39 Facts About Minoan civilization

The name "Minoan civilization" derives from the mythical King Minos and was coined by Evans, who identified the site at Knossos with the labyrinth of the Minotaur.

The Minoan civilization has been described as the earliest of its kind in Europe, and historian Will Durant called the Minoans "the first link in the European chain".

The largest Minoan civilization palace is that of Knossos, followed by that of Phaistos.

The Minoan civilization period saw extensive trade by Crete with Aegean and Mediterranean settlements, particularly those in the Near East.

Some of the best Minoan civilization art was preserved in the city of Akrotiri on the island of Santorini; Akrotiri had been effectively destroyed by the Minoan civilization eruption.

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The reasons for the slow decline of the Minoan civilization, beginning around 1550 BC, are unclear; theories include Mycenaean invasions from mainland Greece and the major volcanic eruption of Santorini.

Term "Minoan civilization" refers to the mythical King Minos of Knossos, a figure in Greek mythology associated with Theseus, the labyrinth and the Minotaur.

Around 1450 BC, Minoan civilization culture reached a turning point due to a natural disaster.

Influence of Minoan civilization is seen in Minoan art and artifacts on the Greek mainland.

The majority of Minoan civilization sites are found in central and eastern Crete, with few in the western part of the island, especially to the south.

Minoan civilization strata replaced a mainland-derived early Bronze Age culture, the earliest Minoan civilization settlement outside Crete.

Minoan civilization society was a divided society separating men from women in art illustration, clothing, and societal duties.

Minoan civilization men were often depicted clad in little clothing while women's bodies, specifically later on, were more covered up.

Female clothing throughout the Minoan civilization era emphasized the breasts by exposing cleavage or even the entire breast.

Minoan civilization women were portrayed with "wasp" waists, similar to the modern bodice women continue to wear today.

Minoan civilization-manufactured goods suggest a network of trade with mainland Greece, Cyprus, Syria, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia and westward as far as the Iberian peninsula.

The saffron trade, which predated Minoan civilization, was comparable in value to that of frankincense or black pepper.

Minoan civilization jewellery included many gold ornaments for women's hair and thin gold plaques to sew onto clothing.

Minoan civilization is an unclassified language, or perhaps multiple indeterminate languages written in the same script.

Several writing systems dating from the Minoan civilization period have been unearthed in Crete, the majority of which are currently undeciphered.

Much Minoan civilization art is given a religious significance of some sort, but this tends to be vague, not least because Minoan civilization government is often seen as a theocracy, so politics and religion have a considerable overlap.

The Minoan civilization pantheon featured many deities, among which a young, spear-wielding male god is prominent.

The mythical creature called the Minoan civilization Genius is somewhat threatening but perhaps a protective figure, possibly of children; it seems to largely derive from Taweret the Egyptian hybrid crocodile and hippopotamus goddess.

Minoan civilization horn-topped altars, which Arthur Evans called Horns of Consecration, are represented in seal impressions and have been found as far afield as Cyprus.

Minoan civilization cities were connected by narrow roads paved with blocks cut with bronze saws.

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Elements of the Middle Minoan civilization palaces have precedents in Early Minoan civilization construction styles.

Middle Minoan civilization palaces are characteristically aligned with their surrounding topography.

One of the defining aspects of the Minoan civilization Era was the architectural feats of their waste management.

Minoan civilization art is marked by imaginative images and exceptional workmanship.

Wood and textiles have decomposed, so most surviving examples of Minoan civilization art are pottery, intricately-carved Minoan civilization seals, palace frescos which include landscapes, small sculptures in various materials, jewellery, and metalwork.

Minoan civilization art has a variety of subject-matter, much of it appearing across different media, although only some styles of pottery include figurative scenes.

Largest and best collection of Minoan civilization art is in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum near Knossos, on the northern coast of Crete.

Early Minoan civilization ceramics were characterized by patterns of spirals, triangles, curved lines, crosses, fish bones, and beak-spouts.

Minoan civilization jewellery has mostly been recovered from graves, and until the later periods much of it consists of diadems and ornaments for women's hair, though there are the universal types of rings, bracelets, armlets and necklaces, and many thin pieces that were sewn onto clothing.

In 1998, when Minoan civilization archaeologists met in a Belgian conference to discuss the possibility that the Pax Minoica was outdated, evidence of Minoan civilization war was still scanty.

Stella Chryssoulaki's work on small outposts in eastern Crete indicates a possible defensive system; type A (high-quality) Minoan civilization swords were found in the palaces of Mallia and Zarkos (see Sanders, AJA 65, 67, Hoeckmann, JRGZM 27, or Rehak and Younger, AJA 102).

Keith Branigan estimated that 95 percent of Minoan civilization "weapons" had hafting which would have prevented their use as such.

Several authors have noted evidence that Minoan civilization had exceeded its environmental carrying capacity, with archaeological recovery at Knossos indicating deforestation in the region near the civilization's later stages.

The researchers found that the Minoan civilization skeletons were genetically very similar to modern-day Europeans—and especially close to modern-day Cretans, particularly those from the Lasithi Plateau.