Dusk at the Palace: Exploring Minoan Spiritualities

Abstract

“Minoan” Crete (Greece, third to second millennia bc) was an important part of Aegean prehistory and its archaeology forms a cornerstone of Cretan identity. Substantial work has sought to codify Minoan religion and ritual, especially with reference to the identification of deities, the use of religion in economy and politics, and the reconstruction of cult actions and locales. The issue of spirituality, especially its embodied dimension, has been almost completely avoided. Understandably, the two main reasons are: (a) the non-quantifiable nature of any such investigation, and (b) the Judeo-Christian, gender-biased, Eurocentric perspective of most approaches. This paper explores three interrelated aspects of Minoan spirituality. The first regards ways of approaching Minoan spirituality in the Bronze Age, drawing upon relevant somatic data. The second regards the complex and palimpsestic experiences by archaeologists of Minoan material culture. The third regards the veneration of Minoan antiquities by the Greek public and some followers of the broader Goddess movement, as physically, emotionally and intellectually played out in modern Crete. In essence, the paper adopts reflexive approaches which seek to not necessarily explain away, but perhaps to understand Minoan spirituality diachronically. Several important issues thus emerge and are discussed: embodiment, gender, epistemology, intolerance, institutionalization and, ultimately, personal, cultural and religious identities.