The Obituary
The Minoans, named by archaeologist Arthur Evans after the mythical King Minos, built the first advanced civilization on European soil. From around 3000 BCE they raised sprawling palace complexes on Crete — Knossos, Phaistos, Malia — decorated with vivid frescoes of dolphins, lilies, and acrobats vaulting over charging bulls. They traded across the Mediterranean and wrote in a script still unread. The massive volcanic eruption of Thera, around 1600 BCE, dealt a blow from which they slowly faltered. By 1450 BCE mainland Mycenaean Greeks had taken control of Crete, and Minoan culture was gradually absorbed into the Greek world.
Worth remembering
- Their script, Linear A, remains undeciphered; the later Linear B was Greek.
- The palace at Knossos inspired the Greek myth of the labyrinth and the Minotaur.
Sources
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.