The Greek myth of the Minotaur at the Minoan Palace of Knossos may have roots deeper than legend. Recent research suggests the story of the half-man, half-bull creature could have originated from ritual practices—possibly involving hallucinogens—performed in the palace’s...
The island of Santorini, also known as Thera, is famous for being inhabited by the Minoans in the Bronze Age. It then erupted in a catastrophic volcanic event which completely wiped out the civilisation there. Yet, today, there are...
Scientists have recently obtained genetic material and analyzed genome sequences from the ancient Minoans and Mycenaeans, who lived three to five thousand years ago.
The analysis suggests that the Minoans and Mycenaeans shared a great deal of their genetic heritage.
Dr...
In 2024, archaeologists uncovered a remarkable artifact in the Anetaki area of Knossos, located in Crete, Greece: an ivory scepter bearing the longest known inscription in the Linear A script. The principal investigators were Athanasia Kanta, Dimitri Nakassis, Thomas G....
If not for the incredible determination and talent of two scholars, Alice Kober and Michael Ventris, the ancient Greek script Linear B would likely remain a mystery today.
While many linguists and archaeologists contributed to the decipherment of the script,...
Numerous customs, cultural practices, and traditions of the Minoan civilization from Crete have been preserved through the Christian Orthodox religion. The Minoans, who flourished on the island from around 1450 BCE to 1100 BCE, established distinct religious and cultural...
According to a curator at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, former museum keeper and renowned archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans, lobbied authorities of Crete to allow him to export artifacts he found while excavating the Minoan Palace of Knossos...
Since the discovery of the so-called Minoan ‘Snake Goddesses,’ it has been debated whether British archaeologist Arthur Evans' ideas and overstatements about Minoan culture were right. Contemporary research focuses on whether there was polytheism in Minoan Crete and what...
