Krylatskoye () is a Moscow Metro station in the Krylatskoye District, Western Administrative Okrug, Moscow. It is on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line, between Strogino and Molodyozhnaya stations. Before 2008 it was the terminus of the Filyovskaya Line.

Building
It is a shallow-level, vault-type station with a unique asymmetrical design. The curved ceiling rests on a white marble wall on one side of the platform, but on the other it reaches all the way down to the tracks. Wedge-shaped niches containing light fixtures run transversely across the ceiling, with the wide ends on the side with the wall. This has the effect of making one side of the platform brighter than the other. The decorative theme of the station is "gymnastics and sport".

Krylatskoe was designed by N. Shumakov, G. Mun, and A. Mosichuk and opened in 1989.

Moscow Metro stations
Railway stations in Russia opened in 1989
Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line
Railway stations located underground in Russia

Krylatskoye (Moscow Metro)


The 1842 Cap-Haïtien earthquake occurred at 17:00 local time (21:00 UTC) on 7 May. It had an estimated magnitude of 8.1 on the  scale and triggered a destructive tsunami. It badly affected the northern coast of Haiti and part of what is now the Dominican Republic. Port-de-Paix suffered the greatest damage from both earthquake and tsunami.  Approximately 5,000 people were killed by the effects of the earthquake shaking and another 300 by the tsunami.

Tectonic setting
The island of Hispaniola lies across the complex transform plate boundary between the North American Plate and the Caribbean Plate. The overall four cm per year displacement along this boundary is split nearly equally between two major dextral (right lateral) strike-slip zones either side of the Gonâve Microplate. To the south is the Enriquillo–Plantain Garden fault zone, which extends from Jamaica in the west to the south-east of Hispaniola to the east. In the north the fault zone is the Septentrional-Oriente fault zone passing along the southern margin of Cuba and along the northern part of Hispaniola. Both of these fault zones have been associated with several major historical earthquakes.

Earthquake
The earthquake was felt over a wide area, including southern Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and across the Antilles. The estimated intensity reached IX
(Violent) on the Mercalli intensity scale along the northern coast from Cap-Haïtien to Santiago de los Caballeros.

The earthquake appears to have been caused by movement on the Septentrional Fault, with the rupture extending from the Cibao valley in the present day Dominican Republic, along the whole of the northern coast of Haiti.

Tsunami
The tsunami affected the northern coast of Haiti and present day Dominican Republic. The highest run-up of 4.6 m was observed at Port-de-Paix, with 2 m run-ups seen along much of the northern coast. At Saint John in the United States Virgin Islands, the run-up was 3.1 m.

Damage

The region that suffered the greatest damage was the northern Cape area, although there was significant damage along the northern coast as far as Santiago de los Caballeros (now in the Dominican Republic). The towns of Cap-Haïtien, Port-de-Paix, Môle-Saint-Nicolas and Fort-Liberté were also severely affected. Henri Christophe's Sans-Souci Palace was badly damaged and was never rebuilt.

At Port-de-Paix, the sea drew back 60 m, before returning and flooding the city in 5 m of water, killing between 200–300 of the inhabitants. The effect of the tsunami at Môle-Saint-Nicolas was catastrophic, leaving almost none of the town standing.

Aftermath
Despite the devastation caused by the earthquake President Boyer did not visit the affected areas and this led to an increase in opposition to his rule. The chaos also allowed groups allied to Juan Pablo Duarte to link up with others opposed to Boyer.

Future seismic hazard
The results of trenching across the Septentrional Fault in the Ciabo valley have identified large earthquakes, similar in character to that in 1842, at around 1230 and another historical event in 1562. Assuming that these earthquakes were caused by displacement on the same segment of the fault, a recurrence interval of about 300 years is indicated, similar to that proposed for the Enriquillo fault in the southern part of the island.

See also
 List of earthquakes in Haiti
 List of historical earthquakes
 List of historical tsunamis

References

Earthquakes in Haiti
1842 earthquakes
1842 in Haiti
19th-century tsunamis
1842 natural disasters
Cap-Haïtien
May 1842 events

1842 Cap-Haïtien earthquake


The British Olympic Association (BOA) is the National Olympic Committee for the United Kingdom. However it is almost unique in that its teams also incorporate representatives from other British dependent territories, who do not have their own separate Olympics teams, but which also excludes some UK citizens from Northern Ireland due to internal governing body territories in sports such as rugby, tennis and field hockey. Founded in 1905, it is responsible for organising and overseeing the participation of athletes from the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team, at both the summer and winter Olympic Games, the Youth Olympic Games, the European Youth Olympic Festivals, and at the European Games.

BOA members and sporting bodies
The British Olympic Association – of the United Kingdom, its constituent countries,  the Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories which do not have their own NOC – competes at all summer, winter and youth Olympics as  Great Britain ("Team GB").

Members
The association comprises members from the following countries:

Note – Northern Irish athletes can choose whether to compete for Great Britain and Northern Ireland or for the Republic of Ireland, as they are entitled to citizenship of either nation under the Good Friday Agreement. However in a number of sports, including hockey, tennis and rugby sevens, Northern Irish athletes are de facto disbarred from representing the UK because the designated federation only selects from those players who are from the island of Great Britain.

Crown Dependencies:

British Overseas Territories:

Note – IOC rules currently do not allow dependent territories to obtain recognition for National Olympic Committees (NOCs). Three British Overseas Territories have their own NOCs predating this rule and are therefore not connected with the BOA: Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands. While the territories of British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands are nominally represented by the BOA, these territories have no permanent population and do not send athletes.

British sports bodies associated with the BOA
 UK Sport
 UK Anti-Doping
 Sport England
 English Institute of Sport
 Sport Northern Ireland
 Sportscotland
 Sport Wales

Role
The BOA is one of 206 National Committees (NOCs) currently recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC leads the promotion of Olympism in accordance with the Olympic Charter.

Working with the national governing bodies of each sport, the BOA selects Team GB's members to compete in all sports at the summer and winter Olympics.
The BOA is independent and receives no funding from the government. Its income comes from fundraising and events.

Great Britain & Northern Ireland is one of only five National Olympic Committees (the others being Australia, France, Greece and Switzerland) which have never failed to be represented at the Summer Olympic Games since 1896. Of these countries GB&NI, France and Switzerland are the only countries to have been present at all Olympic Winter Games; thus Great Britain & Northern Ireland is one of three countries that have competed at all Olympic Games. Great Britain is also the only team in the Olympic Games to have won a gold in every Summer games. The United Kingdom has hosted three Olympic Games, all of them in London: in 1908, 1948 and 2012.

Structure
At its formation in 1905 the association consisted of seven national governing body members from the following sports: fencing, life-saving, cycling, skating, rowing, athletics, rugby football, association football, and archery.  It now includes as its members the thirty-three national governing bodies of each Olympic sport, both summer and winter.

A representative of each of the Olympic sports makes up the NOC, the BOA's decision and policy-making body. The NOC elects three officers: a President, a Chairman, and a Vice-Chairman, each for a four-year term. Six members of the NOC are elected to the Board, which oversees the work of the BOA and puts forward proposals for decision by the NOC. The present (2022) chief office holders are:

 President: The Princess Royal
 Chairman: Sir Hugh Robertson

 CEO: Andy Anson

 Vice Chairman: Annamarie Phelps

Former Chairmen
 Arthur Gold (1984 to 1992)

Founding
The BOA's origins pre-date the International Olympic movement and its governing body, the International Olympic Committee.

It traces its roots back to the National Olympian Association (NOA), which held its inaugural meeting at the Liverpool Gymnasium, Myrtle Street, Liverpool in November 1865. It promoted an annual series of sporting events across Britain, with the aim of encouraging participation in physical education through Olympian festivals.
The NOA came about mainly through the efforts of John Hulley of Liverpool (Chairman), Dr William Penny Brookes (of Much Wenlock) and E G Ravenstein (president of the German Gymnastic Society of London).
It took the existing Olympian Games of Much Wenlock as its example, thus the NOA Games "were open to all comers" and not just the products of Britain's public schools.

After the NOA closed in 1883 its motto ('Civium virtus civitatis tutamen' meaning 'the power of the citizens is the defence of the state') and ethos were inherited by the National Physical Recreation Society (NPRS) which was founded in 1885. From 1902 the President and Treasurer of the NPRS were members of the Olympic "Comité Britannique" and the NPRS was a founding body of the British Olympic Association in 1905.

Arms

See also
Great Britain at the Olympics
British Paralympic Association
Campaign for a Scottish Olympic Team
Commonwealth Games England
Commonwealth Games Scotland
Commonwealth Games Wales
Northern Ireland Commonwealth Games Council
England at the Commonwealth Games
Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games
Scotland at the Commonwealth Games
Wales at the Commonwealth Games

Further reading
 Llewellyn, Matthew P (2012). Rule Britannia: Nationalism, Identity and the Modern Olympic Games. Routledge.

References

External links
Team GB: official website
British Olympic Association Archive Collection

1905 establishments in the United Kingdom

National Olympic Committees
Olympics
Sports organizations established in 1905

British Olympic Association


The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age culture which was centered on the island of Crete. Known for its monumental architecture and its energetic art, it is often regarded as the first civilization in Europe.

The Minoan civilization developed from the local Neolithic culture around 3100BC, with complex urban settlements beginning around 2000BC. After 1450BC, they came under the cultural and perhaps political domination of the mainland Mycenaean Greeks, forming a hybrid culture which lasted until around 1100BC.

The Minoans constructed enormous buildings which their initial excavators labeled Minoan palaces. Subsequent research has shown that they served a variety of religious and economic purposes rather than being royal residences, though their exact role in Minoan society is a matter of continuing debate. The palaces consisted of a large rectangular court surrounded by multistory wings with labyrinthine floorplans. The ruins of the palaces at Knossos and Phaistos are popular tourist attractions.

Minoan art included elaborately decorated pottery, seals, figurines, and colorful frescoes. They are believed to have invented true fresco, a technique which results in the pigment becoming part of the wall. Typical subjects include nature and ritual. Minoan art is often described as having a fantastical or ecstatic quality, with figures rendered in a manner suggesting motion.

Little is known about the structure of Minoan society. Social stratification is evidenced by burials and domestic architecture, but Minoan art contains no unambiguous depiction of a monarch, and Egyptian records suggest they may have had some other form of governance. Likewise, while some sites seem to have been politically and economically linked, it is not clear whether there was ever a unified Minoan state or states. Religious practices included worship at peak sanctuaries and sacred caves, but nothing is known for certain of their pantheon.

The Minoans traded extensively around the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean. They exported agricultural products and luxury crafts, often in exchange for raw metal which was difficult to obtain on Crete. Through traders and artisans, their cultural influence reached beyond Crete to the Cyclades, Cyprus, Egypt, Italy, Anatolia, and the Levant. Minoan craftsmen were employed by foreign elites, for instance to paint frescoes at Avaris in Egypt.

The Minoans developed two writing systems known as Cretan hieroglyphs and Linear A. Because neither script has been fully deciphered, the identity of the Minoan language is unknown. Based on what is known, the language is regarded as unlikely to belong to a well-attested language family such as Indo-European or Semitic. After 1450 BC, a modified version of Linear A known as Linear B was used to write Mycenaean Greek, which had become the language of administration on Crete. The Eteocretan language attested in a few post-Bronze Age inscriptions may be a descendant of the Minoan language.

Largely forgotten after the Late Bronze Age collapse, the Minoan civilization was rediscovered in the early twentieth century through archaeological excavation. The term "Minoan" was coined by Arthur Evans, who excavated at Knossos and recognized it as culturally distinct from the mainland Mycenaean culture. Soon after, Federico Halbherr and Luigi Pernier excavated the Palace of Phaistos and the nearby settlement of Hagia Triada. A major breakthrough occurred in 1952, when Michael Ventris deciphered Linear B, drawing on earlier work by Alice Kober. This decipherment unlocked a crucial source of information on the economics and social organization in the final year of the palace. Minoan sites continue to be excavated, recent discoveries including the necropolis at Armeni and the harbour town of Kommos.

Name

The term "Minoan" is derived from the name of the mythical King Minos, who the Classical Greeks believed to have ruled Knossos in the distant past. It was popularized by Arthur Evans, possibly drawing on an earlier suggestion by Karl Hoeck. It is a modern coinage and not used by the Minoans, whose name for themselves is unknown. The Egyptians referred to the Minoans as the "Keftiu" (k-f-t-i-w).

Chronology and history

Two systems of relative chronology are used for the Minoans. The first, based on pottery styles, divides Minoan history into three major periods: Early Minoan (EM), Middle Minoan (MM) and Late Minoan (LM). These periods can be divided using Roman numerals (e.g. EM I, EM II, EM III), which can be further divided using using capital letters (e.g. LM IIIA, LMIIIB, LM IIIC). An alternative system, proposed by Greek archaeologist Nikolaos Platon, divides Minoan history into four periods termed Prepalatial, Protopalatial, Neopalatial, and Postpalatial.

Establishing an absolute chronology has proved difficult. Archaeologists have attempted to determine calendar dates by synchronizing the periods of Minoan history with those of their better understood contemporaries. For example, Minoan artifacts from the LM IB period have been found in 18th Dynasty contexts in Egypt, for which Egyptian chronology provides calendar dates. However, dates determined in this manner do not always match the results of carbon dating and other methods based on natural science. Much of the controversy concerns the dating of the eruption of Thera, which is known to have occurred towards the end of the LM IA period. While carbon dating places this event (and thus LM IA) around 1600 BC, synchronism with Egyptian records would place it roughly a century later.

Origins

Although stone-tool evidence suggests that hominins may have reached Crete as early as 130,000 years ago, evidence for the first anatomically modern human presence dates to 10,000–12,000 YBP. The oldest evidence of modern human habitation on Crete is pre-ceramic Neolithic farming-community remains which date to about 7000BC. A comparative study of DNA haplogroups of modern Cretan men showed that a male founder group, from Anatolia or the Levant, is shared with the Greeks. The Neolithic population lived in open villages. Fishermen's huts were found on the shores, and the fertile Messara Plain was used for agriculture.

Early Minoan

Early Minoan society developed largely continuously from local Neolithic predecessors, with some cultural influence and perhaps migration from eastern populations. This period saw a gradual shift from localized clan-based villages towards the more urbanized and stratified society of later periods.

EM I (c. 3100-2650 BC) is marked by the appearance of the first painted ceramics. Continuing a trend that began during the Neolithic, settlements grew in size and complexity, and spread from fertile plains towards highland sites and islands as the Minoans learned to exploit less hospitable terrain.

EM II (c. 2650-2200 BC) has been termed an international era. Trade intensified and Minoan ships began sailing beyond the Aegean to Egypt and Syria, possibly enabled by the invention of masted ships. Minoan material culture shows increased international influence, for instance in the adoption of Minoan seals based on the older Near Eastern seal. Minoan settlements grew, some doubling in size, and monumental buildings were constructed at sites that would later become palaces.

EM III (c. 2200-2100 BC) saw the continuation of these trends.

Middle Minoan

MM I (c. 2100-1875 BC) saw the emergence of Protopalatial society. During MM IA (c. 2100-1925 BC), populations increased dramatically at sites such as Knossos, Phaistos, and Malia, accompanied by major construction projects. During MM IB (c. 1925-1875 BC), the first palaces were built at these sites, in areas which had been used for communal ceremonies since the Neolithic. Middle Minoan artisans developed new colorful paints and adopted the potter's wheel during MM IB, producing wares such as Kamares ware.

MM II (c. 1875-1700 BC) saw the development of the Minoan writing systems, Cretan hieroglyphic and Linear A. It ended with mass destructions generally attributed to earthquakes, though violent destruction has been considered as an alternative explanation.

MM III (c. 1750-1700 BC) marks the beginning of the Neopalatial period. Most of the palaces were rebuilt with architectural innovations, with the notable exception of Phaistos. Cretan hieroglyphs were abandoned in favor of Linear A, and Minoan cultural influence becomes significant in mainland Greece.

Late Minoan

The Late Minoan period was an eventful time that saw profound change in Minoan society. Many of the most recognizable Minoan artifacts date from this time, for instance the Snake goddess figurines, La Parisienne Fresco, and the marine style of pottery decoration.

Late Minoan I (c. 1700-1470 BC) was a continuation of the prosperous Neopalatial culture. A notable event from this era was the eruption of the Thera volcano, which occurred around 1600 BC towards the end of the LM IA subperiod. One of the largest volcanic explosions in recorded history, it ejected about  of material and was measured at 7 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index. While the eruption destroyed Cycladic settlements such as Akrotiri and led to the abandonment of some sites in northeast Crete, other Minoan sites such as Knossos continued to prosper. The post-eruption LM IB period (c.1625-1470) saw ambitious new building projects, booming international trade, and artistic developments such as the marine style.

Late Minoan IB (c. 1625-1470 BC) ended with severe destructions throughout the island, marking the end of Neopalatial society. These destructions are thought to have been deliberate, since they spared certain sites in a manner inconsistent with natural disasters. For instance, the town at Knossos burned while the palace itself did not. The causes of these destructions have been a perennial topic of debate. While some researchers attributed them to Mycenaean conquerors, others have argued that they were the result of internal upheavals. Similarly, while some researchers have attempted to link them to lingering environmental disruption from the Thera eruption, others have argued that the two events are too distant in time for any causal relation.

Late Minoan II (c. 1470-1420 BC) is sparsely represented in the archaeological record, but appears to have been a period of decline.

Late Minoan III (c. 1420-1075 BC) shows profound social and political changes. Among the palaces, only Knossos remained in use, though it too was destroyed by LM IIIB2. The language of administration shifted to Mycenaean Greek and material culture shows increased mainland influence, reflecting the rise of a Greek-speaking elite. In Late Minoan IIIC (c. 1200-1075 BC), coinciding with the wider Late Bronze Age collapse, coastal settlements were abandoned in favor of defensible locations on higher ground. These small villages, some of which grew out of earlier mountain shrines, continued aspects of recognizably Minoan culture until the Early Iron Age.

Geography

The Minoan Civilization was centered on the island of Crete, with additional settlements around the Aegean Sea. Crete is located in the south of the Aegean, situated along maritime trade routes that connect Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Because it straddles the Mediterranean and African climate zones, with land at a variety of elevations, it provides a diverse array of natural resources. However, it is notably poor in metals, a fact believed to have spurred the Minoans' interest in international trade. The island is seismically active, with signs of earthquake damage at many Minoan sites. The majority of Minoan sites are found in central and eastern Crete, with few in the western part of the island, especially to the south.

Major settlements

 Knossos – the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete. Knossos had an estimated population of 1,300 to 2,000 in 2500BC, 18,000 in 2000BC, 20,000 to 100,000 in 1600BC and 30,000 in 1360BC.
 Phaistos – the second-largest palatial building on the island, excavated by the Italian school shortly after Knossos
 Hagia Triada – town and administrative center near Phaistos which has yielded the largest number of Linear A tablets.
 Kommos – harbour town serving Phaistos and Hagia Triada, with civic buildings mirroring palatial architecture
 Malia – the subject of French excavations, a palatial center which provides a look into the proto-palatial period
 Kato Zakros – sea-side palatial site excavated by Greek archaeologists in the far east of the island, also known as "Zakro" in archaeological literature
 Galatas – confirmed as a palatial site during the early 1990s
Kydonia (modern Chania), the only palatial site in West Crete
 Gournia – town site excavated in the first quarter of the 20th century
 Pyrgos – early Minoan site in southern Crete
 Vasiliki – early eastern Minoan site which gives its name to distinctive ceramic ware
 Fournou Korfi – southern site
 Pseira – island town with ritual sites
 Mount Juktas – the greatest Minoan peak sanctuary, associated with the palace of Knossos
 Arkalochori – site of the Arkalochori Axe
 Karfi – refuge site, one of the last Minoan sites
 Akrotiri – settlement on the island of Santorini (Thera), near the site of the Thera Eruption
 Zominthos – mountainous city in the northern foothills of Mount Ida

Beyond Crete

The Minoans were traders, and their cultural contacts reached Egypt, Cyprus, Canaan and the Levantine coast and Anatolia. Minoan-style frescoes have been found at elite residences in Avaris and Tel Kabri. Minoan techniques and ceramic styles had varying degrees of influence on Helladic Greece. Along with Santorini, Minoan settlements are found at Kastri, Kythera, an island near the Greek mainland influenced by the Minoans from the mid-third millenniumBC (EMII) to its Mycenaean occupation in the 13th century. Minoan strata replaced a mainland-derived early Bronze Age culture, the earliest Minoan settlement outside Crete.

The Cyclades were in the Minoan cultural orbit and, closer to Crete, the islands of Karpathos, Saria and Kasos also contained middle-Bronze Age (MMI-II) Minoan colonies or settlements of Minoan traders. Most were abandoned in LMI, but Karpathos recovered and continued its Minoan culture until the end of the Bronze Age. Other supposed Minoan colonies, such as that hypothesized by Adolf Furtwängler on Aegina, were later dismissed by scholars. However, there was a Minoan colony at Ialysos on Rhodes.

Minoan cultural influence indicates an orbit extending through the Cyclades to Egypt and Cyprus. Fifteenth-centuryBC paintings in Thebes, Egypt depict Minoan-appearing individuals bearing gifts. Inscriptions describing them as coming from keftiu ("islands in the middle of the sea") may refer to gift-bringing merchants or officials from Crete.

Some locations on Crete indicate that the Minoans were an "outward-looking" society. The neo-palatial site of Kato Zakros is located within 100 meters of the modern shoreline in a bay. Its large number of workshops and wealth of site materials indicate a possible entrepôt for trade. Such activities are seen in artistic representations of the sea, including the Ship Procession or "Flotilla" fresco in room five of the West House at Akrotiri.

Art

Minoan art is marked by imaginative images and exceptional workmanship. Sinclair Hood described an "essential quality of the finest Minoan art, the ability to create an atmosphere of movement and life although following a set of highly formal conventions". It forms part of the wider grouping of Aegean art, and in later periods came for a time to have a dominant influence over Cycladic art. Wood and textiles have decomposed, so most surviving examples of Minoan art are pottery, intricately-carved Minoan seals, palace frescos which include landscapes (but are often mostly "reconstructed"), small sculptures in various materials, jewellery, and metalwork.

The relationship of Minoan art to that of other contemporary cultures and later Ancient Greek art has been much discussed. It clearly dominated Mycenaean art and Cycladic art of the same periods, even after Crete was occupied by the Mycenaeans, but only some aspects of the tradition survived the Greek Dark Ages after the collapse of Mycenaean Greece.

Minoan art has a variety of subject-matter, much of it appearing across different media, although only some styles of pottery include figurative scenes. Bull-leaping appears in painting and several types of sculpture, and is thought to have had a religious significance; bull's heads are also a popular subject in terracotta and other sculptural materials. There are no figures that appear to be portraits of individuals, or are clearly royal, and the identities of religious figures is often tentative, with scholars uncertain whether they are deities, clergy or devotees. Equally, whether painted rooms were "shrines" or secular is far from clear; one room in Akrotiri has been argued to be a bedroom, with remains of a bed, or a shrine.

Animals, including an unusual variety of marine fauna, are often depicted; the Marine Style is a type of painted palace pottery from MM III and LM IA that paints sea creatures including octopus spreading all over the vessel, and probably originated from similar frescoed scenes; sometimes these appear in other media. Scenes of hunting and warfare, and horses and riders, are mostly found in later periods, in works perhaps made by Cretans for a Mycenaean market, or Mycenaean overlords of Crete.

While Minoan figures, whether human or animal, have a great sense of life and movement, they are often not very accurate, and the species is sometimes impossible to identify; by comparison with Ancient Egyptian art they are often more vivid, but less naturalistic. In comparison with the art of other ancient cultures there is a high proportion of female figures, though the idea that Minoans had only goddesses and no gods is now discounted. Most human figures are in profile or in a version of the Egyptian convention with the head and legs in profile, and the torso seen frontally; but the Minoan figures exaggerate features such as slim male waists and large female breasts.

What is called landscape painting is found in both frescos and on painted pots, and sometimes in other media, but most of the time this consists of plants shown fringing a scene, or dotted around within it. There is a particular visual convention where the surroundings of the main subject are laid out as though seen from above, though individual specimens are shown in profile. This accounts for the rocks being shown all round a scene, with flowers apparently growing down from the top. The seascapes surrounding some scenes of fish and of boats, and in the Ship Procession miniature fresco from Akrotiri, land with a settlement as well, give a wider landscape than is usual.

The largest and best collection of Minoan art is in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum ("AMH") near Knossos, on the northern coast of Crete.

Pottery

Many different styles of potted wares and techniques of production are observable throughout the history of Crete. Early Minoan ceramics were characterized by patterns of spirals, triangles, curved lines, crosses, fish bones, and beak-spouts. However, while many of the artistic motifs are similar in the Early Minoan period, there are many differences that appear in the reproduction of these techniques throughout the island which represent a variety of shifts in taste as well as in power structures. There were also many small terracotta figurines.

During the Middle Minoan period, naturalistic designs (such as fish, squid, birds and lilies) were common. In the Late Minoan period, flowers and animals were still characteristic but more variety existed. However, in contrast to later Ancient Greek vase painting, paintings of human figures are extremely rare, and those of land mammals not common until late periods. Shapes and ornament were often borrowed from metal tableware that has largely not survived, while painted decoration probably mostly derives from frescos.

Jewelry
Minoan jewellery has mostly been recovered from graves, and until the later periods much of it consists of diadems and ornaments for women's hair, though there are also the universal types of rings, bracelets, armlets and necklaces, and many thin pieces that were sewn onto clothing. In the earlier periods gold was the main material, typically hammered very thin. but later it seemed to become scarce.

The Minoans created elaborate metalwork with imported gold and copper. Bead necklaces, bracelets and hair ornaments appear in the frescoes, and many labrys pins survive. The Minoans mastered granulation, as indicated by the Malia Pendant, a gold pendant featuring bees on a honeycomb. This was overlooked by the 19th-century looters of a royal burial site they called the "Gold Hole".

Weapons

Fine decorated bronze weapons have been found in Crete, especially from LM periods, but they are far less prominent than in the remains of warrior-ruled Mycenae, where the famous shaft-grave burials contain many very richly decorated swords and daggers. In contrast spears and "slashing-knives" tend to be "severely functional". Many of the decorated weapons were probably made either in Crete, or by Cretans working on the mainland. Daggers are often the most lavishly decorated, with gold hilts that may be set with jewels, and the middle of the blade decorated with a variety of techniques.

The most famous of these are a few inlaid with elaborate scenes in gold and silver set against a black (or now black) "niello" background, whose actual material and technique have been much discussed. These have long thin scenes running along the centre of the blade, which show the violence typical of the art of Mycenaean Greece, as well as a sophistication in both technique and figurative imagery that is startlingly original in a Greek context.

Metal vessels

Metal vessels were produced in Crete from at least as early as EM II (c. 2500BC) in the Prepalatial period through to LM IA (c. 1450BC) in the Postpalatial period and perhaps as late as LM IIIB/C (c. 1200BC), although it is likely that many of the vessels from these later periods were heirlooms from earlier periods. The earliest were probably made exclusively from precious metals, but from the Protopalatial period (MM IB – MM IIA) they were also produced in arsenical bronze and, subsequently, tin bronze. The archaeological record suggests that mostly cup-type forms were created in precious metals, but the corpus of bronze vessels was diverse, including cauldrons, pans, hydrias, bowls, pitchers, basins, cups, ladles and lamps. The Minoan metal vessel tradition influenced that of the Mycenaean culture on mainland Greece, and they are often regarded as the same tradition. Many precious metal vessels found on mainland Greece exhibit Minoan characteristics, and it is thought that these were either imported from Crete or made on the mainland by Minoan metalsmiths working for Mycenaean patrons or by Mycenaean smiths who had trained under Minoan masters.

Agriculture and cuisine

The Minoans raised cattle, sheep, pigs and goats, and grew wheat, barley, vetch and chickpeas. They also cultivated grapes, figs and olives, grew poppies for seed and perhaps opium. The Minoans also domesticated bees.

Vegetables, including lettuce, celery, asparagus and carrots, grew wild on Crete. Pear, quince, and olive trees were also native. Date palm trees and cats (for hunting) were imported from Egypt. The Minoans adopted pomegranates from the Near East, but not lemons and oranges.

They may have practiced polyculture, and their varied, healthy diet resulted in a population increase. Polyculture theoretically maintains soil fertility and protects against losses due to crop failure. Linear B tablets indicate the importance of orchards (figs, olives and grapes) in processing crops for "secondary products". Olive oil in Cretan or Mediterranean cuisine is comparable to butter in northern European cuisine. The process of fermenting wine from grapes was probably a factor of the "Palace" economies; wine would have been a trade commodity and an item of domestic consumption. Farmers used wooden plows, bound with leather to wooden handles and pulled by pairs of donkeys or oxen.

Seafood was also important in Cretan cuisine. The prevalence of edible molluscs in site material and artistic representations of marine fish and animals (including the distinctive Marine Style pottery, such as the LM IIIC "Octopus" stirrup jar), indicate appreciation and occasional use of fish by the economy. However, scholars believe that these resources were not as significant as grain, olives and animal produce. "Fishing was one of the major activities...but there is as yet no evidence for the way in which they organized their fishing." An intensification of agricultural activity is indicated by the construction of terraces and dams at Pseira in the Late Minoan period.

Cretan cuisine included wild game: Cretans ate wild deer, wild boar and meat from livestock. Wild game is now extinct on Crete. A matter of controversy is whether Minoans made use of the indigenous Cretan megafauna, which are typically thought to have been extinct considerably earlier at 10,000BC. This is in part due to the possible presence of dwarf elephants in contemporary Egyptian art.

Not all plants and flora were purely functional, and arts depict scenes of lily-gathering in green spaces. The fresco known as the Sacred Grove at Knossos depicts women facing left, flanked by trees. Some scholars have suggested that it is a harvest festival or ceremony to honor the fertility of the soil. Artistic depictions of farming scenes also appear on the Harvester Vase (an egg-shaped rhyton), which depicts 27 men led by another carrying bunches of sticks to beat ripe olives from the trees.

The discovery of storage areas in the palace compounds has prompted debate. At the second "palace" at Phaistos, rooms on the west side of the structure have been identified as a storage area. Jars, jugs and vessels have been recovered in the area, indicating the complex's possible role as a re-distribution center for agricultural produce. At larger sites such as Knossos, there is evidence of craft specialization (workshops). The palace at Kato Zakro indicates that workshops were integrated into palace structure. The Minoan palatial system may have developed through economic intensification, where an agricultural surplus could support a population of administrators, craftsmen and religious practitioners. The number of sleeping rooms in the palaces indicates that they could have supported a sizable population which was removed from manual labor.

Tools

Tools, originally made of wood or bone, were bound to handles with leather straps. During the Bronze Age, they were made of bronze with wooden handles. Due to its round hole, the tool head would spin on the handle. The Minoans developed oval-shaped holes in their tools to fit oval-shaped handles, which prevented spinning. Tools included double adzes, double- and single-bladed axes, axe-adzes, sickles and chisels.

Society and culture

Apart from the abundant local agriculture, the Minoans were also a mercantile people who engaged significantly in overseas trade, and at their peak may well have had a dominant position in international trade over much of the Mediterranean. After 1700BC, their culture indicates a high degree of organization. Minoan-manufactured goods suggest a network of trade with mainland Greece (notably Mycenae), Cyprus, Syria, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia and westward as far as the Iberian peninsula.  Minoan religion apparently focused on female deities, with women officiants. While historians and archaeologists have long been skeptical of an outright matriarchy, the predominance of female figures in authoritative roles over male ones seems to indicate that Minoan society was matriarchal, and among the most well-supported examples known.

The term palace economy was first used by Evans of Knossos. It is now used as a general term for ancient pre-monetary cultures where much of the economy revolved around the collection of crops and other goods by centralized government or religious institutions (the two tending to go together) for redistribution to the population. This is still accepted as an important part of the Minoan economy; all the palaces have very large amounts of space that seems to have been used for storage of agricultural produce, some remains of which have been excavated after they were buried by disasters. What role, if any, the palaces played in Minoan international trade is unknown, or how this was organized in other ways. The decipherment of Linear A would possibly shed light on this.

Government

Very little is known about the forms of Minoan government, particularly since the Minoan language has not yet been deciphered. It used to be believed that the Minoans had a monarchy supported by a bureaucracy. This might initially have been a number of monarchies, corresponding with the "palaces" around Crete, but later all taken over by Knossos, which was itself later occupied by Mycenaean overlords. But, in notable contrast to contemporary Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations, "Minoan iconography contains no pictures of recognizable kings", and in recent decades it has come to be thought that before the presumed Mycenaean invasion around 1450BC, a group of elite families, presumably living in the "villas" and the palaces, controlled both government and religion.

Status of women

As Linear A Minoan writing has not been deciphered yet, most information available about Minoan women is from various art forms and Linear B tablets, and scholarship about Minoan women remains limited.

Minoan society was a divided society separating men from women in art illustration, clothing, and societal duties. For example, documents written in Linear B have been found documenting Minoan families, wherein spouses and children are not all listed together. In one section, fathers were listed with their sons, while mothers were listed with their daughters in a completely different section apart from the men who lived in the same household, signifying the vast gender divide present in Minoan society.

Artistically, women were portrayed very differently from men. Men were often artistically represented with dark skin while women were represented with lighter skin. Minoan dress representation also clearly marks the difference between men and women. Minoan men were often depicted clad in little clothing while women's bodies, specifically later on, were more covered up. While there is evidence that the structure of women's clothing originated as a mirror to the clothing that men wore, fresco art illustrates how women's clothing evolved to be increasingly elaborate throughout the Minoan era. Throughout the evolution of women's clothing, a strong emphasis was placed on the women's sexual characteristics, particularly the breasts. Female clothing throughout the Minoan era emphasized the breasts by exposing cleavage or even the entire breast. Both Minoan women and men were portrayed with "wasp" waists, similar to the modern bodice women continue to wear today.

Fresco paintings portray three class levels of women; elite women, women of the masses, and servants. A fourth, smaller class of women are also included among some paintings; women who participated in religious and sacred tasks. Elite women were depicted in paintings as having a stature twice the size of women in lower classes, as this was a way of emphasizing the important difference between the elite wealthy women and the rest of the female population within society.

Childcare was a central job for women within Minoan society. Other roles outside the household that have been identified as women's duties are food gathering, food preparation, and household care-taking. Additionally, it has been found that women were represented in the artisan world as ceramic and textile craftswomen. As women got older it can be assumed that their job of taking care of children ended and they transitioned towards household management and job mentoring, teaching younger women the jobs that they themselves participated in.

While women were often portrayed in paintings as caretakers of children, pregnant women were rarely shown in frescoes. Pregnant women were instead represented in the form of sculpted pots with the rounded base of the pots representing the pregnant belly. Additionally, no Minoan art forms portray women giving birth, breast feeding, or procreating. Lack of such actions leads historians to believe that these actions would have been recognized by Minoan society to be either sacred or inappropriate, and kept private within society.

Childbirth was a dangerous process within Minoan society. Archeological sources have found numerous bones of pregnant women, identified by the fetus bones within their skeleton found in the abdomen area, providing strong evidence that death during pregnancy and childbirth were common features within society. Further archeological finds provide evidence for female death caused by nursing as well. Death of this population is attributed to the vast amount of nutrition and fat that women lost because of lactation which they often could not get back.

Costume

Sheep wool was the main fibre used in textiles, and perhaps a significant export commodity. Linen from flax was probably much less common, and possibly imported from Egypt, or grown locally. There is no evidence of silk, but some use is possible.

As seen in Minoan art, Minoan men wore loincloths (if poor) or robes or kilts that were often long. Women wore long dresses with short sleeves and layered, flounced skirts. With both sexes, there was a great emphasis in art in a small wasp waist, often taken to improbable extremes. Both sexes are often shown with rather thick belts or girdles at the waist. Women could also wear a strapless, fitted bodice, and clothing patterns had symmetrical, geometric designs. Men are shown as clean-shaven, and male hair was short, in styles that would be common today, except for some long thin tresses at the back, perhaps for young elite males. Female hair is typically shown with long tresses falling at the back, as in the fresco fragment known as La Parisienne. This got its name because when it was found in the early 20th century, a French art historian thought it resembled Parisian women of the day. Children are shown in art with shaved heads (often blue in art) except for a few very long locks; the rest of the hair is allowed to grow as they approach puberty; this can be seen in the Akrotiri Boxer Fresco.

Two famous Minoan snake goddess figurines from Knossos (one illustrated below) show bodices that circle their breasts, but do not cover them at all. These striking figures have dominated the popular image of Minoan clothing, and have been copied in some "reconstructions" of largely destroyed frescos, but few images unambiguously show this costume, and the status of the figures—goddesses, priestesses, or devotees—is not at all clear. What is clear, from pieces like the Agia Triada Sarcophagus, is that Minoan women normally covered their breasts; priestesses in religious contexts may have been an exception. This shows a funeral sacrifice, and some figures of both sexes are wearing aprons or skirts of animal hide, apparently left with the hair on. This was probably the costume worn by both sexes by those engaged in rituals.

Minoan jewellery included many gold ornaments for women's hair and also thin gold plaques to sew onto clothing. Flowers were also often worn in the hair, as by the Poppy Goddess terracotta figurine and other figures. Frescos also show what are presumably woven or embroidered figures, human and animal, spaced out on clothing.

Language and writing

The Minoans used a number of different scripts. During the Palatial period, the primary scripts were Linear A and Cretan hieroglyphs, the latter falling out of use in MM III. The origins of these scripts is unknown. Although Cretan hieroglyphic is often assumed to have been inspired by Egyptian hieroglyphs, Anatolian and Mesopotamian writing systems have also been considered as models. Neither script has been deciphered, despite numerous attempts. For instance, when the values of the symbols in Linear B are used in Linear A, they produce mostly unrecognizable words. The language encoded by these scripts is tentatively dubbed "Minoan", though it is not certain that it was a single language. Decipherment attempts have attempted to read the language as Indo-European, Semitic, and Tyrsenian languages, but none have resulted in an accepted decipherment. The post-Bronze Age Eteocretan language has been considered as a potential descendant of Minoan. However, this language is only known from five inscriptions in eastern Crete and is thus itself poorly understood.

Linear B became the primary Cretan script after LM II. This script was adapted from the earlier Linear A in order to write Mycenaean Greek, which had become the language of administration. Linear B was deciphered in 1952, unlocking a major source of textual evidence about the economics and social organization of the final year at the palace of Knossos.

A handful of Minoan inscriptions use other unknown writing systems. For instance the Phaistos Disc features a pictorial script whose only close comparison is found on the Arkalochori Axe. Because so few instances of these scripts have been found, they remain undeciphered.

Religion

Arthur Evans thought the Minoans worshipped, more or less exclusively, a mother goddess, which heavily influenced views for decades. Recent scholarly opinion sees a much more diverse religious landscape although the absence of texts, or even readable relevant inscriptions, leaves the picture very cloudy. We have no names of deities until after the Mycenaean era. Much Minoan art is given a religious significance of some sort, but this tends to be vague, not least because Minoan government is now often seen as a theocracy, so politics and religion have a considerable overlap. The Minoan pantheon featured many deities, among which a young, spear-wielding male god is also prominent. Some scholars see in the Minoan Goddess a female divine solar figure.

It is very often difficult to distinguish between images of worshipers, priests and priestesses, rulers and deities; indeed the priestly and royal roles may have often been the same, as leading rituals is often seen as the essence of rulership. Possibly as aspects of the main, probably dominant, nature/mother goddess, archaeologists have identified a mountain goddess, worshipped at peak sanctuaries, a dove goddess, a snake goddess perhaps protectress of the household, the Potnia Theron goddess of animals, and a goddess of childbirth. Late Minoan terracotta votive figures like the poppy goddess (perhaps a worshipper) carry attributes, often birds, in their diadems. The mythical creature called the Minoan Genius is somewhat threatening but perhaps a protective figure, possibly of children; it seems to largely derive from Taweret the Egyptian hybrid crocodile and hippopotamus goddess.

Men with a special role as priests or priest-kings are identifiable by diagonal bands on their long robes, and carrying over their shoulder a ritual "axe-sceptre" with a rounded blade. The more conventionally-shaped labrys or double-headed axe, is a very common votive offering, probably for a male god, and large examples of the Horns of Consecration symbol, probably representing bull's horns, are shown on seals decorating buildings, with a few large actual survivals. Bull-leaping, very much centred on Knossos, is agreed to have a religious significance, perhaps to do with selecting the elite. The position of the bull in it is unclear; the funeral ceremonies on the (very late) Hagia Triada sarcophagus include a bull sacrifice. The saffron may have had a religious significance.

According to Nanno Marinatos, "The hierarchy and relationship of gods within the pantheon is difficult to decode from the images alone." Marinatos disagrees with earlier descriptions of Minoan religion as primitive, saying that it "was the religion of a sophisticated and urbanized palatial culture with a complex social hierarchy. It was not dominated by fertility any more than any religion of the past or present has been, and it addressed gender identity, rites of passage, and death. It is reasonable to assume that both the organization and the rituals, even the mythology, resembled the religions of Near Eastern palatial civilizations." It even seems that the later Greek pantheon would synthesize the Minoan female deity and Hittite goddess from the Near East.

Symbolism
Minoan horn-topped altars, which Arthur Evans called Horns of Consecration, are represented in seal impressions and have been found as far afield as Cyprus. Minoan sacred symbols include the bull (and its horns of consecration), the labrys (double-headed axe), the pillar, the serpent, the sun-disc, the tree, and even the Ankh.

Haralampos V. Harissis and Anastasios V. Harissis posit a different interpretation of these symbols, saying that they were based on apiculture rather than religion. A major festival was exemplified in bull-leaping, represented in the frescoes of Knossos and inscribed in miniature seals.

Burial practices
Similar to other Bronze Age archaeological finds, burial remains constitute much of the material and archaeological evidence for the period. By the end of the Second Palace Period, Minoan burial was dominated by two forms: circular tombs (tholoi) in southern Crete and house tombs in the north and the east. However, much Minoan mortuary practice does not conform to this pattern. Burial was more popular than cremation. Individual burial was the rule, except for the Chrysolakkos complex in Malia. Here, a number of buildings form a complex in the center of Mallia's burial area and may have been the focus for burial rituals or a crypt for a notable family. Evidence of possible human sacrifice by the Minoans has been found at three sites: at Anemospilia, in a MMII building near Mt. Juktas considered a temple; an EMII sanctuary complex at Fournou Korifi in south-central Crete, and in an LMIB building known as the North House in Knossos.

Architecture

Minoan cities were connected by narrow roads paved with blocks cut with bronze saws. Streets were drained, and water and sewage facilities were available to the upper class through clay pipes.

Minoan buildings often had flat, tiled roofs; plaster, wood or flagstone floors, and stood two to three stories high. Lower walls were typically constructed of stone and rubble, and the upper walls of mudbrick. Ceiling timbers held up the roofs.

Construction materials for villas and palaces varied, and included sandstone, gypsum and limestone. Building techniques also varied, with some palaces using ashlar masonry and others roughly-hewn, megalithic blocks.

In north-central Crete blue-greenschist was used to pave floors of streets and courtyards between 1650 and 1600BC. These rocks were likely quarried in Agia Pelagia on the north coast of central Crete.

Palaces

The Minoans famously built large complexes referred to as palaces. However, despite their name, it is generally agreed that they did not primarily serve as royal residences. The best known of them are at Knossos, Phaistos, Zakros, and Malia.

Minoan palaces consist of wings arranged around an open rectangular court. The wings are often multi-story, with interior and exterior staircases, lightwells, massive columns, and large storage chambers. The various palaces have a fairly uniform style, though each has unique features. They are typically aligned with their surrounding topography, in particular with nearby sacred mountains. For instance, the palace at Phaistos appears to align with Mount Ida and Knossos is aligned with Mount Juktas, both on a north–south axis.

The first palaces are generally dated to the MM IB period. However, they were not a spontaneous development but rather the culmination of a longer architectural tradition. The palace style has precedents in Early Minoan construction styles and earlier buildings were sometimes incorporated in the later palaces. The palace at Malia is sometimes regarded as having achieved palacehood at the end of the Early Minoan period. Palaces were continually renovated and altered, with their style changing over time. For instance, early palaces had a square-within-a-square layout, while later renovations introduced more internal divisions and corridors.

The function of the palaces is a matter of debate, though it is known that they included administrative offices, shrines, workshops and storage spaces.

Plumbing
During the Minoan Era extensive waterways were built in order to protect the growing population. This system had two primary functions, first providing and distributing water, and secondly relocating sewage and stormwater. One of the defining aspects of the Minoan Era was the architectural feats of their waste management. The Minoans used technologies such as wells, cisterns, and aqueducts to manage their water supplies. Structural aspects of their buildings even played a part. Flat roofs and plentiful open courtyards were used for collecting water to be stored in cisterns. Significantly, the Minoans had water treatment devices. One such device seems to have been a porous clay pipe through which water was allowed to flow until clean.

Columns

For sustaining of the roof, some higher houses, especially the palaces, used columns made usually of Cupressus sempervirens, and sometimes of stone. One of the most notable Minoan contributions to architecture is their inverted column, wider at the top than the base (unlike most Greek columns, which are wider at the bottom to give an impression of height). The columns were made of wood (not stone) and were generally painted red. Mounted on a simple stone base, they were topped with a pillow-like, round capital.

Villas

A number of compounds known as "villas" have been excavated on Crete, mostly near palaces, especially Knossos. These structures share features of neopalatial palaces: a conspicuous western facade, storage facilities and a three-part Minoan Hall. These features may indicate a similar role or that the structures were artistic imitations, suggesting that their occupants were familiar with palatial culture. The villas were often richly decorated, as evidenced by the frescos of Hagia Triada Villa A.

A common characteristic of the Minoan villas was having flat roofs. Their rooms did not have windows to the streets, the light arriving from courtyards, a common feature of larger Mediterranean in much later periods. In the 2nd millennium BC, the villas had one or two floors, and the palaces even three.

Warfare and the "Minoan peace"

Early excavators such as Arthur Evans proposed that there was little internal armed conflict in Minoan Crete until the Mycenaean period. However, subsequent scholarship has questioned this interpretation.

No evidence has been found of a Minoan army or the Minoan domination of peoples beyond Crete. Evans believed that the Minoans had some kind of overlordship of at least parts of Mycenaean Greece in the Neopalatial Period, but it is now very widely agreed that the opposite was the case, with a Mycenaean elite clearly ruling Knossos from around 1450BC. Few signs of warfare appear in Minoan art: "Although a few archaeologists see war scenes in a few pieces of Minoan art, others interpret even these scenes as festivals, sacred dance, or sports events" (Studebaker, 2004, p. 27). Although armed warriors are depicted as stabbed in the throat with swords, the violence may be part of a ritual or blood sport.

Nanno Marinatos argued that the Neopalatial Minoans had a "powerful navy" that made them a desirable ally to have in Mediterranean power politics, at least by the 14th century as "vassals of the pharaoh", leading Cretan tribute-bearers to be depicted on Egyptian tombs such as those of the top officials Rekmire and Senmut.

On mainland Greece during the shaft-grave era at Mycenae, there is little evidence for major Mycenaean fortifications; the citadels follow the destruction of nearly all neopalatial Cretan sites. Warfare by other contemporaries of the ancient Minoans, such as the Egyptians and the Hittites, is well-documented.

Warfare

Despite finding ruined watchtowers and fortification walls, Evans said that there was little evidence of ancient Minoan fortifications. According to Stylianos Alexiou (in Kretologia 8), a number of sites (especially early and middle Minoan sites such as Aghia Photia) are built on hilltops or otherwise fortified. Lucia Nixon wrote:

Chester Starr said in "Minoan Flower Lovers" that since Shang China and the Maya had unfortified centers and engaged in frontier struggles, a lack of fortifications alone does not prove that the Minoans were a peaceful civilization unparalleled in history. In 1998, when Minoan archaeologists met in a Belgian conference to discuss the possibility that the Pax Minoica was outdated, evidence of Minoan war was still scanty. According to Jan Driessen, the Minoans frequently depicted "weapons" in their art in a ritual context:

Stella Chryssoulaki's work on small outposts (or guardhouses) in eastern Crete indicates a possible defensive system; type A (high-quality) Minoan swords were found in the palaces of Mallia and Zarkos (see Sanders, AJA 65, 67, Hoeckmann, JRGZM 27, or Rehak and Younger, AJA 102). Keith Branigan estimated that 95 percent of Minoan "weapons" had hafting (hilts or handles) which would have prevented their use as such. However, tests of replicas indicated that the weapons could cut flesh down to the bone (and score the bone's surface) without damaging the weapons themselves. According to Paul Rehak, Minoan figure-eight shields could not have been used for fighting or hunting, since they were too cumbersome. Although Cheryl Floyd concluded that Minoan "weapons" were tools used for mundane tasks such as meat processing, Middle Minoan "rapiers nearly three feet in length" have been found.

Charles Gates argues that the absence of warfare in Minoan art does not prove it did not occur because there is no correlation between a society's artistic depiction of warfare and how often said society is involved in conflict. Barry Molloy states that artwork is an unreliable guide to a society's behaviour, using the example that frescoes recovered prior to the Late Minoan period seldom depict people interacting with each other yet this should not be taken as evidence that Minoans rarely did so. Molloy further argues that the lack of fortifications could be attributed to Crete's rugged topography, which would have provided a significant natural defensive advantage; Molloy argues that the guardhouses could have been used to secure narrow roads through Crete.

About Minoan warfare, Branigan concluded:

Archaeologist Olga Krzyszkowska agreed: "The stark fact is that for the prehistoric Aegean we have no direct evidence for war and warfare per se."

Genetic and anthropometric studies

A cephalometric analysis by Argyropoulos et al. (1989) published in The Angle Orthodontist showed remarkable similarity in craniofacial morphology between Minoans and modern Greeks, suggesting a close affinity, and that the Greek ethnic group remained stable in its cephalic and facial morphology for the last 4,000 years.

A craniofacial morphological study by Papagrigorakis et al. (2014) published in Anthropologischer Anzeiger also indicated craniological similarities between modern Greeks and Minoans, indicating continuity.

A 2013 archaeogenetics study by Hughey at al. published in Nature Communications compared skeletal mtDNA from ancient Minoan skeletons that were sealed in a cave in the Lasithi Plateau between 3,700 and 4,400 years ago to 135 samples from Greece, Anatolia, western and northern Europe, North Africa and Egypt. The researchers found that the Minoan skeletons were genetically very similar to modern-day Europeans—and especially close to modern-day Cretans, particularly those from the Lasithi Plateau. They were also genetically similar to Neolithic Europeans, but distinct from Egyptian or Libyan populations. "We now know that the founders of the first advanced European civilization were European," said study co-author George Stamatoyannopoulos, a human geneticist at the University of Washington. "They were very similar to Neolithic Europeans and very similar to present day-Cretans."

In their archaeogenetic study published in Nature, Lazaridis et al. (2017) found that Minoans and Mycenaean Greeks were genetically highly similar – but not identical – and that modern Greeks descend from these populations. The F between the sampled Bronze Age populations and present-day West Eurasians was estimated, finding that Mycenaean Greeks and Minoans were least differentiated from the populations of modern Greece, Cyprus, Albania, and Italy. In a subsequent study, Lazaridis et al. (2022) concluded that around ~58.4–65.8% of the DNA of the Mycenaeans and ~70.9–76.7% of the Minoans came from Early European Farmers (EEF), while the remainder came from ancient populations related to the Caucasus Hunter-Gatherers (CHG) (Mycenaeans ~20.1–22.7%, Minoans ~17–19.4%) and the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) culture (Mycenaeans ~7–14%, Minoans ~3.9–9.5%). Unlike the Minoans, the Mycenaeans had also inherited ~3.3–5.5% ancestry from a source related to the Eastern European Hunter-Gatherers (EHG), introduced via a proximal source related to the inhabitants of the Pontic–Caspian steppe (Western Steppe Herders) who are hypothesized to be the Proto-Indo-Europeans, and ~0.9–2.3% from the Iron Gates Hunter-Gatherers in the Balkans.

See also

 Atlantis
 Caucasus
 Hyksos
 Minoa
 Sacred caves of Crete
 Sea Peoples

Footnotes

References

 Benton, Janetta Rebold and DiYanni, Robert. Arts and Culture: An Introduction to the Humanities. Volume 1. Prentice Hall. New Jersey, 1998.
 Bourbon, F. Lost Civilizations. Barnes and Noble, Inc. New York, 1998.
 Branigan, Keith, 1970. The Foundations of Palatial Crete.

 Burkert, Walter, 1985. Greek Religion. J. Raffan, trans. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
 Cadogan, Gerald, 1992, " Ancient and Modern Crete", in Myers et al., 1992, Aerial Atlas of Ancient Crete.
 Callender, Gae (1999) The Minoans and the Mycenaeans: Aegean Society in the Bronze Age Oxford university press, Victoria 3205, Australia

Chapin, Anne P., "Power, Privilege and Landscape in Minoan Art", in Charis: Essays in Honor of Sara A. Immerwahr, Hesperia (Princeton, N.J.) 33, 2004, ASCSA, , 9780876615331, google books

 Dickinson, Oliver (1994; 2005 re-print) The Aegean Bronze Age, Cambridge World Archaeology, Cambridge University Press.

 Sir Arthur Evans, 1921–35. The Palace of Minos: A Comparative Account of the Successive Stages of the Early Cretan Civilization as Illustrated by the Discoveries at Knossos, 4 vols. in 6 (reissued 1964).

 Gates, Charles, 1999. "Why Are There No Scenes of Warfare in Minoan Art?" pp 277–284 In Laffineur, Robert, ed., Polemos: Le Contexte Guerrier en Egee a L'Age du Bronze. Actes de la 7e Rencontre egeenne internationale Universite de Liège, 1998. Université de Liège.
Gates, Charles (2004), "Pictorial Imagery in Minoan Wall Painting", in Charis: Essays in Honor of Sara A. Immerwahr, Hesperia (Princeton, N.J.) 33, 2004, ASCSA, , 9780876615331, google books
 Gere, Cathy. Knossos and the Prophets of Modernism, University of Chicago Press 2009.

 Hutchinson, Prehistoric Crete, many editions hardcover and softcover
 Goodison, Lucy, and Morris, Christine, 1998, "Beyond the Great Mother: The Sacred World of the Minoans", in Goodison, Lucy, and Christine Morris, eds., Ancient Goddesses: The Myths and the Evidence, London: British Museum Press, pp. 113–132.

 Hägg, R. and N. Marinatos, eds. The Minoan Thalassocracy: Myth and Reality (Stockholm) 1994. A summary of revived points-of-view of a Minoan thalassocracy, especially in LMI.
 Haralampos V. Harissis, Anastasios V. Harissis. Apiculture in the Prehistoric Aegean. Minoan and Mycenaean Symbols Revisited British Archaeological Reports S1958, 2009 .
 Higgins, Reynold, 1981. Minoan and Mycenaean Art, (revised edition).
 Hogan, C. Michael, 2007. Knossos fieldnotes, Modern Antiquarian
Hugh Honour and John Fleming, A World History of Art, 1st edn. 1982 (many later editions), Macmillan, London, page refs to 1984 Macmillan 1st edn. paperback.
 Hood, Sinclair, 1971, The Minoans: Crete in the Bronze Age. London.
Hood, Sinclair (1978), The Arts in Prehistoric Greece, 1978, Penguin (Penguin/Yale History of Art),
 Hughes, Dennis, 1991. Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece. Routledge: London.
 Hutchinson, Richard W., 1962. Prehistoric Crete (reprinted 1968)
 Kristiansen, Kristiansen & Larsson, Thomas B. (2005) The Rise of Bronze Age Society: Travels, Transmissions and Transformations Cambridge University Press

 Lapatin, Kenneth, 2002. Mysteries of the Snake Goddess: Art, Desire, and the Forging of History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

 Manning, S.W., 1995. "An approximate Minoan Bronze Age chronology" in A.B. Knapp, ed., The absolute chronology of the Aegean Early Bronze Age: Archaeology, radiocarbon and history (Appendix 8), in series Monographs in Mediterranean Archaeology, Vol. 1 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press) A standard current Minoan chronology.
 Marinatos, Nanno, 1993. Minoan Religion: Ritual, Image, and Symbol. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.
 Marinatos, Nanno (2010), Minoan Kingship and the Solar Goddess: A Near Eastern Koine, University of Illinois Press
 Marinatos, Spyridon, 1960. Crete and Mycenae (originally published in Greek, 1959), photographs by Max Hirmer.
 Marinatos, Spyridon, 1972. "Life and Art in Prehistoric Thera", in Proceedings of the British Academy, vol 57.

 Mellersh, H.E.L., 1967. Minoan Crete. New York, G.P. Putnam's Sons.

 Papadopoulos, John K., "Inventing the Minoans: Archaeology, Modernity and the Quest for European Identity", Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 18:1:87–149 (June 2005)

 Preziosi, Donald & Hitchcock, Louise A. (1999) Aegean Art and Architecture, Oxford History of Art series, Oxford University Press.

 Quigley, Carroll, 1961. The Evolution of Civilizations: An Introduction to Historical Analysis, Indianapolis: Liberty Press.

 Schoep, Ilse, 2004. "Assessing the role of architecture in conspicuous consumption in the Middle Minoan I–II Periods." Oxford Journal of Archaeology vol 23/3, pp. 243–269.

 Soles, Jeffrey S., 1992, The Prepalatial Cemeteries at Mochlos and Gournia and the House Tombs of Bronze Age Crete: And the House Tombs of Bronze Age Crete, Published by ASCSA, 1992.

 Warren P., Hankey V., 1989. Aegean Bronze Age Chronology (Bristol).
 Watrous, L. Vance (1991), "The origin and iconography of the Late Minoan painted larnax", Hesperia, 60(3): 285–307; .
 Willetts, R. F., 1976 (1995 edition). The Civilization of Ancient Crete. New York: Barnes & Noble Books.

 Yule, Paul. Early Cretan Seals: A Study of Chronology. Marburger Studien zur Vor- und Frühgeschichte 4, Mainz 1980
Vasilakis, Andonis, Minoan Crete: From Myth to History, 2000, Adam Editions, Athens,

27th-century BC establishments
12th-century BC disestablishments
States and territories established in the 3rd millennium BC
States and territories disestablished in the 12th century BC
Pre-Indo-Europeans
Prehistoric Crete
History of Crete

Minoan civilization


se (screen-editor) is also known as the Georgia Tech Screen Editor.
According to the README file in its sources, Se started out as the version of 'ed' that came with the book 'Software Tools', by Kernighan and Plauger, which was written in Ratfor.

Several people, including Dan Forsyth and Arnold Robbins worked on the program, making improvements before and after converting it to C in early 1985.  The program was first posted to the comp.sources.unix newsgroup in December 1986.  The final version noted in the external links dates from 1987.

There was also a different (and earlier) se screen-based editor for Unix, which was based on ed.

References

External links
se 2.10 and 2.20 source and screenshot
port of se to Xenix
se Homepage

Text editors
Public-domain software with source code

Se (text editor)


Charlie Mason is an American lyricist whose credits include releases by Miley Cyrus, Girls' Generation, Eric Saade, Abraham Mateo, BoA, Ross Lynch, Monrose, Sergey Lazarev, Sweet California, Danny Saucedo, Sarah Connor, Robin Beck, Jason DEE, and Queensberry.

Eurovision work
Mason co-wrote the Eurovision Song Contest 2014-winning song "Rise Like a Phoenix", sung by Austrian artist Conchita Wurst, as well as the Slovenia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015, Here for You, sung by Maraaya and the English version of Serbia's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015, "Beauty Never Lies", sung by Bojana Stamenov. In 2016, he wrote "Half a Smile", a song in the 2016 Switzerland selection for Eurovision.

Early career
Mason got his start as a lyricist working with German vocalist-musician Dirk Homuth on songs for an alt-pop group which Homuth named Almost Charlie so that, although his friend is "unable to play any instrument more complicated than a toaster", he could still be represented in some way. To date, the act has released three albums, "Loving Counterclockwise" (2006), "The Plural of Yes" (2009) and "Tomorrow's Yesterday" (2012).

Since then, Mason has written lyrics in nearly every genre, for artists including House of Lords, Gigi Radics, Oscar Zia, Ashley Tisdale, Andrey Tikhonov, Electrovamp, Jonathan Fagerlund, Jane Badler and Miss Coco Peru. His personal projects have included albums by Kim David Smith and Amelia's Fault, and singles by Nathalie Archangel and former Vanity 6 and Apollonia 6 member Brenda Bennett.

Entries in the Eurovision Song Contest
 "L'amore è femmina" by Nina Zilli, Italy, (Eurovision Song Contest 2012), 9th place
 "Rise Like a Phoenix" by Conchita Wurst, Austria, (Eurovision Song Contest 2014), 1st place
 "Beauty Never Lies" by Bojana Stamenov, Serbia, (Eurovision Song Contest 2015), 10th place
 "Here for You" by Maraaya, Slovenia, (Eurovision Song Contest 2015), 14th place
 "The Dream" by Roko, Croatia, (Eurovision Song Contest 2019), 14th place (Semi-final 2)
 "Heartbeat" by Petar Aničić, Serbia, (Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2020), 11th place
 "Amen" by Ana Soklič, Slovenia, (Eurovision Song Contest 2021), 13th place (Semi-final 1)

References

External links

American lyricists
Living people
Musicians from New Orleans
Year of birth missing (living people)
Eurovision Song Contest winners
Songwriters from Louisiana

Charlie Mason (lyricist)


The Benelli Raffaello semi-automatic shotgun is manufactured by Italian arms manufacturer Benelli Armi SpA.

Design details
The shotgun has a relatively small number of component parts, incorporating a simple operating principle. The main features of the mechanism are the turning block bolt locking system and the cartridge feeding system (cut off).

Operation
Benelli's range of semi-automatic shotguns operate on the same basic principle of inertial operation, with a fixed barrel, utilizing the kinetic energy of gun recoil. This system requires no outlet for gas or barrel recoil, but operates by means of a spring freely interposed between bolt head and bolt.

During firing, due to the recoil of the gun, breech block inertia makes it move about 4 mm forward in relation to the power of the cartridge, compressing the spring. When this is fully compressed, it overcomes breech block inertia, thrusting it to the rear under residual pressure, permitting cartridge case extraction and reloading with the conventional system.

The pressure of the spring is calculated to delay the opening of the action, which occurs after the shot has left the barrel, and to regulate the different pressures produced by cartridges of varying power, with no need for braking.

See also
 Benelli Raffaello CrioComfort

External links
 Official homepage - Italy
 Official homepage - USA

Benelli Armi SpA
Semi-automatic shotguns of Italy

Benelli Raffaello


Benjamin A. Burtt (born 1984), also known as Benny Burtt and Ben Burtt Jr., is an American sound editor for Skywalker Sound.

The son of Ben Burtt, Benjamin A. Burtt grew up in Northern California, and first worked in film when he was in high school, as an assistant to his father on Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. He provided the vocal effects of the Velociraptors Blue, Charlie, Delta and Echo in the Jurassic World trilogy. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing for his work on Black Panther.

References

External links

American sound editors
American sound designers
1984 births

Living people

Benjamin A. Burtt


Fur clothing is clothing made from the preserved skins of mammals. Fur is one of the oldest forms of clothing and is thought to have been widely used by people for at least 120,000 years. The term 'fur' is often used to refer to a specific item of clothing such as a coat, wrap, or shawl made from the fur of animals.

Humans wear fur garments to protect them from cold climates and wind chill, but documented evidence of fur as a marker of social status exists as far back as 2,000 years ago with ancient Egyptian emperors and high priests wearing the skins of leopards.

Historically in European and Middle Eastern cultures fur garments often had the fur facing inwards with cloth on the exterior of the jacket, but in the 19th century a trend for wearing seal fur coats with the fur facing outwards became the trend. Worldwide, both styles are popular, with fur linings offering more thermal benefits and exterior furs serving more of a fashionable purpose.

History

Fur is generally thought to have been among the first materials used for clothing. The period when fur was first used as clothing is debated. It is known that several species of hominoids including Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis used fur clothing. Clothing was made from the hides of animals such as bison, muskox, bear, ground sloth, woolly rhinoceros, mammoth or Irish elk.

Fur clothing predates written history and has been recovered from various archaeological sites worldwide.

Crown proclamations known as "sumptuary legislation" were issued in England limiting the wearing of certain furs to higher social statuses, thereby establishing a cachet based on exclusivity. Furs such as marten, leopard, snow leopard and cheetah (all three of them known as 'panther' at the time), red squirrel and ermine were reserved for the aristocracy, while fox, hare and beaver clothed the middle, and goat, wolf and sheepskin the lower. Fur was primarily used for visible linings, with species varied by season within social classes. Populations of fur-bearing animals decreased in West Europe and began to be imported from the Middle East and Russia.

As new kinds of fur, such as jaguar and chinchilla, entered Europe, other uses were found for fur other than clothing. Beaver was most desired and used to make hats which became popular headpieces, especially during wartime. Swedish soldiers wore broad-brimmed hats made exclusively from beaver felt. Due to the limitations of beaver fur, hat-makers relied heavily on North America for imports as beaver was only available in the Scandinavian peninsula.

Other than the military, fur has been used for accessories such as hats, hoods, scarves, and muffs. Design elements including the visuals of the animal were considered acceptable with heads, tails and paws still being kept on the accessories. During the nineteenth century, Seal and karakul were made into indoor jackets.

The twentieth century saw fur being fashionable in West Europe with full fur coats. With lifestyle changes as a result of developments like indoor heating, the international textile trade affected how fur was distributed around the world. Europeans focused on using local resources giving fur association with femininity with the increasing use of mink.

The most popular kinds of fur in the 1960s (known as luxury fur) were blond mink, white rabbit, yellow leopard, jaguar or cheetah, black panther, silver striped fox and red fox. Cheaper alternatives were pelts of wolf, Persian lamb or muskrat. It was common for ladies to wear a matching hat. In the 1950s, a must-have type of fur was the mutation fur (naturally nuanced colours) and fur trimmings on a coat that were beaver, lamb fur, Astrakhan and mink.

In 1970, Germany was the world's largest fur market. In 1975, the International Fur Trade Federation banned endangered species furs like silk monkey, silky sifaka, ringtailed lemur, golden bamboo lemur, sportive lemur, dwarf lemur, ocelot, margay, cougar, snow leopard, black panther, leopard, jaguar, tiger, cheetah, quoll, numbat, chinchilla, black bear, Sun bear, Moon bear, and polar bear. The use of animal skins was brought to light during the 1980s by animal rights organizations while the demand for fur decreased. Anti-fur organizations raised awareness of animal welfare issues within the fashion industry. Fur farming was banned in Britain in 1999. During the twenty-first century, foxes and mink have been bred in captivity with Denmark, Holland and Finland being leaders in mink production. Fur farming has also been banned in the Netherlands and the UK.

Fur is still worn in cooler climates around the world due to its warmth and durability. From the days of early European settlement, up until the development of modern clothing alternatives, fur clothing was popular in Canada during the cold winters. The invention of inexpensive synthetic textiles for insulating clothing led to fur clothing falling out of fashion.

Fur is still used by indigenous people and industrialized societies, due to its availability and superior insulation properties. The Inuit peoples of the Arctic relied on fur for most of their clothing, and it also forms a part of traditional clothing in Russia, Ukraine, the former Yugoslavia, Scandinavia, and Japan.

A number of consumers and designers—notably British fashion designer and outspoken animal rights activist Stella McCartney—reject fur due to moral beliefs against cruelty to animals.

Animal furs used in garments and trim may be dyed bright colors or with patterns, often to mimic exotic animal pelts: alternatively, they may be left their original pattern and color. Fur may be shorn down to imitate the feel of velvet, creating a fabric called shearling.

The introduction of alternatives in the early 20th century brought tension to the clothing industry as the faux fur manufacturers started producing faux fur and capitalising on profits. By the 1950s synthetic fur garments had become popular and affordable. Newspapers were writing articles on major chemical companies trying to outdo each other in the quest to create the most realistic fake fur.

The popularity of natural fur has declined in recent years. While Vogue Paris published a homage to fur in August 2017, Gucci later endorsed the idea of not using animal fur. Other high-end brands to follow this lead are Stella McCartney, Givenchy, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors, Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini. Burberry announced its intentions to stop sending models with fur on runways but did not stop selling it in stores. Some companies have attempted to devise sustainable methods of producing leather and fur. Designer Ingar Helgason is developing Bio fur which would grows synthetic pelts the way that Modern Meadow has been able to produce grown leather and Diamond foundry-created lab-grown diamonds. BOF fur debate hosted by Zilberkweit director of the British Fur Association argued that natural fur was more sustainable. Others said that chemical processes needed to treat animals' fur in order to be worn are just as detrimental to the environment.

Fashion houses such as Hermès, Dior and Fendi still use natural fur. Alex Mcintosh, who leads the Fashion Futures post-graduate program at London College of Fashion, says "change on this level would only be driven on a genuine lack of demand and not just social media outcry".

Fur sources

Common animal sources for fur clothing and fur trimmed accessories include fox, mink, rabbit (specifically the rex rabbit), finnraccoon (industry term for tanuki), lynx, bobcat, polecat (called 'fitch'), muskrat, beaver, stoat (ermine), marten, otter, sable, civet, seals, karakul sheep, muskox, caribou, llama, alpaca, skunk, coyote, wolf, chinchilla, opossum, and common brushtail possum. Some of these are more highly prized than others, and there are many grades and colors. In the past animals such as leopards, jaguars, tigers, lemurs, and Colobus monkeys were commonly used but CITES laws and the environmental regulation has made these furs illegal. Additionally, in some regions the furs of domestic dogs and cats are used for warmth.

Different furs have different properties; coyote fur is resilient and works as a great wind barrier but is very rough to touch, while fox fur is silky but delicate.

The import and sale of seal products was banned in the US in 1972 over conservation concerns about Canadian seals. The import and sale is still banned even though the Marine Animal Response Society estimates the harp seal population is thriving at approximately 8 million, and the bans harmful impact on Indigenous communities that had relied on seal hunting as a source of international income. The import, export and sales of domesticated cat and dog fur were also banned in the US under the Dog and Cat Protection Act of 2000.

Most of the fur sold by high fashion retailers globally is from farmed animals such as mink, foxes, and rabbits. Some cruel methods of killing have made people more aware as animal rights activists work harder to protect the animals. The 2001 recommendations of the European Commission's Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare (SCAHAW) state correspondingly: 'In comparison with other farm animals, species farmed for their fur have been subjected to relatively little active selection except with respect to fur characteristics.

Processing of fur

Processing the pelt
The manufacturing of fur clothing involves obtaining animal pelts where the hair is left on. Depending on the type of fur and its purpose, some of the chemicals involved in fur processing may include table salts, alum salts, acids, soda ash, sawdust, cornstarch, lanolin, degreasers, and, less commonly, bleaches, dyes and toners (for dyed fur).

The first step in the process is the skinning phase. Animals must be frozen in order to make this phase safe, otherwise, the temperature change from the warm body of the animal to the cold environment around it would cause all the hair to fall off the pelt. It's also best for the carcass to be frozen before skinning so that the carcass won't bleed while being skinned. After the carcass is skinned it's then fleshed, dried, salted, pickled, tanned (either by chemical or by natural method), and then softened. The length of time taken to skin, tan, and process the fur is a contributing factor of the high price.

Workers exposed to fur dust created during fur processing have been shown to have reduced pulmonary function in direct proportion to their length of exposure. The process of fur manufacturing includes waterways-pumping waste and toxic chemicals into the surrounding environment. Dyed furs also do not last as long as natural furs. On the other hand, fur is naturally biodegradable, whereas faux fur is not. Using natural tanning methods such as bark tanning can eliminate the harmful effects of the modern leather and fur tanning industries. Bark tanning involves boiling leaves or bark of trees to extract the tannins that are then used to preserve the hide.

The use of wool involves shearing the animal's fleece from the living animal so that the wool can be regrown but sheepskin shearling is made by retaining the fleece to the leather and shearing it.

Garment manufacturing

The foremost reason for the exorbitant price of a fur coat is the amount of time it takes to craft the garment. The first step is the pelt matcher who takes the furs available and matches them based on size and color to create one cohesive garment. Next a craftsperson will repair any damage shown on any of the pelts such as bald spots of torn leather.

Next the pelt is worked in a variety of ways to accentuate the markings of the animals, increase the thermal properties of the pelt, save on cost, or to create new patterns or styles. The let-out method is the most popular method used in the past, this involves cutting the pelt into countless thin strips and sewing them back together in a staggered fashion to make the pelt thinner and longer. The skin-to-skin method, now often called 'full pelt' is the easiest method where whole pelts are sewn side-by-side to fit the pattern. This method is incredibly warm, but looks the least like fabric. The airgallon method involves making small slits in the leather side of the fur making it longer and more lightweight for those who need to save on price. SAGA Furs and Kopenhagen Furs have both been investing in new methods such as knitting with fur (first invented by Indigenous people knitting arctic hare fur into blankets), fur lace, and fur intarsia.

Anti-fur campaigns
Anti-fur campaigns gained popularity in the 1980s and 1990s, with the participation of numerous celebrities. Fur clothing has become the focus of boycotts due to the opinion that it is cruel and unnecessary. PETA and other animal rights organizations, celebrities, and animal rights ethicists, have called attention to fur farming.

Animal rights advocates object to the trapping and killing of wildlife, and to the confinement and killing of animals on fur farms due to concerns about the animal' suffering and death. They may also condemn "alternatives" made from synthetic (oil-based) clothing as they promote fur for the sake of fashion. Protests also include objections to the use of leather in clothing, shoes and accessories.

Some animal rights activists have disrupted fur fashion shows with protests, while other anti-fur protesters may use fashion shows featuring faux furs or other alternatives to fur clothing as a platform to highlight animal suffering from the use of real leathers and furs. These groups sponsor "Compassionate Fashion Day" on the third Saturday of August to promote their anti-fur message. Some American groups participate in "Fur Free Friday", an event held annually on the Friday after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) that uses displays, protests, and other methods to highlight their beliefs regarding furs.

In Canada, opposition to the annual seal hunt is viewed as an anti-fur issue, although the Humane Society of the United States claims that its opposition is to "the largest slaughter of marine mammals on Earth." IFAW, an anti-sealing group, claims that Canada has an "abysmal record of enforcement" of anti-cruelty laws surrounding the hunt. A Canadian government survey indicated that two-thirds of Canadians supported the hunting of seals if the regulations under Canadian law.

PETA representative Johanna Fuoss credits social media and email marketing campaigns for helping to mobilize an unprecedented number of animal rights activists. "In the year before Michael Kors stopped using fur, he had received more than 150,000 emails," Fuoss tells Highsnobiety. "This puts a certain pressure on designers who can see that the zeitgeist is moving away from fur." New technologies and platforms have made it easier than ever for those advocating change to get results. While in the past, activists had to invade runways with signs and paint, or physically mail privately viewed letters, today's activist can raise a commotion without leaving the house.

The rise of social media has provided the general public with a direct line of communication with companies and a platform for opinions and protests, making it harder for brands to ignore targeted activism. "Brands are under huge pressure to respond to social media and avoid any controversy," says Mark Oaten, chief executive of the IFF. The anti-fur messaging is being amplified by social media and a millennial customer base that is paying closer attention to the values represented by the products they buy.

The feeling of outrage against animal suffering is particularly intense when cats and dogs are involved since these are the most popular pets in Western countries. Therefore, consumers demand to be assured about the production of furs to avoid the risk of inadvertently buying products made with fur from these animals. To counteract the growing concern of consumers, European Union officially banned the import and export from all Member States of dog and cat furs, and all products containing fur from these species, with Regulation 1523/2007, applying since December 31, 2008. A combined method for species identification in furs, based on a combined morphological and molecular approach, has been proposed to discriminate dog and cat furs from allowed fur-bearing species, as this is a necessary step to comply with the ban.

Fur trade

The fur trade is the worldwide buying and selling of fur for clothing and other purposes. The fur trade was one of the driving forces of exploration of North America and the Russian Far East.

The fur trade has long-lasting effects, specifically on the Natives in North America and the populations of fur bearing animals worldwide. When fur farming was first developed in North America it was in response to the dwindling numbers of wild furbearing animals caused by unregulated hunting and trapping.

Currently the most common animals in the global fur trade are farmed animals; mink are the most traded fur worldwide, followed by arctic fox (termed 'bluefox' by the industry), red fox, finnraccoon and rabbit.

Following the public awareness of animal welfare abuses in the fur industry, the European Union initiated the WelFur system. WelFur is the agreed upon certification program in the E.U. that prioritizes animal welfare in European fur farms, these farms are then given a QR code through the Furmark system to share with the clothing company which theoretically allows consumers to trace their fur coat back to which farm the animals came from. This system only applies to fur farms in the E.U. that supply fox, mink, and raccoon, and does not apply to farms in China or Russia.

Wild furs are still sold in the fur trade as well such as sable, wild fox, coyote, beaver, lynx, and martens. The Agreement on International Humane Trapping Standards (AIHTS), negotiated between the Russian Federation, the E.U., the U.S. and Canada, is an agreement signed in 1998 to "establish international standards of humane trapping" worldwide.

Contemporary fashion industries
Real fur in fashion is contentious, with Copenhagen (2022) and London (2018) fashion weeks banning real fur in its runway shows following protests and government attention to the issue. Fashion houses such as Gucci and Chanel have banned the use of fur in its garments. Versace and Furla also stopped using fur in their collections in early 2018. In 2020, the luxury outdoor brand Canada Goose announced it would discontinue the use of new coyote fur on parka trims following protests. Luxury brands like Dior, Fendi, Louis Vuitton, Max Mara, and Hermes continue to use fur in their designs.

Governing bodies have issued legislation banning the sale of new real fur garments. In 2021, Israel was the first government to ban the sale of real fur garments, with the exception of those worn as part of a religious faith. In 2019, the state of California banned fur trapping, with a total ban on the sale of all new fur garments except those made of sheep, cow, and rabbit fur going into effect on January 1, 2023.

See also
 Fur farming

References

External links

Fur
Clothing by material
History of clothing
Clothing controversies
Winter fabrics
Clothing and the environment

Fur clothing