Sir Arthur Evans first coined the term “Minoan”. It refers to an advanced Bronze Age Cretan society that dominated Crete and the Aegean between 2000 and 1450BC.

Evan’s named the ancient race after the legendary King Minos, whose palace he believed he had found at Knossos. Minoan civilisation showed an advanced level of political and economic organisation, as well as sophisticated forms of art and engineering that led to its ascendancy before its decline due to competition from rising civilisations from the Greek mainland.

Minoan Appearance

Based on skeletal remains, archaeologists have been able to put together a physical profile of the Minoans. Their height would have been medium to average in modern terms, with a short head. They were of fine but athletic build.

Minoan frescos and statues add to this picture, showing a slightly dark-skinned race with straight noses, bushy eyebrows, large almond eyes and wavy dark hair. In addition, artistic representations of Minoans show them to have muscular arms, shoulders and thighs and narrow waists. These portrayals, while confirming the archaeology, also show what the Minoan physical ideal was.

Minoan Palaces on Crete

The centres of Minoan civilisation were palace complexes that served as administrative, religious and economic centres. In all, there were ten major palace complexes across the island. Palace seals show they were all interconnected, forming a power network that spanned across Crete. Knossos seems to have ultimately controlled all the other palaces, which also operated independently as the capitals of their own regions.

Records on tablets show the extent of each palace’s influence, which can also be traced via material remains. Each Cretan palace would have manufactured its own style of goods, such as pottery, used within its territory.

The Minoans and Trade

Cretan supremacy was achieved not only through its administrative organisation but also trade, which dominated large areas of the Mediterranean and Crete itself. Many of the palace complexes were specifically designed to control trade. For example, seals and tablets indicate that the palace at Zakros was built on the directive of Knossos to control trade in Africa and the east. Other major trading centres were found at Thera, Miletus, Kythera and Phylakopi.

Features of Minoan Civilisation

Minoan society showed its progressive nature in a variety of areas, including:

• Engineering and architecture, in particular building design and water and sanitation.
• Art. Minoan frescos are notable for their style and methods of execution. Minoan society has also left behind many fine examples of statues and depictions of the bull, the Minoan’s sacred animal and the iconic double axe.
• Ancient writing and communication. Linear A tablets preserve the earliest form of Minoan script, which used symbols to represent individual syllables. Linear B, a later form, is also an early form of Greek. Both forms of writing, in their turn, act as evidence for Minoan’s social and economic organisation.

The Decline of Minoan Civilisation

Archaeological evidence indicates that the Minoan civilisation began to decline in the mid-second millennium BC. Palace complexes across the island gradually declined and fell out of use until Knossos alone remained the main populated area.

Initially, it was believed that this decline might have been sparked by a volcanic eruption at Thera, which would have affected the Minoan’s ability to trade. This weakening of Minoan society was believed to have led to either local revolts or a foreign invasion from the Greek mainland, leading to the rise of Mycenaean culture on the island.

However, it is now believed that factors other than a volcanic eruption may have caused the decline. Re-examination of the evidence shows that many of the palace complexes began to decline as early as the early 1600s BC, reviving a little before a further, more conclusive decline 100 years later, which led to the abandonment of some of the palace centres. By 1450 BC, all the remaining palace complexes apart from Knossos had been destroyed and abandoned. 

Evidence shows that while the palaces were burnt, the surrounding townships were preserved intact, suggesting local revolts may well have been responsible for the destruction of the outlying palaces. This crisis could have arisen because of a decline in trade, due not to a natural disaster but the erosion of Minoan dominance in the Mediterranean by rising civilisations from the Greek mainland. This economic dominance eventually extended to Crete itself, with Knossos continuing not as a Minoan capital but a Mycenaean one.

Sources

Vasilakis, Andonis (1999) Minoan Crete: From Myth to History. Adam Editions: Athens

The Illustrated Dictionary of Archaeology