By Philippe Bohstrom
The Minoans and their capital Knossos weren’t incinerated by volcanic blast from Thera
or flattened by quake as thought, but tellingly: their writing system changed.
The mystery of what happened to the Minoan civilization has tormented archaeologists
for over a century, and the tale has now taken a new twist. Nothing happened to them, say
archaeologists who have been excavating the island of Crete for over thirty years.
This extraordinary people, who produced palatial architecture unparalleled in the Aegean
region at the time, were not immolated by the volcanic eruption of Thera as once thought,
crushed by earthquake , or squashed by Mycenaean Greece as more recently supposed.
Rather, the Minoans, who had for crushed by earthquake , or squashed by Mycenaean Greece as more recently supposed.
Rather, the Minoans, who had for centuries wielded influence throughout the Aegean, did
experience earthquakes that rattled them, were indeed badly weakened by the volcanic
blast from Thera on the nearby island of Santorini, and did experience the unamiable
attentions of the mainland Greeks.
But although the two cultures appear to have struggled, over time the elite elements of
both became virtually indistinguishable, after 1450 B.C.E., if not earlier. Minoan
influence as such would recede and the by-then-Mycenaeanised islanders would soldier
on until the great collapse of civilization around the Mediterranean Basin, around 1,200
B.C.E. It bears adding that archaeologists had once thought the Minoans must have “come from somewhere else” because of their advancement compared with the surroundings. But genetic analyses in 2017 concluded that both the Minoans and Mycenaeans descended from the stone-age farmers of western Anatolia and the Aegean, plus smidgens of heritage from the Caucasus and Iran. The two were very closely related.
Yet the destruction layers found in the main Minoan city of Knossos weren’t the result of
Theran ash raining down 3,600 years ago but may be debris from Minoan resistance to
Yet the destruction layers found in the main Minoan city of Knossos weren’t the result of
Theran ash raining down 3,600 years ago but may be debris from Minoan resistance to
Mycenaean incursions, or possibly from local rebellions between 1470 to 1450 B.C.E.,
sums up Colin Macdonald, an archaeologist with the British School in Athens.
By the way, the Minoans they didn’t call themselves “Minoans”. That is a latter-day
name awarded to the prehistoric island residents deriving from their legendary king
Minos.

https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium.MAGAZINE-ancient-tablets-may-
reveal-what-destroyed-minoan-civilization-1.7809371