Geometric templates used in the Akrotiri (Thera) wall-paintings

Abstract

A research team at Akrotiri, Thera, here examine the Bronze Age frescoes and show that the artists were making use of templates of well known geometric curves. Some of the spirals, hyperbolae and ellipses which all feature in the repertoire do not occur in nature and must have their origin in some still unknown human science or aesthetic.

A Minoan Geometry for Bisecting and Trisecting the Right Angle

“…This allow us to guess that Minoans had some elementary notions of "practical" Euclidean geometry too. Let us conclude remarking that, as told in [12], the use of some geometry for preparing templates for decorations had been first proposed by Janice Crowly [14] (unfortunately we have not yet the opportunity of studying this paper). In [12], it is reported that she analyzed the curvilinear designs occurring on Minoan seals and pottery, demonstrating that most of them derive from segments and/or combinations of circle, ellipse, triangle and arc, and that the Minoans could make a mathematical spiral.…”

“…Let us conclude remarking that, as told in [12], the use of some geometry for preparing templates for decorations had been first proposed by Janice Crowly [14] (unfortunately we have not yet the opportunity of studying this paper). In [12], it is reported that she analyzed the curvilinear designs occurring on Minoan seals and pottery, demonstrating that most of them derive from segments and/or combinations of circle, ellipse, triangle and arc, and that the Minoans could make a mathematical spiral. Here, we have added our contribution, pointing out that, assuming constructions with compass and straightedge being in use in the Eastern Mediterranean area, the Minoans could had been able of making specific geometric templates for their artworks.…”

“…In particular, we consider that they had some geometric construction with compass and straightedge, in particular for bisecting and trisecting the right angle. Let us note that arguments in this sense had been already proposed in a very interesting discussion on Minoan frescoes, [10][11][12], where the decorations with spirals and rosettes are seen as made with the use of templates of geometric curves. Let us also note that the Minoan techniques could had influenced the Egyptian geometry, or vice-versa, could have been developed after trading with Egypt.…”

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.…”

Analyzing and simulating fracture patterns of theran wall paintings

“…Most previous work has focused on finding pairwise matches between adjacent fragments by aligning patterns in their surface colors [Papaodysseus et al 2008], polygonal boundaries [Papaodysseus et al 2002;Leitão and Stolfi 2002], normal maps [Toler-Franklin et al 2010], and/or fractured edges [Brown et al 2008;Huang et al 2006;Papaioannou and Karabassi 2003]. These methods have been successful in cases where the fragments have highly distinctive features [Huang et al 2006], the reconstructed objects are surfaces of revolution [Karasik and Smilansky 2008]), and/or when domain-specific features can be used to identify potential matches [Koller and Levoy 2006].…”