The Minoan aesthetic was so wildly different from other Mediterranean cultures in the second millennium B.C. (safe to say it hasn’t been matched since). The vibrant, whimsical wallpaintings they left behind continue to delight and amaze, even if they present a challenge in interpretation.
These details are from a particularly famous landscape scene (the third photo shows it more completely) decorating what is thought to be a domestic context in Thera (modern-day Santorini). Two fashionable young women are shown picking saffron from a field of crocuses on hilly terrain – all sinuous curves and boldly painted lines.
Whether their saffron-gathering has a ritual context is anyone’s guess (archaeologists oscillate), with some seeing it as a female coming of age rite. Wild crocuses grew all over the Mediterranean (still do), and the valuable saffron threads they produced were traded extensively, to dye clothing, enliven pigments, and perfume victuals.
Their dresses of vibrantly colored and patterned textiles are form fitting on their torsos and flounced, tiered, and tasseled below. The high ponytails and hoop earrings strike a startlingly modern chord, no?
