Ancient Cretan Women’s Fashion: Dressing Like a Minoan 👗

A well researched article for anyone interested in the Ancient Minoans.

Minoan Magissa

The Fashion-Savvy People of Keftiu

Between the beautiful frescoes that adorned palace walls and unique statuettes, we can get a solid idea of Minoan women’s fashion sense. As with most fabrics, they’ve long disintegrated; however, some linen (potentially imported from Egypt) was found in a tomb from the Pre-Palatial Period at the site of Mochlos. Speaking of Egypt, considerable evidence of Minoan attire stemmed from their detailed depictions. For instance, at Thebes (Egypt’s capital during the 18^th Dynasty), there were numerous frescoes found of “Aegean foreigners” from Keftiu (what Egyptians called Crete).

^{Minoan Style Replicas: Reconstruction of the Clothes of Women from the Minoan Era in Crete by Dr. Bernice Jones}

What Minoan Women (and Some Men) Wore: Clothing

Three words come to mind when it comes to Minoan women’s attire: elaborate, vibrant, and multilayered. Long skirts with girdles encircling the waist and

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Honoring My Cretan Ancestors with a Minoan-inspired Ritual

Minoan Magissa

For my 33rd birthday, I decided to honor my Cretan ancestors by conducting a Minoan-inspired ritual. I place emphasis on the word inspired because we don’t know the full scope of Minoan religion, but we are aware of quite a bit from frescoes, statues, and other archeological findings. Therefore, I integrated a mix of my research, Cretan traditions, and intuition. Speaking of ancestry, I’ll devote an entire post to a DNA study that connects modern day Cretans to the Minoans, especially from the maternal line, so stay on the lookout for that.

Offerings

Based off residue found in various storage vessels throughout Knossos and other palaces, we more or less know what the Minoan’s ate. So, with that in mind, I filled a bowl with kalamata olives from Crete (you’d be surprised how easy it is to…

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The Minoan Mother Goddess

Minoan Magissa

Multifaceted Goddess or Many Deities?

According to numerous scholars, the primary deity in the Minoan religion was a multifaceted mother goddess who was solar in nature. Usually, “she” was depicted alongside animals (both mythical and native to the land), a male consort, and/or priestesses. While there is no true consensus, she is considered one deity with various aspects, including a mountain, dove, poppy, snake, and fertility goddess. This presumed multidimensional goddess would eventually become the Artemis, Athena, Ariadne, Medusa, etc. of the Ancient Greek pantheon. At the same time, there’s a good chance that their religion was polytheistic, and these were all separate gods with their own unique attributes. (I’ll probably create future posts about the “individual” goddesses at some point.)

_{^{Snake Goddess from the Palace of Knossos – Wikimedia User Photo by Chris73}}

The Maternal Snake Goddess (or Priestess)

What typically comes to…

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Archaeologists find earliest evidence of bread

Ancientfoods

Lets here it for technology. If not for such advancements, we would never have come this far in our discovery of the foods Paelolithic man really ate. Imagine the discoveries that were just thrown on the  trash heap because archaeologist at the time had no idea plant material could survive this long. Think of the grinding stones that were washed, all their valuable information of the past…gone forever!

Original article:

The guardian.com

Nicola DavisMon 16 Jul 2018 15.00 EDT

Tiny specks of bread found in fireplaces used by hunter-gatherers 14,000 years ago, predating agriculture by thousands of years

Charred crumbs found in a pair of ancient fireplaces have been identified as the earliest examples of bread, suggesting it was being prepared long before the dawn of agriculture.

The remains – tiny lumps a few millimetres in size – were discovered by archaeologists at a site in the Black Desert in…

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Beans – A Contentious Subject

low carb for life

Consumption of cooked black beans stimulates a cluster of some clostridia class bacteria, decreasing inflammatory response and improving insulin sensitivity, study suggests.
Black beans have stirred up some interest in early research studies for their high fibre content (per 100g Carbohydrates 16g, Fibre 6.9g figures differ depending on source). In a May 2017 review, researchers noted that black beans contain compounds that may promote weight loss and reduce insulin resistance.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7230233/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5452185/#B79-nutrients-09-00455

Another study demonstrated that consumption of black beans improved glucose response, an effect mediated in part by modification of the gut microbiota, by increasing a cluster of Clostridia class bacteria with anti-inflammatory potential. The modification of the gut microbiota by black beans is thought to be associated with the presence of resistant starch. Resistant starch contains α-linked glucose molecules that are resistant to hydrolysis in the small intestine, passing directly through the colon where it is fermented…

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