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Today's destination is unique -- it's where it all began. Perhaps you remember the word "Minoans" from the past posts. They were the earliest people considered Greeks. Around 2000 BCE, they started creating elaborate palaces and a complex social system of shared customs, religion, and distribution of resources. You can see Crete on the bottom on this map.
Scholars debate: "why did the population grow here?" A solid proposal is Crete's location in the Mediterranean. It was the center of everything. Older non-Greek civilizations were to the south (Egypt) and east (Sumer). Crete was the ideal rest stop for travel and trade. Perhaps it encouraged organization and an accumulation of resources. The Minoans are considered a prehistoric culture, which means they didn't have a library of writing that could tell us more about them. Astute archaeology students will call me out: "But John, they did have writing!" You would be correct! It was called Linear A.
Even though it hasn't been fully deciphered yet, it's a good bet that Linear A was a record keeping system, just like Linear B discussed before. For example, it probably documented "2 goats and 1 sheep" and not "I think, therefore I am." How do we know? It's because experts have deciphered the Linear B, which says exactly that. The most important point is that both writing systems are ancestors of a language that later unified the whole region: Greek.
The map below shows Minoan discoveries throughout the island.
In lieu of more piles of indiscernible rocks, let's instead tell another story from Greek mythology. It will provide context of what we're about to see.
Once upon a time, there was a powerful king named Minos who ruled Crete. He demanded that the weaker Athens send seven boys and seven girls to his island each year. The purpose was to feed the Minotaur, a carnivorous half-man and half-bull who lived in a labyrinth beneath the palace. (If you are particularly a glutton for punishment, you can research how the Minotaur was conceived. Don't say I didn't warn you.)
The sacrifices went on for a long time. One year, Theseus volunteered to go in an attempt to break the curse. He and the other youths traveled to the palace where they were inspected by the king. His daughter was there too, and she fell in love with the heroic young man. She quietly vowed to help.
In the past, the Minotaur was fed by sending a boy or girl into the maze. They would become helplessly lost among the twisty little passages, all alike. Inevitably, they would encounter the hunting beast. The end result was a grossly distorted version of DoorDash: the food delivered itself. Imagine a hamburger eating you! Here's a mosaic of the labyrinth from a later Roman villa that illustrates the point.
When it became feeding time, Theseus was first in line. The royal entourage led him to the entrance of the labyrinth and prepared to lock him in. Right before the door closed and all fell into darkness, the king's daughter secretly passed Theseus a ball of twine which he tied to the door frame. Instead of hiding like the others, he actively searched for the Minotaur. He found the monster sleeping, then killed him with a few strokes of his glimmering sword. Instead of being hopelessly lost, he used the string to retrace his steps. He broke open the door, freed the other youths, and escaped back to Athens where he became king.
So what the heck does this have to do with where I was today? Take a look at the map below:
Myths often contains a kernel truth. Today, I visited a palace on Crete called Knossos. It had an extremely complex lower level...one could even say it was maze-like. Could that have been inspiration for the story?
But that's not all. When archaeologist Arthur Evans excavated, he uncovered many artifacts with one recurring theme: bulls.
Take a look at this rhyton (liquid container) and bull leaping fresco. Both indicate some type of ceremony or ritual event.
If that wasn't enough, there are horn motifs throughout the site.
Evans did his work in the early 1900s, so scholars knew about the importance of Minoan bulls for a long time. However, the discoveries keep coming. In the 1980s, archaeologists assembled a fresco from northern Egypt. It was entirely different from anything seen before. Guess what the image was? Bull leaping. In Egypt?
Then in 2015, a team from the University of Cincinnati discovered a grave in Pylos, Greece, hundreds of miles from Crete. Inside was an elite warrior with luxury goods containing Minoan images, including the ring below. Look familiar? These finds are even further proof of Minoan influence throughout the Mediterranean.
Was there an evil king Minos and a heroic Theseus? We'll never know. However, archaeology does provide the material remains that allow glimpses into past cultures to further understand ideas they deemed important.
At Knossos, myth is both truth and bull.
Also, I was able to visit the Heraklion Archaeological Museum, which contains many artifacts from Knossos. Inside, I spotted several figures representing a Minoan matrimony party. You may wonder how scholars are so confident it was a wedding? You can clearly see the village people performing the sacred ritual called YMCA.
The final destination of the day was the island of Santorini. Most people know it from this iconic photo.
As archaeology students, we know it for an entirely different reason. This is the location of the Minoan eruption, around 1600 BCE. It was one of the largest volcanoes ever recorded. The eruption and corresponding tsunami was so significant, it wiped out many Mediterranean settlements. There was one on the island itself, called Akrotiri. It was completely buried by ash, many hundreds of years before Pompeii. It’s still being excavated today. This is where Plato may have developed the idea of Atlantis; a sophisticated society reclaimed by the sea.
For those who would like a biblical hypothesis to ponder, some have correlated it to the Exodus. If the Jews really did leave Egypt, it was probably around 1600-1200 BCE. Why connect the two together? It’s because the volcano would have been seen for several days. We have this passage:
“And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.” (Exodus 13:21)
For my last night at sea, I had a quiet dinner, watched the sun set, then let the moon rise.
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