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Oct 30, 2024 · Minoan civilization, Bronze Age civilization of Crete that flourished from about 3000 BCE to about 1100 BCE. Its name derives from Minos, either a dynastic title or the name of a particular ruler of Crete who has a place in Greek legend. By about 1580 BCE Minoan civilization began to spread across the Aegean.
- Minos
Minos, legendary ruler of Crete; he was the son of Zeus, the...
- Minoan
Minoan, Any member of a non-Indo-European people who...
- Aegean Civilizations
Aegean civilizations, the Stone and Bronze Age civilizations...
- Minos
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age culture which was centered on the island of Crete. Known for its monumental architecture and energetic art, it is often regarded as the first civilization in Europe. The ruins of the Minoan palaces at Knossos and Phaistos are popular tourist attractions. The Minoan civilization developed from the local ...
- Arthur Evans & Discovery
- Minoan Palace Settlements
- Religion
- Material Culture
- Aegean Contacts
- Decline
The archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans was first alerted to the possible presence of an ancient civilization on Crete by surviving carved seal stones worn as charms by native Cretans in the early 20th century CE. Excavating at Knossos from 1900 to 1905 CE, Evans discovered extensive ruins which confirmed the ancient accounts, both literary and mytholog...
Minoan settlements, tombs, and cemeteries have been found all over Crete but the four principal palace sites (in order of size) were: 1. Knossos 2. Phaistos 3. Malia 4. Zakros At each of these sites, large, complex palace structures seem to have acted as local administrative, trade, religious, and possibly political centres. The relationship betwee...
The religion of the Minoans remains sketchy, but details are 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 art...
The sophistication of the Minoan culture and its trading capacity is evidenced by the presence of writing, firstly Cretan Hieroglyphic (c. 2000-1700 BCE) and then Linear A scripts (both, as yet, undeciphered), predominantly found on various types of administrative clay tablets. Seal impressions on clay were another important form of record keeping....
The Minoans, as a seafaring culture, were also in contact with foreign peoples throughout the Aegean, as evidenced by the Near Eastern and Egyptian influences in their early art but also in the later export trade, notably the exchange of pottery and foodstuffs such as oil and wine in return for precious objects and materials such as copper from Cyp...
The reasons for the demise of the Minoan civilization continue to be debated. Palaces and settlements show evidence of fire and destruction c. 1450 BCE, but not at Knossos (which was destroyed perhaps a century later). The rise of the Mycenaean civilization in the mid-2nd millennium BCE on the Greek mainland and the evidence of their cultural influ...
- Mark Cartwright
The Minoan civilization (c. 3000 – 1400 B.C.) of Crete existed at the same time as the Old Kingdom and Middle Kingdom of Egypt. Stefan Pfeiffer of Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg wrote: “Occupying the island of Crete, the Minoans were skilled sailors who had established hegemony in the Aegean; it was therefore natural that they made contact with neighboring civilizations.
May 15, 2013 · DNA reveals origin of Greece's ancient Minoan culture. 15 May 2013. The palace of Knossos on Crete is now a major tourist attraction. Europe's first advanced civilisation was local in origin and ...
Feb 2, 2017 · The collapse of the Minoan centres, perhaps not coincidentally, was contemporary with the rise of the Mycenaean civilization on mainland Greece. There is evidence that the Mycenaeans ruled at Minoan sites between 1450 and 1380 BCE. Knossos was again destroyed c. 1380 BCE and never rebuilt. By 1200 BCE many of the Minoan settlements had been ...
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Feb 11, 2018 · For some 600 years, the Bronze Age Minoan civilization thrived on the island of Crete. But in the latter part of the 15th century B.C.E., the end came rapidly, with the destruction of several of the palaces, including Knossos. Other Minoan buildings were torn down and replaced, and domestic artifacts, rituals, and even the written language changed.
