‘There is a land called Crete, in the midst of the wine-dark sea, a fair, rich land, begirt by water, and therein are many men, past counting, and ninety cities. They have not all the same speech, but their tongues are mixed. There dwell Acheans, there great-hearted native Cretans, there Cydonians, the Dorians of waving plumes, and goodly Pelasgians’.
Homer, Odyssey, 19, 175.

Due to Crete’s fortunate position at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Sea, the large mountainous island with its fertile valleys and safe harbours, became a strategic trading hub between Europe, Asia and Africa from the earliest days.

In its heyday, the island was a melting pot, home to approximately 250,000 people and, despite its multiculturalism, or perhaps due to it, the thriving country developed its own progressive personality. Crete was in every sense of the word, a cosmopolis - a sophisticated ‘world-city’ or ‘world-community’ whose urbane citizens lived and travelled to many different countries, trading their high quality products and returning home with new ideas and materials from near and far.

Crete is where one of the first European high civilisations thrived, where strong women were revered, artists inspired by nature, and individualism encouraged. Some of us might recall with great pleasure our first introduction to Crete through high school Ancient History lessons, which were filled with the scandalous images of the bare-breasted ‘Snake Goddess’ and the red lips and dark eyes of the beautiful La Parisienne. It is not surprising therefore that, since the discovery of Knossos in the early 20th Century, ‘Cretomania’ has held many of us firmly in its octopus-like grip.

But who were the colourful and creative people we have labelled the Minoans and how did they build such a distinctive culture? To answer that question, we need to examine ancient Crete within its geological, archaeological, and historical context. We need to go beyond the mythical ‘Minoans’ and the reconstructed walls of Knossos. We need to go back to when Crete was born.

The island of Crete has a huge range of geo-variety and the exposed geological layers, rifts and folds feature strongly across the landscape. Natural processes, often violent and extreme, such as catastrophic earthquakes, have shaped the island and you might see shell-laden limestone on top of the 2000 metre mountain peaks. There are vertical cliffs, narrow gorges, deep caves, shiny greenish schist, pale phyllite, limestone eroded by rain and wind, grey chert and fertile yellowish marlstone, all of which make Crete a multicoloured and fertile island.

The spectacular geological folds are the result of the physical processes which have been bringing Europe and Africa closer together for millions of years. Crete sits close to where the African and Eurasian tectonic plates crashed about 20 million years ago, with the African plate still moving slowly below the Eurasian. A bit further north of Crete, under modern day Santorini, there was, and still is, an arch of active volcanos, where the sinking part of the African plate melted and turned to lava, resulting in the famous volcanic eruption of Thera around 1600 BCE.

*Chevron type folds at Aglios Pavlos showing alternating layers of limestone and chert beds*

About 12 million years before, the combined coast of the Greek continent, Crete and Asia Minor separated and around five million years ago the land bridge between Crete and the Peloponnese broke away. After rising for another three million years, the island took its current form with its high snow-capped mountains and fertile valleys. Life that was established either in the sea or on land was trapped in the rocks, forming the huge fossil record of the island. The most surprising remains are animals such as the mammoths, elephants, and hippopotamus that went through a process called ‘Island Dwarfism’, which caused these once large, mainland species to evolve and become smaller in response to fewer resources and predators on the island.

*Dwarf elephant. - Palaeoloxodon falconeri skeleton cast. Photo:* *Ninjatacoshell*

These slow-moving beasts, free from natural predators, would have roamed the mountainous landscape when the first hominins stepped foot on the island in the Middle Pleistocene - a date much, much earlier than anyone ever expected! In 2008, a group of American and Greek archaeologists began looking for evidence of human artefacts dating from before 6000 BCE near Plakias, in south-western Crete. While they first found spearheads and arrows from the Mesolithic era (about 8300 – 8000 BCE), what they found next surprised everyone. As they explored deeper, they uncovered approximately 2,000 Acheulean hand-axes and tools buried by seismic activity in a geological stratum that was approximately 130,000 years old. Their findings suggested that Homo Sapiens, or earlier hominins, were present in Crete much earlier than had been believed.

*Red soil adhering to a Palaeolithic quartz artifact from Plakias, evidence of its former burial in an iron-rich paleosol. Photo N.Thompson*

This posed a problem; where did these people come from? As Crete became an island about five million years ago, the toolmakers must have arrived by sea, either departing from Africa or island-hopping from Turkey, the Levant or Mainland Greece. The securely dated stone tools are evidence that the earliest hunter-gatherers must have had not only the cognitive ability to build seaworthy craft but also rudimentary navigation skills. Likewise, if these were not accidental landings then they also had a sense of curiosity which led to deliberate exploration by seafaring. How exciting!

*Neolithic 'Mother Goddess' figurine from Kato Ierapira on Crete. Photo: B. Drabsch, Heraklion Museum*

While we don’t know where these early explorers came from or whether they settled on the island, we do know from DNA analysis that those who followed in the Neolithic period were farmers from the Levant and Anatolia, who island-hopped to Crete around 7000 BCE. A 2008 article from the Annals of Human Genetics reports the results of a DNA study that showed the first permanent settlers in Crete came from the areas of the well-known Neolithic sites of Çatal Hüyük, Hacilar and Tarsus. Certainly, the evidence of polychrome fresco construction, fascination with bulls, and ‘Mother Goddess’ worship within the Neolithic Cretan society supports the proposed connection with the Neolithic Anatolian cultures.

These Neolithic agriculturalists, who possibly heard about the island’s fertility from the earlier hunter-gatherers, brought domesticated animals and grain with them on a migration that would have involved very careful planning. It has been estimated that the founder population would have required at least 40 people, 10 to 20 sheep and goats, and a similar number of pigs and cattle. They would also have needed 250 kilograms of grain each – and the weight for the voyage would have been between 15,000 to 19,000 kilograms. To transport all of this, the group would have required 10 to 15 waterproof hide or log boats, big enough to transport large living cargo and all the settlers to their new home beyond the sea. Quite an achievement!

When they arrived most of the island was thickly wooded, with evergreen oak in the fertile valleys and plains, and pine and cypress in the more mountainous areas. Sadly, the pigmy elephants and hippos soon became extinct due to hunting, loss of habitat, and displacement by the newly introduced species. Some of the agricultural community lived in caves while others established their base at a site not far from the northern shore, at a place later known as Knossos.

The first settlement there was a hamlet consisting of wattle and daub huts and the residents buried their children under their floors, in an area that would become the central court of the building now known as the ‘palace’. By 6000 to 5000 BCE, the village of Knossos had 200 to 600 occupants and was made up of small houses and a large building, consisting of eight rooms and covering over 50 square metres, which was perhaps used as a communal storage area. By 5000 to 4000 BCE, there were approximately 1000 people living in more substantial homes with timber windows and doors.

*Rock crystal rhyton. Photo: B. Drabsch, Heraklion museum*

Underneath the ‘palace’ was another large communal building of 100 square metres, divided into five rooms with metre-thick walls, suggesting that it might have had a second story. By the end of the Neolithic period, around 4000 to 3000 BCE, human activity had spread to most of the island, and it is estimated that Knossos had approximately 2,000 residents. At this point the nuclear family was the basic social unit and together with increasing trade and product specialisation, this led to the emergence of economic and social differences among community members. There is evidence that some people held more gold and silver jewellery and copper tools than others, and some sort of hierarchy might have been emerging.

These people—who had explored the caves, mountain peaks and wooded glades; who had built larger and larger communal buildings on the same sites; who had continued to develop their craft specialities using the natural resources of the island such as the multicoloured rocks to create striking vessels; who had mastered fine ceramic making and intricate weaving techniques; and who had developed strong trading networks—are the ones who prospered and continued on into the following Aegean Bronze Age period.

These seafaring traders, who had established outposts in the Cyclades, Dodecanese, west coast of Anatolia and Mainland Greece, were known to their trading partners in Egypt as the Keftiu—a name that relates to the ‘peak of a mountain’—and possibly reflects the dominant mountainscape of Crete and the Keftiu’s preference for worshipping in high, open-air peak sanctuaries. In the Old Testament of the Bible the people of Crete were referred to as the Caphtor, a word that was possibly connected to the capitals on top of their unique pillars. By Homer’s days, around 800 BCE, the Mycenaean Greek oral tradition associated the island with ‘King Minos’ and the island was inhabited by numerous Greek tribes, with the Eteocretans (True Cretans) being the original inhabitants. It was the legendary King Minos that inspired one time journalist and notable excavator, Arthur Evans, to coin the catchy title of ‘The Minoans’ in 1900; a name that most people now associate with this ancient civilisation.

*Sir Arthur Evans among the Ruins of the Palace of Knossos. Portrait 1907, by William Richmond. Photo:* *Gts-tg*

Despite popular belief, English-born Evans was not the first excavator of Knossos. The location of Knossos was known as early as the late 15th century, when European travellers visited the hill of Kefala in hopes of viewing the legendary ‘Palace of King Minos’, only to be disappointed by the sight of ruins which had been a quarry for ready-made building materials during the Venetian era and subsequent times. The first excavator of these ruins was the aptly named Minos Kalokairinos, an antiquarian from Heraklion. He made it his life’s work to discover the Palace of Minos, identifying parts of the complex and unearthing various artefacts from the ruins.

During his excavations, Kalokairinos corresponded with the international scientific community and sent some of the artefacts to the British Museum and the Italian and Spanish kingdoms in the hope that Europeans with sufficient resources would assist with the excavations; especially as the Cretans were struggling to rebel against Ottoman rule and become part of European modernity at the time. While notable and infamous archaeologists, such as Heinrich Schliemann, were intrigued by the site, it was scholar, archaeologist and head of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, Arthur Evans, who took up the challenge.

Evans had visited Crete in 1894 in search of ancient inscriptions and signet rings, and while there Kalokairinos gave him a personal tour of Knossos. Evans’ British ancestry and considerable wealth allowed him to purchase some of the land and after the political situation had stabilised in 1899, he bought the remaining part of Kefala and in 1900, along with his highly capable Scottish field director, Duncan Mackenzie, he began stratigraphic excavations in the manner of geologists, one layer at a time.

The excavations at Knossos, along with those at Phaistos, Malia, Zakros, and Kydonia (beneath modern Chania) revealed a sophisticated, prosperous, and enigmatic civilisation. Unfortunately, the civilisation provided limited textual sources written in their own voice, so some scholars have attempted to view this civilisation from a Eurocentric viewpoint or translate the archaeological evidence through the lens of myths and legends. These myths, which were written from a Mycenaean/Greek perspective centuries later are problematic and Oxford Professor Nicoletta Momigliano stresses that,

‘they are stories created hundreds and thousands of years after the fall of the Bronze Age people we now call the Minoans. It is almost like trying to reconstruct Roman history just using Shakespeare’s plays. In fact, it is even worse, as at least Shakespeare would have used some various written sources of the period, whereas the Greek’s only had some kind of oral traditions or the remnants of the Bronze Age structures to make them think and create these strange stories as a kind of explanation for the strange archaeological remains…On Crete, the physical remains of the Bronze Age, the walls of the palaces and possibly the frescoes that decorated these walls, might have remained in place for some generations, but people had forgotten what these things really were and who built them, so people created amazing stories. You need only three or four generations to forget how things really were, especially if you don’t have written documents and archives that you can go and look up’.

Therefore, we should be wary of drawing too heavily on the ancient myths and modern reconstructions and instead shape our picture of these people directly from the artefactual remains and the scientific evidence.

The DNA evidence tells us that the people who lived in the large Bronze Age towns on Crete, who are now labelled as the Minoans, were the direct descendants of the Neolithic settlers on Crete. They used three different forms of writing: Cretan hieroglyphs, Linear A, and Linear B. The earliest of these, Cretan hieroglyphs, dating to 2100–1700 BCE, was made famous through the discovery of the puzzling Phaistos Disk, which many still believe to be non-authentic. However, in recent years the corpus of Cretan hieroglyphic inscriptions has grown, and researchers now propose that

‘the overlaps between the Cretan script and other scripts, such as the hieroglyphic scripts of Cyprus and the Hittite lands of Anatolia, may suggest…. that they evolved from a common ancestor, a now-lost script perhaps originating in Syria’.

*The Phaistos Disk featuring Cretan hieroglyphs. Photo: B. Drabsch, Heraklion Museum*

Both Cretan hieroglyphs and Linear A, which was likely used to record trade transactions and religious writing from around 1800 to 1450 BCE, remain undeciphered. However, the widespread use of Linear A on Crete and the Minoan outposts, and its use as ancient graffiti and by traders, suggests that a large portion of the Minoan population was literate, and education was valued. Linear A evolved into Linear B, dating to c.1450 to1200 BCE and the script was then used by the Mycenaeans to write an early form of Greek, which sits within the Indo-European family of languages.

In addition to recording their trade dealings in script, the Minoans also documented their lives, rituals, and landscapes in pictorial form, providing us with a tantalising glimpse into their world via the medium of incised seals and ancient frescoes. The wall paintings from Knossos, Phaistos, and the neighbouring Minoan outpost of Thera on modern day Santorini form vibrant linear narratives which are full of intricate details and drama.

The Theran examples are the best preserved because around 1600 BCE, Thera suffered devastating earthquakes and a violent volcanic eruption which covered the main settlement of Akrotiri in metres of pumice and volcanic ash, inadvertently protecting the vibrantly coloured frescoes. The paintings display a clear love of the sea and the natural world, with seascapes, animals, fish, and plants being popular subjects. There are also naturalistic representations of bulls, goats, antelopes, playful monkeys, cats, ducks, swallows, and dragonflies, as well as mythical animals such as winged griffins.

*The 'Spring' Fresco from Akrotiri. Photo:* *Francesco Bini*

*The boxing' boys of Akrotiri. Photo:* *Marsyas*

The paintings feature individuals of all ages and genders, adorned in beautiful jewellery, featuring elaborate hairstyles and colourful, intricately woven clothing. One of the most unique examples is the fresco of the boxers, whose shaven heads (depicted in a blue tone), partial tresses, and rounded, brown-skinned bodies imply youthful males. The life-sized pair are painted directly adjacent to a pair of antelopes, who, with their matching gazes, suggest a parallel is being drawn between the butting of antelope heads and the playful aggression of the young boys. Perhaps this indicates that this is just a natural part of life, a coming of age that occurs in all species and that humans were viewed as just another animal in the Minoan world.

Mature males are also depicted, although not as often as females. At Akrotiri they include young men who are perhaps presenting their fish as an offering, a mature man who is likely a little bit older, shown with a chubby belly and receding hairline, teenagers, and a young boy. In Crete, there are numerous men in kilts bearing offerings in part of a ritual procession. The men are usually depicted with brown skin, limited clothing, and age-specific hairstyles, including some very impressive mullets.

Youthful females are also depicted at Akrotiri, denoted by their partially shaven heads, growing-out tresses, flat chests, delicate facial features and slightly chubbier appearance. In contrast to the males, they are beautifully dressed and appear to be participating in a saffron collecting ritual.

*The young 'Saffron Gatherers' of Akrotiri. Photo:* *Zde*

Depictions of mature ladies in Minoan art far outweigh depictions of mature men, particularly so at Akrotiri. In addition to the younger girls, the Saffron Gatherers fresco features mature women, with folded skirts of rich colours, sheer bodices, dark elaborate hairstyles, and beautiful jewellery. These women, like most others in Minoan art who are of child-bearing age, have their breasts exposed and appear to be celebrating their female form and leaving absolutely no doubt about their gender. Intriguingly, one of the young ladies of the scene has blue eyes and curly red hair, suggesting that these images were portraits of individuals rather than generic scenes and Minoan culture was an inclusive one.

The central part of the Saffron Gatherers scene appears to form a narrative around a dishevelled and bleeding young lady who is hunched over and cradling her head. Another young lady approaches from her left, offering her a necklace and perhaps comfort, and a younger girl on the right offers her something while turning her face away from the drama. The narrative is captivating and may of course have multiple meanings. One possible interpretation relates to the product they are collecting, saffron. Saffron is still widely used as a food spice, a compound in cosmetics and perfumes, and as a dye. However, it was also used as a medicinal plant and ancient sources refer to it being used as a pain-reliever for menstrual cramps and during childbirth, as well as acting as a birth control and abortive in high doses. It was essentially, a woman’s plant, and this fresco might be depicting that connection in a graphic sense.

*'Akrotiri adorants' - Saffron gatherers of Akrotiri. Photo:* *Zde*

The Akrotiri scenes also record young mothers, with large, lactating breasts, bloodshot eyes, simple hairstyles, and heavy-handed make-up, as well as mature ladies, with more demure clothing, hairstyles, and make-up. These figures suggest that individuals of all ages were revered and remained active members of the Minoan community.

The focal point of the Saffron Gatherers scene was a female who appears to have been held in the highest esteem. She was possibly a high priestess or goddess, as indicated by the presence of the supernatural winged griffin by her side, and she sits comfortably on a cushioned tripartite throne, accepting the offerings of saffron being made by a blue monkey and the girls. This striking figure appears more beneficent than malevolent, as suggested by her seating pose, which is not formal and stern but relaxed and approachable. While she remains somewhat of an enigma, it is possible that she might have been associated with nature, as signified by her delicate dragonfly and duck necklaces and her elaborate gown and hair decorations, intricately covered with crocuses.

*Presentation of the saffron harvest to the high priestess/goddess. Akrotiri. Source: Wikimedia Commons*

Political portraiture in all forms of Minoan art is notably absent, and instead the focus is on ritual processions and religious ceremonies. These often took place at sacred groves, deep caves, or peak sanctuaries on the highest mountains. In addition, some public courtyards and town-based ritual buildings were used, denoted by the so-called ‘horns of consecration’ which either represented stylised mountain peaks, like those found on the revered Mount Ida, or bulls’ horns, with both options being quite plausible.

The reverence for bulls is well established in Minoan culture and the stunning bulls-head rhyton and bull leaping fresco from Knossos are very well known. It is possible that reverence for bulls existed from the earliest days, reflecting an ideology that was perhaps transferred from Anatolia by the first settlers. These large beasts were most likely viewed as powerful earth-shakers and, as the Minoans lived on an island that sits on top of dynamic geology and experiences numerous earthquakes every year, there is a high likelihood that a ritual symbolically referencing the taming of an earth-shaking bull might have been an attempt to calm the forces that pre-scientific people were unable to comprehend.

*The bull leaper fresco from Knossos. Photo:* *Jebulon*

The famous bull acrobats are depicted with white and brown skin, and it has been widely accepted that those with white skin represent females and the brown skinned figures represent males. However, this dichotomy does not always appear to be the case, and gender ambiguity is implied in some of the Cretan artworks by the skin colour and clothing of some ritual participants.

'Prince of the Lilies', Knossos. Photo: Zde

These include the much disputed ‘Prince of the Lilies’ fresco of Knossos, which features a fragmentary figure with white skin wearing a male codpiece and kilt and featuring a flat, bare chest. There is also a figure with red skin and short hair wearing the robe of priestess on the Hagia Triada sarcophagus and this is repeated on the Campstool fresco of Knossos. These images perhaps suggest that there might have been an acceptance of gender fluidity within the Minoan culture, at least amongst those associated with ritual practice.

A gender-based role reversal is also present in the Courtyard fresco of Knossos which depicts numerous elaborately dressed women sitting and standing in the foreground with heavily stylised men playing a secondary role in the background. A scene that evidences the high-status role women held in Minoan society.

The concept of a successful society, which drew on the strengths of their land and became wealthy through agricultural goods, craft specialisation, and successful trading ventures—and that was possibly led by female ritual practitioners rather than powerful kings—is an appealing concept to explore and it is one that many people have struggled to believe, despite considerable archaeological and iconographical evidence in support.

*Wall painting of grandstand or sacred grove and shrine from Knossos (north end of central court). Photo:* *ArchaiOptix*

*A fragment of the Ladies of the Court fresco, Knossos. Photo:* *Carole Raddato*

The neighbouring Mycenaean Greeks, who recorded our primary written sources centuries later, were likely shaped by their Indo-European culture and failed to grasp that a wealthy civilisation could be largely peaceful (there were no walls around Minoan cities) and led by women. Therefore, in their attempt to understand the still visible ruins, they introduced Zeus, King Minos, rape, violence, female submission, human sacrifice, and bestiality to the Minoan narrative through their mythmaking. The European excavators were more open minded but still labelled the large communal sanctuary complexes ‘palaces’ and associated these with powerful Kings instead of the more likely female ritual practitioners. One must ponder at this point, why the concept of a successful female-led society that prospered for millennia is so hard for us to fathom? Why must we always look for a powerful male ruler or God? Why is it that if one dares suggest that the evidence might imply a matriarchy rather than a patriarchy one is branded a delusional feminist?

The archaeological and pictorial evidence shows that males took on a supportive, secondary role in Minoan society, a role that we more typically associate with females. They were usually depicted as adorants, farmers, fishermen, sailors, or traders rather than societal leaders. In rare occasions there are depictions of men in more authoritative postures, however, these are significantly outnumbered by women in similar stances.

Unfortunately for the Minoans, the neighbouring Mycenaeans began moving into their territory around 1700 BCE, bringing their more aggressive ideological belief system with them. In the miniature frieze of Akrotiri, we see armed Mycenaean soldiers in their famous boars’ tusk helmets carrying tower shields, spears, and swords roaming the countryside in Thera. They are patrolling close to a high-density town where the Minoans appear to be holding an elegant boat regatta. What does this mean? Why were the Mycenaeans there and why were the Minoans so accepting of their presence?

*Wall paintings found in Akrotiri, Thera*

It makes one wonder if the old beliefs and associated female ritual practitioners were challenged by the constant natural disasters, leaving the people open to the idea of new ‘strong’ male leaders and their gods? No doubt the earthquakes and the Theran volcanic eruption and associated tsunami around 1600 BCE would have caused anyone to doubt in the success of the ruling ritual practitioners and their ability to calm the earth-shaking forces.

In the final stages of Minoan civilisation, we see more and more Mycenaean influence and the sophisticated culture that had flourished for thousands of years, which was most likely led by female ritual practitioners, was gradually overturned by the ‘strong man’ culture of the Mycenaeans and their concept of a ruling heroic ‘wanax’ - warrior king. The frescos commissioned by the Mycenaeans show that individuality was gradually replaced by conformity, and the smiling Nature Goddess was gradually replaced by the fearful Zeus.

While I might want to stand from my vantage point of hindsight and scream, ‘How could you!’, I have to wonder if we any different today? All I can say is thank goodness the Minoans existed. They were creative, colourful, and largely peaceful and they revered their unique natural environment and animals!

Bring back Cosmopolis Crete I say – although admittedly I could be labelled a Cretomaniac!

CYPRUS, CRETE & RHODES

Archaeology, Art & Nature

The new 16-day odyssey, led by Dr Bernadette Drabsch, takes us on a leisurely expedition through these history-filled gems of the Aegean. From UNESCO World Heritage listed archaeological sites to myth-bound cave sanctuaries, we will explore these fascinating islands together, enjoying their culture, landscapes, and history as well as their unique cuisine and produce.

September 14-29, 2025 | Learn more

Cosmopolis Crete

CYPRUS, CRETE & RHODES

Archaeology, Art & Nature

academy travel

follow our journey

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Cosmopolis Crete

CYPRUS, CRETE & RHODES

Archaeology, Art & Nature

Behind the Throne

academy travel

follow our journey

useful links