The great sea power of the eastern Mediterranean prior to the Amarna Age
was Minoan Crete. The Cretans traded with Egypt from the earliest
history of the two peoples. In addition to the direct route across the
Mediterranean, the Minoans made use of an indirect trade route along the
southwestern and southern shores of Asia Minor, and then southward by
way of Cyprus to Egypt. The Egyptian word _Keftiu_ (Hebrew _Caphtorim_,
Gen. 10:14; Deut. 2:23; Amos 9:7) may be used of the peoples of southern
Asia Minor as well as the inhabitants of Crete and its adjacent islands.
The Philistines trace their ancestry to the _Caphtorim_ (Amos 9:7),
accounting for a non-Semitic element in southern Canaan.
Cretan trade with Egypt is depicted in the tomb of Rekhmire, lieutenant
governor of Upper Egypt under Thothmes III (_ca._ 1490-1435 B.C.).[53]
Here a prince of the _Keftiu_ is depicted with gifts for the rulers of
Egypt. Cretan power came to an abrupt end, however, some time around the
end of the fifteenth century B.C., when Knossus, the capital, and other
centers of Minoan culture were destroyed. The cause is not known, but
Mycenaeans from mainland Greece may have been responsible, at least in
part, for the fall of Knossus.
Early in the fourteenth century B.C., Mycenae became the cultural and
political center of the Aegean world. Trade with Egypt brought to the
Mycenaeans the ivory that appears frequently in their tombs. Scarabs
discovered at Mycenae bear the names of Amenhotep III and his wife, Tiy.