Minoan civilization

The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age culture which was centered on the island of Crete. Known for its monumental architecture and its energetic art, it is often regarded as the first civilization in Europe.

The Minoan civilization developed from the local Neolithic culture around 3100 BC, with complex urban settlements beginning around 2000 BC. After c. 1450 BC, they came under the cultural and perhaps political domination of the mainland Mycenaean Greeks, forming a hybrid culture which lasted until around 1100 BC.

The Minoans constructed enormous buildings which their initial excavators labeled Minoan palaces. Subsequent research has shown that they served a variety of religious and economic purposes rather than being royal residences, though their exact role in Minoan society is a matter of continuing debate. The palaces consisted of a large rectangular court surrounded by multistory wings with labyrinthine floorplans. The ruins of the palaces at Knossos and Phaistos are popular tourist attractions.

Minoan art included elaborately decorated pottery, seals, figurines, and colorful frescoes. They are believed to have invented true fresco, a technique which results in the pigment becoming part of the wall. Typical subjects include nature and ritual. Minoan art is often described as having a fantastical or ecstatic quality, with figures rendered in a manner suggesting motion.

Little is known about the structure of Minoan society. Social stratification is evidenced by burials and domestic architecture, but Minoan art contains no unambiguous depiction of a monarch, and Egyptian records suggest they may have had some other form of governance. Likewise, while some sites seem to have been politically and economically linked, it is not clear whether there was ever a unified Minoan state or states. Religious practices included worship at peak sanctuaries and sacred caves, but nothing is known for certain of their pantheon.

The Minoans traded extensively around the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean. They exported agricultural products and luxury crafts, often in exchange for raw metal which was difficult to obtain on Crete. Through traders and artisans, their cultural influence reached beyond Crete to the Cyclades, Cyprus, Egypt, Italy, Anatolia, and the Levant. Minoan craftsmen were employed by foreign elites, for instance to paint frescoes at Avaris in Egypt.

The Minoans developed two writing systems known as Cretan hieroglyphs and Linear A. Because neither script has been fully deciphered, the identity of the Minoan language is unknown. Based on what is known, the language is regarded as unlikely to belong to a well-attested language family such as Indo-European or Semitic. After 1450 BC, a modified version of Linear A known as Linear B was used to write Mycenaean Greek, which had become the language of administration on Crete. The Eteocretan language attested in a few post-Bronze Age inscriptions may be a descendant of the Minoan language.

Largely forgotten after the Late Bronze Age collapse, the Minoan civilization was rediscovered in the early twentieth century through archaeological excavation. The term "Minoan" was coined by Arthur Evans, who excavated at Knossos and recognized it as culturally distinct from the mainland Mycenaean culture. Soon after, Federico Halbherr and Luigi Pernier excavated the Palace of Phaistos and the nearby settlement of Hagia Triada. A major breakthrough occurred in 1952, when Michael Ventris deciphered Linear B, drawing on earlier work by Alice Kober. This decipherment unlocked a crucial source of information on the economics and social organization in the final year of the palace. Minoan sites continue to be excavated, recent discoveries including the necropolis at Armeni and the harbour town of Kommos.