500 BC
500 CE
A01=Ellen Adams
Akrotiri
ancient
ancient civilizations
ancient Greeks
Archaeology
architecture
art
Arthur Evans
Ashmolean Museum
Author_Ellen Adams
Bronze Age
Category=NHC
Category=NHD
Category=NK
civilisation
Crete
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Greek myths
Heraklion Museum
island
Knossos
legacy
Linear A
Minoan
Minoan eruption
Minoans
Minos
Minotaur
museum
mystery
Mythology
Palace culture
Palace of Minos
Phaistos
Pottery
Priest-King
religion
replicas
Sandorini caldera
Snake Goddesses
Thalassocracy
Thera eruption
undeciphered scripts
votives
Xeste
Zakros
Product details
- ISBN 9781836390473
- Dimensions: 138 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 01 Aug 2025
- Publisher: Reaktion Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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Bronze Age Crete stands as one the most extensively explored parts of the world archaeologically, yet the island maintains an air of labyrinthian mystery. This book offers an authoritative introduction to the world of the Minoans, the first ‘modern’ civilization on European soil. With its grand palaces, a sophisticated bureaucracy complete with writing (including enigmatic, undeciphered scripts), exquisite gold and ivory artworks, unique and powerful depictions of women, and advanced urban engineering, including flushing toilets, this ancient civilization had remarkably modern elements.
This book presents key features of Minoan archaeology, including architecture, art, religion, writing, bureaucracy and the economy. It also explores how this pioneering European civilization has influenced Western culture since its discovery, and how Minoan culture has been reconstructed, reimagined and represented in museum displays. This concise and up-to-date guide is essential for understanding both the history and the lasting legacy of the Minoans.
Ellen Adams is Reader in Classical Archaeology and Liberal Arts at King’s College London. She has participated in many archaeological excavations in Greece and published widely on the subject. She is the author of Cultural Identity in Minoan Crete: Social Dynamics in the Neopalatial Period (2017).
