In the island of Crete as early as 3500 BC many villages had grown into large
settlements. The people worked in agriculture and had developed a social
hierarchy following in the footsteps of other earliest civilizations. They would
later become known to us as the Minoans the name was given to them by the
archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans who was inspired by the myth of Minos,the son of
Zeus who became king of Crete. The island of Crete had a lot to offer. Back then it
had dense forests wich the Minoans used to supply wood for their houses and
boats. They cultivated the rich soil of Crete and started producing various
goods.
By 2,500 BC the Minoans had developed a trade network with the Near East, Egypt
and Cyprus. Due to the valuable products and the island's location, the Minoan
network expanded rapidly reaching every part of the Mediterranean. By 1900 BC their
wealth had largely increased and they began building the famous palaces. First
the Palace of Knossos then the palaces of Phaistos, Zakros and Malia. Stone paved
roads were built to link the palace cities to each other. It is logical to
assume that Crete was either a unified Kingdom with Knossos
as the capital or that the palace-cities retained good cooperation. Around the
same time the Minoans had formed the first writing system, the Cretan
hieroglyphs which has not yet been deciphered. All around the Aegean Sea
there were several cities which resembled the Minoan ones but it is not
clear if they had been set up or had been influenced by the Minoans. The
Minoan palaces and the cities that surrounded them have a lot to tell us
about their civilization. The Palace of Knossos was the most significant with a
large number of rooms used for housing, workshops or for storage purposes. It
also included a courtyard and a theatre.
The Minoans used bright colors to paint the palace exterior, interior and the
famous frescoes. The frescoes are a great example of Minoan art. They depict
animals, flowers mythological creatures and give us an idea of how the Minoans
might looked like. In the Fresco's the Redskin figures were
male and the white skinned female. The clothes also distinguished men from
women, with men wearing simple loincloth and women wearing elaborate dresses. The
extraordinary palaces were not the only achievement of the Minoans. They also
developed the first indoor plumbing system with clay pipes, they had flush
toilets, a drainage system plus hot and cold water for their baths and floors.
The cities that surrounded the palaces had two-story buildings that belonged to
the higher class and small houses in which farmers metalworkers and other
working people lived in along with their families. Around 1800 BC a new writing
system was formed which is known to us as Linear A, comprised of symbols that
indicated syllables but just like it's predecessor, it has not been deciphered
yet. The Minoans used these writing systems to keep records of the various
goods and products that were kept inside the palace, either for redistribution to
the people or for trading purposes.
We do not fully know what constituted the faith and how exactly they worshiped
their gods. What we do know is that the bull was a sacred symbol to the Minoans
along with the double-headed axe which they depicted with exquisite details. The
Minoans also made clay figurines of goddesses which they kept in households
and shrines, depicting deities with animals and symbols of fertility. As for
warfare there is no evidence that the Minoans had an army or a naval fleet.
Despite the lack of evidence we surely know that their culture was not centered
around warfare but they might have used an army or a navy to deal with piracy or
internal feuds. We can not make any conclusions though. We do know however
that the Minoans were famous metal workers and along jewelry they produced
daggers and other warfare items, most were for status display, hunting and
export. Around 1700 BC a large earthquake damaged the palaces and cities of Crete.
Still, the Minoans continued to prosper by trading, rebuilding the palaces and
perfecting the art of metalwork but this would not last for long. In the
late 17th century BC the volcano of the island of Thera erupted, followed by
tremors and huge waves crashing down on the northern part of Crete. Volcanic ash
spread through the atmosphere burning the crops and causing climate change.
This time the Minoans could not restore the damage.
Slowly they began to decline, with few resources and lack of trading goods
Crete started to lose its importance as a trade center. As the Minoan
civilization was declining another culture started to rise on mainland
Greece, that of the Mycenaeans, a people with a sophisticated social system and
military power. There were several Mycenaean cities
probably serf ruling and united in a loose confederation. The cities were
fortified and were mostly built on top of hills. The military culture indicate
that there was unrest at the time and it was also one of the advantages over the
Minoans. Over time the Aegean became more and more influenced by the Mycenaeans
who would later conquer the region and establish new cities. The same happened
in Crete. Minoan and Mycenaean cultures were intermingled but the Mycenaeans
became dominant over time and the Minoan culture gradually faded out.