"palace like Knossos for their own use. Several authors have noted evidence that Minoan civilization had exceeded its environmental carrying capacity, with archaeological recovery at Knossos indicating deforestation in the region near the civilization's later stages. A 2013 archeogenetics study 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 Minos, the legendary king of Crete), including their written system, which was recorded on the undeciphered Linear A script and Cretan hieroglyphs. They were primarily a mercantile people engaged in extensive overseas trade throughout the Mediterranean region. Minoan civilization was affected by a number of natural cataclysms such as the volcanic eruption at Thera (c. 1628–1627 BC) and earthquakes (c. 1600 BC). In 1425 BC, the Minoan palaces (except Knossos) were devastated by fire, which allowed the Mycenaean Greeks, influenced by the Minoans' culture, to expand into Crete. The Minoan civilization which preceded the Mycenaean civilization on Crete was"
"Minoa Minoa is the name of several Bronze-Age cities on the coasts of the Aegean islands and Corfu in Greece, as well as Sicily. The original meaning of the word remains unknown, but it seems that there is a strong connection with the mythic king of Crete, Minos, during the bronze-age Minoan civilization which flourished in Crete and in the Aegean islands in Greece between 2000-1470 BC. The inhabitants of Crete were named Minoans by Arthur Evans, after the legendary king. The root ""min-"" corresponds to a group of Aegean languages, and appears also in some toponyms like Minya, ""Minassos"""
"of these major Neolithic (then later Minoan) sites. Other neolithic settlements include those at Kephala, Magasa, and Trapeza. Crete was the centre of Europe's first advanced civilization, the Minoan (). This civilization wrote in the undecipherable script known as Linear A. Early Cretan history is replete with legends such as those of King Minos, Theseus and the Minotaur, passed on orally via poets such as Homer. The volcanic eruption of Thera may have been the cause of the downfall of the Minoan civilization. In 1420 BC, the Minoan civilization was overrun by the Mycenaean civilization from mainland Greece. The oldest"
"Age, roughly the first half of the 2nd millennium BC, the eastern Mediterranean was dominated by a civilization named Minoan by its discoverer, Sir Arthur Evans, excavating the Palace of Knossos, which he termed the Palace of Minos. The civilization was maritime, its fleets were legendary, its settlements were mainly coastal, and its operations were mainly peaceful. There are legends, such as that of Theseus and the Minotaur, which indicate that tribute of some sort was collected by Crete from overseas locations, but its legendary history is far different from the wars and warriors of the mainland. The evolution of"
"Cyclades, the Old Kingdom of Egypt, copper-bearing Cyprus, Canaan and the Levantine coast and Anatolia. Some of the best Minoan art is preserved in the city of Akrotiri on the island of Santorini, which was destroyed by the Minoan eruption. The Minoans primarily wrote in the undeciphered Linear A, encoding a language hypothetically labelled Minoan. The reasons for the slow decline of the Minoan civilization, beginning around 1550 BCE, are unclear; theories include Mycenaean invasions from mainland Greece and the major volcanic eruption of Santorini. The term ""Minoan"" refers to the mythical King Minos of Knossos. Its origin is debated,"
"from the first half of the second millennium BCE during the Bronze Age and are to be found among Aegean civilizations, more precisely the Minoan culture from the island of Crete and other islands of the Aegean Sea. The most famous of these, The Toreador, depicts a sacred ceremony in which individuals jump over the backs of large bulls. The oldest surviving Minoan frescoes are found on the island of Santorini (classically known as Thera), dated to the Neo-Palatial period (c. 1640–1600 BC). While some similar frescoes have been found in other locations around the Mediterranean basin, particularly in Egypt"
"to diminishing the value of feminine ideals in society. The Minoan Civilization of Crete The last known major civilization to have a partnership society, the Minoan civilization of Crete, flourished during the Bronze Age over 3500 years ago. Having existed even before Archaic Greece, it is one of the earliest known civilizations in Europe and is vital to recreating the timeline of Europe’s history. First discovered by Sir Arthur Evans, numerous artifacts have since been uncovered documenting the way of life of this ancient civilization. The Minoans had constructed enormous courts at four different palace sites which are believed to"
"is, before Alexander the Great connected the island to mainland Egypt by building a causeway. The Minoan civilization on Crete was the dominant sea power of the eastern Mediterranean, with large cities and temples, but after 1400 BC only small villages existed. Archaeologists believe that some abrupt event changed society, but an invasion is unlikely because of the Minoan fleet. After the discovery of the Minoans at Knossos on the island by Sir Arthur Evans in 1900, theories linking the disappearance of the empire with the destruction of Atlantis were proposed by K. T. Frost in 1913 and E. S."
"with the coming of Christianity revived there in the Insular style of the Early Middle Ages. The Minoan culture is regarded as the oldest civilization in Europe. The Minoan culture existed in Crete and consisted of four periods: Prepalatial, Protopalatial, Neopalatial, and the Postpalatial period between 3650 BC and 1100 BC. Not much of the art remained from the Prepalatial times, and most of artefacts still existing today are Cycladic statuettes and pottery fragments. The most prosperous period of the Cretan civilization was Neopalatial period and most of the artefacts are from this era. A large number of artefacts from"
"the Cyclades, Albania and Dalmatia. The Cycladic culture is a significant Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age culture, is best known for its schematic flat female idols carved out of the islands' pure white marble centuries before the great Middle Bronze Age (""Minoan"") culture arose in Crete, to the south. The Minoan civilization in Crete, which lasted from about c. 3000 BC (Early Minoan) to c. 1400 BC, and the Helladic culture on the Greek mainland from circa 3200/3100 BC to 2000/1900 BC. Little specific information is known about the Minoans (even the name ""Minoans"" is a modern appellation, derived"
"Minoan civilization is not believed to have been warlike; there are few traces of arms and armor. They probably represented a mercantile hegemony, safe in their island home and protected by their fleet. Around 1450 BCE, the villa was burned along with all of the other major sites in Crete except for Knossos. These events are generally interpreted as an interest in ruling the island by Mycenaean Greeks. As the name Amnisos evidences the pre-Greek -""ssos"" suffix, they probably took the name as it was. Amnisos Amnisos, also Amnissos and Amnisus (Greek: or ; Linear B: 𐀀𐀖𐀛𐀰 - ""A-mi-ni-so""), is"
"considered the birthplace of Western civilisation, beginning with the Cycladic civilization on the islands of the Aegean Sea at around 3200 BC, the Minoan civilization in Crete (2700–1500 BC), and then the Mycenaean civilization on the mainland (1900–1100 BC). These civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC, during a time of regional upheaval known as the Bronze Age collapse. This ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages,"
"Aegean civilizations Aegean civilization is a general term for the Bronze Age civilizations of Greece around the Aegean Sea. There are three distinct but communicating and interacting geographic regions covered by this term: Crete, the Cyclades and the Greek mainland. Crete is associated with the Minoan civilization from the Early Bronze Age. The Cyclades converge with the mainland during the Early Helladic (""Minyan"") period and with Crete in the Middle Minoan period. From ca. 1450 BC (Late Helladic, Late Minoan), the Greek Mycenaean civilization spreads to Crete. Commerce was practiced to some extent in very early times, as is proved"
"History of Crete The History of Crete goes back to the 7th millennium BC, preceding the ancient Minoan civilization by more than four millennia. The Minoan civilization was the first civilization in Europe and the first, in Europe, to build a palace. After the Minoan civilization was devastated by the Thera eruption, Crete developed an Ancient Greece-influenced organization of city states, then successively became part of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Venetian Republic, the Ottoman Empire, autonomous state, and the modern state of Greece. Excavations in South Crete in 2008–2009 led by Thomas F. Strasser (Providence College, R.I.,"
"of the Minoans, a mercantilist people who built a trading empire from their homeland of Crete and from other Aegean islands. Minoan civilization was known for its beautiful ceramics, but also for its frescos, landscapes, and stone carvings. In the early Minoan period, ceramics were characterized by spirals, triangles, curved lines, crosses, and fishbone motifs. In 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 the most characteristic, but variability had increased. The 'palace style' of the region around Knossos is characterized by strong"
"late Neolithic, the donkey and the rabbit were introduced to the island, deer and agrimi hunted. The Kri-kri, a feral goat, preserves traits of the early domesticates. Horse, fallow deer and hedgehog are only attested from Minoan times onwards. Crete was the centre of Europe's most ancient civilization, the Minoans. Tablets inscribed in Linear A have been found in numerous sites in Crete, and a few in the Aegean islands. The Minoans established themselves in many islands besides Ancient Crete: secure identifications of Minoan off-island sites include Kea, Kythera, Milos, Rhodes, and above all, Thera (Santorini). Archaeologists ever since Sir"
"in Minoan Crete from about 3000 to 1000 BC, since the name ""Dionysus"" exists nowhere other than Crete and Greece. The rites were based on a seasonal death-rebirth theme, common among agricultural cults such as the Eleusinian Mysteries. The Osirian Mysteries paralleled the Dionysian, according to contemporary Greek and Egyptian observers. Spirit possession involved liberation from civilization's rules and constraints. It celebrated that which was outside civilized society and a return to primordial nature—which would later assume mystical overtones. It also involved escape from the socialized personality and ego into an ecstatic, deified state or the primal herd (sometimes both)."
"cultures that developed in Crete were adopted into what became the Mycenaean palace culture on the mainland. ""The palaces found at Mycene, Pylos and elsewhere on the Greek mainland have a common inspiration: All borrowed heavily from the Minoan civilization that arose on the large island of Crete, southeast of Pylos. The Minoans were culturally dominant to the Mycenaeans but were later overrun by them. How, then, did Minoan culture pass to the Mycenaeans? The warrior's grave may hold many answers. He died before the palaces began to be built, and his grave is full of artifacts made in Crete."
"that the ""Minoans"" travelled from Crete down to Egypt, Syria and Mari of Euphrates, to Asia Minor (Anatolia) and Black Sea through the Aegean islands, and to the West up to Lipari (Aeolian islands) to the north of Sicily. Approximately in 1600 BC the routes to Italy and Asia Minor were gained by the rising Myceneans. They followed the same tradition with the establishment or use of commercial and supporting settlements in the Mediterranean coasts. Minoa Minoa is the name of several Bronze-Age cities on the coasts of the Aegean islands and Corfu in Greece, as well as Sicily. The"
"4th millenniums BC. The first well-known literate civilization in Europe was that of the Minoans. The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete and flourished from approximately the 27th century BC to the 15th century BC. It was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of the British archaeologist Arthur Evans. Will Durant referred to it as ""the first link in the European chain"". The Minoans were replaced by the Mycenaean civilization which flourished during the period roughly between 1600 BC, when Helladic culture in mainland Greece was transformed"
"Minoan civilisation centred at Kydonia east of Rethymno. Rethymno itself began a period of growth when the Venetian conquerors of the island decided to put an intermediate commercial station between Heraklion and Chania, acquiring its own bishop and nobility in the process. Today's old town (""palia poli"") is almost entirely built by the Republic of Venice. It is one of the best-preserved old towns in Crete. From circa 1250 the city was the seat of the Latin Diocese of Retimo, which was renamed Retimo–Ario after the absorption in 1551 of the Diocese of Ario and as suppressed only after the"
"the Black Death, many Cretans migrated overseas during difficult periods on the island, some acquiring great fortune abroad, such as Constantine Corniaktos (c. 1517–1603) who became one of the richest people in Eastern Europe. History of Crete The History of Crete goes back to the 7th millennium BC, preceding the ancient Minoan civilization by more than four millennia. The Minoan civilization was the first civilization in Europe and the first, in Europe, to build a palace. After the Minoan civilization was devastated by the Thera eruption, Crete developed an Ancient Greece-influenced organization of city states, then successively became part of"
"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-century BC paintings in Thebes, Egypt depict Minoan-appearing individuals bearing gifts. Inscriptions describing them as coming from ""keftiu"" (""islands in the middle of"
"Minoan (?) palace at Tel Kabri in the Galilee ended around 1640 BCE. Minoan eruption The Minoan eruption of Thera, also referred to as the Thera eruption, Santorini eruption, or Late Bronze Age eruption, was a major catastrophic volcanic eruption with a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 6 or 7 and a dense-rock equivalent (DRE) of , Dated to the mid-second millennium BCE, the eruption was one of the largest volcanic events on Earth in recorded history. It devastated the island of Thera (now called Santorini), including the Minoan settlement at Akrotiri and communities and agricultural areas on nearby islands"
"site of Karfi, believed to be the last outpost of the Minoan civilization is located in the mountains immediately north of the plateau. Permanent residents derive most of their income from agriculture and animal farming, a smaller number from tourism. Because of its isolated nature, the Lasithi plateau has attracted the attention of population geneticists. A 2007 Y-DNA study showed that Y-DNA samples from the Lasithi plateau differed significantly from those of lowland Crete, and may be indicative of it having served as a refugium of the Minoan civilization. A 2013 mtDNA study of bone samples from a Minoan ossuary"
"Minoan Fountain The Minoan Fountain was a monumental public fountain hewn directly from the natural rock. It is located directly behind the Stoa of Antigonos outside the temenos of the Sanctuary of Apollo on the island of Delos. The fountainhouse formalized the use of the sacred spring, and was dedicated to the Cult of the Nymphs. In the 6th century BC, the fountain was covered by a square building with a hipped roof and walls on three sides. It was built with regular courses of granite and gneiss. A monumental façade on the south side gave access to the fountain"
"Zakros Zakros () is a site on the eastern coast of the island of Crete, Greece, containing ruins from the Minoan civilization. The site is often known to archaeologists as Zakro or Kato Zakro. It is believed to have been one of the four main administrative centers of the Minoans, and its protected harbor and strategic location made it an important commercial hub for trade to the east. Flinders Petrie related Zakro with Tjeker of the Sea Peoples The town was dominated by the Palace of Zakro, originally built around 1900 BC, rebuilt around 1600 BC, and destroyed around 1450"
"Mochlos Mochlos () is a modern island in the Gulf of Mirabello in eastern Crete, and the archaeological site of an ancient Minoan settlement. There is evidence that Mochlos was not an island in Minoan times, but was attached to the mainland and acted as an eastern harbor. The name Mochlos also applies to the small fishing village and resort located on the main island of Crete, opposite Mochlos island. Only 150 metres separates them. The island is administered from Tourloti which is only away. Mochlos was first excavated by Richard Seager in 1908 at the western end of the"
"the downfall of the Minoans, the islands were ruled by the Mycenaean Greeks from circa 1400 BC, until the arrival of the Dorians circa 1100 BC. It is in the Dorian period that they began to prosper as an independent entity, developing a thriving economy and culture through the following centuries. By the early Archaic period Rhodes and Kos emerged as the major islands in the group, and in the 6th century BC the Dorians founded three major cities on Rhodes (Lindos, Kameiros and Ialyssos). Together with the island of Kos and the cities of Knidos and Halicarnassos on the"
"Vrokastro Vrokastro was an ancient Minoan civilization settlement in the Lasithi regional unit of eastern Crete, Greece. It overlooks the Gulf of Mirabello. The site was a mountain citadel located on a hill 1,5 km east of Priniatikos Pyrgos, another very early archaeological site. Nearby, there's a small resort town of Kalo Chorio, Lasithi. Yet another important archaeological site in the area is Vasiliki, Lasithi. There's an Archaeological Museum in nearby Agios Nikolaos, Crete. Vrokastro bridges the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the early Iron Age. It was first inhabited during the Middle Minoan period (ca."
"Knossos (modern history) Knossos (, ""Knōsós"", ), also romanized Cnossus, Gnossus, and Knossus, is the main Bronze Age archaeological site at Heraklion, a modern port city on the north central coast of Crete. The site was excavated and the palace complex found there partially restored under the direction of Arthur Evans in the earliest years of the 20th century. The palace complex is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete. It was undoubtedly the ceremonial and political centre of the Minoan civilization and culture. Quite apart from its value as the center of the ancient Minoan civilization, Knossos has"
"Most settlement was on the small bays on the east side of the island which formed natural harbours. Settlement archaeological work was done quickly and thus did not find definitive evidence of grape cultivation on the island during this period. However, grape cultivation was common on neighboring islands and the nearby mainland during this time. According to a reconstruction, based on the myth of Tenes, Walter Leaf stated that the first inhabitants of the island could be Pelasgians, who were driven out of the Anatolian mainland by the Phrygians. According to the same author, there are possible traces of Minoan"