In 1900, a British archaeologist, Arthur Evans, discovered a palace with more than 1000 rooms. This palace was then excavated and partially restored. It is believed that the palace belonged to King Minos, the king of the island of Crete who lived many thousand years ago. Archaeologist Arthur Evan coined the term ‘Minoan Civilization’ or ancient Greek Minoans Civilization for the age and time at which the king ruled Crete in his honor.
Ancient Greek Minoans
The Minoans are believed to have lived on the island of Crete almost 5000 years ago. When we talk about ancient Greece and ancient Greece civilizations, Minoans are one of the earliest civilizations to have developed in and around Greece.
The Minoans were not Greek, but they have had an instrumental role in shaping the Greek civilization and hence their mention while discussing ancient Greece is a must. As the Minoans settled in Crete, their population started to grow rapidly.
Minoan Trade
The soil of Crete was fertile, as a result of which farming developed. Crete was a huge island with good access to different places from the sea and hence trade developed.
As the population grew, people started to settle in different parts of the island.
Trade flourished in the region which resulted in better economic conditions of the Minoans. Their standard of living was high and excavations have shown decent plumbing, beautiful frescoes, open courtyards and huge palaces. The king was believed to be living in the capital city of Crete which was Knossos.
Minoan Arts
The ancient Greek Minoans were active in sports and arts. They also believed in gods and religion and devoted a lot of time to religious activities. The remains of their artwork are good evidence to prove that the Minoans believed in a lot of goddesses.
Women were given a lot of importance and were free to work unlike the women in ancient Greece. Minoans were great artists. Their artworks have tremendous aesthetic appeal and the way they loved art and their approach towards arts were much different from other societies existing at that time. A lot of festivals in Greece had shows with bulls and much of their sports included bulls.
The Minoan civilization was very peaceful but it all came to an eventful and probably violent end. There are different theories on how the Minoan civilization came to an end. Many believe that the destruction took place due to a fire and there are some shreds of evidence of a great volcanic eruption at
Thera which was followed by a tsunami, which destroyed this great civilization, but there is still not enough evidence to pinpoint one reason for the destruction of this great civilization which existed for almost 1600 years.
