The primitive Ægean people played a great part in the activities of
the Near East. They existed for several thousand years, and there are
traces of their activity on every shore of the Eastern Mediterranean.
Crete, as Homer says, was the land “in the midst of the wine-dark
ocean, fair and rich, with the waters all around” (“Odyssey,” xix.
172). It was the natural centre towards which the mainlands of Greece,
Asia Minor, and Egypt converged, especially as its irregular coast
afforded good harbours for the small ships of that time.
The first settlement of man in Crete took place at Knossos, in the
later or “Neolithic” Stone Age. This fact is established by the nature
of the relics found at the lowest level in the excavations, the level
which represents the earliest period in time. Phæstos, on the south
side of the island, received its first inhabitants at a later date, as
is made clear by the pottery that has been discovered there. This is a
typical instance of the value of pottery as archæological evidence. The
earliest ware found at Knossos is unornamented; the next is improved
by “incised lines”--that is, lines cut in the clay with a pointed
instrument and often filled in, for greater effect, with a white
substance. At Phæstos, on the other hand, the pottery found lowest
down is already in this second stage in its artistic evolution, the
inference being that the men who settled there took the art with them
at the point to which it had been developed by the Knossians.
After the “Stone” Age came the “Bronze” Age. Men realized that not
stone, but a mixture of copper and tin, provided the best material
for instruments. A picturesque touch is added to this discovery by an
Italian archæologist, Angelo Mosso, who in _The Dawn of Civilization_
gives reason for believing that, even at so remote a period, the tin
was brought to Crete from Cornwall. He goes so far as to point out
the actual caravan route by which the tin was transported. It was
during this Bronze Age, which lasted about 2,000 years, that Cretan
civilization reached its highest level. Sir Arthur Evans has given
to it the picturesque name “Minoan,” and has divided it into three
stages--Early, Middle, Late--each with three subdivisions. Early
Minoan I (E.M.I) begins about 2800 B.C., Late Minoan III (L.M. III)
ends about 1100 B.C. (See _The Discoveries in Crete_, by Dr. Ronald
M. Burrows, p. 98.) These nine periods are a happy play upon “the
nine seasons” during which Homer speaks of King Minos as reigning
in Knossos: “And in Crete is Knossos, a great city, and in it Minos
ruled for nine seasons, the bosom friend of mighty Zeus.” (“Odyssey,”
xix. 179). The term “Minoan” should be carefully distinguished from
“Mycenæan.” After Schliemann’s discoveries at Mycenæ and Tiryns,
the term “Mycenæan” was used in a general sense, to cover the whole
prehistoric Ægean civilization; but now that Crete has put Mycenæ
into its right perspective, the term “Minoan” is used to indicate the
earlier and greater phase, while “Mycenæan” merely covers the latest
phase; the whole being designated “Ægean.” There is, to complete
the nomenclature, a further epithet, “Cycladic,” which is sometimes
substituted for “Minoan” when one speaks exclusively of the island
sites outside of Crete.
With the fall of Knossos, which took place shortly before 1400
B.C.--I adopt Dr. Burrows’s dating--the centre of influence in the
Ægean passed over from Crete to the mainland of Greece, and the true
“Mycenæan” period started. Thereafter followed the Dark Ages, which
themselves immediately preceded “historical” Greece. Recorded Greek
history begins about 800 B.C.