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����The organic quality of Minoan style is seen most clearly in the palaces Crete. Thefour major palaces known����at Knossos�� Phaestos�� Mallia�� and Zakros����followed the samebasic plan. Rooms�� on several levels�� were functionally organized around a large centralcourt. These courts must have accommodated crowds of worshipers�� who gathered in frontof the cult rooms to the west. The palaces also had extensive basement storage areas��artists' workshops�� dining halls�� and sumptuous living quarters for the noble rulingfamilies. The structures were light and flexible�� rather than monumental�� and entirelyunfortified. The distinctive Minoan column�� with its downward taper�� suggests movementrather than stability. The private habitations of Minoan Crete ranged from simple peasantdwellings to rich mansions and villas�� constructed with the same features and finetechniques as the palaces. A wide variety of buildings were constructed for burials. Themost distinctive were the tombs of southern Crete. Circular buildings with corbelled stonevaulting�� built large enough to accommodate family burials for many centuries.����On the Greek mainland�� the palaces of the rulers were completely different fromthose of Crete. They incorporated the characteristic megaron�� a dominant central hall. TheMegara of the best-known palaces����at Mycenae�� Tiryns�� and Pylos����were strikinglysimilar. Each was entered from a courtyard through a porch flanked by columns and hada large central hearth surrounded by four columns. The mainland sites tended to befortified with huge walls of cyclopean masonry�� constructed of massive�� irregular blocks.Recent excavations at Mycenae indicate that�� as in Crete�� the palaces served as centers ofworship as well as of government. For royal burials the Mycenaean Greeks first used shaftgraves��later they adopted the Minoan tomb and developed it into an impressive burialstructure. The tombs were covered with earth tumuli�� or artificial mounds�� and wereentered through long passageways. In the most developed tombs�� such as the so-calledTreasury of Atreus at Mycenae�� the large�� circular spaces were dramatically valued withthick canopies of stone.����Minoan painting is found in two forms�� the vivid frescoes on the pace walls and thegraceful designs that decorate Minoan pottery�� Surviving Minoan sculpture�� with a fewexceptions��is largely restricted to statuettes and figurines in various materials and tointaglio semiprecious stone seals.����In Crete�� the palaces and houses were often decorated with bright murals. TheMinoans made a major contribution to the art of landscape painting. Only in the Aegeanwere landscapes depicted for their own sake�� without human figures. Minoan artistsrepresented the terrain with undulating contours and swirling striations of color toemphasize the life of earth. The scenes were enlivened with animals�� such as monkeysand birds�� in sprightly movement amid swaying foliage. The Minoans had a specialfacility among ancient peoples for capturing motion. Figures were depicted ininstantaneous moments of action and in great variety of poses. Minoan figures are usuallyslender�� which enhances their look of mobility. It is primarily in ritual scenes�� such as thebull-leaping fresco from the palace at Knossos�� that human figures are depicted.Occasionally�� frescoes were rendered in special shorthand method of painting known asthe miniature style��whereby crowds of people were depicted in a small area with a fewlight sketchy strokes.����Recently excavated on Thira�� in the Cyclades�� well-preserved frescoes fromprosperous private homes show a close relationship to the art of Crete�� although thenature scenes are rendered more abstractly. Many of the Thira frescoes feature children��who are portrayed at different ages and with their heads shaved�� except for specific hairlocks. One especially important painting�� from a site known as the West House�� presentsa narrative scene in an elaborate setting�� the most extensive landscape known before theHellenistic period. An entire Aegean world is depicted�� with a fleet of lavishlyornamented ships sailing from town to town. Despite the remarkable achievement of thepainting�� the artist clearly had no notion of perspective.����The Minoan pictorial repertoire and fresco technique were later adopted on theGreek mainland�� where religious scenes similar to those from Crete and Thira weredepicted. Hunting and fighting scenes were also popular. Recent excavations at Tall alDaba in the western delta of Egypt have uncovered fragments of frescoes�� the motifs ofwhich include bull-jumping scenes and the like painted with Minoan�� not Egyptian��colors. The relationships between Egyptian and Minoan painting must now be investigatedanew.��������