THE END OF ATLANTIS AND MORE
COMPILATION AND COMMENTARY
BY LUCY WARNER
AUGUST 12, 2018

THE FOLLOWING IS A VERY, VERY GOOD LECTURE ON THE APPARENT COLLAPSE OF MEDITERRANEAN CULTURE AT THE END OF THE BRONZE AGE INCLUDING HALF A DOZEN OTHER CIVILIZATIONS ALL AROUND THE MEDITERRANEAN AREAS, INCLUDING CANAAN AND WHAT MOST MODERN ARCHAEOLOGISTS THINK TO BE THE ISLANDS OF “ATLANTIS,” PARTICULARLY THE MINOAN PEOPLE OF CRETE AND OTHER AEGEAN ISLANDS. THE AEGEAN IS A NAME REFERRING TO THE SECTION LYING BETWEEN GREECE AND TURKEY ON THE EAST AND WEST, TO THE SOUTH BY CRETE, AND ON THE NORTH ENDING AT THE BLACK SEA AND THE BOSPORUS ON THE DOORSTEP OF MODERN DAY RUSSIA. THE OVERALL MEDITERRANEAN WORLD IS AN INTERLINKED SERIES OF CULTURAL SOURCES FOR THE BUILDING OF WEALTH, POWER, EARLY CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE CIVILIZATIONS THERE, LANGUAGES, RELIGIONS, AND MARRIAGES. IT WAS THE MIDDLE EARTH OF THE TIME PERIOD.

IT ALL BEGAN WITH “THALASSA,” THE SEA – WHICH AT THAT TIME MAINLY MEANT THE MEDITERRANEAN, THOUGH THERE ARE REMAINS OF MEDITERRANEAN ARTIFACTS AND GENETIC TRAILS UP AS FAR NORTH AS SPAIN, PORTUGAL, FRANCE AND THE BRITISH ISLES. ISLANDS ARE LIKELY TO BE HUBS OF INTERCHANGE VIA MARITIME LINKAGES. AN ADVENTURER WHO SETS OFF ALONG THE COASTAL AREAS IN ANY LARGE BODY OF WATER, WILL LITERALLY COLLIDE WITH LANDS WHICH WERE UNFAMILIAR TO HIM BEFORE, AND THUS ESTABLISH NEW THINGS THERE. SUCH IS THE MAGIC OF LARGE ISLANDS.

THE WEALTHY WESSEX CULTURE IN THE SOUTH-CENTRAL PART OF ENGLAND ITSELF WAS INVOLVED IN A LARGE COPPER AND TIN TRADE, LINKING IT TO THE MEDITERRANEAN CENTER OF EUROPEAN CULTURE IN THE LATE STONE AND BRONZE AGES. COINCIDING WITH THAT CAME THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MOST WELL-KNOWN FEATURES OF MEGALITHIC MONUMENT, TEMPLE AND TOMB BUILDING, CITIES, THE USE OF HORSES AND WAGONS/CHARIOTS CIRCA 3500 BCE, SHEEP AND CATTLE FOR FOOD AND THEIR SKINS OR FUR, AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, THE DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL POWER CENTERS, WRITING, A FORM OF CURRENCY SUCH AS COINS, ELEGANT ART AND DECORATIONS ON EVERYTHING FROM THE WALLS TO THE TOOLS AND WEAPONS OF DAILY USE WERE IN PLACE BY THE NEOLITHIC.

THE EARLIEST MEANS OF LONG RANGE TRAVEL WAS OVER NAVIGABLE EXPANSES OF WATER, AND NOT ONLY HAPPENED, BUT WAS EVEN RELATIVELY COMMONPLACE BEFORE THE INVENTION OF THE WHEEL. THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC, SPECIFICALLY AUSTRALIA AND INDONESIA, WHICH WERE COLONIZED BY HOMO SAPIENS FROM ASIA AT AROUND 60,000 BC (I HAVE SEEN SEVERAL FIGURES ON THIS FROM 70,000 TO 40,000), WERE ALMOST CERTAINLY REACHED ON THE SEA RATHER THAN THE CONVENIENT “LAND BRIDGE” IDEA; THAT “CONSERVATIVE” THINKING PATTERN OF DARK AND “PRIMITIVE” PEOPLE’S BEING UNABLE TO HAVE REASONED OUT THE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF SUCH BOATS OR RAFTS, IS A LIMITATION OF OUR OWN MINDS TODAY. WHEN WE OF EUROPEAN GENETICS DECIDE THAT A SUPERIOR BEING FROM OUTER SPACE MUST HAVE BUILT THE MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS RATHER THAN THOSE “PREHISTORIC” PEOPLES, IT MAKES ME LAUGH. WHY DO WE BELIEVE IN SPACE ALIENS TO THIS DAY? NOW THAT’S UNEDUCATED.

THE IDEA THAT THEY MUST HAVE WALKED UP, INSTEAD, OVER THE MOUNTAINS FROM SOUTHEAST ASIA TO INDIA AND AUSTRALIA ON A LAND BRIDGE SEEMS LESS LIKELY TO ME UNLESS THE WATER LEVEL DURING THE ICE AGES WAS NOT MERELY LOWER THAN TODAY, BUT CONSIDERABLY LOWER. ANYONE CAN SEE THAT A LOG WILL FLOAT, AND THEN FROM THERE CUTTING A LARGE HOLE IN IT FOR SITTING, IS NOT DIFFICULT REASONING. IF THERE AREN’T THE TOOLS TO DO THAT OR THERE ARE NO TREES AVAILABLE, IT WOULD BE MORE DIFFICULT.

A GREAT DEAL OF THE WAY MODERN CITY DWELLING MIDDLE CLASS WHITES VIEW THAT ISSUE OF THE RELATIVE MENTAL DULLNESS OF THE AUSTRALOID, AFRICAN AND ALMOST ANY OTHER DARK PEOPLES, IS NOW AND HAS ALWAYS BEEN A MATTER OF RACISM. A PERSON WHO ISN’T YET EDUCATED MERELY NEEDS TO BECOME LITERATE AND EXPERIENCED. THE ARTICLE HERE IS INTERESTING. AUSTRALIAN WHITES HAVE THE SAME BLIND SPOT THAT MOST EUROPEANS DO. WE NEED TO OPEN FIRST OUR HEARTS, THEN OUR MINDS AND APPROACH THE SUBJECT AGAIN. SEE: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13613324.2014.969224?src=recsys ON THE EDUCATION AND THE “PRIMITIVE” MIND.

VERY EARLY ON, MEN WERE BUILDING BOATS, SUFFICIENT FOR RIVER AND OCEAN USES, AND THE MEDITERRANEAN BECAME THE GEOGRAPHIC CENTER FOR THE MIDDLE EAST, THE HOLY LAND, NORTHERN TRADE ROUTES TO RUSSIAN AREAS AND TO THE WEST OUT TO THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. THE QUICKEST AND SAFEST WAY TO GO THERE WAS NOT THE FORESTED OVERLAND WAY, WHERE THERE WERE LARGE ANIMALS AND OFTEN EQUALLY DANGEROUS BARBARIANS.

THE EVIDENCE THAT THE EARLY GRECIAN CULTURES DID GO TO BRITAIN AND FARTHER NORTH IN THE BRONZE AGE IS THE PRESENCE OF THEIR TRADE GOODS AND CULTURAL BORROWINGS FOUND THERE; SUCH AS SEVERAL TYPES OF TOMBS AND STONE MONUMENTS, COPPER AND TIN MINING, CULTIC FIGURES, ART AND POTTERY, ETC. THOSE PHYSICAL CLUES TO THE TIMES ARE NOW SUPPLEMENTED BY NEW DNA STUDIES WHICH CAN MUCH MORE RELIABLY TRACE THE PHYSICAL PRESENCE, TRAVELS, EXCHANGE OF BEAUTIFUL AND VALUABLE THINGS, NEW WEAPONS, MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, HORSES AND CHARIOTS, HISTORY AND GENEALOGY TALES, RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, AND INTERMARRIAGES ALONG THE WAY.

WESTERN CIVILIZATION WAS NOT BARREN UNTIL THE HIGH SPOTS SUCH AS THE GOLDEN AGE OF GREECE APPEARED; IT WAS BUSY, INTELLECTUALLY AND TECHNOLOGICALLY GROWING, AND INCREASINGLY DEVELOPING AN ECONOMIC BASE FOR YET MORE IMPROVEMENTS. THE HOLY LAND OF PALESTINE WAS A PART OF ALL THIS. JESUS, ASSUMING YOU BELIEVE HE WAS REAL AND NOT MYTHOLOGICAL, WAS BORN INTO A TIME PERIOD THAT WAS RELATIVELY SOPHISTICATED AND WEALTHY. THE BRONZE AGE, OF COURSE, BEGAN IN THE RANGE OF THREE THOUSAND YEARS BEFORE THE TIME OF CHRIST, OR AS THAT IS NOW MOST OFTEN CALLED AMONG ARCHAEOLOGISTS, “THE COMMON ERA” OR BCE.

LISTEN TO THE LECTURE BELOW BY ARCHAEOLOGIST ERIC CLINE, PH.D. ON THE LIKELY CONTRIBUTING EVENTS THAT CAUSED THE ENDING OF THE PERIOD BY SOMETHING AS DECISIVE AS A CATACLYSM, WARFARE, OR POSSIBLY A VERY LONG PERIOD OF DROUGHT. IT WAS THEN FOLLOWED BY A FALLOW PERIOD CULTURALLY CALLED THE DARK AGES – PLACED AROUND 1100 BC. UNFORTUNATELY, IF GROUPS OF PEOPLE DIE OUT, THEIR KNOWLEDGE AND TECHNOLOGY WILL ALSO BE LOST EXCEPT IN ISOLATED PLACES OF PRESERVATION, SUCH AS THE FAMOUS LIBRARY IN ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT. IT CONTAINED WRITTEN MATERIALS ON MANY SUCH HISTORIC AND SCIENTIFIC SUBJECTS AS MEDICINE, PLANTS AND ANIMALS, GEOGRAPHY, RULERS, LANGUAGES, HISTORIES, POETRY, AND MORE. THE LIBRARY AT ALEXANDRIA IN EGYPT IS CREDITED FOR SAVING MUCH KNOWLEDGE FOR LATER SCHOLARS, INCLUDING OURSELVES. I DO FIND THAT EXCITING.

ON EVERYTHING THAT WE ARE ABLE TO DO TODAY, WE NEED TO LOOK AT HOW WE HAPPEN TO KNOW THAT PIECE OF INFORMATION. EVEN BRILLIANT PEOPLE RARELY “INTUIT” KNOWLEDGE EXCEPT IN ACTIVITIES LIKE PURPOSEFUL SCIENTIFIC REASONING, CREATIVE WRITING AND THE OTHER ARTS. A SCIENTIST WHO IS A SPECIALIST IN A CERTAIN FIELD WILL HAVE A COLLECTION OF RELATED INFORMATION ACTIVELY MIXING WITHIN THEIR MIND, AND FROM THAT CAN DRAW CONCLUSIONS WITHOUT BEING CONSCIOUS OF IT AT THE MOMENT WHEN THE IDEAS "POP INTO THEIR MINDS." ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING WAYS THAT IT HAPPENS IS IF IT EMERGES AFTER WAKING UP OR DURING THE COURSE OF A DREAM. OUR MINDS ARE THINKING ALMOST ALL OF THE TIME. WE GET “INSIGHTS” FROM THAT SUBCONSCIOUS LEVEL OF BRAIN ACTIVITY, ESSPECIALLY IN AREAS WITH WHICH WE ARE FAMILIAR AND WELL-STUDIED. I HAVE HEARD OF PEOPLE DREAMING AND, FROM THAT, PULLING LOOSE SOME FACT OR AWARENESS. I HAVE EXPERIENCED A WHOLE PATTERN OF LOGIC COALESCING WITH ANOTHER TO PRODUCE SOMETHING NEW AND UNFAMILIAR ON A FEW OCCASIONS. MAINLY, THOUGH, WE EITHER REASON OUR INSIGHTS DIRECTLY FROM WHAT WE SEE OR HEAR, OR LEARN THEM WHOLE OR IN PART FROM AN EARLIER SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE. SO, SADLY, IN OR AROUND 1100 BC, A MASSIVE AND FULLY DEVELOPED CULTURE COMPLETE WITH KNOWLEDGE, TECHNOLOGIES AND ARTS EVAPORATED FROM THE AEGEAN.



VIDEO -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRcu-ysocX4

1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Eric Cline, PhD)

NCASVideo DURATION 1:10:17
NCAS (NATIONAL CAPITAL AREA SKEPTICS)
Published on Oct 11, 2016

SUMMARY: From about 1500 BC to 1200 BC, the Mediterranean region played host to a complex cosmopolitan and globalized world-system. It may have been this very internationalism that contributed to the apocalyptic disaster that ended the Bronze Age. When the end came, the civilized and international world of the Mediterranean regions came to a dramatic halt in a vast area stretching from Greece and Italy in the west to Egypt, Canaan, and Mesopotamia in the east. Large empires and small kingdoms collapsed rapidly. With their end came the world’s first recorded Dark Ages. It was not until centuries later that a new cultural renaissance emerged in Greece and the other affected areas, setting the stage for the evolution of Western society as we know it today. Professor Eric H. Cline of The George Washington University will explore why the Bronze Age came to an end and whether the collapse of those ancient civilizations might hold some warnings for our current society.

Considered for a Pulitzer Prize for his recent book 1177 BC, Dr. Eric H. Cline is Professor of Classics and Anthropology and the current Director of the Capitol Archaeological Institute at The George Washington University. He is a National Geographic Explorer, a Fulbright scholar, an NEH Public Scholar, and an award-winning teacher and author. He has degrees in archaeology and ancient history from Dartmouth, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania; in May 2015, he was awarded an honorary doctoral degree (honoris causa) from Muhlenberg College. Dr. Cline is an active field archaeologist with 30 seasons of excavation and survey experience.

The views expressed in this video are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Capital Area Skeptics. The National Capital Area Skeptics is an independent 501(c)3 nonprofit, educational and scientific membership organization that promotes critical thinking and scientific understanding. NCAS was founded in 1987 in the Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia area.

National Capital Area Skeptics: About NCAS
www.ncas.org/p/about-ncas.html.
Category Science & Technology



https://www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/magazine/2017/09-10/Minoan_Crete/
Rise and Fall of the Mighty Minoans
By Mireia Movellán Luis

Perhaps the inspiration for Atlantis, Minoan civilization born on the island of Crete spread throughout the Mediterranean before it mysteriously collapsed.

In the epic poem The Odyssey, the Greek poet Homer praised an island that lies “out in the wine-dark sea . . . a rich and lovely sea-girt land, densely peopled, with 90 cities and several different languages.” This sophisticated place is not just a random spot in the Mediterranean—Homer is describing Crete, southernmost of the Greek islands and home to one of the oldest civilizations in Europe. Located some 400 miles northwest of Alexandria in Egypt, Crete has been inhabited since the Neolithic period, around 7000 B.C. The culture that developed there during the second millennium B.C. spread throughout the entire eastern Mediterranean world. Crete’s command of the seas would allow its stunning art and architecture to deeply influence the Mycenaean Greek civilization that would succeed it.

Into the Labyrinth

Cult of the Bull
This Minoan wine vessel in the shape of a bull's head is just one example of the popularity of the animal in Minoan art. Bulls were sacred in Crete and symbolized power and fertility. Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete

Many myths and legends of Crete center around King Minos, son of the god Zeus and the Phoenician princess Europa. The thunder god had turned himself into a gentle, white bull. Charmed by the creature, Europa climbed on its back, and the bull bore her away to Crete where she would later bear their children. Minos became king of Crete and was said to be advised by Zeus himself. Under his rule, Minos built a strong navy and defeated rival city Athens. In one popular myth, Minos demands that Athens send 14 Athenian youths to Crete to be sacrificed to the fearsome Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull, who dwelled in the labyrinth on the island. These myths were created after Minoan civilization had declined, but still reflected the respect that later Greeks had for the people of Crete.

Despite Minos’s mythological status, the historian Thucydides—working at the height of Athens’s golden age in the fifth century B.C.—wrote of him as if he were a historical figure, “the first to whom tradition ascribes the possession of a navy.” Thucydides describes Minos as a conqueror: He expanded Cretan territories, taking the Cyclades—the 30 or so islands that scatter the sea to the north of Crete—expelling the native Carian peoples, and appointing his own sons to govern there. The historian also claims that, in order to “protect his growing revenues, [Minos] sought, as far as he was able, to clear the sea of pirates.”

Minoan Trade Routes

Minoan influence in the Bronze Age can be traced through archaeology. On the island of Melos there are architectural remnants, pottery, and frescoes in Cretan style, similar to those on Thera. Farther north, there is evidence of Minoan settlement i on the island of Kea. In the eastern Aegean, Minoan pottery has been found in Rhodes. Minoan artifacts and cooking equipment have been found at Miletus, a city in Anatolia that would have attracted the Cretans for its proximity to sources of metal.

Thucydides’ vision of ancient Crete was a thalassocracy, from the Greek words thalassa, meaning “sea,” and kratos, meaning “power.” This notion may well reflect the historian’s concerns with naval power in the region in his own day more than the reality of ancient Crete. Modern historians tend to view Crete as a less aggressive power that used its naval expertise to dominate trade rather than to conquer.

Power, Prestige, and Palaces

Despite the importance of Crete to ancient Greek civilization, archaeological study of its culture is relatively recent. Some of the earliest traces of a powerful, Bronze Age civilization were uncovered in the 19th century. British archaeologist Arthur Evans discovered extensive ruins on Crete in the early 1900s. In honor of the legendary King Minos, he termed the civilization he uncovered “Minoan.”

PHOTOGRAPH -- A polychrome relief of a bull adorns the north entrance of the Palace of Knossos. Bull imagery saturates Cretan art, appearing in jewelry, ceramics, sculpture, and painting.
FUNKYSTOCK/AGE FOTOSTOCK

Archaeological evidence shows that during the third millennium B.C. Crete lay at the center of an extensive trading network dealing in copper from the Cyclades and tin from Asia Minor. These materials were essential for producing bronze, a commodity that brought power and prestige to the Minoans. In the second millennium B.C., great palaces began to be built on Crete during the period known as the Neopalatial (circa 1700-1490 B.C.). Evans excavated several of these structures, including the magnificent Palace of Knossos, seat of the legendary King Minos. More recent archaeological digs have demonstrated that Crete was widely urbanized during this period and that Knossos exercised some kind of hegemony over other Cretan cities. The mid-second millennium B.C. seemed a time of great prosperity.

PHOTOGRAPH -- During the Late Minoan period (1570-1425 B.C.), nautical decorations were popular on pottery It was common to cover the whole surface of a vessel with paintings of creatures such as octopuses, fish, or dolphins.
SCALA, FLORENCE

Although many Minoan structures have been given the secular term “palace,” researchers believe their role was not a royal one. It has never been firmly established whether Minoan Crete had a true royal dynasty, so these lavish palaces may have had mixed secular and religious roles. Some archaeologists interpret these palaces more as civic centers from which to control and distribute raw materials, carry out rituals, mete out justice, maintain water distribution, and also organize festivals for the populace. Daily life was, for the majority, simple but comfortable. Islanders lived in houses made of stone, mud brick, and wood, and the domestic economy was based on viticulture and olive farming. The surrounding cypress forests provided timber for shipbuilding for the important Minoan fleet.

PHOTOGRAPH -- The Aegina Treasure is a trove of gold artifacts, like this two-headed pendant, featuring strong Minoan characteristics. Dating to between 1850 and 1550 B.C., it is named for the island of Aegina near Athens. It is believed that the pieces were originally from a Cretan necropolis, perhaps that of Chrysolakkos in Mallia.

As the Minoan upper classes grew increasing wealthy, they imported luxuries—jewelry and precious stones—which provided extra incentive to develop new trading routes for Crete’s exports: timber, pottery, and textiles. Little evidence has been found of city walls or fortifications built on ancient Crete during this time. This finding seems to suggest that either there were no serious threats to the island or—more likely—that patrolling ships were enough to guard its coastlines. A maritime force would have also protected the trading routes, harbors, and strategic points, such as Amnisos, the port that served the capital, Knossos.

Minoan Influences

As Minoan culture and trade radiated across the Aegean, communities on the islands of the Cyclades and the Dodecanese (near the coast of modern-day Turkey) were radically changed through contact with Crete. Cretan fashions became very popular in the eastern Mediterranean. Local island elites first acquired Cretan pottery and textiles as a symbol of prestige. Later, the presence of Minoan merchants also prompted island communities far from Knossos to adopt Crete’s standard system of weights and measures.

Perhaps the clearest sign of Minoan influence was the appearance of its writing system in the languages of later cultures. Characteristics of Crete’s letters appear to have used several forms. One of the oldest was discovered by Arthur Evans and is now known as Linear A. Despite not yet being deciphered, scholars believe it is the local language of Minoan Crete. But it must have been an important regional common language of its day, as Linear A has been found inscribed on many of the clay vessels discovered on islands across the Aegean.

PHOTOGRAPH -- Linear A, the Cretan writing system, is inscribed on this tablet from circa 1500 B.C.
DAGLI ORTI/ART ARCHIVE

The other script, called Linear B, evolved from Linear A. Deciphered in the 1950s, Linear B is recognized as the oldest known Greek dialect. The Minoans also maintained trading relationships with Egypt, Syria, and the Greek mainland. Their trade routes may have extended as far west as Italy and Sicily. Certain locations had especially close ties with Crete and its sailors. These included Miletus on the Anatolian peninsula on Crete’s eastern trading route. The city of Akrotiri on the island of Thera (modern-day Santorini) is one of the best preserved of these Minoan settlements. A volcanic eruption around the 16th century B.C. buried Akrotiri under ash, preserving its ruins which were excavated in the 19th and 20th centuries. Digs in the 1960s and ’70s unearthed a wealthy city with many distinctive Minoan features. Its walls boasted stunning murals of brightly colored, stylized images of sparring boxers, climbing monkeys, swimming dolphins, and flying birds. The quality of the paintings uncovered at Akrotiri suggests that artists either from Crete or influenced by its culture had set up workshops in this city.

PHOTOGRAPH -- Minoan art featured distinctive depictions of female forms—both divine and mortal. Perhaps the most famous is the Snake Goddess which dates to the 18th to 16th centuries B.C., this statue was found at Knossos and is now at Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete.

Other Aegean settlements bearing clear evidence of Minoan influence include the Cycladi islands of Melos and Kea, and islands in the Dodecanese, such as Rhodes. The settlement of Kastri, on the island of Cythera, south of the Peloponnesian peninsula of the Greek mainland, is another example of Cretan cultural power. Built to exploit the local stocks of murex—a mollusk highly prized for its purple ink used for dyeing cloth—Kastri is purely Minoan in its urban planning. But even this town was not a colony. There is no evidence that these places were politically subject to Crete, as it is not believed that they paid any kind of tribute beyond the money exchanged when trading goods.

From the Ashes

Minoan civilization declined by the late 15th century B.C., but the exact cause is unknown. One theory is that the volcanic eruption on Thera damaged other cities along Minoan trade routes, which hurt Crete economically. Taking all the evidence available, the volcano did not directly affect life on Crete—about 70 miles to the south. No damage from the eruption has been found there.

PHOTOGRAPH OF AN ARTIST’S IMAGE -- The colossal eruption on Thera (Santorini) in a 19th-century engraving, which occurred around the 16th century B.C., blew out a central part of the island, causing seawaters to flood the caldera.

HERITAGE IMAGES/GTRES

Four times more powerful than the devastating Krakatoa volcanic eruption of 1883, the volcano on Thera (modern-day Santorini) exploded around the 16th century B.C. It buried cities, killing thousands, and—some say—led to the collapse of Crete. Stories of the Minoan decline are believed to have morphed into the legend of Atlantis as described by the Greek philosopher Plato circa 360 B.C.

Crete’s cities seemed unaffected for at least a few generations after the volcano. Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of an invasion in the mid-15th century B.C. Many sites, including several large palaces in central and southern Crete were burned, and many settlements were abandoned shortly thereafter. The invaders most likely overthrew the Minoan government and took control of the island, ending the era of Crete’s dominance.

Despite its abrupt ending, the influence of Crete survived. Its vibrant culture made a major impact on the rising new regional power: the Mycenaean Greeks, who lauded King Minos and Crete in their mythology. Linear B, the Cretan writing system adopted by the Mycenaeans, would be the basis for the Greek in which the poet Homer would write his two masterpieces.