Problems that are difficult for scientists to understand

Chapter 16 Ancient Civilization Tracing (4)
During the period of the ancient royal palace, the cultural relics of the No.12 Dynasty of the Egyptian Kingdom were spread in Crete, and the influence of Egypt is also widely seen in all aspects of the Aegean civilization.The development of industry, commerce and shipping further promoted the prosperity of the city, which is a common feature with the future Greek civilization.But Crete used the royal palace as its political center from the beginning. After the unification, the royal power was strengthened, and the palace buildings became more and more luxurious, indicating that its city was the center of dynastic rule.This is one of the biggest differences between it and the city-states that would later pursue republican politics in Greece.

The period of the new royal palace was the prosperous period of Minoan civilization.At this time the Minoan dynasty of Knossos ruled not only Crete, but also the Cyclades.Minoan’s trading stations and colonies spread throughout the Aegean Sea region, reaching Rhodes Island and Miletus in Asia Minor in the east, Mycenae, Athens and Thebes in mainland Greece in the northwest and Italy in the west. of the Libra Islands.In addition, the relationship between Crete and Egypt is also closer.There are murals in the tomb of Lehmila, the Prime Minister of the No.18 Dynasty of Egypt, which show the envoys of Crete offering objects. Business contacts are more frequent.The development of overseas commerce and the strength of the navy enabled the Minoan Dynasty to establish maritime hegemony, which was passed down as a good talk by the Greeks in the future.

The ancient Greek historian Herodotus called Minos the ruler of the sea in "History", saying that he "is a king who conquered many lands and often won victories in wars".Thucydides pointed out in "History of the Peloponnesian War": "According to legend, Minos was the first to organize a navy, and he controlled most of the Greek sea." The significance lies in the fact that it controls the maritime trade network in the eastern Mediterranean, and its sphere of influence forms a ring belt centered on Crete, reaching Rhodes Island in the east and connecting the Peloponnese Peninsula in the west.As areas to be developed, these areas and the farther inland Europe urgently needed to communicate with the ancient civilizations on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea, especially Egypt, which was the richest at that time, and the ring belt controlled by Crete was right in between the two. The shipping of all parties is controlled by it, so that it can extract the resources of the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa.

Knossos, the capital of Crete, had a population of 8 at that time, and with the seaport, it should be more than 10, which is enough to be called the largest city on the Mediterranean Sea.Its royal palace is the greatest creation of Minoan civilization. It is not only the political, religious and cultural center of the Minoan Dynasty, but also the economic center.Because there are many warehouses, workshops, offices for storing economic files and agencies for collecting taxes in the palace.In fact, more than half of the known archaeological materials about the Cretan civilization come from this palace.

During the period of the new royal palace, the palace was damaged many times (probably related to earthquakes), but each time it was destroyed, it was built more magnificent and magnificent.The final completed palace is a group of multi-storey buildings surrounding the central courtyard, covering an area of ​​2.2 square meters. The total number of halls and rooms in the palace is more than 1500. It does not seek symmetry, but it is so ingenious that it is difficult for outsiders to find out what it is, so it is called "maze" in ancient Greek myths and legends.

Now the ruins of the palace have been fully excavated and partially restored. The building is generally rectangular. According to the general rule of Minoan palaces, there are no surrounding walls and watchtowers. The whole palace is centered on a rectangular central courtyard (60 meters long and 30 meters wide). Built on a mountain, the terrain is high in the west and low in the east, so the buildings to the west of the courtyard have two or three floors, and the buildings to the east have four or five floors.Looking at the royal palace from the east foot, one can see towering floors, staggered array of doors, windows and open corridors. Its landscape is rarely seen in ancient royal palaces.The buildings on the west side of the courtyard are mainly used for office gatherings, sacrifices and storage of property, while the buildings on the east side are bedroom palaces, living rooms, schools and workshops.All floors are connected by stairs, especially the grand central staircase on the east side of the courtyard. It takes light from the patio and forms a colonnade on three sides. The staircase is wide and colorfully painted. It is known as the most outstanding monument of palace architecture.The Double Ax Hall next to it is divided into two rooms inside and outside, separated by folding doors, which can keep warm in winter and ventilate in summer, showing the dexterity of Minoan architecture.The queen's bedroom next to the hall is a typical Minoan luxury house, with beautiful and elegant murals of dolphins playing on the inner wall, and connected small rooms with bathrooms and flush toilets. This kind of sanitary equipment is unique in ancient times.The murals in various parts of the royal palace are also excellent works of ancient art, showing the Cretan civilization's emphasis on dexterity and elegance, which is different from the majesty and heaviness of the eastern countries.

Since the linear writing of Crete has not yet been successfully deciphered, we do not know much about its political history and social structure, but it is certain that the creators of the Cretan civilization and the Greeks in the future are not the same race.In addition, the Minoan rulers undoubtedly enslaved a large number of slaves and peasants, similar to the ancient Eastern countries.In recent years, it has also been found that Crete retains the custom of sacrificing humans to worship gods, reflecting the essence of slavery in its society.

Around 1450 BC, Greek-speaking people occupied the Knossos palace, marking the decline of Cretan civilization.Since then, the center of Aegean civilization has shifted to the Mycenae region of mainland Greece.

The Rise and Fall of Mycenaean Civilization

The Mycenaean civilization reflects the state of the ancient Greek civilization in its prosperous period, and the Trox War in Homer's Epic took place during this period.The ending, of course, was that the Mycenaeans won. The history of literature calls this period the "heroic age", but the Mycenaeans also paid a heavy price for this.

The Mycenaeans and the Minoans of Crete are not the same people. Their language belongs to the Indo-European language family, and they entered Greece from the north to the south from the interior of Europe.The Mycenaeans were the earliest Greeks to settle in the Peloponnese around 2000 BC.At this time, Crete had established the Minoan civilization, while the Mycenaeans in mainland Greece were relatively backward. Although they had entered the Bronze Age, they had not yet established a country. Therefore, they gradually transitioned to civilization under the direct influence of Crete. It was not until 1600 BC that the country was established as a king.

According to archaeological excavations, the dynasty at this time was called the Shaft Tomb Dynasty, which lasted for more than a hundred years, and was replaced by the Dome Tomb Dynasty after 1500 BC.

The main artifacts of the Shaft Tomb Dynasty are the two necropolises found inside and outside the Mycenae castle.There are many royal family tombs in the park, which contain rich gold and silver funerary objects, the number of which is rare in the world (only one of the tombs has as many as 870 pieces).

The level of craftsmanship is also very high, most of which are Cretan products, and some are from Egypt, Asia Minor, Syria and other places.This shows that the Maisi royal family and nobles may have served places such as Crete and Egypt as mercenary chiefs.With the close exchanges with overseas advanced civilization areas, Mycenae's economy and culture developed rapidly, and its national strength grew day by day.By the time of the Dome Dynasty, it had changed from following Crete to being a powerful country that could compete with it.The domed tomb is not a simple shaft tomb built underground like the shaft tomb, but a circular tomb is built by drilling rock and masonry on the ground, with a tomb passage in front, a high mound overlaid, and a conical roof inside, shaped like a honeycomb , so it is also called beehive tomb.The construction of this type of mausoleum requires high stone masonry engineering skills. Although its shape originated from Crete, it became increasingly grand in scale in Mycenae.The largest surviving dome tomb is 13.2 meters high inside, and the tomb door is 10 meters high. The aisle inside the door is covered with a huge stone weighing 120 tons, which shows the arduousness of the project.

While the Mycenaean civilization fully absorbed the Cretan civilization, it also had some characteristics of its own.For example, the castle is strong, the land combat capability is strong, horse-drawn chariots are preferred, and the spirit of martial arts is outstanding.As an integral part of the Aegean civilization, it is thriving and has the potential to replace Crete and come from behind.By 1450 BC, the Mycenaeans may have lived in the palace of Knossos through peaceful methods such as marriage and inheritance, which was a key step in the development of Mycenaean civilization.After Mycenae ruled Crete, it not only inherited the control of the Aegean commercial and trade network held by Crete, but also fully absorbed the heritage of Crete civilization.The original linear script of Crete is now used to write the Mycenaean language, forming the Mycenaean linear script (the former is commonly referred to as Linear A and the latter as Linear B in academic circles).From 1400 BC to 1200 BC, Mycenae reached the peak of its civilization.

The city of Mycenae is the center of Mycenaean civilization, located in the northeast of the Peloponnese Peninsula.Nearby is the city of Tiryns, a military fortress directly under Mycenae.They constituted the Mycenaean Kingdom, the most powerful of the Greek city-states.Other famous kingdoms include Sparta in the central Peloponnese and Paros in the west, as well as Athens and Thebes in Central Greece. They sometimes formed a military alliance for joint operations, with Mycenae as the leader.The Mycenae ruins discovered by archeology are mainly the castle where the king lived. Its city wall was built around the mountain with huge stones, up to 5 meters thick and 8 meters high, which is quite different from the Cretan royal palace building which has no defensive facilities.The castle has a majestic "Lion Gate" (named after the relief carved with two lions guarding a column), and a luxurious palace is built in the city.There is a vast urban area in the Pingchuan area below the castle, where rich merchants and craftsmen live, and its prosperity and wealth are no less than that of Knossos in Crete.In terms of overseas trade, Mycenae is even worse than Crete.

Mycenaean pottery has been unearthed in Egypt, Syria, Phoenicia, Cyprus, southern Italy, and the Libra Islands, all of which exceed the Cretan pottery found in various places.In the Aegean Sea region and mainland Greece, the distribution of the Mycenaean civilization is also more extensive and numerous than that of the Cretan civilization. More than 1000 local Mycenaean civilization sites, large and small, have been discovered.

Mycenaean Linear B has been interpreted successfully since 1952, proving that the Mycenaean language is a branch of Ancient Greek.Existing materials in Linear B do not reveal much about political history, and most of them are royal economic documents, which provide valuable information on the economy.These materials fully demonstrate that Mycenaean society is a slavery society.In Linear B, there is already a word for male slave and female slave, and its pronunciation is similar to the word slave in Greek in the future.In the documents of Paros, there are 631 women, 376 girls, and 261 boys in the category of slaves; the other category includes 370 female slaves, 149 male and 190 female slaves, and 1268 male and female slaves.The total counts of the two categories are 709 and [-] respectively.Although male slaves are not mentioned here, judging from other materials, there were also many male slaves.According to the size of the small country of Paros and the individual cases reflected in the documents, we can know that there were a large number of slaves at that time.In addition, the document also reflects the situation that the king and nobles occupied a lot of land, but the peasants occupied very little land, and the peasants were also brutally exploited by the ruler.These circumstances show that Mycenaean society, like Crete, is similar to the slavery kingdom in the East.

The Mycenaean civilization has gradually declined since 1200 BC.The myths and legends of ancient Greece vaguely mentioned that at this time, dynasties changed frequently and wars followed. Archaeological materials also reflect that the quality of pottery has declined and production has shrunk, and the harassment of "sea tribes" has severely affected international trade.Economic decline may force rulers to rely on force to plunder, so wars between countries and cities have intensified, the most famous of which was the war between the Greek League and the wealthy city of Trox in Asia Minor.This battle lasted for 10 years. In the end, although the Greek coalition forces captured the city of Trox, they actually suffered losses for both sides.The victorious Greek countries (led by Mycenae) were all exhausted and seriously injured, and finally could not escape the bad luck of "the oriole is behind":

The Greek countries have always been difficult to recover, so they provided an opportunity for the Dorians in the north. They went south one after another, conquered the city, and gradually conquered the countries of Central Greece and the Peloponnese except Athens, announcing the demise of the Mycenaean civilization .

About the Mystery of the Broken Arm of Venus

"Broken Arm Venus" is a symbol of beauty and a model of incomplete beauty.Attempts to replace her missing arm were unsuccessful.Little did they know that when people discovered her, she didn't lack arms, and in order to fight for her ownership, several parties even fought.Is it for art and beauty?

The ancient Greeks were the pioneers of female nude art, and also the source of the existence and development of female nude art in the future.

In ancient Greek mythology, there is a goddess of love, the ancient Greeks used to call it Aphrodite, and the ancient Romans called it Venus.She is extremely glamorous and very romantic, and is in charge of six duties including the reproduction of animals and plants and human love.Western sculpture art regards her as a model of female beauty.It is said that the birth of Venus stemmed from Cronus's hatred of the exuberant lust of the god Uranus: when night fell and the gods spread their limbs to embrace the mother goddess Gala as always, Cronus, who was lying in ambush, held up The scythe in his hand, cut off his genitals, and threw it angrily into the rolling sea; the thing had been adrift for a long time, when suddenly a white spray spread around the immortal mass, The beautiful girl Venus was born in the waves.

When Venus was born, she was not born with a broken arm, nor was she naked, and she was not always regarded as the embodiment of beauty in the hearts of Westerners.So, how did Venus lose his arm?How did she conquer the hearts of Westerners step by step and become a symbol of ideal female beauty in their hearts?
Now, archaeologists have sorted out Venus' experience in the world, which is a story full of romance and legend.

At the beginning of the 5th century BC, the scene of the birth of Venus in the sea entered the statue art; although male nudity was regarded as a symbol of artistic beauty in ancient Greece, the artistic image of nude women has not yet appeared.

Therefore, although the goddess in the statue is beautiful, the ancient Greeks still put on thin clothes for her.

At the end of the 19th century, the appearance of the statue of "Venus the Ancestor" marked the beginning of the exposure of Venus in art.The goddess in the statue seems to let the clothes off her shoulders inadvertently, exposing a breast, her gentle eyes and soft clothes are the exterior and interior of each other, and she is a vivid portrayal of an ancient Greek woman.

Although she is short in stature, with high hips, small breasts, and thicker waist and ankles, she is the image of a strong woman in the countryside along the Mediterranean Sea, but she is the first goddess to walk naked to the ancient Greeks.This nude statue shocked people at the time.

In the Western art world, Phidias, Myron, and Policles are well-known sculpture masters, but they have not set foot in the field of female nudes.In the period of Prakhit, it bloomed with vitality.

His most famous is "Venus of Nidos", which is a beautiful goddess with a naked body, a joyful expression, and gentle eyes.The Nidos liked it very much, and placed it carefully on the temple of Cupid.

The ancient Greeks, who were used to seeing male nudes, suddenly found that female nudes were also very attractive. Poets and writers expressed their admiration in words.

It is said that an ancient Greek writer and his companions once visited the temple, and they were all touched by the beauty of the goddess statue. One person couldn't help but jumped up, hugged the goddess' neck eagerly and shed tears, so that he stood by The priest was dumbfounded.And Gennemedes, king of Bicynia, was also fascinated by it.He offered that, in exchange for the statue of the goddess, the debt owed by the Nidos would be forgiven.But the Nidos, who also love beauty, would rather endure the torment of debt than sell their beautiful statues of goddesses.

Plato called it "Heavenly Venus" and "Secular Venus" in "Symposium", and this concept has continued into modern times.But in Prakhit the two are fused into one.His Venus is both seductive and sexy, but also has a divine solemnity.His statue was imitated and copied by countless descendants.There are 49 replicas of "Venus of Nidos" that have been handed down to the present. Many works are exaggerated and artificial, lacking a sense of rhythm as a whole, but they cater to the aesthetics of the people at that time.Among them, "Venus of the Medici" is especially regarded by the Winkelmans as a model of female beauty. Byron also wrote poems praising this statue in "Harold".

In the history of art, there has been a problem that has plagued sculptors for a long time: the torso of a portrait, a unity with a perfect shape, can only be supported by long, tapering legs. Can a more secure way be found to make up for it? What about this deficiency?

Prakhit managed to solve this problem: he wrapped the costume around his legs, leaving only his upper body bare.In this way, the statue no longer needs any support, and the arms can freely pose in various poses.In the reproduction "Venus of Capua" we can see statues in this style.In the 4th century BC, with the glory of female nude statues, male statues were eclipsed.At the end of the 2nd century BC, the last great work of the ancient Greek era, "Venus de Milo", appeared.This work travels through time and space and becomes a symbol of the ideal beauty of women that people all over the world pursue.Afterwards, with the advent of the era of Christian dominance, nude art gradually disappeared.

(End of this chapter)