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Crete's Archaeological Museum of Herakleion Page Two

Room 1

minoan bee jeweleryNeolithic and Early Minoan periods. From around 6000 B.C. to Early Minoan phase (Pre-Palatial period). A Neolithic fertility goddess among the statuettes. Stone jars, pottery, miniature sculpture including a clay bull with acrobats clutching its horns (related to later bull sports) Engraved seal stones, including one from Mesopotamia. Jewelry.

Room 2

Middle Minoan period. Objects from earliest occupation of Malia and Knossos. Miniature glazed reliefs of Minoan houses at Knossos ('the town mosaic') ; devotional offerings from sanctuaries including figurines with arms crossed on the chest, tiny animals, and 'taximata' or representations of parts of the human body which needed healing (something one can see in Greek chapels and churches of present times; Kamares ware pottery, often with intricate white and red decoration on a darker background, which was esteemed highly by the Egyptians.

Room 3

Same periods as Room 2, but at Phaestos. Most elaborate Kamares ware pottery, (discovered in and name for sacred caves of Kamares) which reached its acme at Phaestos, and exemplified by a vase with white flowers in bas relief which is part of a set used for royal banquets.

Famous Phaestos disc with 242 hieroglyphic symbols inscribed in spiral pattern from edge to center which were stamped on the clay with sealstones before the disc was fired and cited by many as first example of printing. Symbols as of yet undeciphered but the grouping of signs has been interpreted as scholars to represent words, possibly prayers.

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