James A. Donald wrote:
> The Minoans conducted human sacrifices, which appear to
> have been patterned after their sacrifices of cattle. I
> am pretty sure that those being sacrificed were not
> equal to those doing the sacrificing
>
>> That is, until they realized the slums were not built
>> until after the warrior Myceneans took over.
>
> One of the complaints that the Myceneans had against the
> Minoans was human sacrifice. Of course, the Myceneans
> were inclined to rape, loot, and burn, whether they had
> an excuse or not, but they preferred to have a good
> excuse. Human sacrifice sounds like a damned good
> excuse to me.
The devil is in the details.
In this case, the evidence was left because of a severe earthquake.
Human sacrifice is quite common all over the world as an attempt to
propitiate after a severe natural disaster.
If you go back to look at the evidence we have before the catastrophic
eruption on Thera in 1628 BCE, you dont find any suggestion of human, or
even animal sacrifice. The 1628 eruption, according to Castleden,
"Atlantis Destroyed" and others, was the worst disaster in more than
10,000 years, on a scale of mt Tuba, 100 times more powerful than mt St.
Helens, and six times worse than Krakatoa.
Castleden reported on boulders that had washed up from the Tsunami that
were 30 miles in from the Turkish coast, and calculated that it was
funneled by the bay east of the isle of Kos, reaching a height of 800
feet. It clobbered the entire coast of Crete with a wave at least 6
meters high. Stuff like that gets your attention, and calls for drastic
action.
Its doubtful that much of the Atlantean navy survived. We see the change
in the pottery, from flowers to sea life, and soil cores reveal the deep
dust coating Crete caused a famine. The shifted from the worship of the
Great Earth Mother to trying to propiteate an any sea god like Posidon.
Vesuvius buried Pompeii and Herculaneum under 20 feet of ash. They've
been digging out a suburb of Atlantis on Thera that is under ash ten
times deeper. At least, it preserved the artwork at Akrotiri, and none
of it shows anything but the most civilized behavior.
They dug into the streets of Akrotiri to reveal previous occupation, but
what they found instead was a municipal sewer, water, and hot water
piping system from thermal springs (heated by the same volcano). In 1628
BC, when the 12th dynasty pharaoh hadda shit in a pot, they had hot
running water in their bathrooms with flush toilets. No wonder their
lifestyle was mythic.
And, they were ruled by women, not a warrior class. It is, and always
has been, warriors who sacrifice life hoping for victory.
