Archaeological Evidence ~ Minoan Astronomy Quite Advanced During The 2nd Millennium B.c.

Archaeological evidence

suggests that Minoan Astronomy had been quite advanced

during the 2nd millennium B.C.


Of the three great cultures of the ancient eastern Mediterranean
— the Babylonian, Egyptian, and Minoan
— we have considerable knowledge of the astronomy
of the first two through their documents.
Very little written material, however, has survived
from Minoan Crete, but the evidence of other impressive
archaeological discoveries implies that the inhabitants
were on a par with their neighbors
and had made similar advances in astronomy.

Our knowledge of Minoan astronomy is based on the study
of a selection of the different types of Minoan buildings
dating from Middle Minoan I to Late Minoan I (ca 2000–1450 BCE).

There are problems in assigning later monuments to either the Minoans
or the Mycenaeans due to the complex problem of the role of the Mycenaean population in the island.

The florescence of Minoan culture was Late Minoan I
(ca 1650–1450 BCE) and by that time, Minoan astronomy,
being centuries old, would have reached its apogee.
The following monuments were selected:
the six peak sanctuaries with foundation walls
(Petsophas, Traostalos, Modi, Juktas, Philioremos, and Pyrgos),
the four large palaces (Zakros, Malia, Knossos, and Phaistos),
five villas (the Southeast house at Knossos, Vathypetro, Tylissos A,
Tylissos B, and Agia Triada), two small houses with cult equipment
at the village of Gournia, and the unique oval house at Chamaizi
– 18 buildings at 15 sites (Figure below).

The comprehensive Aerial atlas of ancient Crete (Myers et al. 1992)
has 26 Minoan sites with Middle Minoan and Late Minoan I foundations,
including 16 non-attached villas.

The remaining 18 entries in the Atlas are later than Late Minoan I
or are graves and Greek sites.

The peak sanctuaries are not included in the Atlas,
and a few other sites are excluded for technical reasons.

The monuments we have selected are a good cross-section
of those available, and all of those chosen turned out
to have a precise relationship to one or more celestial bodies
useful for constructing calendars.

This makes them reliable as contributors to Minoan astronomy.

The peak sanctuaries, located on mountain tops near Minoan settlements,
would have made excellent observation places and all with remaining walls
were chosen.

The term “sanctuary” has come into use because
of vague similarities to later Greek cults,
but the role of peak sanctuaries as vantage points
for sky watching could have made them sacred places
for the Minoans.

There may be some indication of this on the inscription in Linear A
on a small libation bowl found at Petsophas with the name
or attribute of a goddess derived from mena (the moon).

The peak sanctuaries all look out over the sea,
and the many small, roughly made terracotta figurines
found in and around them remind us of Aratos’ descriptions
of the constellations as they became visible during their risings
and settings.

His account of the positions of a number of the stars was valid
for the Minoan period and is believed to belong to a tradition
dating back to that time.

It is probable that the peaks were used as observatories
by Minoan astronomers, and that the figurines were used
as teaching aids in the construction of a mental map of the sky.

From the investigation of the peak sanctuaries,
a number of features were recognized as characteristic
for Minoan astronomy:

1. The great majority of the main rooms of buildings were oriented to a horizon position of the sun or moon that is important in a solar or lunar calendar: seven to sunrise or sunset at the equinoxes, three to sunrise at the summer solstice, one to sunrise at the winter solstice, one to moonrise at the southern major standstill limit, and five to the first day of the 8 months of the solar year not signified by sunrise and sunset at the equinoxes and the solstices. Four buildings have orientations to more than one major calendar horizon position and five had orientations to the heliacal rising or setting of Arcturus or Canopus.

2. The buildings were closely aligned to the celestial bodies
intentionally and not to a geographical feature.
For example, at Petsophas, the sun had risen directly
behind the highest peak on Karpathos in the Early Bronze Age,
but when the present building was built in the Middle Bronze Age
(ca 2000 BCE), the orientation of the axis of symmetry
of the room was to the sun, which rose south of the peak (Figure below).
Theoretically calculated position of sunrise at the summer solstice
above Kali Limni
(elevation 1215 m), Karpathos in 2000 BCE and 2000 CE

3. Orientations were usually marked by a natural or an artificial foresight,
i.e., a prominent natural feature such as a mountain peak
or a manmade construction such as a column.

This indicates that the alignment of buildings
to the celestial bodies was of vital importance in Minoan cosmology, connecting their world to the celestial sphere.

4. The 11-day difference between the 12-month lunar year
and the yearly cycle of the sun was known and used
(orientations at three sites: Petsophas, Knossos and Juktas).

For example, if the new moon occurred in the 11 days
following the heliacal rising of Arcturus at Petsophas,
which occurred one moon month before the autumn equinox,
then a moon month should have been added that year in order
to keep the cycles of the sun and the moon commensurate
within the larger cycles of 8 or 19 years.

This 11-day difference was well marked in the calendar regulator found at Knossos.

The orientations to important calendar points that existed
between all Minoan buildings that were investigated
reveal that the construction of calendars was a primary goal
of Minoan astronomy.

This presupposes a longstanding tradition of sky watching
and recording with respect to the sun, the moon,
and the bright stars that began probably as early
as the beginning of the third millennium BCE.

The orientations to Arcturus at four sites reveal
also the Minoan use of this important calendar star
for the agricultural year, as it was later used by the Greeks.

There is no evidence of interest in the planets.

By the end of the third millennium BCE, the Minoan astronomers
had acquired a deep understanding of the motions of the sun
and the moon and were able to construct both a lunar
and a solar calendar that could be kept accurate through time
by simple methods.

There are the archaeological remnants of a calendar regulator
that had once functioned
– and still functions
– in the most sacred part of the old palace at Knossos
(Henriksson and Blomberg 2011).

It consisted of an alabaster bowl embedded in the floor
in the darkest part of the Central Palace Sanctuary (Figure below).

The stone was placed such that sunrise on the morning
of the equinoxes shone through the northern side of the door
and struck the bowl.

11 days after the autumn equinox,
the sun’s rays reached the bowl for the last time
until 11 days before the spring equinox.
The alabaster bowl in the Central Palace Sanctuary at Knossos
There are the natural foresight of the Ailias Ridge
and the artificial foresights of the north and south door frames
(Figure below).

When the bowl is filled with a liquid, a reflection
is cast for about 10 min on the west wall of the Sanctuary
on the 11 days after the autumn equinox and before the spring equinox
when the sun strikes the bowl at sunrise.

The reflection becomes lenticular in shape as the sun rises higher,
and it reaches its largest size after about 4–5 min.

There is a somewhat worn lenticular depression
of similar size in the wall exactly at the site of the reflection.
Sunrise at the autumn equinox and 11 days later at Knossos

It was probably incised to indicate its place after future refurbishing
of the stucco, which was the usual covering of Minoan walls.

The stone is now much worn, as the Sanctuary in which it was placed
was altered by the Mycenaeans when they took over the palace
(ca 1450 BCE), and a corridor was built in the area of the stone
leading through a newly cut door into the storage magazines
to the west.

The reflection at sunrise on the morning of the equinoxes
is larger when the sun is closer to the true equinox
and it is cast in a cycle of 365 days for 3 consecutive years,
but not until the 366th day in the fourth year (Figure below).

The size of the reflection at sunrise on four consecutive autumn equinoxes
in a cycle of 365 days in 3 years and 366 days in the fourth year

The Minoans must have realized that an intercalary day
should be added every fourth year to maintain a calendar
that always started at the autumn equinox.

The reflection differs in size from year to year due to the varying distance
of the sun from the true equinox and is larger, the closer the sun
is to the true equinox.

This is a calendar regulator for both a lunar and a solar calendar
and is located in what was probably the most sacred room
in Minoan Crete.

The orientation on the 11 days before or after an equinox
was a method for knowing when a moon month
should be added to the lunar calendar
(Henriksson and Blomberg 2011).

The autumn equinox, rather than the spring equinox,
is indicated not only at Knossos but also at Petsophas
and at Juktas (Blomberg et al. 2002).

Our constellation of Orion dominated the eastern sky
opposite the Sanctuary at the autumn equinox in the Middle Bronze Age,
and it is probable that its brightest stars formed the constellation
of the double axe – the most important Minoan symbol.

The double axe is engraved in the southern wall of the Sanctuary,
and the shadow on the wall at sunrise at the equinoxes
touches its upper point (Figure below).

This makes it probable that the Sanctuary was not only devoted
to the mechanical regulator of the calendars,
but also was important in celebrating some aspect of Minoan religion.

The hypothesized Minoan double axe constellation
would have dominated the sky opposite the Central Palace Sanctuary
at the autumn equinox, 23:38 local mean solar time,
21 September 2000 BCE

The orientation of the ceremonial rooms of the palace at Zakros
to moonrise at the southern major standstill limit may reveal
that the Minoans understood the importance of the 19-year cycle of the moon,
when the moon will recur with the same phase on the same day
of the solar year marking a nearly even cycle of 19 solar years
and 235 synodic months.

According to the frescos of large sailing ships on Thera,
we can infer that Minoan astronomy incorporated the detailed knowledge
of the motions of the stars that made navigation possible.

Recent research in the eastern Mediterranean pushes the knowledge
of navigation back into the Paleolithic period (Strasser et al. 2010).

This could lend support to hypotheses that the Minoans
had achieved enough knowledge of the motions of the stars
to navigate to Crete at the beginning of the seventh millennium.

(Source: “Minoan Astronomy”, by Mary Blomberg and Göran Henriksson)



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