Every Day Is Special: Minoan civilization

Showing posts with label Minoan civilization. Show all posts

October 11 - Happy Birthday, Harriet Boyd-Hawes

Posted on October 11, 2021

This is an update of my post published on October 11, 2010:

Born on this day in 1871, in Boston, Massachusetts, Harriet Boyd-Hawes became a nurse and relief worker - and an archeologist! She did graduate work in Athens, Greece, and also volunteered her nursing skills during the Greco-Turkish war. She wanted to work on the university's archeological dig, but as a woman she faced the usual advice—no, stay here indoors, become an academic librarian. She decided to go off on her own to the island of Crete to look for archeological remains.

That was a brave move, because the war had only just stopped, and things weren't too stable on Crete.

Boyd-Hawes discovered a Minoan settlement and palace site and became known for her archeological expertise. She is listed as the first director of an archeological excavation to discover Early Bronze Age Minoan remains and as the first woman to head up an archeological excavation. (She had more than 100 people working under her lead, at one point.)

The Minoan civilization began and flourished on the island
of Crete, nestled in the middle of the Mediterranean
Sea, almost equidistant from Europe (Greece), Asia
(Turkey), and Africa (Libya and Egypt).

Boyd-Hawes ended up teaching Greek archeology at a university, making many more discoveries on Crete, and becoming the first woman to speak at the Archeological Institute of America. All while she was raising her family with her archeologist/university professor husband!

During World War I, Boyd-Hawes went to Corfu with supplies for the Serbian army and wounded, and then went on to help the wounded in France.

Today is my birthday, too, and I am definitely proud to share my special day with Harriet Boyd-Hawes!

Learn about...

...the Minoan civilization...

...Ancient Greece

...and archeology.

Also on this date:

National Food Truck Day

General Pulasky Memorial Day

Birthday of educator Salman Khan

Birthday of Eleanor Roosevelt

Day of the Girl

Mathematician Lewis F. Richards's birthday

Anti-fascist Uprising Day in Macedonia

Kraken Day

Southern Food Heritage Day

Columbus Day, aka Discovery Day
(Second Monday of October)

National Day of Mourning, aka
Indigenous People's Day, aka
Dia de la Raza
(Second Monday of October)

Native American Day in South Dakota
(Second Monday of October)

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

November holidays
November birthdays
Historical anniversaries in November

July 12, 2011 - Happy Birthday, Michael Ventris

An archeologist named Sir Arthur Evans had discovered clay tablets on the island of Crete, near Greece. There were lots and lots of written records of some sort on those tablets—but in an unknown language, written with unknown symbols. After studying the tablets, Evans and other scholars realized that there seemed to be two different “scripts,” or sets of symbols. They were called Linear A and Linear B. Evans was sure that both scripts encoded the ancient language he called Minoan.

But, despite the efforts of scholars, nobody could read the tablets. For 50 years the ancient scripts remained a mystery.

Enter Michael Ventris, an English architect and cryptographer. Born on this day in 1922, Ventris was the guy who, along with John Chadwick, figured out Linear B.

Have you ever tried solving a cryptogram? You need an “in,” a way to start deciphering a code or an unknown language. If there is a picture or map near the unknown writing, that can help give context. In the case of Linear B, Ventris had two “ins.” One was a suggestion by archeologist Alice Kober that some words seemed to be the same word with different endings. In English we have that situation when we make a noun plural (such as elephant, elephants) or when we conjugate a verb (such as wash, washes, washed). The other “in” was Ventris's flash of insight that some words were names of towns in Crete.

One of the things that made it tough to decipher Linear B was the assumption that it encoded the ancient Minoan language. Since many tablets were found on Crete (some were found elsewhere in Greece), and since many of the symbols were identical or similar to symbols in the older script called Linear A, it made sense to make this assumption. However, once Ventris made some progress with decoding town names, he realized that the language of Linear B was an early form of Greek. With this realization, a lot more progress on deciphering the tablets could be made.

The script called Linear A has never been deciphered. Scholars assume it actually is used to write the unknown Minoan language. We have never found an “in” to figure that script out!

Check out Mr. Donn's pages on the Minoan civilization. You can explore the story of the Minotaur in the labyrinth (a maze), and you can try solving some mazes! There are some other ancient stories as well.

This short You Tube video tells about the collapse of the Minoan civilization. Not sure how accurate it is—maybe it can inspire you to read further!

Try your hand at solving cryptograms! I found this puzzle site easy to use.

October 11, 2010

Happy Birthday, Harriet Boyd-Hawes (and me!)

Born on this day in 1871, in Boston, Massachusetts, Boyd-Hawes became a nurse and relief worker and an archeologist. She did graduate work in Athens, Greece, and also volunteered her nursing skills during the Greco-Turkish war. She wanted to work on the university's archeological dig, but as a woman she faced the usual advice—no, stay here indoors, become an academic librarian. She decided to go off on her own to the island of Crete to look for archeological remains.

That was a brave move, because the war had only just stopped, and things weren't too stable on Crete.

She discovered a Minoan settlement and palace site and became known for her archeological expertise. She is listed as the first director of an archeological excavation to discover Early Bronze Age Minoan remains and as the first woman to head up an archeological excavation. (She had more than 100 people working under her lead, at one point.)