Editing Minoan civilization (section)

==Geography==

The Minoan Civilization was centered on the island of [[Crete]], with additional settlements around the [[Aegean Sea]]. Crete is located in the south of the Aegean, situated along maritime trade routes that connect [[Europe]], [[Africa]], and the [[Middle East]]. Because it straddles the Mediterranean and African climate zones, with land at a variety of elevations, it provides a diverse array of natural resources. However, it is notably poor in metals, a fact believed to have spurred the Minoans' interest in international trade. The island is seismically active, with signs of earthquake damage at many Minoan sites. The majority of Minoan sites are found in central and eastern Crete, with few in the western part of the island, especially to the south.<ref>{{cite book |last=Watrous |first=L. Vance |year=2021 |title=Minoan Crete: An Introduction|publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=4–13|isbn=9781108440493}}</ref>

===Major settlements===

[[File:Knossos - North Portico 02.jpg|thumb|250px|The Palace of [[Knossos]], the largest Minoan palace]]

* [[Knossos]] – the largest<ref name="Thera and the Aegean World III">{{cite web|url=http://www.therafoundation.org/articles/economysociety/theislesofcretetheminoanthalassocracyrevisited|title=Thera and the Aegean World III|access-date=2009-09-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100425083244/http://www.therafoundation.org/articles/economysociety/theislesofcretetheminoanthalassocracyrevisited|archive-date=2010-04-25}}</ref> Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete. Knossos had an estimated population of 1,300 to 2,000 in 2500{{nbsp}}BC, 18,000 in 2000{{nbsp}}BC, 20,000 to 100,000 in 1600{{nbsp}}BC and 30,000 in 1360{{nbsp}}BC.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l6rRTWv8zY0C&pg=PT48|title=The Knossos Labyrinth|isbn=9781134967858|last1=Castleden|first1=Rodney|date=2012-10-12|publisher=Routledge }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g8eIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA68|title=Minoan Life in Bronze Age Crete|isbn=9781134880645|last1=Castleden|first1=Rodney|year=2002|publisher=Routledge }}</ref>
* [[Phaistos]] – the second-largest<ref name="Thera and the Aegean World III"/> palatial building on the island, excavated by the Italian school shortly after Knossos
* [[Hagia Triada]] – town and administrative center near Phaistos which has yielded the largest number of [[Linear A]] tablets.
* [[Kommos (Crete)|Kommos]] – harbour town serving Phaistos and Hagia Triada, with civic buildings mirroring palatial architecture
* [[Malia (archaeological site)|Malia]] – the subject of French excavations, a palatial center which provides a look into the proto-palatial period
* [[Kato Zakros]] – sea-side palatial site excavated by Greek archaeologists in the far east of the island, also known as "Zakro" in archaeological literature
* [[Galatas Palace|Galatas]] – confirmed as a palatial site during the early 1990s
*[[Kydonia]] (modern [[Chania]]), the only palatial site in West Crete
* [[Gournia]] – town site excavated in the first quarter of the 20th century
* [[Myrtos Pyrgos|Pyrgos]] – early Minoan site in southern Crete
* [[Vasiliki, Lasithi|Vasiliki]] – early eastern Minoan site which gives its name to distinctive ceramic ware
* [[Fournou Korifi|Fournou Korfi]] – southern site
* [[Pseira]] – island town with ritual sites
* [[Mount Juktas]] – the greatest Minoan peak sanctuary, associated with the palace of Knossos<ref>Donald W. Jones (1999) Peak Sanctuaries and Sacred Caves in Minoan Crete {{ISBN|91-7081-153-9}}</ref>
* [[Arkalochori]] – site of the [[Arkalochori Axe]]
* [[Karfi]] – refuge site, one of the last Minoan sites
* [[Akrotiri (prehistoric city)|Akrotiri]] – settlement on the island of [[Santorini]] (Thera), near the site of the [[Thera Eruption]]
* [[Zominthos]] – mountainous city in the northern foothills of [[Mount Ida (Crete)|Mount Ida]]

[[File:Ship procession fresc, Akrotiri, 17th c BC, PMTh, 226371.jpg|thumb|250px|alt=Colorful, detailed fresco with people and animals|Detail of [[Minoan painting]], from [[Akrotiri (prehistoric city)|Akrotiri]], the ''Ship Procession'']]

==={{anchor|Minoans beyond Crete}}Beyond Crete===

[[File:Minoan copper ingot from Zakros, Crete.jpg|thumb|250px|alt=Rectangular copper, oxidized green|Minoan [[copper]] [[ingot]]]]

The Minoans were traders, and their cultural contacts reached [[Egypt]], [[Cyprus]], [[Canaan]] and the Levantine coast and Anatolia. Minoan-style frescoes have been found at elite residences in [[Avaris]] and [[Tel Kabri]]. Minoan techniques and ceramic styles had varying degrees of influence on [[Helladic period|Helladic Greece]]. Along with Santorini, Minoan settlements are found<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9Ho9HcwrVkwC&pg=PA114|title=Interaction and Acculturation in the Mediterranean: Proceedings of the Second International Congress of Mediterranean Pre- and Protohistory, Amsterdam, 19–23 November 1980|first1=Jan G. P.|last1=Best|first2=Nanny M. W. de|last2=Vries|date=1980|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing|via=Google Books|isbn=978-9060321942}}</ref> at [[Kastri, Kythera]], an island near the Greek mainland influenced by the Minoans from the mid-third millennium{{nbsp}}BC (EMII) to its Mycenaean occupation in the 13th century.<ref>Hägg and Marinatos 1984; Hardy (ed.) 1984; Broadbank 2004</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Minoan Colonialism|first=Keith|last=Branigan|date=1981|volume=76|pages=23–33|doi=10.1017/s0068245400019444|jstor=30103026|journal=The Annual of the British School at Athens|s2cid=246244704 }}</ref> Minoan strata replaced a mainland-derived early [[Bronze Age]] culture, the earliest Minoan settlement outside Crete.<ref>J. N. Coldstream and G. L. Huxley, ''Kythera: Excavations and Studies Conducted by the University of Pennsylvania Museum and the British School at Athens'' (London: Faber & Faber) 1972.</ref>

The Cyclades were in the Minoan cultural orbit and, closer to Crete, the islands of [[Karpathos]], [[Saria Island|Saria]] and [[Kasos]] also contained middle-Bronze Age (MMI-II) Minoan colonies or settlements of Minoan traders. Most were abandoned in LMI, but Karpathos recovered and continued its Minoan culture until the end of the Bronze Age.<ref>E. M. Melas, ''The Islands of Karpathos, Saros and Kasos in the Neolithic and Bronze Age'' (Studies in Mediterranean archaeology '''68''') (Gothenburg) 1985.</ref> Other supposed Minoan colonies, such as that hypothesized by [[Adolf Furtwängler]] on [[Aegina]], were later dismissed by scholars.<ref>James Penrose Harland, ''Prehistoric Aigina: A History of the Island in the Bronze Age'', ch. V. (Paris) 1925.</ref> However, there was a Minoan colony at [[Ialysos]] on [[Rhodes]].<ref>Arne Furumark, "The settlement at Ialysos and Aegean history c. 1500–1400 B.B.", in ''Opuscula archaeologica'' '''6''' (Lund) 1950; T. Marketou, "New Evidence on the Topography and Site History of Prehistoric Ialysos." in Soren Dietz and Ioannis Papachristodoulou (eds.), ''Archaeology in the Dodecanese'' (1988:28–31).</ref>

[[File:Cretans Bringing Gifts, Tomb of Rekhmire.jpg|thumb|left|Cretans ({{transliteration|egy|kftjw}}) bringing gifts to Egypt, in the [[TT100|Tomb of Rekhmire]], under Pharaoh [[Thutmosis III]] (c. 1479-1425{{nbsp}}BC)]]
Minoan cultural influence indicates an orbit extending through the Cyclades to Egypt and Cyprus. Fifteenth-century{{nbsp}}BC paintings in [[Thebes, Egypt]] depict Minoan-appearing individuals bearing gifts. Inscriptions describing them as coming from ''keftiu'' ("islands in the middle of the sea") may refer to gift-bringing merchants or officials from Crete.<ref name="auto"/>

Some locations on Crete indicate that the Minoans were an "outward-looking" society.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MeIU7DNjERoC&pg=PA178|title=Imports and Immigrants: Near Eastern Contacts with Iron Age Crete|first=Gail L.|last=Hoffman|date=1997|publisher=University of Michigan Press|via=Google Books|isbn=978-0472107704}}</ref> The neo-palatial site of [[Kato Zakros]] is located within 100 meters of the modern shoreline in a bay. Its large number of workshops and wealth of site materials indicate a possible ''[[entrepôt]]'' for trade. Such activities are seen in artistic representations of the sea, including the ''Ship Procession'' or "Flotilla" fresco in room five of the West House at [[Akrotiri (prehistoric city)|Akrotiri]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Warren|first=Peter|date=1979|title=The Miniature Fresco from the West House at Akrotiri, Thera, and Its Aegean Setting|journal=The Journal of Hellenic Studies|volume=99|pages=115–129|doi=10.2307/630636|issn=0075-4269|jstor=630636|s2cid=161908616 }}</ref>

In 2024, archaeologists discovered a Minoan bronze dagger with silver rivets in an ancient shipwreck at [[Kumluca]] in [[Antalya Province]]. According to the researchers, the discovery highlights the cultural and commercial exchanges in the Mediterranean during the bronze age.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2024/09/a-dagger-from-the-minoan-civilization-of-crete-found-in-a-bronze-age-shipwreck/ |title=A Dagger from the Minoan Civilization of Crete Found in a Bronze Age Shipwreck|date=4 September 2024 |access-date=2024-09-04|archive-date=2024-09-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240907084434/https://www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2024/09/a-dagger-from-the-minoan-civilization-of-crete-found-in-a-bronze-age-shipwreck/}}</ref>
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