Minoans - Bronze Age Minoan Civilization of Ancient Crete

Definition: The Minoans were a Bronze Age civilization of Ancient Crete whose early language, Linear A, we have not deciphered. Sir Arthur Evans, responsible for the excavations at Knossos, defined the Minoan period of Crete as a major civilization from c. 1900-1300 B.C. Besides Knossos, there were Minoan palace centers in Phaistos, and Kato Zakros that were destroyed, probably by an earthquake, in about 1700. The palace center at Knossos was subsequently rebuilt. An enormous palace filled with rooms and narrow passageways is thought to have given rise to the legend of the labyrinth, built by Daedalus, with the Minotaur at its center that Theseus successfully traversed with the aid of a ball of string given him by the Minotaur's half-sister Ariadne.
We believe the government of the Minoans was a bureaucratic monarchy.

See: The Palace of Minos at Knossos
Miletus.

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