Minoan Civilization: A Brief Overview from Beginning to the End

By History Encounters

History Encounters unearths the greatest stories with the major events from Minoan Civilization to expand reader horizons for readers to be best informed.

 

Who were the Minoans? This ancient Bronze Age civilization has left historians and archaeologists puzzled. While other Bronze Age civilizations follow a typical pattern, the Minoans were such an advanced culture that some experts believed that they could be the lost tribe of Atlantis, which was a mystical city described by Plato and, apparently, populated by half gods/half men.
And why did Minoan culture disappear in the space of a few hundred years? Was it a volcano? Deforestation? Invasion by a greater force? The answers must be painstakingly found from the dust in archaeological sites, and the results are fascinating. 

 

Learning about history will keep you perceptive and make sure to not repeat mistakes that others made in the past. The different stories in this series will show the readers that history should not just be seen from one perspective, but from the different eyes of the groups of people involved. You never know, you might finally understand their choices, their actions and their reactions.

 

In this historical series, you will discover:

• The history of different countries and cultures
• The inner workings of major historical turning points in different countries.
• Different perspectives of major events in history
• The reasons behind different wars or battles throughout history

 

These historical series are for anyone who wants to learn fun, exciting and influential facts of what happened years before their time. Do you want to learn history through a multitude of different eyes? 

 

Scroll up and click the "add to cart" button to grab your copy now!

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ched Ed
• Release date: Aug 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223940210

Book preview

Chapter One

Introduction

The Minoan Civilization existed during the Bronze Age on the present-day Island of Crete and other surrounding Aegean Islands. The early beginnings of the Minoans were as early as 3500 BC, but they really came into their own as a successful and culturally advanced society from approximately 2000 BC. They were a very complex and well-developed urban society. From about 1450 BC, their society began to crumble and decline, and by 1100 BC, it had ended. This happened during what is known as the Greek Dark Ages. During this period, the civilizations of Mycenaean people from late Bronze Age Greece and the Minoans from Crete, and people as far afield as modern Egypt, Turkey, and Israel, collapsed. Cities were abandoned, and writing and art were forgotten. People lived in small pastoral units, and there was mass starvation from famine and drought.

The Minoans were thought to be one of the first advanced civilizations in the world and left behind huge building complexes, wonderfully sophisticated art, and advanced writing systems for archeologists, especially the renowned Sir Arthur Evans, to discover one day.

The Minoan economy boosted trade in the Mediterranean region. It had an enormous impact on other cultures and the growth, development, and spread of Western civilization.

Archeologist Sir Arthur Evans was alerted to the possibility of an ancient Cretan civilization at the beginning of the 20th century when he noted the native Cretans wore ancient seal stones as charms around their necks. When he excavated in 1900 at Knossos, he discovered to his delight, huge and expansive ruins. These confirmed ancient writings of the existence of a sophisticated Cretan culture. Sir Arthur named the civilization Minoan because he believed it could be the site of the labyrinth of King Minos. King Minos was, apparently, an astute man who wrote the Cretan constitution and established naval supremacy, but he was also a cruel tyrant who fed Athenian victims to his Minotaur in his labyrinth. This was to avenge the death of his son. The minotaur was a mythical creature half man and half bull who thrived on human flesh and would hunt young Athenian men who were forced into the Labyrinth of king Minos. Whether King Minos was an actual person or not, the minotaur was definitely a myth, but, as they say, there's no smoke without a fire. There was obviously