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Archaeology & History

Minoan civilization originated in Europe

By T.K. Randall
May 18, 2013 · Comment icon 47 comments

Image Credit: CC 2.0 George Groutas
New DNA evidence has suggested that the ancient Minoans may not have originated in Egypt at all.
When Sir Arthur Evans discovered the Palace of Minos on Crete in 1900, he determined that the artifacts left behind by the Minoans seemed to set them apart from the Bronze-Age Greeks and were likely to have instead originated in Northern Egypt. New research has now cast doubt on this hypothesis however because DNA recovered from caves on Crete suggests that the Minoans had descended from early farmers who settled on the island thousands of years earlier.

"For the last 30, 40 years there's been a growing sense that Minoan Crete was created by people indigenous to the island," said archaeologist Cyprian Broodbank. "It's good to have some of the old assumptions that Minoans migrated from some other high culture scotched."
The Minoans flourished on Crete for as many as 12 centuries until about 1,500 bc, when it is thought to have been devastated by a catastrophic eruption of the Mediterranean island volcano Santorini, and a subsequent tsunami.


Source: Nature.com | Comments (47)




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Comment icon #38 Posted by The Puzzler 11 years ago
Ah, sarcasm,lol. Well, I know you know what the OLB discussion is about, but you can't expect anyone in this thread to know what the OLB discussion is about, and that's why I posted what I posted. - OK, no colony if you like, but he fled from Athens to Crete, and bought a harbour there. Later on he gave the Cretans laws. You don't do that if you plan to stay for months or something. He settled there, and later returned to where he was born. We both have read the OLB and we know it looks "remarkably" like Old English/Old Dutch/Old German/Old Frisian. I wonder: how did Minno and his people talk ... [More]
Comment icon #39 Posted by Abramelin 11 years ago
Fair enough. Maybe direct at them next time. Yes, I'm wondering. So they said Kreta on his arrival, we know that much. They then named the island Krete/Crete from that. It could be the people of Crete spoke an intelligible language, being an early IE language, but not actually the same language as Minno. No, the people uttered cries on Minno's arrival. Those cries or screams are "KRETA" in OLB-ish, or KRETEN in Dutch. Btw, the singular in Middle Dutch (and no doubt in OLB-ish too...) is CRETE/KRETE .
Comment icon #40 Posted by Frank Merton 11 years ago
Drawing any sort of conclusion, or even hypothesis, from a few linguistic similarities, is not persuasive.
Comment icon #41 Posted by Abramelin 11 years ago
Drawing any sort of conclusion, or even hypothesis, from a few linguistic similarities, is not persuasive. You tell me, lol. But that's what the OLB is largely based on, folk etymology.
Comment icon #42 Posted by The Puzzler 11 years ago
Drawing any sort of conclusion, or even hypothesis, from a few linguistic similarities, is not persuasive. Maybe not persuasive but certainly interesting. How did Crete get it's name? Maybe you've got a more persuasive answer. Also to Abe: The current name of Crete first appears in Mycenaean Greek as ke-re-si-jo "Cretan" in Linear B texts. In Ancient Greek, the name Crete (Κρήτη) first appears in Homer's Odyssey.[4] Its etymology is unknown. One speculative proposal derives it from a hypothetical Luvian word *kursatta (cf. kursawar "island", kursattar "cutting, sliver").[5] In Latin, it b... [More]
Comment icon #43 Posted by Frank Merton 11 years ago
I saw a monograph once where the author had taken Finnish and Iroquois and compiled a list of over a hundred remarkable similarities. Not straight synonyms, but words close enough in meaning to be relatable. (Like "forest" in one language and "wood" in the other). Does this mean the Finno-Ugaritic languages and whatever group Iroquois is part of are somehow connected? The point of the exercise was to show that one can do this sort of thing with any two given languages. From this one concludes that the existence of individual similarities is meaningless -- not even "interesting," but utterly me... [More]
Comment icon #44 Posted by The Puzzler 11 years ago
I saw a monograph once where the author had taken Finnish and Iroquois and compiled a list of over a hundred remarkable similarities. Not straight synonyms, but words close enough in meaning to be relatable. (Like "forest" in one language and "wood" in the other). Does this mean the Finno-Ugaritic languages and whatever group Iroquois is part of are somehow connected? The point of the exercise was to show that one can do this sort of thing with any two given languages. From this one concludes that the existence of individual similarities is meaningless -- not even "interesting," but utterly me... [More]
Comment icon #45 Posted by The Puzzler 11 years ago
That's what I like to do to solve the puzzles, some call it lego-linguistics, whatever, I don't see them coming up with any alternatives... Remind me of people who whine about everything and when you say "well what do you think could be a solution?" they say "I dunno...". Atlas is a good example and I've followed enough words to see the pattern. When a words etymology is unknown, the language it originated in remains unknown. If the etymology can be figured out, it's likely the parent language will become known. I can make what I like out of Atlas and it's no better or worse than anyone else c... [More]
Comment icon #46 Posted by Echosignal 11 years ago
Hello everyone! There is an ancient Greek myth about ''Kourites'' (Κουρήτες). Kourites were the first inhabitants of Crete. Heracles (not the known demigod), Epimedes, Peonios, Iasios and Idas. It is speculated that ''Kourites'' is the origin of the word Crete. ''Crete'' in Greek, is (Κρήτη) Kriti. Kourites = Krites (Cretans - the residents of Crete) = Kriti. It makes sense, but then again it is just a speculation as I previously mentioned. Here is a link with some info about them http://www.crete-kre...protectors-zeus
Comment icon #47 Posted by Frank Merton 11 years ago
One says, "I dunno" when one doesn't know and when the evidence strikes one as unconvincing and just guesswork. The threshold between accepting something as true and seeing it as only an interesting possibility is subtle and is going to be different for each person. Since I have childhood knowledge of several languages, I am well aware of the phenomenon of "false friends," words that indicate they mean one thing but in fact don't -- linguistic similarities that can lead one all over the place and achieve nothing.


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