Minoan civilization

The Minoans were a pre-Hellenic Bronze Age civilization in Crete in the Aegean Sea, prior to Helladic or Mycenaean culture (i.e. well before what we know as Classical Greece). Their civilization flourished from approximately 3000 to 1450 BC.

Related Topics:
Hellenic - Bronze Age - Crete - Aegean Sea - Helladic - Mycenaean - Classical Greece

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Their name was coined by the British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans after the mythic "king" Minos, associated with the labyrinth, which Evans identified as the site at Knossos. It is possible, though unsure, that Minos was a term for a Minoan ruler. What the Minoans called themselves is unknown, although the Egyptian place name "Keftiu" and the Semitic "Kaftor" or "Caphtor", both evidently referring to Minoan Crete, are suggestive.

Related Topics:
Archaeologist - Arthur Evans - Minos - Labyrinth - Knossos - Egyptian - Keftiu - Semitic - Caphtor

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The Minoans were primarily a mercantile people engaged in overseas trade. Their culture, from ca 1700 BC onwards, shows a high degree of organization, without a trace of the military aristocracies that have characterized the civilizations that followed. Many historians and archaeologists believe that the Minoans were involved in the Bronze Age's important tin trade: tin, alloyed with copper apparently from Cyprus, was used in the manufacture of bronze. The decline of Minoan civilization and the decline in use of bronze tools in favor of superior iron ones seem to be correlated. The Minoan trade in saffron, which originated in the Aegean basin as a natural chromosome mutation, has left fewer material remains: a fresco of saffron-gatherers at Santorini is well-known. This inherited trade pre-dated Minoan civilization: a sense of its rewards may be gained by comparing its value to frankincense, or later, to pepper. Archaeologists tend to emphasize the more durable items of trade: ceramics, copper, and tin, and dramatic luxury finds of gold, and silver.

Related Topics:
Mercantile - Tin - Cyprus - Bronze - Saffron - Santorini - Frankincense - Pepper - Gold - Silver

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Finds of objects of Cretan manufacture suggest the network of Minoan trade with mainland Greece (notably Mycenae), Cyprus, Syria, Anatolia, Egypt, Spain, and Mesopotamia.

Related Topics:
Greece - Mycenae - Cyprus - Syria - Anatolia - Egypt - Spain - Mesopotamia

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The language of the Minoans, about which little is known, is referred to as Eteocretan. It may have been written in the undeciphered Linear A script.

Related Topics:
Eteocretan - Linear A

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The Minoans were probably polytheists, with a goddess at the head of their pantheon (see Rodney Castleden, Minoans, 1994; Goodison and Morris, Ancient Goddesses, 1998; Nanno Marinatos, Minoan Religion, 1993)

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There is some debate about the claim that for the duration of the Minoan empire, Crete was essentially free of armed conflict (See Charles Gates, "Why Are There No Scenes of Warfare in Minoan Art?" and Keith Branigan, "The Nature of Warfare in the Southern Aegean During the third Millennium B.C.," both of which can be found in: Robert Laffineur, Ed., Polemos: Le Contexte en Egee a L'Age du Bronze, Actes de la 7e Recontre egeenne internationale, Universite de Liege, 14-17 avril 1998, Universite de Liege and University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX, 1999. See also, Jeri Studebaker, "A Millennia Without War?", 2004, PanGaia Magazine).

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