Minoan Civilization - Overview

Overview

The self-name of the people did not survive. It is often incorrectly asserted that Arthur Evans coined the term, Minoan. More relevantly, it is necessary to distinguish between the legendary and the archaeological civilizations. In the Odyssey, Odysseus says that "mong their cities is the great city Cnosus, where Minos reigned when nine years old, he that held converse with great Zeus, and was father of my father, great-hearted Deucalion."

From time immemorial, "Minoan" has been used to refer to the legendary life and times of King Minos, and all persons, places and things that were associated with him. Until Evans, the myth was still being taken seriously. Chronological problems were solved by presuming, on no evidence, that Minos was a title; therefore, any Cretan king could be King Minos. Evans did as much as anyone to debunk the myth as serious history. When Evans went to work at Knossos, classics was still under the spell of Heinrich Schliemann, who had insisted that the archaeological remains of the swineherd's hut in the Odyssey could be located and excavated. For example, in his 1839 work, translated as The History and Antiquities of the Dorian Race, Karl Otfried Müller referred to "the Minoan town of Cnossus," which was in one of the "districts inhabited by the Eteocretans." Müller's reference was entirely literary; he had no idea about the discoveries that would follow his death.

It has sometimes been argued that the Egyptian place name, "Keftiu" (*Káftiu kftiw), and the Semitic "Kaftor" or "Caphtor" and "Kaptara" in the Mari archives refer to the island of Crete; "On the other hand some acknowledged facts about Caphtor/Keftiu can only with difficulty be reconciled with Crete," observes John Strange. 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.

Minoan anaktora palaces are the best known building types to have been excavated on the island. They serve administrative purposes as evidenced by the large archives unearthed by archaeologists. Each of the excavated palaces has unique features, but they also share features which set them apart from other structures. The palaces were often multi-storeyed, with interior and exterior staircases, light wells, massive columns, storage magazines, and courtyards.

Since the Neolithic era, Crete stood in the middle of two cultural streams that lead to the west: the West Asian and the North African. It has been suggested that the Minoan people were not Indo-European, and that they could be related to the Pelasgians--pre-Greek dwellers of the Greek mainland and Western Anatolia. For many centuries, Minoan Crete remained free from any invaders and managed to develop a distinct independent civilization, which was probably the most advanced in the Mediterranean area during the Bronze Age. The Minoan script (Linear A) has not yet been deciphered; it could represent an Aegean language, unrelated to any Indo-European language.