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Southern europe

Back to Europe: 5000 to 3000 B.C.

Eastern mediterranean islands

The British Museum has displays indicating the original civilization in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean should be called the "Cycladian", existing from 3,000 to 2,000 B.C. and to be considered separate from the Cretan or Minoan Civilization which followed

Dr. Frank Stubbings (Ref. 215 , page 114) believes that the Cycladic and Minoan originated at about the same time (2,800 B.C.) and existed side by side, along with the Mycenaean on the Greek mainland
. Although, as noted in the last chapter, people with an advanced Neolithic Culture lived on Crete from 6,000 B.C. onward, the Bronze Age started only about 2,600 B.C.

There are some who believe that the Egyptian and Anatolian influences stimulated the development, but most now feel that this was a purely local progress over a thousand year period. For the first 600 years or so of this Bronze Age, civilization was rather low key, and it appears that there may have been folks of several different origins on the island. Homer was probably truthful when he described three peoples - the Eteocretans, the Kydonians and the Pelasgians. The first of these may be considered the initial truly Cretan people, perhaps of Luvian origin and speaking the as yet undeciphered Linear A language. The Bulgarian linguist, Vladimer Georgiev, claiming decipherment of the Phaestos Disc found on Crete in 1910, believes that that represented a Luvian language which was dominant on the island around 1,700 B.C. and that the Eteocretans and Pelasgians had similar languages. The Kydonians lived in western Crete, language unknown, but they were definitely not Greek in origin. The Pelasgians were an Aegean people who originally may have inhabited all of the Aegean, Thrace and the Greek mainland. Their language was mid-way between Thracian and Hittite-Luvian. Obviously Minoa was a multi-lingual civilization.

The first palaces and cities of Crete appeared about 2,000 B.C., including Knossus, Phaistos, Mallia and Zakros. The first had about 80,000 people

Cotterell (Ref. 41 ) says no less than 20,000 between the years 2,000 to 1,700 B.C.
and the vast palace for the king called "Minos", which was located there, was the largest and most elaborate of all. It had exquisite potteries and tiles, bath rooms with running water, toilets with drainage systems and evidences of rich appointments and jewelery. The construction of such palaces and its accouterments required any number of specialized craftsmen - architects, stone masons, carpenters, plasterers, painters, potters, sculptors, gem-cutters, glass makers, faience makers, smiths, weavers and probably others.

The five hundred years following 2,000 B.C. saw the ships of the Minoans roaming unchallenged on the Aegean Sea. The Cretan navy apparently cleared the seas of pirates and protected the homeland from invasion so that there was no necessity for any kind of fortification on the island. The commercial fleet was involved in extensive commerce with surrounding islands, the Near East and Egypt. The latter supplied scarab seals, carved ivories, copper and tin

Cotterell (Ibid) reports that there was adequate copper available locally and that tin was imported from Bulgaria and Romania
and Egyptian linen, while receiving olive oil, painted pottery, timber and woolen cloth. The Cretans are said to have had 100,000 sheep. An alabaster jar bearing the name of the Hyksos King Khyan has been found and confirms probable delegations and trade with Egypt. Perhaps from over-population, the Minoans sent colonists to various other islands and the mainland of Greece. The island Thera was an important Minoan satellite and a colony on the island of Kythera, between the western end of Crete and the Peloponnese, was started before 2,000 B.C. and was still occupied at 1,450 B.C. Cretan fashions spread throughout the islands and even to Greece and Asia Minor.

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Source:  OpenStax, A comprehensive outline of world history. OpenStax CNX. Nov 30, 2009 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10595/1.3
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