ALL ABOUT GREEK MINOAN CIVILISATION

In 1900, a British archaeologist named Arthur Evans began excavating the same site on the island of Crete where the Greek antiquarian Minos Kalokairinos had unearthed amazing finds some 22 years earlier. What Evans discovered over the next thirty years was Europe’s oldest civilisation, a culture known to the early pharaohs of Egypt and the rulers of Mesopotamia. Evans named it “Minoan” in honour of Crete’s fabled King Minos, a figure from Greece’s oldest myths. Today, visitors to Knossos on Crete can explore the remains of a 3700-year-old royal palace and imagine a way of life that vanished long before recorded history began for much of the world. In this volume, too, you’ll find a full account of that remarkable ancient era, a distant time whose customs and everyday life have been painstakingly reconstructed based on the dazzling treasures that this astonishing civilisation left behind.