Minoan civilization

The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age culture centered on the island of Crete. Known for its monumental architecture and Minoan art, it is often regarded as the first civilization in Europe. They traded extensively, exporting agricultural products and luxury crafts in exchange for raw metals which were difficult to obtain on Crete. Through traders and artisans, their cultural influence reached beyond Crete to the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean. Today, the ruins of the Minoan palaces at Knossos and Phaistos have become popular tourist attractions.

The Minoan civilization developed from the local Neolithic culture around 3100 BC, with complex urban settlements beginning around 2000 BC. After c. 1450 BC, they came under the cultural and perhaps political domination of the mainland Mycenaean Greeks, forming a hybrid culture which lasted until around 1100 BC. Largely forgotten after the Late Bronze Age collapse, the Minoan civilization was rediscovered in the early twentieth century through archaeological excavation.

The Minoans developed two writing systems known as Cretan hieroglyphs and Linear A. Because neither script has been fully deciphered, the identity of the Minoan language is unknown. Based on what is known, the language is regarded as unlikely to belong to a well-attested language family such as Indo-European or Afroasiatic. After 1450 BC, a modified version of Linear A known as Linear B was used to write Mycenaean Greek, which had become the language of administration on Crete.