400 BCE. The book is very descriptive, with sometimes too much definitive statements, while our knowledge of early Greek culture remains very fragmented and we have to limit ourselves to (substantiated) hypotheses. It's amazing how little we still know about essential features of Minoan society.

However, I particularly enjoyed the chapter on Minoan art, which was truly stunning, especially the frescoes. They demonstrate what we would now call an exceptional sense of naturalism, with their colorful and highly detailed depiction of plants and animals. In this department, the Cretans went much further than the Egyptians, who always remained very stylized. Minoan artists were also active in ancient Egypt itself, in the Levant and in Anatolia. That says enough.

[Riley V · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the perfect book to act as an introductory guide on Minoan culture and its impact not just on Crete, but across the eastern Mediterranean. Read this book during my trip to the island and it was a fantastic experience visiting sites like Phaistos, Knossos, and the Heraklion Archaeological Museum while reading about each of these places in very intricate detail. If you want to learn more about the earliest civilizations in Europe and you’re a real dork for non-pop history books, this book is for you.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're creating a D&D campaign, then this book would be a great resource. It shows floor plans for palaces, aristocratic houses, tombs, mountain-top sanctuaries, and cave shrines with useful details such as light wells for sneaky thieves to crawl down and lustral basins for pious paladins to wash their feet in. The list of loot in these places is equally impressive. Who wouldn't swipe a bronze sword, gold jewelry, embossed metal cups, and carved precious stone seals left lying about? Bards might like the clay tablets, if they can read the Linear A or B scripts. Clerics might be repealed by the horns of consecration and mystified by the snake tubes. Rangers might be uncomfortable walking inside stone buildings, but the wall murals with idealized nature scenes could soothe their senses. Fighters would enjoy challenging the amazing minotaur, while wizards deal with the mesmerizing, snake-handling priestesses. If you're going to Crete, then this book would also be a great resource.

[Sven · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book hit me so hard I'll drop a serious review.

It's actually a great introduction to Minoan Crete, it's a good length and never feels like it lingers to long on a topic. Informative and exciting, if at times a bit dry

[Cgirardmd · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good broadbased overview of Minoan civilization. Not exhaustive by any means.

[Vasilis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good introduction to Minoan Crete. I would have liked a bit more on Mycenoan Crete. The Greek language bibliography was full of mistakes; something I would not expect from an academic book on Greek archaeology.

[Zeynepozmen33gmail.Com · Rating 5 out of 5]

very good