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The Minoans (Lost Civilizations)

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Unfortunately there is only color photograph for Don Nardo's look at "The Minoans" for the Lost Civilizations series, and that is the one on the cover. The good news is that it is of the most famous of all Minoan paintings, the Bull Leaping Fresco, which shows three young Minoans in various stage of somersaulting over a huge bull. The bull is impressive enough, but it is the beautiful shade of Minoan blue that always captures my eye ("The Ladies in Blue Fresco" is also pretty impressive). So while this look at the Minoans is filled with photographs of their frescoes and ruins, we only get a taste of how colorful they were (and still are, in some regards).

In his Introduction on The Limitations of the Sources, Nardo explains why we know so little about the Minoans in contrast with the other primary Bronze Age civilization in Greece, in Mycenae, establishing the idea that they are a people without a history (we know about the mythical King Minos, but not one name of a real Minoan). Consequently, there is a question as to whether the traditional views held about the Minoans are realistic or not. What is not in dispute, is that they were Europe's first advanced culture, and deserve to be remembered as such. It is not surprising, then, that Nardo's first chapter is about Arthur Evans and the Discovery of Minoan Civilization, because that is really where the great city of Knossos that he excavated in 1900 enters history.

Subsequent chapters cover what is known and surmised about this ancient culture. Chapter Two, Farming, Finances, and Trade in Minoan Crete, tells what is figured out about their economic system (e.g., a collective system, bees were important), Chapter Three, Political and Social Life in the Minoan Towns looks at what has been learned, or guessed at, from the various frescoes that have been uncovered. This leads to the look at Minoan Painting, Architecture, Crafts, and Writing in Chapter Four. This has some interesting points about the Knossos palace based on reconstructions, and the key features and techniques of Minoan art (there is also a fascinating sidebar on Michael Ventris' deciphering of the Linear B alphabet proving it was an early form of Greek). Chapter Five, Minoan Religious Places, Gods, and Rituals gets into their believe systems, which involved both cave sanctuaries and mountaintop shrines, along with the palace-centers. We also find out a little about Minoan deities such as the snake goddess. and how there are echoes of Minoan religion in some of the myths we know about (e.g., Deadalus).

The final chapters talk about what happened to the Minoan Civilization. Chapter Six, The Minoans at War and the Mycenaean Conquest, looks at what is known about the ancient Cretans as warriors from both myth (e.g., Homer's "Iliad" has then fighting at Troy under Idolmeneus) and history (e.g., a fresco indicating Minoan chariots). Nardo also covers the evidence that the Minoans were dominating the Myceneans before the mainlanders conquered the island. Chapter Seven, Minoan Civilization Is Crippled by a Volcanic Eruption, covers the eruption of Thera ca. 1625-1500 B.C. that devastated the Minoans. In his Epilogue, Nardo looks at The End of Minoan-Mycenaean Civilization, which paved the way for the glory days of Ancient Greece. Because there is so little that is really known about the Minoans, Nardo does an excellent job of documenting why we know what we know, so that young students can have an appreciation for how archaeologists and historians come to their conclusions.

The back of the book contains detailed Notes for the text, a Chronology that from B.C. goes from ca. 6000 when the first human habitations appear in Crete to ca. 355 when Plato wrote the "Tinaeus" and the "Critias," which describe the ancient land of Atlantis, and then jumps to A.D. from 1870, when archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovers the remains of Troy to 2004, when excavations continued to unearth and study the remains of a recently discovered large Minoan town, which lies buried beneath the modern Greek city of Khania. Nardo provides not only a list of books and web sites For Further Reading, but also the Works Consulted for this effort, which are divided into major works, other important works (primary sources), modern sources (both books and periodicals). Other titles in the series include looks at "The Ancient Greek," "The Aztecs," "The Celts," "The Etruscans," "The Han Dynasty," and "The Vikings."

This book told me everything I wanted to know about the subject and it was well writen and obviously very well reserched. The author has done a lot of other books about ancient civilazations and really knows his stuff. I have reveiwed some of those books and, like this one, given them high ratings. Anybody looking for facts about ancient times should check out his books.

There is a lot of good information packed into this rather short book about the Minoans, an ancient people located in the area of the eastern Mediterranean. It chronicles their civilization from about 2200 BC to 1100 BC, and describes it from the apparent height of its power to its final subjugation and assimilation by mainland Greeks. It is amazing how much information researchers have been able to glean from ancient storytellers, geological evidence and archaeological remains. With this information and almost no written records from the Minoans themselves, they have pieced together an exciting and surprising picture of their characteristics and history. It also explains how stories about such things as the Minotaur and Atlantis might well have gotten started.