Linear A and BThe Bronze Age Aegean

The Minoans of Crete

Crete's Bronze Age civilization, named by Arthur Evans after the legendary King Minos; we do not know what they called themselves.

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In The Aegean World you saw that Crete had its own Bronze Age civilization. Its towns, palaces, paintings and writing flourished from about 3000 BC, with the palace age from about 1900 to about 1450 BC. We call these people the Minoans. But that is not their name.

Key idea

"Minoan" is a modern label. Arthur Evans, who dug at Knossos from 1900, named the civilization after Minos, a king of Crete in later Greek legend. What the people called themselves, and what language they spoke, we do not know.

Where the name comes from

Greek myths told of King Minos of Knossos, his labyrinth and the Minotaur. These stories were written down many centuries after the palaces had fallen. When Evans uncovered a huge, maze-like building at Knossos, he borrowed the king's name for the whole culture. The label stuck, and archaeologists still use it, the way we say "Bronze Age" for a time no one then called by that name.

Common mistake

Thinking "Minoan" is what the people called themselves, or that Minos was a real, known king. Minos belongs to legend; no inscription names him. The Minoans' own name for themselves is lost, because their script, Linear A, cannot be read. A quick check: if a sentence says "the Minoans called themselves…", it is claiming something no one knows.

What we do know

  • They built large palaces around open central courts, at Knossos, Phaistos, Malia and Zakros (see Knossos and the Cretan Palaces).
  • They painted lively frescoes, made fine pottery and carved seals, and traded across the sea with the islands, the mainland, Cyprus and Egypt.
  • They wrote: first Cretan hieroglyphs, mostly on seals, then Linear A on clay tablets and on stone offering tables.
  • Their language was not Greek, as far as anyone can tell; it matches no known language.
Minoan Crete: places where Cretan hieroglyphs (CH) and Linear A (A) have been found.

Why it works

Why can we say so much about people whose writing we cannot read? Because archaeology does not need words. Buildings, pottery, tools, bones and paintings tell how people lived, built, traded and worshiped. What we lose without their words is their names, their beliefs in their own terms and their history as they told it.

Around 1450 BC many sites on Crete were destroyed. Afterward Knossos was run by Greek speakers who kept their records in Linear B, a script adapted from Linear A. That is why the Minoans' story continues in this course with The Mycenaeans.

QuestionWhat we can say
Who named them "Minoans"?Arthur Evans, after the legendary King Minos
What did they call themselves?Unknown
What language did they speak?Unknown; not Greek as far as we can tell
How long did their palaces last?From about 1900 BC to about 1450 BC

Worked example: A claim to test

A website says: "King Minos ruled Knossos, and his people called themselves Minoans." What can you say?
  1. Minos is a king of later Greek legend; no inscription of the palace age names him.
  2. The word "Minoan" was coined by Arthur Evans around 1900.
  3. The people's own name for themselves is unknown, because Linear A cannot be read.

Answer: Neither part can be supported; both come from legend and a modern label.

Worked example: Spot the label

Which of these words was chosen by a modern archaeologist: Knossos, Minoan, Crete?
  1. Knossos and Crete are ancient Greek place names (Knossos is even written ko-no-so in Linear B).
  2. Minoan was coined by Evans from the legend of Minos.

Answer: Minoan.

Practice

Pass with 3 right answers, the last 2 in a row. Each right answer earns 1 XP.

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