Minoan Civilization Overview

The island of Crete, which lies in the midsection of the Mediterranean Sea, has been heavily contested by differing elaborations over the past three-thousand historic item. solely before offshoot conquests for the island began, a civilization developed on the island to much(prenominal) an advanced degree that it would become Greek legend. These first civilized inhabitants of Crete substantiate become known as the Minoans, named afterwards King Minis. In the two-thousand years of the Minoan people, they rose from simple farmers to a crac nance civilization that came to a tragic end. The island of Crete provides a unique environment that is well suited for enervate civilization.Its location in the Mediterranean provides its inhabitants with a central location for craftiness and military operations between Greece, t all(prenominal)y, Egypt, and the halfway East. The sea itself is rich in re themes, the lands of the Cretan plains argon fertile, and the southern coastal aras, with their massive cliffs, provided a natural restriction against invasion. The islands climate is very mild, much like the coastal areas that surround the Mediterranean. Although the island has no major rivers and experiences long points of dry weather, springs are overly abundant.These springs, which take hold reduced in umber, were a reliable source of fresh water for inhabitants of Crete. another(prenominal) major advant grow of living on the island was the massive forests that used to chase after the landscape. The first people of Crete came to the island during neolithic times. These settlers may have brought crops and domesticated animals with them to Crete. It is noncitizen where these settlers originated from notwithstanding archeological evidence suggests areas scraggy Turkey or Syria. The first inhabitants spread quickly across the island, living in natural caves invent from the limestone rock that made up the island or in villages atop fine hills.These neolit hic inhabitants developed umpteen of the tools that other people living honorable the Mediterranean used, such(prenominal) as stone axes, obsidian and cheer blades, sickles, bows and arrows, and stone maces. They overly developed techniques for weaving wool into cloth using looms. As the Neolithic people of Crete began to move into villages on the plains and coastal areas by the middle Neolithic era, caves took on the role of burial sites for everyone from village leaders, to children, to the common resident.As the Neolithic age came to a close and the Bronze Age began, Crete experienced a detail of turmoil that seems to indicate an invasion that triggered technological and cultural developments, such as bronze working, advancements in pottery and tombs. Evidence from Greek myths suggests that these invaders were refugees from lands in the brotherhood of the rising Egyptian Empire. It is possible that King Manner, the man who united Egypt, is the rationality these people fled north into the sea. The period following invasion is thought of as the beginning of the Minoan Age, around BBC.During this period, the Minoan people began to form large cities which typically acted as independent city-states. Competition and inflict between these cities is not heavily evidenced, but it is known that during this Early Minoan age many immigrants from the mainland areas surrounding the Mediterranean came to Crete to seek refuge, much like the original invaders. This period lasted until approximately 2200 BC, after which the floriculture of the people of Crete shifted away from the independent constitution of the city states to a more centralized society with power pile up in a few major cities that were spread across the island.During the meat Minoan Age, kingdoms began to develop and the first Minoan palaces were constructed in cities such as Knossos and Patios. Minoans began to develop colonies on nearby islands, most of which are well preserve in Greek legends . These colonies may be a sign of over-population on the island of Crete, which was a consequence of the Minoan civilizations rapid decent down the sly slope of farming.It is with these colonies that the Minoan culture would begin to show signs of bias as far away as mainland Greece and possibly Egypt In the after contendd portions of the Middle Minoan Age, the Minoan civilization began to reach its peak. It is withal at this point in time that seismic activity on and near Crete begins to show its tangentially dangerous nature to the Minoans. Several times during the Middle Minoan Age, palaces Were destroyed by the earthquakes or fire that may have been caused by earthquakes. It was around this period of destruction in BBC that the Greeks began to settle on Crete, but their presence was minimal at best.The Minoans would recover from these natural disasters and the civilization would continue to flourish until the Late Minoan Age, which began around 1550 BC. Around BBC, the volc anic island of There, that s typefacey miles north of Crete, exploded immediately following a series of earthquakes. The Minoan colonies on the island were buried under thick layers of volcanic rock and tsunamis caused major damage to coastal areas on the north of Crete and caused considerable crop damage on the east portion of the island due to ash. The inhabitants of Crete recovered, but the kingdoms were left in a weakened state.More earthquakes would strike the island potentially changing the landscape of the coastal areas. Some Minoan coastal cities on the eastern and northern parts of Crete lie below several feet of water, and in the western sandwich parts of the island the coastal landscape actually appears to be much higher(prenominal)(prenominal) than it was in early Minoan times. The earthquakes may have also disrupt the supply of fresh water to Minoan cities. Wells, springs, and underground clay pipes all suffered damage due to the severe seismic activity. Knossos wo uld grow to become the only major power on the island while other cities fell into decline.By BBC, the great city of Knossos, the last Minoan seat of power, was ravaged by war and conquered by the Greeks, ending the Minoan civilization. During the nearly 2000 years of the Minoan civilization, their culture grew to influence other people in Greece, Egypt, and the Near East. There are several aspects of this culture and the most influential and historically important Of these are Minoan religion, architecture, genders role in society, and crafts. The Minoan government was theocratic, with both the king and queen having prominent parts in religious and political affairs.The gods of the Minoan people, the most important of which were solar gods, would only communicate their will through the royal couple, who acted as the high priests and carried out religious ceremonies and political events. The kings and promote were also rated as heaven-sent beings following their deaths since they were considered to be the adopted children of the gods. It was also common for commoner and lower priests to experience a euphoric event by coming into contact with a sacred object such as a tree or a rock.Through these euphoric experiences, they would precisely see the face of their gods or see messages that were delivered in natural form by animals or plants. The architecture of early Minoan cities consisted of simple earth, dirty bricks, stone, clay, and wooden buildings, with religious, political, or elite building being of generally higher laity. The home of a commoner was usually a small, rectangular populate with a fire-pit in the center and a raised stone syllabus for sleeping in a corner. As time passed, these homes became larger and some had multiple rooms that could have acted as storage or one-on-one quarters.As for royal palaces, they Were typically constructed from stone and wood with the quality of workmanship vary from site to site. Whenever a palace was destro yed (typically by natural disaster) the new-sprung(prenominal) palace would be built directly atop the ruins of the destroyed structure. Dcord in spite of appearance these complexes included culture of religious icons, murals, frescoes, and furniture that was designed to show the divine nature of royalty. These palaces also served as temples for the gods, which is evidenced by the close knowledge between the king and queen and their patron gods.Almost all building would be covered in a limestone-based plaster and some would then be painted with a red compound. An aspect of Minoan culture that breaks the norm for other civilizations at the time is the richness of women in society. In roughly all of the Minoan art work recovered from the ruins, women are shown in important political and religious roles. Many other cultures from this time period simply depict women as being responsible for raising children. This departure in views can probably be attributed to the significance o f the female solar gods in Minoan society.It is also thought that the common Minoan woman shared equal social status as her male counterparts, which was sort of different from other Mediterranean cultures, who placed most social importance on the men. When the Greeks wrote of the ancient civilization of Atlantis falling below the sea after a devastating earthquake, it is entirely possible that they were actually talking most the Minoans. The genealogy, complex social structure, and wondrous cities that the Minoans developed could easily be the source of inspiration for the tale of Atlantis, which was written 600 years after the collapse of the Minoan civilization on Crete.