Skip to main content

What is the difference between Minoan and Mycenaean art?

As Mycenaean art was heavily influenced by Minoan art, the differences are fairly subtle. The main difference is due to the Minoans being primarily a naval power and the Mycenaeans a land power. Thus while cities on the mainland were heavily fortified against land attacks, and had monumental defensive walls, the Minoans relied on their ships for defense. 


Both societies used tholos or beehive tombs and chamber tombs for burial of the dead, often accompanied by various forms of grave goods, intended to accompany the deceased into the afterlife. Gold funeral masks seem unique to Mycenaean society. 


Two uniquely Minoan elements in art are what are known as "horns of consecration" (stylized bull horns) and pictures of bull-jumping. Both of these have some form of religious significance, with the first being ubiquitous in Knossos and other palaces.


Women play a more prominent role in art works found on Crete and Thera than they do in mainland art, with both sculptures and frescoes of female figures being common. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.
Post a Comment
Read more