Minoans: Life in Bronze Age Crete

by Rodney Castleden

Book Overview

Thoroughly researched, Rodney Castleden's Minoans: Life in Bronze Age Crete here sues the results of recent research to produce a comprehensive new vision of the peoples of Minoan Crete.

Since Sir Arthur Evans rediscovered the Minoans in the early 1900s, we have defined a series of cultural traits that make the 'Minoan personality' elegant, graceful and sophisticated, these nature lovers lived in harmony with their neighbours, while their...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 041508833X
• ISBN13: 9780415088336
• Release Date: December 1992
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

An excellent, modern book, both scholarly and accessible.

Books about ancient cultures tend to be either slightly soft-focus and "fluffy" or dry and almost excessively scholarly; neither approach succeeds in bringing a culture to vivid life for the interested lay reader. This book, however, does just that. It has scholarly evidence in detail, but also fleshed-out conclusions, and unflinchingly looks even at evidence that doesn't "fit" our modern image of ancient peoples we want to like, in its quest to bring us a living, breathing image of the Minoans. (It also has illustrations in plenty; I feel a bit juvenile to admit this, but I very much appreciate illustrations, as no verbal description can quite convey the brushstrokes, the maze-like floor plans, the quality of line.)It's not a perfect book---I agree with another reviewer who complained that people probably had more houses and fewer temples than Mr. Castleden concludes ---but it is an excellent one, especially for an "armchair archaeologist".

All the facts are there for you to explore today. Idid .

Well done Rodney .What a fasinating insight into the ancient Cretan world