This unparalleled exhibition in the Karlsruhe Castle is divided into several categories which will illustrate life as it was in Minoan Crete. Exhibition visitors will gain insight into myths, sacred and religious cults, palace culture, daily life, sea and trade relationships, and Minoan-Mykenian Crete after the first invasions from the mainland.

Nineteen essays give an excellent overview on art, religion, trade, administration and architecture in minoan crete. Investigations show the last results of research on jewellery, signets as well as on the first language in the european. Crosscultural relationships between early civilisations in the mediteranean are discussed by focusing on the central role of long distance trade with its currency and its system of weight as well as by focusing on the minoan religion and culture, which has been seen as a matriachal structure more than once.
A scientific approach is used on investigating the climatic and geographical issues concerning the vulcanic catastrophy of Thera/Santorini (ca. 1430 B.C.). New Results are presented on minoan eating habits and medical knowlegde. Last not least a portrait is drawn of Sir Arthur J. Evans, the charismatic excavator of Knossos, whose work on prehistoric aegaean archaeology has influenced all generations following.
The catalogue part presents 470 pieces in text and image. They are shown in Germany for the first time and a big share of them is previously unpublished. They illustrate the developement of minoan culture from early times in the third millenium B.C., the flourishment during the Palastzeit until the fall at the end of the second millenium B.C.. Ceramics, statuettes, fragments of frescoes, sarcophagus, jewellery, signets and tools show the craftsmenship of the minoan people and allow some insight on minoan daily life.




»Die Ausstellung vermittelt einen Eindruck von der enormen Leistung der Minoer«
Schwarzwälder Bote

»Das Badische Landesmuseum Karlsruhe zeigt . . . die größte Schau über minoische Kunst und Kultur, die bisher außerhalb Griechenlands zu sehen war. Rund 500 teils noch nie ausgestellte Exponate vorwiegend aus kretischen Museen vermitteln ein anschauliches Bild des Lebens der Minoer. . . . Hervorzuheben ist der sorgfältig gemachte, sehr verständlicehe Katalog, der ohne Übertreibung als ein Standardwrk über Geschichte und Kultur Kretas gelten kann.«
Schwarzwälder Bote

2000.
400 pp., 675 figs.
ISBN 3-930609-26-6
EUR 40,-