I.

Introduction

Minoan Civilization, Bronze Age civilization, centring on the island of Crete, that flourished c. 3000 to 1100 bc. It was named after the legendary king Minos by the British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans, who at the beginning of this century excavated Knossos, supposedly the site of Minos’s palace and the capital of his empire, and one of the principal sites of Minoan civilization.