A Minoan Geometry for Bisecting and Trisecting the Right Angle

Abstract

In a recent paper, we have shown that Egyptians of the New Kingdom were making drawings using compass and straightedge before creating the polychrome decorations of their artifact. Arguing that the use of such instruments had been previously consolidated in the eastern Mediterranean area, here we consider the possibility that the Minoan civilization had a geometry, which allowed its architects and skilled workers to bisect and trisect the right angle with compass and straightedge. To this purpose, we will analyse some decorations on artifacts and some frescoes found in the Knossos Palace of Crete and at Akrotiri, on the island of Santorini.

Flower of Life, Six-Fold Symmetry and Honeycomb Packing of Circles in the Mycenaean Geometry

“…Exact measurement also shows that the six small circles are centred precisely with respect to the equilateral triangles inside which they are drawn" [5]. (Just a comment to a sentence in [5]: also the Minoans had interesting geometric skills [13,14]). As told in [5], the skilled worker that made the roundel was able of making a curvilinear hexagon using the compass.…”