Travels in Europe, Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, India: Minoan Civilization, Mycenaean civilization 米諾斯文明,邁錫尼文明

自從克里特島(Crete)發現了石英岩手斧, 就知道早在13萬年前, 在大陸希臘人來之前，該島就有人居住。大約在公元前12,000年左右, 最早的現代人類, 渡越地中海在島上定居。他們殺死了島上的肉食動物，或至少使它們在最後冰河期死亡。在公元前7,000年左右，另一次大規模入侵, 將新石器時代的人類帶到了島上。在接下來的500年裡，克里特人改變了他們的日常習慣，從狩獵和採集, 轉變為種植和養殖動物的生活方式。在新石器時代，早期克里特島文化發展, 有來自基克拉迪群島(Cyclades)和埃及的影響。 Before the mainland Geeks came to Crete Island, the island saw habitation as early as 130,000 years ago when quartzite hand axes were found. The earliest settlers crossing in the Mediterranean to Crete was around 12,000 BC. They killed off carnivorous animals on the island, or at least assisted their slow death during the last Ice Age. Around 7,000 BC, another large invasion brought Neolithic people to the island. Throughout the next 500 years Neolithic Cretans changed their daily habits, switching from hunting and gathering, to a more settled lifestyle of farming and rearing animals. In the Neolithic period, some of the early influences upon the development of Cretan culture arise from the Cyclades and Egypt.
米諾斯文明(Minoan)大約是從公元前2,700年到1,450年, 文化記錄是用稱為“線性A”（公元前2,500-1,450, 圖1上）的未破解的文字寫成的，在經歷了一個衰落的後期，最終在公元前1,100年左右結束, 被希臘大陸後來的邁錫尼文明(Mycenaean)吸收。邁錫尼希臘語是用線性B（公元前1,425-1,200）寫的，想必改編自線性A（圖1下）, 它比希臘字母早幾個世紀，是唯一被破譯的青銅時代愛琴海文字。 The Minoan civilization was flourished roughly from 2,700 to 1,450 BC, cultural records are written in the undeciphered script known as "Linear A"(2,500-1,450 BC, Picture1 upper), before a late period of decline, finally ending around 1,100 BC. It preceded and was absorbed by the Greek mainland Mycenaean civilization. The Mycenaean Greek was written in Linear B (1,425-1,200 BC) which is presumably descended from the older Linear A (Picture1 lower). The script predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries and is the only one of the Bronze Age Aegean scripts to have been deciphered.

When we were in Santorini, I didn't get to go Santorini museum which was closed on that day. Instead I went to Akrotiri archaeological site in the southern island and shot a ruin West House reconstruction video shown on that site. I will introduce the archaeological finds in the videos in next post.
Mycenaean civilization was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1,600–1,100 BC. It represents the first advanced civilization in mainland Greece, with its palatial states, urban organization, works of art, and writing system. 邁錫尼文明是古希臘青銅時代的最後階段，跨越公元前1,600年至1,100年的時期。它代表了希臘大陸的第一個先進文明，其富麗堂皇的國家，城市組織，藝術作品和書寫系統。