Examine the remarkable development of both Mycenaean civilization and the political and cultural life that flourished on Crete between 2100 and 1450 B.C.—a time known as the Palatial period. Minoan cultural influence was reflected in the Mycenean culture of the mainland, which began to spread throughout the Aegean about 1500 bce. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. End of the Early Bronze Age on the mainland (, The decline of the early Aegean civilizations, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Aegean-civilization, PBS LearningMedia - The Minoan Legacy | The Greeks, HistoryWorld - History of Aegean Civilization, Aegean civilization - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Aegean civilization - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). The Minoans are known for their beautiful and colorful wall paintings and their fine pottery. Greek, American, French, and Italian excavators added further knowledge of the Cretan Bronze Age during the years that followed, and American and German expeditions opened new sites on the mainland. In 1962 a large palace, destroyed by fire about 1450 bc at Zákros in eastern Crete, was discovered. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. A national language and a distinct civilization have been maintained. Britannica now has a site just for parents! They established a new order on Crete, with centres at Knossos and Phaistos. The dignified and docile Persian cat is known for being quiet and sweet. The figurative use of cradle to mean "the place or region in which anything is nurtured or sheltered in its earlier stage" is traced by the Oxford English Dictionary to Spenser (1590). Put your history smarts to the test to see if you qualify for the title of History Buff. Sania on October 04, 2015: Hi, I really, really like this article. Please select which sections you would like to print: While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Schliemann’s discoveries led to intensive exploration of Bronze Age and earlier sites on the Greek mainland. The belief that the language of these tablets was a very archaic form of Greek was established in 1952 by the English architect and cryptographer Michael Ventris, working with the linguist John Chadwick, though acceptance of this is not yet universal. Egyptian civilization has flourished continuously since prehistoric times. The Minoan Civilization in Crete was one of the earliest civilizations that flourished in Greece. Samuel E. Zemurray and Doris Zemurray Stone-Radcliffe Professor Emerita of Classics, Harvard University. There are in fact many likenesses between Homer’s descriptions and the armour, weapons, and war imagery found in these graves. Crete became the foremost site of Bronze Age culture in the Aegean Sea, and in fact it was the first centre of high civilization in that area, beginning at the end of the 3rd millennium bce. He uncovered a whole town buried under the volcanic eruption and so preserved in wonderful detail. This was followed by the Mycenaean civilization, which adopted many of the Minoan's culture and way of life. The dates that are suggested here are approximate and conventional. The Minoan Civilization existed between 2700 to 1450 BC. Early, middle, and…, the Cretan and the Mycenaean tradition, were not fused but survived in separate sets of songs and tales.…. Updates? He thought that the men buried in them were the Greek heroes of Homer’s siege of Troy. By the middle of the 15th century the palace culture on Crete was destroyed by conquerors from the mainland. Aegean civilizations, the Stone and Bronze Age civilizations that arose and flourished in the area of the Aegean Sea in the periods, respectively, about 7000–3000 bc and about 3000–1000 bc. The President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, is also head of its dominant faction, Fatah.The word “Fatah” is a reverse acronym of the Arabic Harekat at-Tahrir al-Wataniyyeh al-Falastiniyyeh, meaning “conquest by means of jihad [Islamic holy war].” The Fatah flag features a grenade with crossed rifles superimposed on the map of Israel. Corrections? etc. Omissions? In 1967 the Greek archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos followed up Fouqué’s explorations with excavations at modern Akrotíri on the south coast of Thera. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Massive Bronze Age defense walls survived at Mycenae and elsewhere on the mainland; they were called Cyclopean because, according to Greek tradition, the Cyclopes had built them. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Early, middle, and late stages have been defined in each of these, with further subdivisions according to recognizable changes in the style of pottery and other products that are associated with each separate culture. The southern Aegean is considered the most important part of the Aegean Sea because it is in this region that hosts most of the Greek Islands. A brief treatment of Minoan civilization follows. Following the conquest, the island experienced a wonderful fusion of Cretan and mainland skills. maybe you could add these in so I can recomed this page to friends and family who are looking for this kind of thing for a school project like I am. Two important landmarks are fragments of Cretan pottery from the town at Kahun in the Fayyūm, built for workers engaged in the construction of a pyramid for the pharaoh Sesostris II (ruled 1897–78), and a large quantity of Mycenaean pottery from the mainland found at Tell el-Amarna, site of Akhenaton’s capital, and imported during his reign (c. 1350–34). The Bronze Age civilization of Crete has been called Minoan, after the legendary King Minos of Knossos, which was the chief city of the island throughout early times. About 3,600 years ago, a massive volcanic eruption devastated the island of Santorini in the Aegean Sea near Greece. Historically, the Aegean Sea acted as the cradle of ancient Greek civilization. Objects found in 1982 in the Kaş-Ulu Burun shipwreck off the southern coast of Turkey, including the first known gold scarab of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti, reveal a tight web of interconnections in the later 14th century among Mycenaean Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Africa. The area consists of Crete, the Cyclades and some other islands, and the Greek mainland, including the When Crete eventually became independent of Turkish rule in 1898, attention was turned to Bronze Age sites there. The Golden Age of Pericles was the age of imperial Athens, during which time the Parthenon, Propylaia, and Erectheion were completed. For full treatment, see Aegean civilizations. Charles Rollin's Ancient History (1734) has "Egypt that served at first as the cradle of the holy nation". While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. 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