16th July 2025 16th July 2025 By Victor Rouă In

10 Facts You Should Know About The Ancient Minoans

This article comprises a list of 10 interesting facts you should know about the ancient Minoans, an enigmatic Bronze Age population which once lived in Europe.

10. The Minoans are often referred to as Europe’s first and therefore oldest civilisation. The civilisation of the Minoans dates back to the Bronze Age.

9. The Minoans lived on the island of Crete, contemporary Greece, but their civilisation also expanded throughout the adjacent islands in the Sea of Crete or the Libyan Sea (more specifically in the portion of this sea known as the South Cretan Sea) as well as in the archipelago of the Cyclades northward.

8. One prominent example of a Minoan outpost was that on the island of Thyra/Santorini which was called Akrotiri.

7. The Minoans were very interested in art, painting beautiful frescoes of dolphins and maritime life on the walls of their palaces or depicting sea animals (e.g. octopuses) on their vases.

6. The Minoans constructed a complex palatial system throughout Crete. This palatial system consisted of multiple palaces. One such prominent example of a Minoan palace is the excavated one at Knossos in Heraklion, Crete. Other notable Minoan palaces on Crete were: Phaistos, Malia, or Kato Zakros.

View over the Minoan Palace of Knossos and its surroundings in Heraklion, Crete. Greece. Image source: Wikimedia Commons (photograph by user Jebulon, under CC0 licence, therefore available in the public domain)

The Minoan palace of Knossos in Heraklion, Crete, Greece (with a reproduction of a bull fresco in the background; the bull was a very important symbol of Minoan Crete). Image source: Wikimedia Commons (photograph by user Jebulon under CC0 licence, therefore available in the public domain)

The Minoans stored their grains, olive, and wine in large ceramic jars known as pythos (plural form pithoi) such as these ones from Knossos Palace, Heraklion, Crete, Greece. Image source: Wikimedia Commons (under CC0 licence, therefore available in the public domain)

The Throne Room of the Minoan Palace of Knossos in Heraklion, Crete, Greece. Image source: Wikimedia Commons (photograph by user Studentessa95, under CC0 licence, therefore available in the public domain)

5. The Minoans were skilled seafarers and traders, their trading influence going as far east as Cyprus and as far south as Ancient Egypt. The Minoans traded pottery and metals with the Ancient Egyptians. They also traded oil, wine, and grains which were abundant resources on their native Crete.

4. Knossos is considered the oldest city in Europe, dated to 2000-1350 BC.

3. The Minoans worshipped a snake goddess that had multiple aspects. Not that much is known about Minoan religion or mythology, but what is known is that the snake goddess was very important deity to the ancient Minoans.

2. The Minoans and the island of Crete in particular are known in the Greek mythology for the legend of the minotaur and the labyrinth in Knossos. According to the myth, the minotaur was slain by the Athenian hero Theseus with the help of Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos, and her thread which guided him throughout the maze.

1. The Minoans did not refer to themselves by the name that is nowadays ascribed to them. This term was coined by English archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans during the early part of the 20th century. Sir Arthur Evans teamed up with Scottish archaeologist Duncan Mackenzie to excavate the Minoan palace of Knossos. The term ‘Minoan(s)’ was later on popularised. It is not yet exactly known how this Bronze Age population/civilisation referred to themselves, but the Ancient Egyptians called them ‘Keftiu’. Their language still remains rather mysterious to this date (and is still in the process of being deciphered by linguists), being initially recorded using the Cretan hieroglyphs and then in Linear A which preceded Linear B, a script of the Ancient Greek language.

To sum it up, the ancient Minoans excelled at art and trade and are considered Europe’s first or oldest civilisation (with the populous city of Knossos even having its own system of sewers). In addition, as bonus facts, they are perceived as a primarily peaceful civilisation, but they also engaged in warfare and practised an extreme sport known as bull-leaping (as shown on a fresco in Knossos).

Bull-leaping fresco at Knossos palace, Heraklion, Crete. Greece. Image source: Wikimedia Commons (photograph by Gleb Simonov under CC0 licence, therefore available in the public domain)

The downfall of the Minoan civilisation was a mixture of natural disasters such as a volcanic eruption on the nearby island of Thyra/Santorini and the tsunami waves it unleashed on Crete, decimating the Minoans’ palatial system over the island, as well as an invasion of the Mycenean Greeks from the mainland. The story of their downfall made the Minoans a potential candidate behind the myth of Atlantis as narrated by Plato. Last but not least, an important symbol of the Minoan civilisation was the labrys, a double-edged axe.

Below you can watch a well-documented video on the Minoan civilisation by Thersites the Historian on YouTube:

Documentation sources and external links:

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