MINOAN CIVILIZATION

MINOAN CIVILIZATION

With the dawning of the Bronze Age in the millennium after 2,5000 B.C.,new arrivals from what is now western Turkey brought such innovations as bronze weaponry,defensive fortifications and the Mesopotamian fast pottery wheel to some islands.

Minoan Excavation Site

Minoan Excavation Site

Milos obsidian,white marble from Paros and grey marble from Naxos remained in demand for centuries,and Cycladic culture continued to influence the more primitive mainland.The most dramatic evidence of this influence today are ruins being excavated on the Cycladic island of Santorini as Thera in antiquity.
Graceful frescoes,intricately engraved jewelery,music...were features of the remarkably Minoan culture.

Minoan Artefakt

Minoan Artifact

The end was cataclysmic.About 1,500B.C.,one of the most titanic volcanic eruptions in global history occurred on Thera,some 70 miles north of Crete.A vast area,including Crete,was affected.The earthquakes,the tidal waves and the continuing volcanic activity marked the beginning of the end of Minoan civilization.


Minoan Palace Knossos

Minoan Palace Knossos