The Minoan civilization.

The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age culture that flourished on the island of Crete from approximately 3100 BC to 1100 BC ¹. 

Although the Minoans were not Greek, they have had an instrumental role in shaping the Greek civilization and hence their mention while discussing ancient Greece is a must ³. 

The Minoan civilization developed from the local Neolithic culture around 3100 BC, with complex urban settlements beginning around 2000 BC ¹.

The Minoans constructed enormous buildings which their initial excavators labeled palaces. Subsequent research has shown that they served a variety of religious and economic purposes rather than being royal residences, though their exact role in Minoan society is a matter of continuing debate ¹. 

The ruins of the palaces at Knossos and Phaistos are popular tourist attractions ¹. Minoan art included elaborately decorated pottery, seals, figurines, and colorful frescoes. 

They are believed to have invented true fresco, a technique which results in the pigment becoming part of the wall. Typical subjects include nature and ritual. 

Minoan art is often described as having a fantastical or ecstatic quality, with figures rendered in a manner suggesting motion ¹. 

Little is known about the structure of Minoan society. Social stratification is evidenced by burials and domestic architecture, but Minoan art contains no unambiguous depiction of a monarch, and Egyptian records suggest they may have had some other form of governance. 

Likewise, while some sites seem to have been politically and economically linked, it is not clear whether there was ever a unified Minoan state or states ¹.

(1) Minoan civilization - Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoan_civilization.

(2) Ancient Greek Minoans, Minoan Trade, Minoan Arts. https://ancientgreecefacts.com/greek-minoans/.

(3) Minoan civilization | History, Location, & Facts | Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Minoan-civilization.

(4) Minoan civilization - New World Encyclopedia. https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Minoan_civilization.

The Minoan language

The Minoan language is the language (or languages) of the ancient Minoan civilization of Crete, which was written in the Cretan hieroglyphs and later in the Linear A syllabary ¹. 

Unfortunately, the Minoan language is unknown and unclassified as the Cretan hieroglyphs are undeciphered and Linear A only partly deciphered ¹. 

It is impossible to be certain that the two scripts record the same language ¹. The Eteocretan language, attested in a few alphabetic inscriptions from Crete 1,000 years later, is possibly a descendant of Minoan, but is also unclassified ¹.

The phonetic system of the Minoan language can be reconstructed to have consonant phonemes such as bilabial, dental, alveolar, palatal, velar, uvular, glottal nasals, stops, fricatives, trills and approximants ¹. 

Brent Davis, a linguist and archaeologist at the University of Melbourne has proposed that the basic word order of the language written in Linear A may be verb-subject-object (VSO), based on the properties of a common formulaic sequence found in Linear A ¹.

(1) Minoan language - Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoan_language.

(2) Minoan language - Wikiwand. https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Minoan_language.

(3) Linear A - Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_A.

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