Definition of Minoan Culture

It is one of the best known and mythical of antiquity, predecessor of the classical Greeks and contemporary of the Pharaonic Egypt, advanced for its time at a time when it was leaving prehistory to enter the story.

The Minoan culture, developed on the island of Crete between 2,700 and 1,450 BC. C (somewhere between the copper and bronze ages), was one of the predecessors of the classical Greeks, and disappeared due to a series of natural factors and others still unknown to make way for civilization Mycenaean.

It was a civilization eminently maritime, which expanded its influence to the area of ​​Asia that would later be occupied by the Greek colonies in what is now the coast of Turkey, most of the coast of the Peloponnese Peninsula, and even the east coast of Sicily.

They exploited the maritime trade routes, having commercial and political exchanges with various peoples, including Pharaonic Egypt.

The discovery of the Minoan culture, its dating and study, is mainly due to the site of Cnossos, an ancient Minoan city on Crete.

And, within this, especially his palace, a jewel of the architecture ancient of which only fragments remain, but of which it has been possible to rebuild, at least partially, its great splendor.

Thanks to this palace, the historical chronology of the Minoan civilization, which goes through three periods from our perspective: the ancient Minoan (from 3,400 to 2,100 to. C), Middle Minoan (from 2,100 to 1580 BC. C), and late Minoan (extending from 1,580 to 1,200 BC). C).

The ancient Minoan is the result of the passage from an eminently agricultural and self-sufficient society to one more based on trade, which they carried out with the peoples of Greece, the Middle East and with Egypt.

The exchangecultural and technical with the peoples from outside (for example, the metallurgy bronze) led to a time of great growth and splendor, coinciding with a population increase.

This stage is also known as pre-palatial.

The Middle Minoan is characterized by the erection of palaces and the appearance of writing.

The main architect of this revolution construction that leads to palatial structures is the accumulated wealth thanks to Commerce.

This is developed thanks to the fact that Crete was a strategic enclave in the middle of long routes distance that crossed towards the four cardinal points, which made it an obligatory stopping point, for example for Greek merchants who wanted to go to the Middle East or Egypt, and vice versa.

The palace of Knossos dates precisely from this period.

The Middle Minoan is divided, in turn, into two periods: the proto-palatial, with structures that already point towards palaces but without being able to define themselves as such, and the neopalate, in which the palatial structures are much more developed.

The main characteristic of the latter is the splendor of the great palaces.

The eruption of the Santorini volcano, which shocked the ancient world in many ways, was responsible for the end of the Middle Minoan period.

The destruction of a good part of the settlements, palaces and infrastructures, together with the mortality Caused by a little less than apocalyptic event, it led Crete and the neighboring Greek islands to lose much of their value as commercial and cultural exchange posts.

The late Minoan already corresponds to the decline of the Minoan civilization, finished off by a Mycenaean invasion from the mainland, specifically from the Greek peninsula.

The Mycenaeans were influenced by a declining Minoans, this influence reaching up to the Classical Greeks after the Doric invasion of Greece.

Photo: Fotolia - pbardocz

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