The Bull On The Waters

What do we know about the Minoan “Thalassocracy” from material remains & other survivals?

J. C. Williams

An Essay For The Course

“The Minoans : Europe’s First Civilization”

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 The Bull On The Waters

Introduction

The idea of a Minoan Thalassocracy – an empire created and sustained by naval military power 1
– is one that has travelled from classical times to the re-appearance of the Minoan civilization at
the hands of archaeologists in the early part of the twentieth century. However, little material
evidence of Minoan maritime capability, has survived; less than might be expected for an island
civilization at a time of sea borne trade. Even so, the surviving material does allow an
examination the role of ships and shipping in the Minoan civilization and what these tell us about
the idea of the Thalassocracy.

The Idea of the Thalassocracy

The earliest mention of Minoan sea power comes in the Illiad2 where the Cretan, Idomeneus,
leads “eighty black ships” in the forces to attack Troy. Of all the Achaean forces, only the
men of Pylos and Mycenae send more vessels. The late 5thC BC lyric poet Bacchylides tells
of a colony founded on Keos by one of Minos’ sons. At around the same time, Thucydides3
claims that Minos was the first to have established a navy and made himself “master of what
is now called the Hellenic sea”. For Arthur Evans the idea of the Thalassocracy supported his
own4 Creto-centric views5 and the ways in which this paralleled the British view of their own

1
Starr defines “Thalassocracy” as ‘intentional use of naval mastery” (quoted in Mountjoy & Ponting)
2
Iliad, II, 545ff
3
Thucydides, I-4
4
Evans’ attitudes and their influence on his work are discussed in Macgillivray (2001)
5
Evans’ dogmatic nature is well illustrated by a quote from his half sister, Joan, referred to in McDonald &
Thomas (1984) p169; “He was always true... to his own unconscious sense of the pre-eminent importance of
the workings of his own mind.”
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Empire perhaps explains the enthusiasm with which it was taken up by some of Evans’s
contemporaries and in later popularizing works such as “The Bull of Minos”6.

More recently, increased understanding of the range of possible relationships between the
Aegean polities has led to less consensus on the nature of Minoan influence but the material
evidence needs to be the starting point for any assessment of the Minoan Thalassocracy.

Material Evidence

Physical Evidence of Shipping

There is no direct physical evidence of the hull, masts, rigging or oars of any Minoan sea-going
vessel. Only one claimed Minoan shipwreck site, off the southern coast of the island of Pseira
near to the Minoan site of Mochlos, has so far been excavated. Between 2003 and 2010 7
underwater archaeology by Elpida Hadjidaki has recovered the evidence of a cargo of over 200
ceramic vessels, all made in eastern Crete, dated to the MMIIB. The seabed distribution of
material suggests to the excavator that the wreck was a coastal trading vessel of between 30 and
50 feet in length. Elsewhere, there have been various finds of anchors which could be from
Minoan vessels including at Akrotiri8. The two most recently excavated (out of a total of 15 on
or around Crete), from a LMIIIA context at Kommos on the south coast, have been shown to be
of non-Cretan origin9 and are more likely to be Cypriot or Ugaritic.

Representations of Shipping

The bulk of evidence for Minoan shipping comes from its representation on pottery, frescos,
seals and other artefacts. Around 87 representations are known10. Perhaps the most dramatic
material evidence for Minoan shipping and naval power is the graphical depiction in the Thera

6
Cottrell (1953), p136 et seq.
7
Eti Bonn-Muller (2010)
8
Bucholz (1978)
9
Shaw (1995), p287
10
Wedde (1991), p 84-87
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frescos. A series of LMIA images depicts (according to Marinatos 11) a naval expedition and
thanksgiving festival in Room 5, one of a supposed suite of cult rooms on the upper floor of the
West House in Akrotiri. Vessels depicted include oared ships, two square rigged sailing vessel
(possibly the only vessels suited to open sea voyages), and vessels propelled by paddling 12. The
importance of the sea to those who used these rooms is further emphasised by the presence of the
two large “fisherman frescos” but there is no suggestion of the relationship of shipping to trade
to fishing or, in an unequivocal sense, to military activities. Considerable effort has been put into
determining the nature of the scenes (Wachsmann 13) the types and structures of individual
vessels (Ernston, Wedde, Raban), and the question of whether they are carrying weapons
(Prytaluk & Casson)14. Various possible locations for the scenes depicted have been proposed,
including Thera itself, the North African Coast and on Crete 15. The frescos have also been
suggested to be of Mycenaean rather than Minoan influence16. They remain enigmatic and it is
hard to see that the Thera ship frescos, of themselves, demonstrate Minoan military maritime
capability.

On pottery, the LM Marine style uses images of the natural world. These provide us with no
indication of Minoan shipping or naval power. Ships are, however, represented on seal stones,
seal rings and sealings. These appear to be both practical vessels 17 and vessels in ritual or
religious contexts18. Images include ships closely resembling the reconstruction of the Uluburun
ship19 and can be thought to represent trading vessels. A similar representation appears on a

11
Marinatos, (1984) pp 34-44
12
Raban (1984), p319
13
Wachsman (1980)
14
Prytaluk (1982), p5; Casson (1975), p7 discuss the spears on the ship in the “shipwreck” or “battle” scene.
15
Warren (1979), p128-129, suggests that the scenes represents an attack on Crete by Mycenean warriors on
Theran ships. The location is suggested to be Almyros, west of Iraklion.
16
Christos Doumas recounts Marinatos’ view in Doumas (1983), p 132 and Warren (ibid) concurs.
17
Examples are mainly of single masted ships, often with features common to those of ships in the Thera
fresco.
18
Examples include the Mochlos Ring and the “Ring of Minos”
19
Pulak (2008) p291-293
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larnax from Gazi20 and what appears to be a ship model is carried towards a sanctuary in an
offering or mourners procession on the LMIIIA Hagia Triada sarcophagus21.

Ship representations also appear in the character sets of Minoan writing systems. In the
characters on the Phaistos disk there is a ship symbol resembling earlier Cycladic ships. In
Cretan hieroglyphic22 and Linear A23 there are ship-shaped characters. Linear B does not appear
to include ship-based characters in either the syllabic characters or the ideograms. Various Linear
B tablets do refer to maritime trade, to the organisation of ships and shipping and to Mycenaean
naval capability24, but there is no mention, Minoan or Mycenaean, of overseas trade or
merchants25.

For three dimensional representations of boats we have to rely on two clay ship models from pre-
palatial Mochlos (EMIII)26 and Palaikastro (MMIA/B)27 and a possibly boat-shaped jewellery
holder from a Knossia tomb (LMII)28 but these give little indication of the size or purpose of the
original vessels on which they were based.

There are some ship representations which appear in a cultic or ritual context but these do not
seem to have played a significant part in Minoan religious activity. Vandenabeele29, in her
assessment of the maritime world and the Minoan sanctuaries, considers that while it cannot be
denied that the maritime world played a part in Minoan religion there is little evidence for it
when compared with the entirety of Minoan religious evidence. The part of that evidence that
relates to human activity (maritime trade, fishing and so on) is even less.

20
Watrous, (1991) Plate 90, Watrous mentions a number of examples of shipping on LM larnake.
21
Wachsman (1980), p208
22
Younger (1998), pp 379-400. Syllabogram # 040 (a single masted ship with oars)
23
Younger (2010), Symbol *86 (a ship’s hull)
24
Palaima (1991), pp 273-309
25
Manning & Hulin (2005), p 284
26
Dimopoulou-Rethemiotaki (2005), p74
27
Ibid, p75
28
Ibid, p89
29
Vandenabeele (1991), p251
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Harbours

Some Minoan settlements are recognized as having been placed to take advantage of natural
harbours. At Plaka, 40km south east of Phaistos, a possible Minoan mole has been identified,
creating a EMII to MMIII harbour between it and a nearby headland 30. At Kommos a large
building identified as a ship shed31 forms part of a LMIII trading port with evidence of trading
with Cyprus and the Levant. At Mochlos (for the EM / MM) and Pseira (for LMI) harbours
around the Gulf of Mirabello paint a picture32 of local (Cretan) trade combined with trans-
Aegean shipment. Finds from Zakros, however, indicate a trade more focused on Egypt.
Harbours have also been identified or proposed for Knossos at Poros in the eastern suburbs of
Iraklion and at Amnisos33 as well as at Malia34where Hue & Pelon propose three possible
anchorages and beaching sites.

Colonies

The other contributor to our understanding of the Minoan Thalassocracy is the nature and
distribution of colonies, since it is these that were supposedly gained and maintained under the
influence of the Minoan navy. A number of sites have been identified as possible Minoan
colonies35 although it is difficult to determine which (if any) were politically dependent and
which were simply culturally aligned36. It is possible that the existence of peak sanctuaries 37 near

30
Hajidaki (2000), p53-60
31
Shaw (2000), p43-50
32
Betancourt & Banou (1991) p108
33
Schäfer (1991), p112-116
34
Hue & Pelon (1991), p117-127
35
The most important appear to have been at Thera, Ialysos on Rhodes, Keos, Kythera, Naxos, Melos, Paros,
Kos, Miletos, Iasos and Knidos.
36
Renfrew (1983) p418 poses three possible models for Minoan dependence at Phylakopi for example;
conquered by Minoans and then developing independently; conquered and governed from Crete; or
developed as an independent polity with close links but no political affiliation or obligation. Although
Renfrew favours the third he admits it is difficult to distinguish between the three.
37
Kythera, Rhodes, Naxos & Keos have produced evidence of these and a representation of such a site is
known on Thera.
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some of the “colonies” indicates a greater level of cultural dependence but there seems little clear
evidence of political dependency.

Difficulties of Interpretation

A number of difficulties face those seeking to interpret the material evidence in relation to the
Thalassocracy.

Firstly there is the absence of physical remains of vessels in either a military or trade context
making it impossible to relate the symbolism of graphical representations to real world vessels.
This is compounded by the problems of differentiating in graphical representations between
representations of vessels related to ritual activity and those that were intended as representations
of “real world” vessels.

There is the further difficulty of the limited number of instances of graphical representation, This
is highlighted a summary of Wedde’s analysis by the author in Table 1.

Wedde38 has provided a suggested chronology for ship representations between the EC and LM
periods across the range of graphic media. This scheme is based on a relatively small number of
data instances. The problems this presents are illustrated by the fact that of the 50 type IV vessels
known 19 are from a single context: the Thera frescoes.

There seems to be no convincing evidence for naval power in any of the ship imagery. Certainly
Wedde concludes that there is insufficient evidence to support the conventional idea of a
Thalassocracy, and while absence of evidence is not evidence of absence it seems clear that we
have to look beyond ship representations if support is to be found for the theory.

However, there is little else to support the claims either and we are led to the conclusion that the
Minoan Thalassocracy is an idea without foundation.

38
Wedde (1991), p73-94
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An early demolition of the idea of the Minoan Thalassocracy was provided by Starr who pointed
to the concept as being “a myth and an artificial one to boot” 39. Although his views predate the
evidence from Akrotiri and other sites, little has emerged subsequently to contradict his
assessment.

Type Chronology Origins Shape Number of

examples

I ECII – ECIII Cycladic (Syros) “Frying Pan” 14

II EM II – MM II Minoan Broader beam + mast & oars 21

III MMI – MMIII Minoan Curved hulls with equal height stem & stern 16

IV MMIII – LM III Minoan Crescent shaped hulls 50

Straight keel, raised sternpost & animal headed

V Mycenean 3 – 6*
stem posts.
LHIIIB –
LHIIIC As V but the keel continues as a spur under the
VI Mycenean 7-10*
stem post.

*3 representations could be assigned to either of type V or VI.

Table 1: Summary of Wedde’s Typology of Aegean Bronze Age Vessels

Rutter40 in his summary of the issues surrounding the Minoan Thalassocracy points to the risks
of stretching the available evidence from demonstrating the Minoans dependence on sea-going to
the conclusion that they were, at any time, a dominant power in the Mediterranean outside their
own territory as a result of sea power.

Davis41 shows that Minoanization was a gradual process at sites such as Akrotiri, Ayia Irini,
Phylakopi, Trianda and Miletos and that it was at its highest by LMIA. The picture presented is

39
Starr (1955), p283
40
Rutter, Lesson 8, section on “The Nature of Minoan Power in the Aegean during the Neopalatial Period”
41
Davis (2008), pp186-208
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more nuanced than the British Empire-derived views presented by Evans. Betancourt 42 makes a
case for a model of economic influence and mutual trade coupled with stylistic influence and
technological skill as opposed to a Minoan Empire based on political control. Knapp’s summary
of the proponents and opponents of the idea of the Thalassocracy 43 identifies only Wiener as a
current supporter, proposing that Minoan influence spanned the Cyclades, Dodecanese and
western Anatolia44. However, Manning & Hulin45 conclude that before about 1400BC “the
notable aspect of Aegean relations with the Eastern Mediterranean is their very scarcity in
archaeological terms”.

Conclusions

Is there anything in the material remains to suggest that the Minoans had any greater maritime
capability than would be expected of any island people? Is there any evidence to suggest that the
Minoans were more nautically minded than others in the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean?
Is there anything to suggest that the maritime world saw a militaristic face of the Minoans
largely unevidenced on dry land? It seems not.

What emerges from the material evidence is a picture of a Minoan culture using coastal transport
and Cycladic / Eastern Mediterranean trading but little more. There is no more evidence for
Minoan naval power than for other forms of Minoan military might. At best Minoan ships were
the carriers of the Minoan cultural constructs (artefacts, skills, artistic values and to a lesser
extent beliefs) which became widely adopted in the Aegean world and beyond as a result of
reasons other than military might.

If evidence for Minoan naval power in the material remains is unsupportive, where do we turn to
for the origin of the Thalassocracy of Homer and Thucydides? Perhaps it should be seen as a
view of the past that conflated an era of Minoan cultural influence and a subsequent era of
42
Betancourt (2008) pp209-229
43
Knapp (1993), p333
44
Weiner (1990), p151-152
45
Manning & Hulin (2005), p278
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Mycenaean military dominance, merged in myth to a single culture. By Mycenaean times, the
evidence of the Linear B tablets as assessed by Palaima 46 suggests a military marine but little
evidence seems to exist for it before then.

46
Palaima (1991) p308-309
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