IV.

Foreign Contacts

Minoan civilization shows a wide degree of contact with, and influence over, other cultures. Even in the Prepalatial period, there is evidence of Egyptian influence at Knossos, and of the existence of a Minoan colony at Cythera, off the southern Peloponnese. In the Protopalatial period, Egyptian scarabs (seals or amulets in the shape of scarab beetles) began to appear in Crete; late Protopalatial-period pottery has been discovered in Cyprus, Egypt, and the Near East; pottery and stone vases of similar age have been found on both the Greek mainland and the islands of the Aegean. From c. 1600 the influence of Minoan civilization on neighouring cultures increased yet further, especially on the Mycenaean culture of the Greek mainland. The clearest evidence of a Minoan provincial town is the settlement of Akrotiri on Thera (modern Santorini), though there was also substantial influence, if not colonies, on the Cycladic islands of Kea and Melos, and also on Rhodes and Kos. Minoan products reached the Lipari Islands, Asia Minor, Cyprus, the Levant, and Egypt. Minoan Crete seems to have possessed virtually unlimited supplies of copper, probably obtained from Attica on the Greek mainland or from Cyprus, and of tin (an essential component of bronze), from Cornwall, in south-western Britain, Bohemia, or Sinai. Taken together, this evidence seems to lend credence to the ancient Greeks’ belief in the existence of a naval empire centring on Crete and ruled by the legendary Minos. A further piece of evidence is that a number of seaports with the name “Minoa” survived. It has also been suggested that the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur may reflect a later memory of such a naval empire.