DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1066#0028
CRETE, FORERUNNER OF GREECE
1450 B.C., only half a century, like the Age of
Pericles, the brilliant ' Fifty Years' of Athens.
But as the whole classical era of Greece appears
golden in contrast to the later obscurity, so the
whole Minoan Age of Crete shines by comparison
with what followed. The Minoan Age began at
the end of the Stone Age with the introduction
of bronze weapons and tools, and ended with the
incoming of iron, which replaced the softer metal.
During this long period of about two thousand
years, covering roughly the third and second
millenniums before Christ, whether it be spears,
daggers, saws, nails, fish-hooks, or kettles, they
were of bronze and never of iron. The term
Minoan is a picturesque equivalent for the Bronze
Age of Crete, and was chosen by Dr. Evans because
Knossos, the capital of King Minos, was inhabited
from the beginning to the end of this era, and has
furnished more complete data for the study of its
development than any other site.
For the sake of thoroughness, let us mention the
little that is known of pre-Minoan times, before ex-
plaining the now widely accepted scheme of
Minoan chronology.
Of the Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age in Crete
there is at present no evidence. Although the
island was cut off from the mainland of Greece
rather earlier than from Asia Minor, geographically
it is a detached piece of Europe, and in Minoan
times played the part of an outpost of that con-
tinent.
Anthropologists are inclined to the view that the
Neolithic people of Crete were immigrants, and
probably came from North Africa, but the time
1450 B.C., only half a century, like the Age of
Pericles, the brilliant ' Fifty Years' of Athens.
But as the whole classical era of Greece appears
golden in contrast to the later obscurity, so the
whole Minoan Age of Crete shines by comparison
with what followed. The Minoan Age began at
the end of the Stone Age with the introduction
of bronze weapons and tools, and ended with the
incoming of iron, which replaced the softer metal.
During this long period of about two thousand
years, covering roughly the third and second
millenniums before Christ, whether it be spears,
daggers, saws, nails, fish-hooks, or kettles, they
were of bronze and never of iron. The term
Minoan is a picturesque equivalent for the Bronze
Age of Crete, and was chosen by Dr. Evans because
Knossos, the capital of King Minos, was inhabited
from the beginning to the end of this era, and has
furnished more complete data for the study of its
development than any other site.
For the sake of thoroughness, let us mention the
little that is known of pre-Minoan times, before ex-
plaining the now widely accepted scheme of
Minoan chronology.
Of the Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age in Crete
there is at present no evidence. Although the
island was cut off from the mainland of Greece
rather earlier than from Asia Minor, geographically
it is a detached piece of Europe, and in Minoan
times played the part of an outpost of that con-
tinent.
Anthropologists are inclined to the view that the
Neolithic people of Crete were immigrants, and
probably came from North Africa, but the time