The Unknown Past of Minoan Archaeology

Nektarios Karadimas

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The Unknown Past of Minoan Archaeology

From the Renaissance Until the Arrival of Sir Arthur Evans in Crete*

Nektarios Karadimas

p. 3-15

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To Nicoletta Momigliano
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The article aims to systematically present the period from the Renaissance until the beginning of the 1890s, when Arthur Evans first arrived in Crete. It discusses how scholars discovered and identified prehistoric sites in Crete, defined cultures and coined terms, which inspired Evans in the construction of his Minoan paradigm. In doing so, it resurrects the work of scholars, such as Buondelmonti, Müller, Hoeck, Pashley and Spratt, and it assesses their importance in the development of Minoan studies, showing the intellectual debt that Evans owed to them. Moreover, this article aims to show that the period before the 1890s was no tabula rasa for Minoan archaeology, but an important and interesting phase, in which important discoveries and theories took place, some of which continue to influence current scholarship.

1Arguably, most works on the history of Minoan archaeology begin with Sir Arthur Evans’s excavations at Knossos, thus implying that the period before him represents

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1 See, for example: McDonald 1967, chapters I–IV; Warren 1975, 1–12, esp. 12; Stiebing 1993, 124–42; Fitton 1996, 9–46.

2 Mitford 1784, 65–6.

3 Herrmann 1801–1802, 2:300. In the same way, Karl August Böttiger noted a few years later: “die Priester und Könige, eins in derselben Person, repräsentiren oft selbst die Götter” (Böttiger 1826, 1:208).

4 Evans 1900–1901, 15–6; 1928, 774–95. For the “Priest-King” fresco, see also Coulomb 1979; Niemeier 1988; Sherratt 2000; Shaw 2004.

5 E.g., Homer (Iliad, Ν, 448–454), Herodotus (I.173), and Thucydides (I.8 and I.2) spoke of one Minos, while Diodorus of Sicily (Bibliotheca Historica, IV.59) mentioned two Minoses.

6 For example: Marsham 1696, 252–56, 290–93; Banier 1739–1740, 3:482–515; Tressan 1797, 333–54.

7 Bryant 1775, 2:414–40; Holwell 1793, 279; Jones 1794, preface.

8 E.g., the French monk Huet suggested that Minos and Moses were the same person (see Banier 1739–1740, 3:486; Tressan 1797, 335–36). Evans himself, also, used to compare Minos to Moses at least in his first Aegean publications: “Minôs the Cretan Moses” (Evans 1894, 371); “Minos is the Cretan Moses” (Evans 1901, 116).

9 Allwood 1799, 273; Plass 1831, 179.

10 In 1906 Evans wrote for example: “Le terme ‘minoen’ a au moins l’avantage de ne pas dépasser les confins d’une neutralité ethnographique. Se servir de ‘Minos’ comme de ‘César’ ou de ‘Pharaon’ ne suscite pas les questions embrouillées des Cariens et des Pélasges, des Achéens, ou même des Libyens.”

11 For general information about travellers to Crete, see Rice 1933; Hemmerdinger-Iliadou 1967; Simopoulos 1970–85; Warren 1972, 2000.

12 See, for example, Georgopoulou et al. 2007; SeÌve 1993.

13 Translated into English in 1766 as Reflections concerning the Imitation of the Grecian Artists in Painting and Sculpture.

14 E.g., Salomon 1557; Spreng 1563; Micyllus 1582. One of the best editions was made by George Sandys in 1626 (republished in 1632), who had visited Crete, the “Gortyn Labyrinth” and possibly the site of Knossos as well.

15 On Belli, see Falkener 1854; Beschi 1999. Basilicata’s manuscript was published by Spanakis in 1969. Savary 1788a, 192–93 and 1788b, 214–15. On Knossos before the first excavations, see also Kopaka 2004.

16 See Woodward 1949; Guarducci 1950.

17 Aposkiti 2002, 50; Belon 1553, 8; Tournefort 1702; Lack and Mabberley 1999, 126; Cockerell 1820, 402–9; Sieber 1823, 1:510–20 and 2:293–97.

18 On the Altertumswissenschaft, see Gooch 1913, 24–41; Pfeiffer 1976, 173–77; Bernal 1987, 280–316; Marchand 1996, 17–24; Morris 1997.

19 For example, in the first volume of Kreta, Hoeck included a small chapter on the “Gortyn Labyrinth”, reproduced a map of the Labyrinth from Sieber 1823, and illustrated two coins of the ancient town of Knossos (Hoeck 1823, 447–54, pl. II).

20 On the term “Minoan”, see also Karadimas and Momigliano 2004.

21 Hoeck 1828, xxxi: “Alles bedeutsame mehrerer Jahrhunderte ward an jenen Namen (Minos) angereiht.”

22 As suggested, for example, by Uvarov 1819, 7: “seitdem der Nahme Homer nicht mehr einen Menschen, sondern eine Epoche bezeichnet.” See also below, section III.

23 For Hoeck’s absolute dates, see Hoeck 1823, 359–61; 1828, 4.

24 E.g., Hoeck 1828, vi, xxiv, 187, 189, 233, 236, 369, 378, 380, 391; Müller 1824, 234.

25 Evans 1900–1901, 22: “Minoan architects”; 1902–1903, 38: “Minoan dynasts”; 1903–1904, 43: “Minoan Priest-Kings”.

26 Abbott 1893, 122–23.

27 On the “Homeric question” and in general on Wolf, see Ferreri 2007 with extensive bibliography.

28 Grote 1846, 1:xii–xiii.

29 Momigliano 1966, 63.

30 Evans 1883, 438.

31 See also Momigliano 2006.

32 Raulin 1869; Perrot 1867; Skinner 1868. On Lear, see Fowler 1984.

33 On Pashley, see Garnett 2004.

34 Pashley 1837, 1:210–11.

35 Pashley 1837, 1:296–97, see also 208.

36 See, for example Milchhoefer 1883, chapter 2 entitled “Inselsteine”. For the history of “island stones”, see Boardman 1963.

37 Spratt 1865, 1:chapter XIII.

38 Evans visited Goulas in 1894, 1895, and 1899. See Evans 1895–1896; Brown 2001, 343–45.

39 Evans 1921, 153–63. See also Brown 2001, 330–31.

40 Hamilakis and Yalouri 1996; Hamilakis 2007.

41 On Minos Kalokairinos’s excavations, see a small selection of articles: Haussoullier 1880; Aposkiti 1979; Kopaka 1990, 1992 and 1996.

42 Milchhoefer 1883, 121–37.

43 The stirrup jug was published a few years later in 1886 by A. Furtwängler and G. Löschcke (Furtwängler and Löschcke 1886, 24, pl. XIV, no. 88).

44 Myres 1941, 14.

45 The inscription was published by Domenico Comparetti in 1888 (Comparetti 1888, 673–76).

46 Daniel 1981, 13.

* Most part of the present article is based on my unpublished Ph.D. dissertation “Prolegomena to Aegean Archaeology; from the Renaissance until 1876” (University of Bristol, 2009). I would like to thank my supervisor Dr Nicoletta Momigliano for her help and continuous support, as well as my examiners Prof. Gerald Cadogan and Dr Silke Knippschild.

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Référence numérique du chapitre

Karadimas, N. (2015). The Unknown Past of Minoan Archaeology. In S. Cappel, U. Günkel-Maschek, & D. Panagiotopoulos (éds.), Minoan Archaeology (1‑). Presses universitaires de Louvain. https://0-books-openedition-org.catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/pucl/3008

Karadimas, Nektarios. « The Unknown Past of Minoan Archaeology ». In Minoan Archaeology, édité par Sarah Cappel, Ute Günkel-Maschek, et Diamantis Panagiotopoulos. Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses universitaires de Louvain, 2015. https://0-books-openedition-org.catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/pucl/3008.

Karadimas, Nektarios. « The Unknown Past of Minoan Archaeology ». Minoan Archaeology, édité par Sarah Cappel et al., Presses universitaires de Louvain, 2015, https://0-books-openedition-org.catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/pucl/3008.

Référence numérique du livre

Cappel, S., Günkel-Maschek, U., & Panagiotopoulos, D. (éds.). (2015). Minoan Archaeology (1‑). Presses universitaires de Louvain. https://0-books-openedition-org.catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/pucl/2999

Cappel, Sarah, Ute Günkel-Maschek, et Diamantis Panagiotopoulos, éd. Minoan Archaeology. Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses universitaires de Louvain, 2015. https://0-books-openedition-org.catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/pucl/2999.

Cappel, Sarah, et al., éditeurs. Minoan Archaeology. Presses universitaires de Louvain, 2015, https://0-books-openedition-org.catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/pucl/2999.

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