Dress

Clay figurines of about 2000 from Crete show men wearing a narrow codpiece with a belt or loincloth and bare above the waist. This was to remain the basic fashion for Cretan men throughout the Bronze Age. Cretan women wore short-sleeved jackets that left the breasts bare and ankle-length flounced skirts, although shorter skirts to just below the knees are also attested. Marble figurines of men from the Cyclades assigned to the Early Bronze Age have belts and narrow codpieces like those of the Cretans. There is little evidence for dress on the mainland until the time of the Mycenae Shaft Graves in the 16th century. A considerable variety of dress is represented from that time onward throughout the Aegean area, but it is difficult to recognize fashions peculiar to the mainland. Tasseled shorts worn by men shown on the Mycenae lion-hunt dagger are also attested in Crete at the time. A group of Aegean envoys painted on the walls of the tomb of Rekhmire, vizier of the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III (ruled 1504–1450), are wearing large codpieces of a type fashionable in Crete in the Shaft Grave Period; thus they may have been Cretan envoys. A second group of envoys painted on the walls of the same tomb at a somewhat later date, however, are wearing kilts without codpieces, as worn by men in paintings at Knossos after the mainland conquest of Crete, about 1450. This might reflect mainland envoys going to Egypt after the conquest and wearing a different type of dress from the Cretans, but kilts of this kind appear to be represented in Crete both before and after the conquest.

In addition, curious scaly cloaks and long single-piece robes are among a variety of ritual garments in Crete. Linen was known in Crete by the beginning of the Bronze Age, and fragments of it were recovered from the Mycenae Shaft Graves; however, in Crete, at any rate, clothes were mostly, it seems, made of wool, and wall paintings show them woven with colourful and intricate designs, including pictures of animals and birds and even musical instruments. One of the dyes used was purple crushed from murex shells. Cretan men wore knee boots and sandals with upturned toes. Men with leggings or greaves are represented in wall paintings on the mainland. Caps of various kinds appear on the heads of men, and high, pointed hats and tiaras on those of women and of gods and goddesses or their priests. Clay figurines of the Early Palace Period show Cretan women with elaborate hair arrangements. Women put jewelry in their hair, including strings of beads. Necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and armlets were displayed by men as well as women. Sealstones were carried on strings around the neck or on the wrist. Cretan men normally left their hair long but were clean-shaven. Beards and mustaches are attested on the mainland in the Shaft Grave Period and later.

The frescoes at Thera show a wonderful variety of costumes, including the Minoan bodice-jacket, the flounced skirt or apron worn thigh-length or ankle-length, a one-piece tunic with rich borders, diaphanous veils, and a marvelous profusion of gold earrings, necklaces, collars, bracelets, and anklets, and rock crystal and carnelian beads. The men wear a kilt or a tunic or a loincloth; “peasants” may wear sheepskin cloaks; soldiers have long capes, tower shields, and boar’s-tusk helmets.

Society

The early villages show few signs of economic disparity between families, although at times the presence of big houses in the later Neolithic Period indicates domination by chiefs. The island communities of the 3rd millennium are not yet well known, though signs of maritime trade are conspicuous and the grave gifts of marble idols point to organized religious rites and some wealth. The existence of fortified communities and two-story special houses on the mainland may indicate that communities contributed to their welfare and that they were ruled by a dynast. In Crete two types of early towns are known, a communal one, as at Myrtos, and one dominated by a big house or houses, as at Vasilikí. By the time of the Early Palaces, after 2000, it is clear that some governing power in several provinces was able to call upon extensive labour for the construction of buildings, granaries, and roads. The likenesses among the palaces, moreover, suggests that social systems across Crete were similar, perhaps dictated in form by certain religious behaviours. The palaces combined facilities for agricultural storage and for community displays and festivals, perhaps regulated by trained families and priestesses or priests. The palaces suggest a reciprocal relationship between the inhabitants and the surrounding villages. In mainland Greece, dynasties controlled fortified acropolis centres with outlying towns dependent on princes. This system is recorded extensively in Greek myths with Bronze Age origins, which tell of kings, princesses, and heroes from a few reigning families. During the last phase of Mycenaean culture and presumably during the Dark Age, the power of the old families was dispersed to lower local rulers, basileis, and the systems of councils of elders and village headman were maintained.