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Bronze Age: Society in Minoan Crete
Social structure and political organisation
| Principal focus |
This tutorial was written by Dr V G Callender Assoc. Lecturer, Macquarie University |
Principal focus
The investigation of the key features of Minoan society in Crete through a range of archaeological and written sources and relevant historiographical issues.
Outcomes
| H 1.1 |
describe and assess the significance of key people, groups, events, institutions, societies and sites within the historical context |
| H 3.4 |
explain and evaluate differing perspectives and interpretations of the past |
| H 3.1 | locate, select and organise relevant information from a variety of sources |
| H 3.3 |
analyse and evaluate sources for their usefulness and reliability |
Statement
Students learn about:
- Social structure and political organisation in Minoan Crete:
- issues relating to gender and identity of the ruler/s
- palace elite: bureaucracy, priests and priestesses
- roles and status of women
Archaeological evidence
John Pendlebury, whose knowledge of Minoan archaeology was enormous, said that: "It is impossible to say what kind of social order existed" in Minoan Crete. 1 However, we do have the palaces and villas, town houses and remains of separate farms and simple huts, so we know that some members of the society must have been better off than others because they lived in better houses.
Fresco evidence
We can also guess that some people were more important than others because of the fresco and relief pictures we have of Minoan people. These show some
people as being bigger in size than other people (eg. The Grandstand Fresco, and Dancing in the Theatral Area). In most early paintings the important
people were shown as being larger than the people who surrounded them.
A second question to ask ourselves relates to the way in which the crowds of people are depicted: while occasional groups of men or women are shown as
being more important (because of their size), why is no single person ever depicted in the frescoes as being more distinguished than the others? Does it
mean that there was no superior person present, or is that part of the fresco - like so much of Minoan society itself - just simply missing from our
records? Because these and other questions about the frescoes have not been answered, we are very unsure about much of Minoan society.
Exercise
- Name two sources of evidence for Minoan social structure.
- Explain the problems with the evidence for Minoan social structure.
Who ruled Crete?
In looking at the social structure of Crete we need to observe that, although the legends talk about a King Minos, we do not have anything in the
archaeological or pictorial record which relates to this person. So how much should legendary tales be trusted? At the very least, they should only be
considered very cautiously, but there are some archaeological clues that are worthwhile investigating.
While the fresco record reveals that small groups of women were evidently more important than groups of men, no individual stands out. On the Hagia
Triada Chieftain's Cup, and on the Harvesters' Vase, however, we do have examples of one individual in each of these vessels as being more
distinguished than his fellows. The difference is shown by the difference in clothing. The difference is very slight, and it is insufficient to draw
conclusions about the social structure from such pieces, but it does suggest that the society had leaders for different activities. It seems unlikely,
though, that either of these men on the two vessels shown could be considered a king.
Although the Greek legends speak of King Minos, the evidence from the frescoes and seal rings does not depict a man as a ruler. Indeed, the major figures
we see in these scenes are female. Because of this, scholars consider that the Minoans worshipped a female god, since all of these scenes do seem to be
religious in nature. On a few of the rings, however, there sometimes appears a slender male figure, always smaller than the females. Scholars think this
male represents a consort for the chief goddess. Most recently, one seal impression, known as the Master Impression, has been found, showing a male
standing on a representation of a palace. Is he a king? Or is he a god? Scholars have not as yet made up their minds.
When Evans discovered the Throne Room at Knossos, he based his ideas on the rulers of the Middle East at that time, and wrote that Minos must have
been a priest king. Other scholars, influenced by Evans, have tended to think in this way too. The evidence, however, does not indicate the
presence of such a person, and a large number of scholars now think that the Throne Room at Knossos was a religious cult room, not a political centre for
the palace. It is certainly in the midst of other cult rooms, and not especially distinguished along that western facade of the Central Court. Thirdly,
there is very little space within the Throne Room to have allowed a large crowd of people to gather there. Professor Oliver Pelon 2 felt that the Hall of the Double Axes was a more appropriate place for a king, and there were the remains of a throne
there.
A number of scholars have questioned the idea that there was a male ruler in Crete, some of them preferring to see a woman as the chief figurehead.
3 Sinclair Hood 4 thought that the Queen of Crete, acting in
her role of a priestess, was the person who actually sat on the throne. Professor Wolfgang Helck 5 has
pointed out that, in one of the Theban tombs of Egypt, the Keftiu are said to have a ruler, and he, therefore, thinks there was a king of Crete.
With so many different opinions being held by the world's experts it is only safe to say that no-one knows whether or not there was a male ruler of Crete
in Minoan times.
When we look at the Throne Room in the palace at Knossos we think we see evidence for a Minoan ruler. This is not so, for that Throne Room does not seem
to have been a Minoan room at all: it was built and decorated by the Mycenaeans who came into Crete when the palaces collapsed. The Mycenaeans, of
course, did have kings, and they did have thrones. Their throne rooms were the most important part of their palaces, and were dominated by a large
circular hearth, or fireplace. Although there are very grand rooms in all of the palaces of Crete no Minoan central room can be pin-pointed,
6 neither is there anything like a throne room in any other palace. The central focus of a Minoan palace is
its Central Court, not any particular room, and we have good reasons for believing that the courts were used for religious ceremonies, which crowds of
people attended, to judge from the Grandstand Fresco.
Thus, although the Linear B texts and the archaeology reveal the presence of a Mycenaean king, unfortunately, we cannot yet read the Linear A texts of
the Minoans, and the archaeology has not yet revealed the presence of a single Cretan ruler. Unlike Mycenaean society, therefore, we cannot at present
assume that there was a king of Crete.
As to who may have ruled ancient Crete, scholars at a recent meeting have decided that no-one can tell but, due to the large size of women in the palace
frescoes, they thought that a female-dominated society was more likely in Minoan times!
Exercise
- What is meant by the term priest king?
- Explain the differing interpretations of the throne room.
- Explain the different scholarly viewpoints on the question of the ruler's gender.
Footnotes:
1 J.D.S. Pendlebury, The Archaeology of Crete, An Introduction, Biblo and Tannen, New York (1963),
p.279.
2Hagg & Marinatos (eds), The Function of the Minoan Palaces, Stockholm (1984), p.332.
3 eg.Helga Reusch, Helen Waterhouse, Sinclair Hood, see comments in R.F. Willetts, The Civilization of
Ancient Crete, p.111.
4S. Hood, The Minoans: Crete in the Bronze Age, London (1971), p.220, n.27.
5 Hagg & Marinatos, The Function of the Minoan Palaces, p.332.
6 O. Pelon, 'Reflexions sur la function politique dans un palais Cretois' in O. Krzyskowska and L. Nixon,
Minoan Society, Bristol (1983), p.251.
More
Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe, Women in the Aegean, Minoan Snake
Goddess 
A site with an accessible, well illustrated essay on the Snake Goddess and the problems associated with the interpretation of archaeological evidence.
Prehistoric Archaeology of the Aegean
A detailed site that also includes a Chronology and a list of Terminology.
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