Minoans: Who were they?

• Minoan Civilization is the name given to the era, in Crete, that reached a high stage of development between 2600 B.C. and 1000 B.C. with Knossos its epicentre.

• The Minoans knew how to cultivate the soil, make fine burnished pottery, frequently decorated with incised geometric motifs, and were capable of building stone houses, though they also still made use of caves for habitation and animals were kept for domestic use

• Metals were as yet unknown and the tools and weapons they needed (hammers,axes, knives etc.) were made of a range of hard stones, and obsidian from the Cycladic Island of Milos.

• The Neolithic was followed by the Bronze Age Civilization which the English archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans, who excavated the palace at Knossos, called "Minoan" after Minos, the legendary king of Crete.

• Very little was known about Minoan Crete before the great excavations of Greek and foreign archaeologists that began about 1900, and the discovery of the palaces of Knossos and Phaestos with their astonishing architecture and wonderful finds.

• Their language is not known, for the written texts have not yet been deciphered, but it appears to have belonged to a separate category of the Mediterranean languages.

• Homer was aware that the inhabitants of Crete were divided into a number of tribes, and mentions the names of five of them: the Pelasgians, the Eteocretans, the Kydonians, the Achaeans and the Dorians, adding that each spoke its own language. He also emphasizes how densely populated Crete was, with its ninety cities, and mentions some of them, such as Knossos, Phaestos, Gortys, Lyttos, Kydonia, and Rhytion.

Knossos

• The Minoan Palace of Knossos at 5km from the centre of Iraklion (Heraklion) in Crete is built on the hill of Kefala next to the river Kairatos, in a site which was admired for its natural advantages and easy access to the sea.

Pre Palace building

Knossos Palace Wall

Grand Staircase

Columns supporting Portico

Storage Rooms

Irrigation Drains

Fertility goddess

Bull head Painting

Bull Painting

Dolphin Painting