Archaeologists once went deep into a warehouse in the palace and found many large pottery pots one person high, which contained grain, olive oil and wine. There are soldiers and weapons in other warehouses. A small room covered with lead skin is full of the king's gold and silver treasures, including countless gold, gold ornaments and seals. In this magnificent palace, a large number of exquisite painted pottery and exquisite metal utensils were also found, which were mature in shape and showed the extraordinary artistic talent of Crete people.
Archaeologists have also unearthed a large number of precious cultural relics at the Knossos site. Someone found about 50 symbols of male genitalia that looked like clay in the shrine built on the top of the mountain, which indicated that people at that time might worship fertility. These findings may be some important clues to understand Minoan culture. British archaeologist Allen Pitfield is the curator of the British Archaeological Museum in Knosven. He dug a shrine built on the top of the mountain. Minoan people had to climb mountains to worship there, which is very similar to the modern Greeks climbing mountains to worship the white Christian church built on the top of the mountain.
Clay models of animals and people found in temples remind people of wax, silver and gold vows left by modern prayers in churches all over Greece.
Pitfield chose this shrine because it is far from the Grand Palace in Crete. He dug up about 5,000 products, most of which were fragments of livestock and people, but about 50 of them looked like clay models of male genitals.
However, among the unearthed cultural relics, the most historical value is probably the tens of thousands of clay tablets engraved with words. Because on these clay tablets, ancient Crete recorded the archives and important events of the kingdom in linear characters. On a clay tablet, it says, "There are seven women, a boy and a girl from Athens". This reminds people of the terrible fairy tale that King Minos forced Athens to pay tribute to boys and girls. So far, archaeologists and historians have not fully understood the meaning of some clay tablets.
Cultural relics about Minoan culture unearthed in 1980s showed that people were sacrificed and ate people. British archaeologists announced in Athens that their excavations in Crete showed that there was a custom of cannibalism in Minoan times. In a bronze-age house in the town around Knossos Palace (the legendary hiding place of half-man, half-cow monster), archaeologists excavated some human bones, leaving the same knife marks on them as those left by animals after being slaughtered. According to the determination of scholars, the broken human bones found are10-18-1children under 5 years old.
British archaeologists believe that Crete people may eat human flesh not out of famine, but out of some religious ceremony.
Therefore, the story of Minos asking the king of Athens to pay tribute to boys and girls is not completely unfounded. Maybe this story just reflects a fashion that was popular at that time.
After nearly a century of excavation and research, archaeologists finally have a general understanding of the mysterious Minoan kingdom.
It is estimated that the kingdom of Crete existed between 2300 BC and 1500 BC. In the last century or two, the culture of the kingdom flourished, and it was the Minoan dynasty. At that time, King Minos ruled the Aegean Sea, which was a great shock to Athens. Crete, located in the center of Europe, Asia and Africa, is a link between Asian and African civilized countries. Minos made full use of this favorable geographical position, vigorously developed the shipbuilding industry and established a strong fleet, which has been confirmed by the excavated port and shipyard sites. Scholars believe that Minos was the first dynasty in the world to establish a navy. This navy is extremely powerful and its direction is unstoppable. Therefore, the Minoan kingdom can maintain regular trade with civilized countries such as Egypt, Syria, Babylon, Asia Minor and Phoenicia. Sir Flinders petrie once found some ancient bottles in Egypt. He identified them as relics of the first dynasty in Egypt and imported them from Crete. Traces of stone bottles, protective articles and seals found in Crete show that even before the rise of famous dynasties in Egyptian history, the island had trade with the Nile Valley. The shape of the stone vessels on the island has the characteristics of the fourth dynasty of Egypt (the time when the pyramids were built). There is no doubt that there was frequent trade between Crete and Egypt during the 12 dynasty in Egypt. Obviously, this splendid island civilization produced on the land of Crete is at least as old as the great Egyptian civilization. As early as 4000 BC, before Sumerians and Aryans stepped onto the stage of history, people on Crete had set sail for the sea.
Studies by Evans and others show that Crete, together with Egypt and Babylon, is the oldest cradle of European culture. At that time, Crete was superior to Egypt and Babylon in many aspects, especially in economy and military. The water pipes and bathrooms in Knossos maze are still considered as the latest and most perfect equipment in modern life.
As we mentioned above, Knossos lacks wall fortifications and weapons, which proves (and archaeology also proves) that they have not been invaded by foreign countries for more than 3000 years, and have lived a peaceful life for 1000 years. They are addicted to celebrating festivals and watching performances, especially bullfighting and sports. Their women's clothes are strangely Victorian; Their women are wearing corsets and flounces.
It is such a civilized nation that lives and works in peace and contentment, but it mysteriously disappeared around 1500 BC. All the cities on Crete were suddenly destroyed at the same time. Soon, this ancient center of civilization disappeared from history forever.
Historians have put forward different views on the destruction of Minos Kingdom. Wells (the author of the Outline of World History) thinks that the barbaric Greeks who came to the Mediterranean by boat for the first time and the Aryan-speaking tribes in the north may have destroyed the Knossos maze like Troy.
According to the Iliad, Troy was destroyed because the Trojans kidnapped beautiful Greek women. Wells believes that the Greeks in Homer's time were robust and savage Aryans, and their ideas about trade and "trade routes" were very vague. They fought the Trojans because they were extremely annoyed at this kind of trafficking in women. According to the legend of Minoan King and the evidence provided by Knossos Maze, Cretes did kidnap or abduct young men and women as slaves, matadors, competitors or sacrifices. They traded fairly with the Egyptians, but they may have underestimated the strength of the increasingly powerful Greek barbarians; They violently traded with the Greeks, leading to war and self-immolation.
But this explanation is too light, we still can't understand that such a powerful country will be destroyed by barbarians overnight, and there is no ancient record in Greek history. The demise of Minoan kingdom must be due to an irresistible disaster. According to the geological study of Santorin volcano, scientists proved that Minos Kingdom was destroyed by a terrible volcanic eruption!
The volcanic island in Santorin is130km north of Crete. 2 1 century, a white flat-topped hut has been built on the top of the volcanic island. Compared with Mount Etna and Mount Vesuvius in the Mediterranean, Santorin is hardly a real volcano. It broke out in 1928, 1938 and 1950, but the scale was very small. In recent centuries, it seems to have been sleeping quietly. Who would have thought that it had an earth-shattering eruption in the distant past, destroying a generation of civilization.
1967, some American archaeologists came to santorini Island for excavation. They dug up the ruins of an ancient commercial city under the volcanic ash more than 60 meters thick on the island. According to scientific investigation, this city was buried by volcanic ash when Santorin volcano erupted around 1500 BC (which coincides with the destruction time of Minos Kingdom). BC 1500, Santorin volcano erupted!
Scientists have noticed that a description of the Israelites leaving Egypt in the Bible is probably related to the eruption of Santorin volcano. Moses raised his wand and stretched it out into the sky. The sky immediately became dark, like a huge darkness, covering the land of Egypt for three days. During these three days, only Israelis had lights in their homes. The Egyptians were opaque and unable to move, and fell into the dark sea. 1At the end of 985, at the meeting convened by the American Geological Society, two researchers reported that they had found the pozzolanic particles (micro-glass particles) erupted by Santorin volcano in that year on the northeast coast of Egypt, 800 kilometers southeast of the volcano. According to the radiocarbon age analysis of volcanic ash-bearing sediments, it is determined that the age of these volcanic ash was about 3500 years ago. This result happened in the time range of Santorin volcano eruption. It proves that the volcanic ash cloud of Santorin volcano once covered a vast area including Egypt for several months, and the dense volcanic ash blocked the sunlight, so "Egypt was in complete darkness".
Scientists conducted a deep-sea drilling sampling study in the eastern Mediterranean sea, and initially found out the scale of the volcanic eruption, the scope of volcanic ash diffusion and the amount of ejecta. Scientists were surprised to find that this was the most violent volcanic eruption in human history.
One day in BC 1500, Santorin volcano roared. First, there was an earth-shattering earthquake. First of all, the earthquake wave tore Minos apart! In a short time, thousands of people were dumbfounded, and a huge and terrible abyss appeared in front of people. At the same time, in the center of the earth a few miles deep, a wonderful and magnificent light suddenly appeared, which was thrilling and shining with a thrilling rose light. Then smoke billowed, and lava and ash soared into the sky. As much as 62.5 square kilometers of volcanic ash was ejected, and the city on the island was almost instantly buried under thick volcanic ash. What's even more frightening is that the volcanic eruption triggered a huge tsunami, and the wave height was not less than 50 meters. This huge wave rolled south and soon came to Crete. No city on the island was spared, and villages and fertile fields became the sea of Wang Yang. The ship was shattered by the rough waves, and Minos' brilliant fleet disappeared in an instant. After the huge waves, the island was in ruins everywhere. Volcanic ash floated in the air for several months, and the earth could not see the sun for dozens of months, which caused the terrible "nuclear winter" gloomy weather.