Minoan Crete – The first civilization in Europe
- Oct 18, 2013
- 7 min read
The Minoan civilization
The oldest evidence of preceramic Neolithic farming community remains on Crete are that date to approximately 7000 BC., but it was not until 5000 BC. that the first signs of advanced agriculture appeared, marking the beginning of civilization.
A comparative study of DNA haplogroups of modern Cretan men showed that a male founder group, from Anatolia or the Levant, is shared with the Greeks. The inhabitants descended from Neolithic populations that migrated to Europe from the Armenian Highland. The neolithic population dwelt in open villages. Fishermen’s huts were built on the shores, while the fertile Mesara Plain was used for agriculture.
A 2013 mtDNA study of bone samples from a Minoan ossuary in the Lasithi Plateau, dated to 4,400–3,700 years ago, showed that Minoan samples were closest to samples drawn from the modern population of the Lasithi plateau, as well as other Greek, western and northern European samples, while being distant from North African and Egyptian samples.
The ancient Minoan DNA was most similar to populations from western and northern Europe. The population showed particular genetic affinities with Bronze Age populations from Sardinia and Iberia and Neolithic samples from Scandinavia and France. The Minoans are Europeans and are also related to present-day Cretans – on the maternal side.
According to the authors, these results are consistent with the hypothesis of an indigenous development of the Minoan civilization from the descendants of the first Neolithic settlers to the island (who arrived approximately 7000 BC.), as opposed to a North African or Egyptian origin, as originally hypothesized.
The founders of the first advanced European civilization were European. It was an important local development, but it is clear that, for example, in the art, there were influences from other peoples. So we need to see the Mediterranean as a pool, not as a group of isolated nations.
We do not have much information about the very early Minoans before 2600 BC. In the Odyssey, composed centuries after the destruction of the Minoan civilization, Homer calls the natives of Crete Eteocretans (“true Cretans”); these may have been descendants of the Minoans. The term “Minoan” was coined by the British archaeologist Arthur Evans after the mythic “king” Minos. Minos was associated in Greek myth with the labyrinth, which Evans identified with the site at Knossos.
The Minoans are widely recognized as one of Europe’s first ‘high cultures’, renowned for their pottery, metal-work and colourful frescoes. Their civilization fuelled Greek myths such as the story of the Minotaur, the half-man, half-bull creature who lived in a labyrinth. Will Durant referred to it as “the first link in the European chain.”
The Minoan civilization (2700 – 1500 BC.) was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete by the 2700 BC. The Minoans flourished on Crete for as many as 12 centuries until about 1,500 bc, when it is thought to have been devastated by a catastrophic eruption of the Mediterranean island volcano Santorini, and a subsequent tsunami.
The inhabitants of ancient Crete, whom we call Minoans, produced a decentralized culture based on the abundance of the land’s natural resources, and on intense commercial activity. While the island appears today completely deforested, in ancient times timber was one of the natural resources that was commercially exploited and exported to nearby Egypt, Syria, Cyprus, the Aegean Islands and the Greek mainland.
Several localities on the island developed into centers of commerce and handwork in the late 3000 BC. This enabled the upper classes to continuously practice leadership activities and to expand their influence. It is likely that the original hierarchies of the local elites were replaced by monarchist power structures – a precondition for the creation of the great palaces.
Minoan palaces (anaktora) are the best known building types to have been excavated on the island. They are monumental buildings serving administrative purposes, as evidenced by the large archives unearthed by archaeologists. Each of the palaces excavated to date has its own unique features, but they also share features which set them apart from other structures. The palaces were often multi-storied, with interior and exterior staircases, light wells, massive columns, storage magazines and courtyards.
The Minoans had developed significant naval power and for many centuries lived in contact with all the major civilizations of the time without being significantly threatened by external forces. Their commercial contact with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia undeniably influenced their own culture, and the Minoan civilization in turn appeared as the forerunner of the Greek civilization. The Minoans are credited as the first European civilization.
Besides raw materials, the Minoans also adopted from the surrounding cultures artistic ideas and techniques as evident in Egypt’s influence on the Minoan wall frescoes, and on goldsmithing production knowledge imported by Syria.
There was a large disturbance in Crete, probably an earthquake, or possibly an invasion from Anatolia by 1700 BC. The palaces at Knossos, Phaistos, Malia, and Kato Zakros were destroyed. But with the start of the Neopalatial period, population increased again, the palaces were rebuilt on a larger scale and new settlements were built all over the island. This period (1700-1600 BC.) represents the apex of the Minoan civilization.
There was another natural catastrophe around 1600 BC., possibly an eruption of the Thera volcano. The Minoan eruption of Thera, also referred to as the Thera eruption or Santorini eruption, was one of the largest volcanic events on Earth in recorded history and a major catastrophic volcanic eruption. The eruption devastated the island of Thera (also called Santorini), including the Minoan settlement at Akrotiri, as well as communities and agricultural areas on nearby islands and on the coast of Crete, but the Minoans rebuilt the palaces, making them greater than before.
The influence of the Minoan civilization outside Crete has been seen in the evidence of valuable Minoan handicraft items on the Greek mainland. It is likely that the ruling house of Mycene was connected to the Minoan trade network. After around 1700 BCE, the material culture on the Greek mainland achieved a new level due to Minoan influence.
Minoans were traders, and their cultural contacts reached far beyond the island of Crete — to Egypt’s Old Kingdom, to copper-bearing Cyprus, Canaan, and the Levantine coasts beyond, and to Anatolia. Objects of Minoan manufacture suggest there was a network of trade with mainland Greece (notably Mycenae), Cyprus, Syria, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and westward as far as the coast of Spain.
Connections between Egypt and Crete are prominent. Minoan ceramics are found in Egyptian cities and the Minoans imported several items from Egypt, especially papyrus, as well as architectural and artistic ideas. The Egyptian hieroglyphs served as a model for the Minoan pictographic writing, from which the famous Linear A and Linear B writing systems later developed. Bengtson has also demonstrated Minoan influence among Canaanite artifacts.
Historians and archaeologists have suggested that the Minoans were involved in the Bronze Age’s important tin trade: tin, alloyed with copper apparently from Cyprus, was used to make bronze. The decline of Minoan civilization and the decline in use of bronze tools in favor of iron ones seem to be correlated.
Knowledge of the spoken and written language of the Minoans is scant, due to the small number of records found. Clay tablets dating to around 3000 BCE were found with the various Cretan scripts. Clay tablets seem to have been in use from around 3000 BCE or earlier. Two clay cups from Knossos have been found to have remnants of ink, and inkwells similar to the animal-shaped inkstands from Mesopotamia have also been found.
The Minoans seem to have worshiped primarily goddesses, which has been described as a “matriarchal religion.” It is reasonable to assume that both the organization and the rituals, even the mythology, resembled the religions of Near Eastern palatial civilizations.”
Although there is some evidence of male gods, depictions of Minoan goddesses vastly outnumber depictions of anything that could be considered a Minoan god. While some of these depictions of women are speculated to be images of worshippers and priestesses officiating at religious ceremonies, as opposed to the deity, several goddesses appear to be portrayed. These include a Mother Goddess of fertility, a Mistress of the Animals, a protectress of cities, the household, the harvest, and the underworld, and more. They are often represented by serpents, birds, poppies, and a somewhat vague shape of an animal upon the head.
A major festive celebration was exemplified in the famous athletic Minoan bull dance, represented at large in the frescoes of Knossos and inscribed in miniature seals. The Minoan horn-topped altars, since Evans’ time conventionally called “Horns of Consecration,” are represented in seal impressions, and survive in examples as far afield as Cyprus. Minoan sacred symbols include the bull and its horns of consecration, the labrys (double-headed axe), the pillar, the serpent, the sun-disk, and the tree.
Similar to archaeological finds of the Bronze Age, burial remains constitute much of the material and archaeological evidence for the period. By the end of the Second Palace Period, Minoan burial practice is dominated by two broad forms: ‘Circular Tombs’, or Tholoi, (located in South Crete) and ‘House Tombs’, (located in the north and the east).
Many trends and patterns within Minoan mortuary practice do not conform to this simple breakdown. Over all, inhumation was the most popular form of burial; cremation does not seem to have been a popular.
Minoan culture experienced a turning point due to a natural catastrophe, possibly an earthquake by 1450 BC. Another eruption of the Thera volcano has been linked to this downfall, but its dating and implications remain controversial. Several important palaces in locations such as Mallia, Tylissos, Phaistos, Hagia Triade as well as the living quarters of Knossos were destroyed. The palace in Knossos seems to have remained largely intact. This resulted in the Dynasty in Knossos being able to spread its influence over large parts of Crete, until it was overrun by Mycenaean Greeks.
The Minoan palace sites were occupied by the Mycenaeans around 1420 BC. The Mycenaens adapted the Linear A Minoan script to the needs of their own Mycenaean language. It was a form of Greek, which was written in Linear B. The first such archive anywhere is in the “Room of the Chariot Tablets” from 1425-1390 BC. The Mycenaeans generally tended to adapt, rather than destroy, Minoan culture, religion and art. They continued to operate the economic system and bureaucracy of the Minoans.
After about a century of partial recovery, most Cretan cities and palaces went into decline by 1300 BC. The last Linear A archives date to 1390–1370 BC. Knossos remained an administrative center until 1200 BC. The last of the Minoan sites was the defensive mountain site of Karfi, a refuge site which displays vestiges of Minoan civilization almost into the Iron Age.
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