Comprehensive Architectural Lexicon, Knossos & Mycenae (Part A)

Comprehensive Architectural Lexicon, Knossos & Mycenae (Part A):



Since I have been posting scores of photos of the magnificent Third Palace of Knossos, Late Minoan IIIb (ca. 1450 BCE), I have decided to compile an Architectural Lexicon in 2 parts. This is the first. The vocabulary is relatively straightforward, with a few minor exceptions:
1 Decorated with spirals. The Minoans at Knossos and the Mycenaeans went crazy decorating many of their lovely frescoes and their walls with spirals.
2 Bathtub. You might be wondering, why on earth would I add this word?... because bathtubs were an integral part of room architecture, i.e. of the bathroom. The people of Knossos in particular were very clean. They even had an advanced hydraulics driven piping and drainage system, the likes of which was never again repeated until ancient Rome. And the Romans, unlike the Minoans at Knossos, made the terrible mistake of constructing their pipes of lead, leading to widespread lead poisoning. The Minoans used ceramics... nice and clean. Clever. No surprise there.
3 Mantles! Isn’t that what people wear? Well, yes, but they could also be used to decorate the top of windows, I imagine. Or maybe it is just my imagination. Correct me if I am wrong.
4 The word erepato, which  is the equivalent of the Homeric Greek elefantos never means ivory either in Mycenaean or in Homeric Greek!
5 Crocus? - of course! ... used all over the place in the lovely frescoes!
6 Circles were likewise universal on the building friezes. And with good reason. They are geometrically perfect, a typically Greek characteristic.

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Mycenaean Greece & Linear B, our NEW Circle on Google +

Mycenaean Greece & Linear B, our NEW Circle on Google + Click to VISIT & Join:



Welcome to Mycenaean Greece & Linear B, our new Circle on Google +, and the only one of its kind. We shall be posting a great many Linear B tablets, photos, illustrations, tables, charts, graphics, etc. here so you will not want to miss our great new Google + Circle, and I suspect that many of you will certainly want to join. We shall also be posting information, photos and the like on Arcado-Cypriot Linear C, The Catalogue of Ships in Book II of the Iliad by Homer, ancient East Greek dialects (Mycenaean, Arcado-Cypriot, Aeolic, Ionic & Attic), and any other information we deem  relevant.

So if you are at all interested in these areas of interest and research into ancient Greek studies, linguistic or otherwise, and ancient Greece itself, you will probably want to join our circle.

Thanks

Richard