Mystic Plants and Nature Goddesses j 139139 139
international trade, which suggests that a relatively secure economic system was prevalent.
Some regional fighting did occur, but the traditional image of constant warfare and violence
on the mainland is at variance with many signs of stability among the numerous settlements
not directly attached to the palaces.^5
On Crete, ash and pumice from the volcanic eruption on the island of Thera— either ca.
1650– 25 or 1550– 25 bce— may have disrupted life sufficiently to demoralize Minoan soci-
ety, which was apparently becoming increasingly integrated with their Mycenaean neigh-
bors. Whatever the cause, Crete’s long history of independence came to an end around 1450
bce. Mycenaeans took control of the island and rebuilt the Palace at Knossos.
Finally, around 1200 bce, amidst widespread conflagration and population shifts
throughout the eastern Mediterranean, which have yet to be satisfactorily explained, most
of the Bronze Age kingdoms either collapsed or were severely weakened as city after city
went up in flames. Perhaps the best examples of the violence that took place during this
period are found on the Greek mainland, where many of the major Mycenaean sites were
put to the torch. Mycenaean palace society, along with its Linear B script, disappeared
abruptly, creating a social vacuum that would take several hundred years to fill.The Minoan Palace at Knossos in Crete (2000– 1200 bce)
Knossos is the home of the mythic King Minos of Crete and of the Minotaur— a fear-
ful monster, half- human and half- bull,^6 whom King Minos imprisoned in an escape- proof
Labyrinth constructed by Daedalus, the “cunning artificer” of wax- wing fame. The myth
turns history on its head by portraying Crete as the cruel oppressor of Athens, annually
sacrificing fourteen Athenian boys and girls to the Minotaur. According to the myth,
Theseus— with the aid of King Minos’s daughter, Ariadne, who provided him with both
a sword and a ball of red wool thread, which he used to retrace his steps and escape the
Labyrinth— put an end to the annual sacrifice by slaying the Minotaur.
The idea of the Labyrinth may have been suggested to the Greeks by the elaborate ruins of
the Palace of Knossos, with its bewildering maze of hallways and compartments.^7 Whether
there ever was a king named Minos is still unknown. When Sir Arthur Evans first unearthed
the vast archaeological site at Knossos in 1900, he named the civilization that had produced
it the “Minoan.” The term was initially criticized on the grounds that it is inappropriate to
name an entire civilization after a mythic king, but Evans countered that “Minos” was a
royal title rather than a surname.^8 According to Evans, the term “Minoan” refers to the type
of rule in Bronze Age Crete, just as “Pharaonic” does in Egypt.
Careful study of Minoan archaeological sites throughout Crete and the Aegean islands
has revealed a civilization somewhat different from the one originally envisioned by Evans.
Indeed, Crete may have been governed by a ruling elite rather than by a king. Instead of
serving as a royal palace, archaeologists now believe the buildings at Knossos represented a
complex with both administrative and religious functions. Administratively, Knossos was
at the center of a “redistributive” economic system. In the absence of metal coinage, taxes
in the form of agricultural products and other goods were collected by the ruling elite. The
“palace” functioned as the central clearing house for the goods to be redistributed to the
populace, and scribes kept detailed accounting records, first in Linear A, and later (after
the Mycenaean takeover) in Linear B.^9 In this way, the ruling elite maintained tight control