Kevin's Watch

Posted: **Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:29 pm**

Archaeologists look to the earth for Minoan fate

They created extraordinary artifacts for hundreds of years, revealing an aesthetic sensibility that influences Western civilization to this day. Then they simply disappeared.

Scholars are seeking answers to one of the great mysteries of the ancient world: What happened to the Minoans of Crete, who controlled a thriving Mediterranean trade network from around 2,200-1,450 BC?

Now NOVA senior science editor Evan Hadingham reports on new evidence that a massive tsunami struck the Bronze Age society 3,500 years ago, destabilizing the culture to such a degree that social chaos brought about its ultimate destruction.

Posted: **Mon Oct 29, 2007 11:57 pm**

Kind of a side bar, but I don't recall ever reading if there were Egyptian records of something like a tsunami or an volcanic eruption around that time. Egypt isn't that far away from Crete. 1450 BC was during the era of the New Kingdom in Egypt, and I know they had trouble a couple of hundred years later from what they called "Sea Peoples".

Posted: **Tue Nov 06, 2007 10:52 pm**

I have this weird theory that some of them sailed the Atlantic and became what would later be known as Mayans, and then they disappeared!

Kevin's Watch

The Minoans

The Minoans