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CHAPTER XII - THE ZENITH OF MINOAN CIVILIZATION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
F. Matz
Edited by
I. E. S. Edwards ,
C. J. Gadd ,
N. G. L. Hammond  and
E. Sollberger
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Summary

THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE LATE PALACE PERIOD (c:. 1700–1380 B.C.)

The palaces at Cnossus and at Phaestus were destroyed time and time again, but on each occasion they rose more splendid than before, bearing witness to the resilience and optimism of the inhabitants. Any traces of defensive building disappeared at an early date, which shows that the catastrophes were due not to enemy attacks but to natural causes. After an earthquake about 1700 b.c. the palaces were rebuilt, but this in itself is not an indication of the end of a period. Indeed a similar catastrophe occurred about 1575 b.c. at Cnossus, and it was at this point that Evans placed the division between Middle Minoan and Late Minoan, thereby coinciding with a general historical break which occurred with the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt, the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty and the New Kingdom in Egypt. It is tempting to assign the seventeenth century in Crete to the preceding phase, but this gives a distorted picture.

It is vital to understanding of the Early Palace Period to realize that during it the Minoans made their own decisive entry into the circle of the civilized world. Their rise had been based on their isolation and their ships, and they had become a seapower by contemporary standards. The eastern states had then no interest in disputing the position of Crete, and the Aegean world from which she had emerged was as yet no match for her.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Ancient History
, pp. 557 - 581
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1973

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