• First Civilizations in Europe
• The Minoans (2000-1459 BCE)
• The Mycenaeans (1600-1100 BCE)

• Due to the harsher climate, civilizations in
Europe did not emerge until after 3000 BCE
• Around 3000 BCE complex societies developed around Greece and the Aegean Sea
• One of the central cities named Knossos Ruins of the Palace of
Knossos

• Bronze Age culture living on the island of
Crete
• Named after King
Minos, the king of
Knossos
• Organized into complex class system of nobles, merchants, artisans, bureaucrats, and labourers.
• Communities linked in a loose political federation.
• No fortified walls around cities, and absence of weapons
The Palace of Knossos

• Early Greeks adapted a writing system from the
Phoenicians.
• Indebted to Egypt for their wealth of knowledge
(sculpture, metal and clay working, music, mathematics, elements of religion).
• Trade with Egypt (linen, papyrus, olive oil)and other Aegean Islands
• Wood, food and textiles exported from Crete while luxury items were imported (gold, solver, perfumes)

• Pottery, metal work and ivory carving
• Buildings of several stories with rooms and passageways
• Palaces had complex indoor plumbing and drainage systems
• Art comparable with Egypt
• Developed a written language system
– Linear “A” undeciphered
– Linear “B” used for commercial transactions, early form of Greek

• Minos’ Palace at
Knossos (on the island of Crete)
• These ruins were discovered by
Arthur Evans in
1900

Knossos Palace Reconstruction

• Matriarchal – central worship of a mother goddess
• Exact beliefs unknown, but the bull seems to have been a religious symbol – bull cult
• Crete = birthplace of Zeus
(Minoans worshipped a
Zeus who was born in a cave, grew to manhood, and died) – later Greeks were angered by the idea that “god died”

Bull-leaping – A fresco from the palace at Knossos

• In 1700 BCE all of the palaces on Crete were destroyed in an
Earthquake
• Around 1500 BCE a volcano erupted, on the island of
Santorini, causing great destruction
• Weakened by Mycenaean incursions in centuries before eruption – quick decline and takeover by Mycenaeans
• Sudden disappearance is a mystery with few remnants of their civilization

The World at the Time of the Thera Eruption

• King Minos and the birth of the Minotaur
• Theseus and the
Minotaur

• Labyrinth of the
Minotaur
• Can you find the way through the maze?