Editing Minoan civilization (section)

== Warfare and the "Minoan peace" ==
[[File:Assembly on the hill and the shipwreck, fresco from Akrotiri, 17th c BC, PMTh, 226357.jpg|thumb|[[Boar's tusk helmet]]s are worn by the warriors depicted in the fresco fragment from Akrotiri]]

Early excavators such as Arthur Evans proposed that there was little internal armed conflict in Minoan Crete until the Mycenaean period.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Niemeier | first1 = W.-B. | title = Mycenaean Knossos and the Age of Linear B | journal = Studi Micenei ed Egeoanatolici | volume = 1982 | page = 275 }}</ref> However, subsequent scholarship has questioned this interpretation.<ref>{{cite web |title=Pax Minoica in Aegean |url=https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/46418/pax-minoica-in-aegean/ |publisher=News – ekathimerini.com}}</ref><ref>Alexiou wrote of fortifications and acropolises in Minoan Crete, in ''Kretologia'' '''8''' (1979), pp. 41–56, and especially in C.G. Starr, "Minoan flower-lovers" in ''The Minoan Thalassocracy: Myth and Reality'' R. Hägg and N. Marinatos, eds. (Stockholm) 1994, pp. 9–12.</ref>

No evidence has been found of a Minoan army or the Minoan domination of peoples beyond Crete. Evans believed that the Minoans had some kind of overlordship of at least parts of Mycenaean Greece in the [[Neopalatial Period]], but it is now very widely agreed that the opposite was the case, with a Mycenaean elite clearly ruling Knossos from around 1450{{nbsp}}BC. Few signs of warfare appear in Minoan art: "Although a few archaeologists see war scenes in a few pieces of Minoan art, others interpret even these scenes as festivals, sacred dance, or sports events" (Studebaker, 2004, p.&nbsp;27). Although armed warriors are depicted as stabbed in the throat with swords, the violence may be part of a ritual or blood sport.{{citation needed|date=April 2017}}

[[Nanno Marinatos]] argued that the Neopalatial Minoans had a "powerful navy" that made them a desirable ally to have in Mediterranean power politics, at least by the 14th century as "vassals of the pharaoh", leading Cretan tribute-bearers to be depicted on Egyptian tombs such as those of the top officials [[Rekmire]] and [[Senmut]].<ref>Marinatos (2010), 4-5</ref>

On mainland Greece during the [[Grave Circle A, Mycenae|shaft-grave era]] at Mycenae, there is little evidence for major Mycenaean fortifications; the citadels follow the destruction of nearly all neopalatial Cretan sites. Warfare by other contemporaries of the ancient Minoans, such as the Egyptians and the [[Hittites]], is well-documented.

=== {{anchor|Recent skepticism|Weaponry}}Warfare ===
[[File:Young boxers fresco, Akrotiri, Greece.jpg|thumb|[[Akrotiri Boxer Fresco]]]]

Despite finding ruined watchtowers and fortification walls,<ref>Gere, ''Knossos and the Prophets of Modernism''</ref> Evans said that there was little evidence of ancient Minoan fortifications. According to [[Stylianos Alexiou]] (in ''Kretologia'' 8), a number of sites (especially early and middle Minoan sites such as Aghia Photia) are built on hilltops or otherwise fortified.{{Full citation needed|date=April 2017}} [[Lucia Nixon]] wrote:
{{blockquote|We may have been over-influenced by the lack of what we might think of as solid fortifications to assess the archaeological evidence properly. As in so many other instances, we may not have been looking for evidence in the right places, and therefore we may not end with a correct assessment of the Minoans and their ability to avoid war.{{Sfn|Nixon|1983}}}}

Chester Starr said in "Minoan Flower Lovers" that since [[Shang dynasty|Shang China]] and the [[Maya civilization|Maya]] had unfortified centers and engaged in frontier struggles, a lack of fortifications alone does not prove that the Minoans were a peaceful civilization unparalleled in history.<ref>{{cite book|last=Starr|first=Chester|author-link=Chester Starr|editor=Robin Hägg, Nanno Marinatos|title=The Minoan Thalassocracy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s1JoAAAAMAAJ|series=Skrifter utgivna av Svenska institutet i Athen, 4o|volume=32|year=1984|publisher=Svenska institutet i Athen|location=Stockholm|isbn=978-91-85086-78-8|pages=9–12}}</ref> In 1998, when Minoan archaeologists met in a Belgian conference to discuss the possibility that the Pax Minoica was outdated, evidence of Minoan war was still scanty. According to Jan Driessen, the Minoans frequently depicted "weapons" in their art in a ritual context:
{{blockquote|The construction of fortified sites is often assumed to reflect a threat of warfare, but such fortified centres were multifunctional; they were also often the embodiment or material expression of the central places of the territories at the same time as being monuments glorifying and merging leading power.{{sfn|Driessen|1999}}}}

[[Stella Chryssoulaki]]'s work on small outposts (or guardhouses) in eastern Crete indicates a possible defensive system; type A (high-quality) Minoan swords were found in the palaces of Mallia and Zarkos (see Sanders, AJA 65, 67, Hoeckmann, JRGZM 27, or Rehak and Younger, AJA 102).{{Full citation needed|date=April 2017}} [[Keith Branigan]] estimated that 95 percent of Minoan "weapons" had [[hafting]] ([[hilt]]s or handles) which would have prevented their use as such.{{sfn|Branigan|1999|pp=87–94}} However, tests of replicas indicated that the weapons could cut flesh down to the bone (and score the bone's surface) without damaging the weapons themselves.<ref>{{cite book|last1=D'Amato|first1=Raffaele|last2=Salimbeti|first2=Andrea|title=Early Aegean Warrior 5000–1450{{nbsp}}BC|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NY7vCwAAQBAJ|year=2013|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-78096-860-5}}</ref> According to Paul Rehak, Minoan figure-eight shields could not have been used for fighting or hunting, since they were too cumbersome.{{sfn|Rehak|1999}} Although Cheryl Floyd concluded that Minoan "weapons" were tools used for mundane tasks such as meat processing,{{sfn|Floyd|1999}} Middle Minoan "[[rapier]]s nearly three feet in length" have been found.<ref>Hood (1971)</ref>

Charles Gates argues that the absence of warfare in Minoan art does not prove it did not occur because there is no correlation between a society's artistic depiction of warfare and how often said society is involved in conflict.<ref>Gates, Charles. ''Why are there no scenes of warfare in Minoan art?'', Polemos: Le Contexte Guerrier en Égée à L'âge du Bronze, Aegaeum: annals of Aegean archaeology of the University of Liège, 1999, pp.277-283</ref> Barry Molloy states that artwork is an unreliable guide to a society's behaviour, using the example that frescoes recovered prior to the Late Minoan period seldom depict people interacting with each other yet this should not be taken as evidence that Minoans rarely did so. Molloy further argues that the lack of fortifications could be attributed to Crete's rugged topography, which would have provided a significant natural defensive advantage; Molloy argues that the guardhouses could have been used to secure narrow roads through Crete.<ref>Molloy, Barry PC. "Martial Minoans? War as social process, practice and event in Bronze Age Crete." Annual of the British School at Athens 107 (2012): 87-142, pp.96-97, 107</ref>

About Minoan warfare, Branigan concluded:

{{ blockquote
| The quantity of weaponry, the impressive fortifications, and the aggressive looking long-boats all suggested an era of intensified hostilities. But on closer inspection there are grounds for thinking that all three key elements are bound up as much with status statements, display, and fashion as with aggression;... Warfare such as there was in the southern Aegean [[early Bronze Age]] was either personalized and perhaps ritualized (in Crete) or small-scale, intermittent and essentially an economic activity (in the [[Cyclades]] and the [[Argolid]]/[[Attica]]).{{sfn|Branigan|1999|p=92}}
}}

Archaeologist [[Olga Krzyszkowska]] agreed: "The stark fact is that for the prehistoric Aegean we have no direct evidence for war and warfare ''per se''."{{sfn|Krzyszkowska|1999}}