Archaeological culture · c. 3100–1100 BCE (map's 'Minoan civilization' state takes over from 1600 BCE)
Minoan civilisation
The Minoan civilisation of Crete built great palaces such as Knossos, Phaistos and Malia, painted lively frescoes and traded across the eastern Mediterranean. It was Europe's first advanced Bronze Age civilisation.
The Minoans wrote in Linear A, which remains undeciphered. Here the map shows Crete before 1600 BCE; after that the atlas draws the Minoans as a state. After about 1450 BCE Crete came under Mycenaean influence and perhaps rule.
See Minoan civilisation on the map in 3100 BCE
- On the map
- 3100–1601 BCE
How we know
The Minoans wrote in Linear A, but it has never been deciphered, so their own records can't be read; we know them from excavation and later Greek tablets.
Sites
- Akrotiri settled by c. 4500 BCE; buried c. 1600 BCE
- Knossos (Palace of Minos) palace c. 1900–1350 BCE (hill settled from c. 7000 BCE)