where did the minoan civilization thrive?
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Minoan civilization
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from c. 3500 BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000 BC, and then declining from c. 1450 BC until it ended around 1100 BC, during the early Greek Dark Ages. It represents the first advanced civilization in Europe, leaving behind a number of massive building complexes, sophisticated art, and writing systems. Its economy benefited from a network of trade around much of the Mediterranean.
The civilization was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans. The name “Minoan” derives from the mythical King Minos and was coined by Evans, who identified the site at Knossos with the labyrinth of the Minotaur. The Minoan civilization has been described as the earliest of its kind in Europe. And historian Will Durant called the Minoans “the first link in the European chain”.
Palace Knossos
The Minoans built large and elaborate palaces up to four storeys high, featuring elaborate plumbing systems and decorated with frescoes. The largest Minoan palace is that of Knossos, followed by that of Phaistos. The function of the palaces, like most aspects of Minoan governance and religion, remains unclear. The Minoan period saw extensive trade by Crete with Aegean and Mediterranean settlements, particularly those in the Near East. Through traders and artists, Minoans cultural influence reached beyond Crete to the Cyclades, the Old Kingdom of Egypt, copper-bearing Cyprus, Canaan and the Levantine coast and Anatolia. Some of the best Minoan art was preserved in the city of Akrotiri on the island of Santorini; Akrotiri had been effectively destroyed by the Minoan eruption.
The Minoans primarily wrote in the Linear A script and also in Cretan hieroglyphs, encoding a language hypothetically labelled Minoan. The reasons for the slow decline of the Minoan civilization, beginning around 1550 BC, are unclear; theories include Mycenaean invasions from mainland Greece and the major volcanic eruption of Santorini.
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Chronology and history
Instead of dating the Minoan period, archaeologists use two systems of relative chronology. The first, created by Evans and modified by later archaeologists, is based on pottery styles and imported Egyptian artifacts (which can be correlated with the Egyptian chronology). Evans’ system divides the Minoan period into three major eras: early (EM), middle (MM) and late (LM). These eras are subdivided—for example, Early Minoan I, II and III (EMI, EMII, EMIII).
Another dating system, proposed by Greek archaeologist Nikolaos Platon, is based on the development of architectural complexes known as “palaces” at Knossos, Phaistos, Malia and Zakros. Platon divides the Minoan period into pre-, proto-, neo- and post-palatial sub-periods. The relationship between the systems in the table includes approximate calendar dates from Warren and Hankey (1989).
1600 BCE
Crete became the foremost site of Bronze Age culture in the Aegean Sea, and in fact it was the first centre of high civilization in that area, beginning at the end of the 3rd millennium BCE. Reaching its peak about 1600 BCE and the later 15th century, Minoan civilization was remarkable for its great cities and palaces, its extended trade throughout the Levant and beyond, and its use of writing. Its sophisticated art included elaborate seals, pottery (especially the famous Kamáres ware with its light-on-dark style of decoration), and, above all, delicate, vibrant frescoes found on palace walls. These frescoes display both secular and religious scenes, such as magical gardens, monkeys, and wild goats or fancifully dressed goddesses that testify to the Minoans’ predominantly matriarchal religion. Among the most familiar motifs of Minoan art are the snake, symbol of the goddess, and the bull; the ritual of bull-leaping, found, for example, on cult vases, seems to have had a religious or magical basis.
By the middle of the 15th century the palace culture on Crete was destroyed by conquerors from the mainland. They established a new order on Crete, with centres at Knossos and Phaistos. Following the conquest, the island experienced a wonderful fusion of Cretan and mainland skills. The Late Minoan period (c. 1400–c. 1100 BCE), however, was a time of marked decline in both economic power and aesthetic achievement.
July 11, 1941
Sir Arthur Evans, in full Sir Arthur John Evans, (born July 8, 1851, Nash Mills, Hertfordshire, England—died July 11, 1941, Youlbury, near Oxford, Oxfordshire), British archaeologist who excavated the ruins of the ancient city of Knossos in Crete and uncovered evidence of a sophisticated Bronze Age civilization, which he named Minoan. His work was one of archaeology’s major achievements and greatly advanced the study of European and eastern Mediterranean prehistory.
A distinguished scholar, Evans was curator of the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, from 1884 to 1908 and became extraordinary professor of prehistoric archaeology at Oxford in 1909. His interest in ancient coins and the writing on stone seals from Crete lured him to the island for the first time in 1894. The following year he published Cretan Pictographs and Prae-Phoenician Script. During an address in 1896 he suggested that the Mycenaean civilization of the Greek mainland had its origins in Crete. Three years later he purchased a tract of land that included the site of Knossos, and after a year’s digging he had unearthed palace ruins covering 5.5 acres (2.2 hectares). The size and splendour of the findings indicated that Knossos had been an ancient cultural capital. The complex ground plan of the palace suggested the labyrinth associated with the legendary King Minos, prompting Evans to name the civilization Minoan.
1500 BCE and 1450 BCE
The palaces themselves covered two periods. The first palaces were constructed around 2000 BCE and, following destructive earthquakes and fires, rebuilt again c. 1700 BCE. These second palaces survived until their final destruction between 1500 BCE and 1450 BCE, once again by either earthquake, fire, or possibly invasion (or a combination of all three). The palaces well-appointed, monumental structures with large courts, colonnades, ceilings supported by tapered wooden columns, staircases, religious crypts, light-wells, extensive drainage systems, large storage magazines and even ‘theatre’ areas for public spectacles or religious processions.
Reaching up to four stories high and spreading over several thousand square metres, the complexity of these palaces, the sport of bull-leaping, the worship of bulls as indicated by the presence throughout of sacred bulls’ horns and depictions of double axes (or labrys) in stone and fresco may all have combined to give birth to the legend of Theseus and the labyrinth-dwelling Minotaur so popular in later classical Greek mythology.
Religion
The religion of the Minoans remains sketchy, but details revealed through art, architecture, and artefacts. These include depictions of religious ceremonies and rituals such as the pouring of libations, making food offerings, processions, feasts, and sporting events like bull-leaping. Natural forces and nature in general, manifested in such artworks as a voluptuous female mother-earth goddess figure and male figure holding several animals, seem to have been revered. Palaces contain open courtyards for mass gatherings and rooms often have wells and channels for the pouring of libations, as previously noted. As already mentioned, too, bulls are prominent in Minoan art, and their horns are an architectural feature of palace walls and a general decorative element in jewellery, frescoes, and pottery decoration. Dramatic rural sites such as hilltops and caves often show evidence of cult rituals being performed there.
When did the Minoan civilization thrive?
Minoan civilization, Bronze Age civilization of Crete that flourished from about 3000 bce to about 1100 bce.
Why did Greek settlements fight each other?
Why did Greek settlements often fight one another? Greek settlements often fought with each other because there was a shortage of land. Greek communities started colonies because they needed more farmland to feed their people.
Why did most people travel by boats in Greece?
Why did people in different ancient Greek settlements have very little communication with each other? The land was very difficult to travel. What is one reason that traveling by water was easier than traveling by land for ancient Greeks? Ancient Greeks were always near water and learned to travel by ship.
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Why was it difficult to unite the ancient Greeks under a single government?
The simple answer is geography. The terrain too mountainous, so each valley isolated enough to develop their own local polity and culture. Enough so that a Greek nationalistic identity wouldn’t emerge until modern times. In ancient times the Greeks known by their local region.
How did Athens become so rich?
Athens became so powerful from its alliance with city states on the island Dellos. All members protected one another and paid money for weapons and such but then Athan started to run the alliance as if it was it’s own empire not letting anyone leave. Athens made everyone pay money to them so they soon became rich.
Mycenaeans Conquer the Minoans
The Minoan civilization began to weaken around 1450 BC. Archeologists think this might have been due to a natural disaster such as an earthquake. The Mycenaeans took over the islands of the Minoans and adopted much of the Minoan culture. They adapted the writing of the Minoans to their own language. Today this writing is called “Linear B.”
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