THE MINOAN ERUPTION

TSUNAMI

According to recent conclusions by analyists in this field, the Minoan eruption is the second most catastrophic volcano of the last 5,000 years. This volcano erupted on the island of Thera, now Santorini, in the Aegean Sea only 70 miles from Crete. According to researchers, the volcano caused a very violent tsunami to hit the northern coast of Crete, destroying the ships and the ports. Whether or not the eruption destroyed the Minoan civilization is still in debate, but obviously it undermined it. What took a thousand years to build cannot be rebuilt in only a few years. In an ongoing debate, researchers date the volcanic eruption sometime between 1650 and 1500 BCE, although recently the date has narrowed to between 1627 and 1600 BCE. The Phaistos Disk is dated about 1700 to 1650 BCE because of the date it acquired from the Linear A tablet found with it in the charred rubble of Phaistos palace.

We may never know the actual date of the creation of the Phaistos Disk, but because it may be a record of the volcano and the tsunami we perhaps can use the disk to help date the volcano, and vice versa. The Great Pyramid on the disk might also represent the volcano. Because of the size of this historic record, only a little over 6" diameter, and because of the times in which it was created, when syncretisms were in use more than now, this image and the others on the disk can represent two or more things/ideas. In the following two paragraphs, Manfred Lurker writes about syncretism in reference to ancient Egypt but which can certainly apply to Minoan Crete.

The spiritual world of the ancient Egyptians is not immediately understandable by the western civilizations of the twentieth century...We may find it ridiculous for artists to represent the sky as a cow, or for a beetle to be venerated as a symbol of the sun god, but in past ages, among peoples having a mythical view of the world, the formative principle was not of logic but of an outlook governed by images...The whole symbolic evocation rests upon the supposed, and in the end actual, corres­pondence of things, on the relationship between microcosm and macrocosm as intuitively understood by the mind and visually by the eye...The ancient Egyptians, the Babylonians, and to some extent the Greeks, used images; their view of the world was a comprehensive one.

...A symbol has manifold significance and therefore its origin and purpose cannot often be explained satisfactorily. Sometimes the symbol seems to contradict itself. There are, in fact, symbols which refer to both poles of existence: life and death, good and evil. (Introduction, The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Egypt, Manfred Lurker, Thames and Hudson, publishers, 1974.)

As example of contradictory symbols, suppose this equilateral triangle is a pictograph of the volcano (right) filled with 20 pieces of molten rock and ash. It may also represent the icosahedron, later to become one of the five Platonic solids, an equilateral triangle composed of 20 equilateral triangles. What would be the relationship between the three? What may have been an obvious relationship to the Minoans would be, for us, as strange as thinking a cow also represents the sky. But would our world be any less mystifying to the Minoans if they could study us as we study them? Would they not go nuts trying to comprehend what we intend by all our corporate symbols? Maybe some civilization in the distant future will forget the purpose of corporations but still raise up a bunch of scholars who claim to decipher the strange symbols and hold endless debates as to their meanings.

If this image (far left and up above) represents an exterior view of both the Great Pyramid and the great volcano, then by using intuition we can understand it. They look similar, they are both monumental in the Bronze Age, one as a creation and the other as a goddess-made destruction. It may even be that the Minoans believed that viewing the goddess (2nd left) with their telescopes (3rd left) from within the pyramid, and climbing to the top of the pyramid to get nearer to her, unveiled her so extensively that she was offended and she assaulted their world with her tsunami (the wave pictograph, 4th left, and the spirals on the disk), that emanated from the center of the volcano which is also the center of the disk (see up above). Perhaps they hypothesized that the Great Pyramid itself was offensive to her. (Click the pyramid to see a larger image.)

In another pyramid image, an interior view, also found on the same side of the disk as the other pyramid (above right and right) by connecting all 10 identical golden fleece signs (5th left), the golden fleece representing perhaps the pursuit of knowledge and understanding, the goddess is highlighted by a door leading to a lower level. This seems to confirm the idea that their purpose for being at the pyramid was to get a closer look at her and that she was at the "bottom" of the Minoan eruption, i.e. causing it. The Phaistos Disk was found in a room with a trap door entrance. This trap door in the pyramid may indicate the astronomer-priests placed another disk in the subterranean chamber of the Great Pyramid, perhaps for safe keeping, as a record of the Minoan eruption and tsunami and their explanation of why it happened. Alternately, this second pyramid may be Kephren.

This could be the precursor, even the foundation, of the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel. In the Bronze Age, the astronomers got too close to the goddess, like Icarus who flew so high that Ra melted his wings. Because she was displeased with them she made a volcano erupt in a time when no one had ever seen or heard of such a thing. It must have seemed like the end of the world, brought about by an angry goddess. Later on, perhaps in a Bible transformation, the goddess became god and the Great Pyramid became the Tower of Babel.

How would such a catastrophy as the Minoan eruption be interpreted by people in the Bronze Age? We have scientists to tell us about these things and so did the Minoans, but their science was interwoven with their theology, so that an event of this magnitude would be interpreted as an act of goddess. The ten plagues of Egypt, as example, were interpreted within a theological context but in actuality they may have been the result of the Minoan eruption. That theory is not widely accepted due to the differences in the dates of the Exodus (1450 BCE) and the eruption (1628 BCE), but it is normal human behavior to interpret cataclysmic events as apocalyptic. Today our general education and knowledge about things and the past allows us to reverse some apocalypses. Lately, we have begun to interpret the destruction of Atlantis within the context of our knowledge of the Minoan eruption. We are assisted in this interpretation by the phenomenal Minoan culture that seems to us to be too advanced for the times so that it must have been Atlantis.

Now that we have the final piece, the technology of the Minoans, in place it seems quite possible to conclude that the fabled civilization of Atlantis perhaps was Minoan Crete. In the great legend, Atlantis was destroyed because they offended the gods with their technology, and here we have on the Phaistos Disk the idea of it, that the Minoan-astronomer priests took their theology to such heights, literally and figuratively, that they understood completely the creation of the universe and their place within it.

But they understood it via their man-made technology, their telescopes, their binoculars, their astronomical measuring devices (left), things the goddess did not grant them at birth but that they acquired on their own, like little gods. The knowledge they gained from these devices was self-derived as they peered into her and measured her and performed vivisection via astronomy. Is this how they offended her so that she set out to punish them? Like God granting humanity the favor of punishment, rather than total destruction, in his gift of Noah's Ark, the Goddess granted Minoans salvation through her gift of ships, symbolized by the Constellation Argo on the disk (right). There we see Jason's ark, loaded with Argonauts (Arkonauts), Minyae and other life indigenous to Minoan Crete, riding the spiral wave of the tsunami and all around them the people and things swept away by the tsunami to float in the waters of the Aegean Sea.

If only we could look back in time, back through the stars, we might see the civilization of Minoan Crete and the people arriving at Knossos Palace before the flood. From the perspective of the ancient Greeks, who spread the Atlantis story so effectively that all the world knows it, a fabulous civilization did really exist out in the ocean, or under it as the story goes. But that could be because of the Minoan buildings and upside-down Doric columns swept to the bottom of the sea by the tsunami, to be explored in the aftermath by divers looking for loot and stories to tell of fishes swimming amongst the ruins of a lost city under the sea. Atlantis, and its human-devised technology, was destroyed because it overstepped its boundaries into those of the divine, and this could have been the interpretation given to the tsunami by the Minoans who, lacking the science of Tectonics, had no other methods of understanding it. (Above, viaduct entrance to the Palace of Knossos.)

For many researchers who study the Minoan civilization, the story of Atlantis must surely be a story about Minoan Crete, and the Phaistos Disk may well be a story of the Minoan eruption. Fortunately for us, Daedalus may have included on the disk not only the story of how the goddess attacked them with volcano and tsunami, but also he recorded the knowledge the astronomer-priests acquired via their offensive technology that so angered her. Part of their interpretation of the volcano and tsunami could be that the goddess was jealous of them because their civilization was so beautiful that it competed with her own beauty. Later on in Greek mythology we see this theme quite a bit.

MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF CRETE

  1. Myth/legend of bull sports and bull-worship
  2. Very early myths of the Olympian gods and goddesses
  3. Legend of Jason and the Argonauts pursuing the Ram with the Golden Fleece
  4. The Sacred Oak of Dodona, Oracle of Dodona, legend of the Argos
  5. Langue Argotique or Lost Language of the Argo
  6. Legend of Daedalus and the Maze of Daedalus
  7. Myth of the god Dionysis and legend of his biennial festivals
  8. Legend of the Minotaur, the half-human, half-bull being
  9. Legend of Greek dancers and the Crane Dance or Dance of the Labyrinth
10. Myth of Rhea, birth of Zeus in a cave in Crete, and the birthing stone of Zeus

Minoan Crete (ca. 2000 BCE - 1200 BCE) was a world cultural center, an island in the Aegean Sea, a cultural transmitter. The civilization of Minoan Crete was the epitome of artistic achievement during the Mediterranean Bronze Age, which came to Crete ca. 2600 BCE. Crete was the first great sea power, easily accessible with undefended settlements. Little is known, historically, about the Cretan religion, which involved worship in caves, on mountain tops, and in domestic shrines. The Great Goddess may have been named Rhea, and Zeus might have been called Ja (my opinion only). There were bull sports and bull sacrifice and a famous legend of the Minotaur - half bull, half human - who roamed the Maze of Daedalus and ate Greeks. Twinkling in the night skies above were all the constellated gods, including Jason and the Argonauts in their constellated ship, the Argo, that was made of psychic timber from the oaks of the oldest oracle in history, the Oracle at Dodona, in the mountains of what is now northern Greece.

Greece had almost forgotten, though the poet [Homer] had not, that the island [Crete] whose wealth seemed to him even then so great had once been wealthier still; that it had held sway with a powerful fleet over most of the Aegean and part of mainland Greece; and that it had developed, a thousand years before the siege of Troy, one of the most artistic civilizations in history. Probably it was this Aegean culture—as ancient to him as he is to us— that Homer recalled when he spoke of a Golden Age in which men had been more civilized, and life more refined, than in his own disordered time. (Will Durant, Life of Greece)

Out in the deep dark sea there lies a land called Crete, a rich and lovely land, washed by the sea on every side and boasting ninety cities. One of these cities is called Knossos, and there King Minos ruled and enjoyed the friendship of almighty Zeus. (Homer)

Houses and People of Minoan Crete. Put the people in their houses. (My tracings, color added.)

ISLE OF CRETE

According to popular legends of this Greek island in the Mediterranean Sea, Crete had many active ports, a powerful and unchallenged navy, beautiful palaces, superb architects, excellent hydraulic engineers, and people who loved bull sports. But this Bronze Age prosperity was no defense against the volcano, the earthquakes and the tidal wave that was supposed to have destroyed the Minoan civilization in just one day and night. The civilization may not have been completely destroyed by the volcano. This legend of the destruction of Crete by volcano may be the blending of events in history and mythology - the eruption of the volcano, the tsunami, and the legendary destruction of Atlantis in just one day and night. The phenomenal civilization of Crete was greatly damaged by the volcano and appparently rebuilt over a 500 year period.

It is not easy for us to conceive of a Bronze Age civilization creating "modern art." But if you take into consideration that their taste in art and their peaceful lifestyle had been established for at least 1000 years, you can understand how they became brilliant artists, overreaching even modern art. Give art enough time to develop uninterrupted, and it will. The Minoans, like the Mayas, enjoyed stylizing nearly everything in art. Even some of the pictographs on the Phaistos Disk are stylized. This artistic approach makes some of those pictographs hard to identify. For example, left is an interesting and nearly impossible pictograph to identify from the Phaistos Disk. I called it an amoeba for a long time before I thought to view it upside down to see if I could identify it. As you can see, it is a stylized pig. It is also a sacred pig.

According to one of the Cretan legends regarding Zeus-Dionysus, as related by Athenæus, the animal which nourished with its milk the young god of the cave was a sow. "Wherefore all the Cretans consider this animal sacred, and will not taste of its flesh; and the men of Præsos perform sacred rites with the sow, making her the first offering at the sacrifice. (Donald Mackenzie, Myths of Crete)

Here is another one that was tough to identify because it is upside-down and stylized. I called it a trash can for a long time until I decided to see what it might be upside-down. As you can see, it is most likely a hoof and leg of a bull, or perhaps an ox. The Egyptians had a ancient, sacred ritual involving the cutting off of the bull's hoof and leg. After that, the bull's leg is presented in ceremony to Osiris (right, Papyrus of Ani).

From our perspective, the advanced Minoan civilization is incompatible with our modern snobbery about the people who lived thousands of years ago, but perhaps that is because we know so little about it. Minoans invented paved roads, and paved them with shells and rocks. From all accounts of the people, they lived comfortably in adobe townhomes with rooftop patios and enjoyed plumbing and bathtubs. The queen's bathroom at Knossos had a flushing toilet. The gay frescos on the walls of the palaces portray the people as wealthy, carefree, sophisticated and uninhibited. They apparently lived well, had a healthy diet of pork, fowl, fish, crab, grain, fruit, olives and vegetables. And they enjoyed the companionship of dogs.

Minoans wore various fashionable hats and headgear. Their clothing was very fashionable.

Interactive Fashion show in Minoan Crete. Rearrange the models.

The spindle for cloth was necessary to fashionable Minoan Crete, where the designer of clothes oversaw the creation of the beautiful gowns worn by the elegant women of Crete.

Just as the Phæacian [Cretan] men are skilled beyond others as mariners, so are the women the most accomplished at the loom. The goddess Athene has given them much wisdom as workers, and richest fancy. (Donald Mackenzie, Myths of Crete)

"The Cretans had advanced into the later stage of Neolithic culture...and, as it is of special interest to note, clay and stone spindle whorls, indicating that the art of spinning was well known." (Mackenzie)

MINOAN DESIGNS

MINOAN POTTERY

Crete had four major palace cities, Knossos, Phaistos, Mallia and Zakro. The palace at Phaistos (left) is a long way from a mud hut dwelling we might associate with the Bronze Age. (Why do we think we're so advanced, because we have washing machines, dishwashers, and cars?) If Phaistos was overshadowed by Knossos alone, it must have been a magnificent palace. Phaistos was:

...a palace only less extensive than that of the Cnossus kings. Phaestus becomes a Cretan Piraeus, in love with commerce rather than with art. And yet the palace of its prince is a majestic edifice, reached by a flight of steps forty-five feet wide; its halls and courts compare with those at Cnossus; its central court is a paved quadrangle of ten thousand square feet; its megaron, or reception room, is three thousand square feet in area, larger even than the great Hall of the Double Ax in the northern capital. (Durant)

The central court at Phaistos probably was used for dancing and could have accommodated hundreds of dancers. The Minoans were early Greeks, so it goes without saying they danced. Almost all the artifacts from Crete have spirals, so it goes without saying they danced in spirals. Greek dancers still dance the pyrrhic, or Armed Dance, sometimes called Kronou Teknophagia, meaning "Crane Dance" and the "Dance of the Labyrinth." In the tradition of this dance, the movements are performed from right to left, then left to right, then stationary or slowly before an altar. Homer, in Chapter 18 of The Iliad, gives an account of a dance floor designed by Daedalus for Ariadne at Knossos, where the dancers would dance in circles and then dance in lines. Mostly likely, the circles were spirals, and the lines connected the spirals. The tradition of dance in Crete is an historical preservation.

A painting from Cnossus preserves a group of aristocratic ladies, surrounded by their gallants, watching a dance by gaily petticoated girls in an olive grove; another represents a Dancing Woman with flying tresses and extended arms; others show us rustic folk dances, or the wild dance of priests, priestesses, and worshipers before an idol or a sacred tree. Homer describes the 'dancing-floor which once, in broad Cnossus, Daedalus made for Ariadne of the lovely hair; there youths and seductive maidens join hands in the dance.... and a divine bard sets the time to the sound of the lyre. (Durant)

At Phaestus, about 2000, he builds ten tiers of stone seats, running some eighty feet along a wall overlooking a flagged court. (Durant)

In Middle Minoan I the earliest palaces occur: the princes of Cnossus, Phaestus, and Mallia build for themselves luxurious dwellings with countless rooms, spacious storehouses, specialized workshops, altars and temples, and great drainage conduits that startle the arrogant Occidental eye. (Durant)

CLICK TO SEE THE QUEEN'S BATHROOM.

DANCE OF THE LABYRINTH

The central point in the star Sirius, directly beneath which is the island of Crete represented by the flower at the center of side 1, would be what the Pythagoreans, later on in history, understood to be the vertex, the zenith or point in the heavens directly overhead. Vortex has a correlation to vertex and means to turn or rotate, which is one idea behind the spirals on the disk. If you turn or rotate the disk in a clockwise direction, you get an idea of the concept of vertex-vortex because of the movement of the spiral when the disk is set in motion (below). An illusion is created of a triangle that seems to spin counterclockwise inside two polygons that spin clockwise. The things chaotically mixed together by the spin of the universe are organized by this geometry. This is like the stationary pole star and the procession of the other stars around it.

This spinning image is my exact tracing of side 1 of the Phaistos Disk (color inverted). I dotted each of these identical pictographs (Minyae/Crested Dancers) on side 1 of the Disk and connected them with lines to find a triangle inside two pentagons. I rotated the design clockwise, using a gif animation tool to make it spin. Like the Greeks in Dance of the Labyrinth, the disk turns clockwise and counterclockwise at the same time. If only Daedalus could see this! It looks like he might have intended the cave design to help create the idea of setting the disk in motion, and he did a very good job of it. I felt encouraged to give it a whirl to see what developed.

It is not impossible that Daedalus, wanting to demonstrate the principle of motion relative to the observer, conceived of an optical illusion such as this and, lacking gif animation tools, used his imagination to set the disk in motion. More likely would be the invention of a dance (left). In the Dance of the Labyrinth - Kronou Teknophagia or Crane Dance - the dancers start in the center of one spiral and dance around to the center of the other spiral, while the dancers on the other spiral do the same. A huge Phaistos Disk design like this one below might even have been drawn onto the dance floor!

When the dancers cross from one side to the other, they cross from the 4th layer of one spiral onto the 5^th layer or outer ring on the other spiral. The dancers on the other side do the same, the two groups moving in circles in opposite directions, as seen on his artifact from Crete. When they cross over they dance along the outside spiral first, and then they move in toward the inner circle. When the inner circle is reached, they turn and dance in the opposite direction back to the other side. With their dance, the divine Curetes protect the mother and child and celebrate the birth of a new Olympian.

There, too, the skilful artist's hand had wrought,
With curious workmanship, a mazy dance,
Like that which Daedalus in Knossos erst
At fair-hair'd Ariadne's bidding framed.
There, laying on each other's wrist their hand,
Bright youths and many suitor'd maidens danced:
In fair white linen these; in tunics those
Well woven, shining soft with fragrant oils . . .
Now whirl'd they round with nimble practised feet,
Easy, as when a potter, seated, turns
A wheel, new fashioned by his skilful hand,
And spins it round, to prove if true it run:
Now featly mov'd in well-beseeming ranks.
A numerous crowd, around, the lovely dance
Survey'd, delighted. (Homer, Iliad, from Mackenzie)

Hereon there danced youths and maidens whom all would woo, with their hands on one another's wrists. The maidens wore robes of light linen, and the youths well woven shirts that were slightly oiled. The girls were crowned with garlands, while the young men had daggers of gold that hung by silver baldrics; sometimes they would dance deftly in a ring with merry twinkling feet, as it were a potter sitting at his work and making trial of his wheel to see whether it will run, and sometimes they would go all in line with one another, and much people was gathered joyously about the green. (Homer, Iliad)

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