Who Were the Minoans—and What Happened to Them?

The Minoans are widely considered Europe’s first advanced civilization. Over thousands of years, they transformed Crete from an island of small farming communities into a thriving Bronze Age society known for its palaces, art and far-reaching trade networks. 

The first farmers are believed to have arrived on Crete around 7,000 B.C., says Nicoletta Momigliano, professor of Aegean studies at the University of Bristol. “They moved and settled there permanently from southern Turkey or northern Syria.”

Crete’s fertile land, size and isolation from the rest of the Mediterranean made it an attractive location for settlers. Between 3100 B.C. and 1700 B.C., Crete’s farming communities expanded into palaces at Knossos and Phaistos. Over the following 600 years, the Minoans made cultural and artistic strides as the civilization expanded to other parts of the eastern Mediterranean. 

However, a series of natural disasters and threats from mainland Greece ultimately brought the Minoans to an end. Here's how the civilization flourished and then unraveled.

The first settlers established themselves in and around Knossos, about 3 miles inland from the north coast of Crete, says Jan Driessen, emeritus professor of Mediterranean archaeology at UCLouvain. Knossos became the center of the Minoan civilization and is often described as the oldest city in Europe. 

“We believe they brought along goats, sheep, pigs, olives, wheat, cereals and barley,” says Driessen. Momigliano agrees with this theory, adding that those animals and foods “didn’t exist on the island before.”

Knossos grew in population over the next few centuries as people colonized more of the island. At its height, Driessen says Knossos might have been home to 20,000 people.

The Minoans were able to grow and prosper due to Crete’s size and varied landscape, says Driessen. It is the largest island in Greece and the fifth-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Crete's size, high mountain ranges and location between Europe and Africa give the island a range of distinct microclimates, Momigliano says. These varied conditions provided Crete with resources unavailable on smaller islands such as Santorini. And the weather allowed Minoan farmers to cultivate crops including grains, olives and grapes.

By the early Bronze Age, the Minoans were trading with nearby islands in the Cyclades and elsewhere in the Aegean. Their trade networks eventually extended to mainland Greece and modern-day Turkey, as well as ancient Egypt and parts of the eastern Mediterranean, including modern-day Syria and Lebanon. Since they didn’t have raw materials like copper and tin to create bronze, the Minoans traded for the metal, adds Driessen. They also settled on neighboring islands across the Aegean.

“They must have had plenty of vessels because they communicated with people from around the eastern Mediterranean,” says Momigliano. “At the time, Egypt was a more developed civilization, so they may have influenced the development of Crete," she says, pointing to writing as one example. "The system of writing that was used on the island of Crete was not invented independently.”

Across Crete, six major Minoan palace centers are UNESCO World Heritage sites: Knossos, Phaistos, Malia, Zakros, Zominthos and Kydonia. Palaces are where citizens would gather to pray, create art, get supplies, watch sporting events and be part of the community. Communal feasts were held at the palaces so that members of the community could socialize. "They were built around 2,000 B.C." says Momigliano. "It has been said that they were a combination of Buckingham Palace, Whitehall, Westminster and Wembley.”

Archaeologists have also found written evidence that the Minoans kept track of the goods and people coming into the palaces, explains Momigliano.

“We have found thousands of cups and storerooms for materials like wine, grain and olive oil," says Driessen. "This wasn’t for a few families, so it’s likely that people got together for feasts and got drunk.”

The Minoans decorated their buildings with lively colors “in a way that celebrated humanity,” says Driessen. “Egypt made art for the dead, whereas Crete made art for the living with a lot of flowers and landscapes and people who seem to enjoy themselves.”

The textiles and vases were traded across the Mediterranean. According to Driessen, even “Egyptian tombs were influenced by Minoan patterns.” He also describes the Minoans as pioneers in adapting their architecture and communities to the surrounding landscape. While the Egyptians and Mesopotamians mainly resided in flat areas, the Minoans constructed buildings, sometimes two or three stories high, into their hillsides.

Since Crete sits on the active Hellenic Arc, the Minoans experienced a lot of earthquakes that would regularly destroy their buildings. But they also learned how to build sturdier architecture, complex plumbing facilities and natural cooling and lighting systems.

“We have an archaeological record of a continuous succession of earthquakes that bothered this society,” says Driessen. “But each time they would rebuild and each time they would try to figure out how to make their architecture more resilient.”

A combination of natural disasters and foreign invasions ultimately brought an end to the Minoan civilization. In addition to frequent earthquakes, one of the most explosive volcanic eruptions in human history occurred on the island of Thera around 1600 B.C.—now Santorini. The eruption covered Crete in ash and generated tsunamis that struck its northern coast.

Volcanic ash is harmful to both people and animals, particularly livestock grazing on contaminated vegetation. It can also coat crops and vines, interfering with photosynthesis. “This must have been a world-shocking event,” says Driessen. “It wasn't the end of the Minoan civilization. But it caused a snowball effect.”

After the eruption on Thera, Momigliano believes that a dynastic change occurred on Crete. With the Minoans weakened, the Mycenaeans from mainland Greece are believed to have targeted Crete, burned down the Minoan palaces and taken over Knossos. “A new civilization was put into place on Crete around 1450 B.C.,” says Driessen. 

The Mycenaeans then forced the remaining Minoans to adopt their writing systems and took political and administrative control of the palaces and trade.