Showing posts with label Minoan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Minoan. Show all posts

Friday, October 14, 2011

My Kingdom for a Writing System!


Again, Friday morning finds me returning* to the mountainous island of Crete, to visit the ancient woody kingdom of the Minoans.  This time, though, I’m here to look at ancient writing, not ancient speaking. 

*I wish! An island vacation sounds amazing right now…

Is this a language?  Good question!

Friday, October 7, 2011

Quoting the Iliad


Let me start by saying that I can take no credit for finding someone to interview.  After my best efforts, I had found a few people who qualified as people I could interview, but for various reasons, I was unable to set any kind of appointment with them.  Wednesday morning, discouraged, I asked in my morning prayer for help finding someone to interview.  My first class that morning was Book of Mormon with Doctor Seely, and during our class, that discussion ended up (somehow) on oral functions in the Book of Mormon, and Brother Seely actually recited the introduction to the Iliad in Greek.  Talk about answers to prayers, right?
(This is a reconstruction; Minoan palaces don't look like this anymore.)

Friday, September 30, 2011

Effectively Ending a Culture


How do we know anything about a culture that once almost completely disappeared?  Limited sources of information make it difficult to define the culture with any accuracy.  It just so happens that the culture I am going to discuss today is such a culture: the Minoan civilization, which disappeared more than a thousand years before the beginning of the Christian era.