Editing Minoan civilization (section)

==={{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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