A History of Europe in 3 Minutes

History you may not know (prelude to the video):

Minoans and Mycenae 2700–1100 BC

Source: Wikipedia

The first well-known literate civilization in Europe was that of the Minoans. The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete and flourished from approximately the 27th century BC to the 15th century BC. It was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of the British archaeologist Arthur Evans. Will Durant referred to it as “the first link in the European chain”.

The Minoans were replaced by the Mycenaean civilization which flourished during the period roughly between 1600 BC, when Helladic culture in mainland Greece was transformed under influences from Minoan Crete, and 1100 BC. The major Mycenaean cities were Mycenae and Tiryns in Argolis, Pylos in Messenia, Athens in Attica, Thebes and Orchomenus in Boeotia, and Iolkos in Thessaly. In Crete, the Mycenaeans occupied Knossos. Mycenaean settlement sites also appeared in Epirus, Macedonia, on islands in the Aegean Sea, on the coast of Asia Minor, the Levant, Cyprus and Italy. Mycenaean artefacts have been found well outside the limits of the Mycenean world.

Quite unlike the Minoans, whose society benefited from trade, the Mycenaeans advanced through conquest. Mycenaean civilization was dominated by a warrior aristocracy. Around 1400 BC, the Mycenaeans extended their control to Crete, centre of the Minoan civilization, and adopted a form of the Minoan script (called Linear A) to write their early form of Greek in Linear B.

The Mycenaean civilization perished with the collapse of Bronze-Age civilization in the eastern shored of the Mediterranean Sea. The collapse is commonly attributed to the Dorian invasion, although other theories describing natural disasters and climate change have been advanced as well. Whatever the causes, the Mycenaean civilization had definitely disappeared after LH III C, when the sites of Mycenae and Tirynth were again destroyed and lost their importance. This end, during the last years of the 12th century BC, occured after a slow decline of the Mycenaean civilization, which lasted many years before dying out. The beginning of the 11th century BC opened a new context, that of the protogeometric, the beginning of the geometric period, the Greek Dark Ages of traditional historiography.

Anyway, a rollicking good three minute jaunt through history.

Comments

  1. Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald says

    We find the oldest and most basic foundations of our civilization (including European civilization) in Western Asia—Mesopotamia, etc. However, our sense of history has been distorted for centuries by the relatively late Hellenocentric view still prevalent in Western scholarship, such as that on which this article is based. This reminds me, in its superficiality, of that great work of humor; “1066 And All That.”

  2. Our sense of history always was and will be distorted because we are correlation seeking, cause inventing animals.The best we can do is read the primary sources with a sense of awe and wonder and be very wary of those tenured professors, journalists and political advisers who cherry pick from the limited cache of historical documents (those lucky enough to survive the ravages of time) to justify their pet theories and policies (e.g., Gibbon).

  3. Jim of Olym says

    I think the misplaced the Bosphorus several times!

  4. Thomas Barker says

    The map should have shown more green (the color of Islam) on the countries of western Europe to reflect the demographic Muslim invasion. It’s an old story that Mohammed is the most common name given newborns in some cities, but now the Subway sandwich chain in the UK is removing pork products to comply Moslem dietary preferences. And there’s no Charles Martel on the horizon.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2616576/Subway-removes-ham-pork-nearly-200-stores-strong-demand-Muslims-eat-Halal-meat.html

    • George Farsalas says

      Subway is allowing “participating stores” to provide a halal menu. Sounds like plain old good business to me, hardly indicative of an invasion.

      • Thomas Barker says

        Mr. Farsalas,

        I would speculate that the ‘plain old good business’ decision was supported by a cost-benefit analysis that takes into account the flourishing Muslim demographic in the UK. Even here in northern California my city has seen a large Mosque built in the last year and the local malls are crawling with followers of Mohammed who haven’t adopted U.S. relaxed dress. It’s not a good development, in my opinion. ‘Invasion’ may be hyperbole, but it seems to be generally descriptive of the phenomenon.

      • Michael Bauman says

        Or as Lenin is reported as saying: “The Capitalists will sell you the rope we will use to hang them.”

        • Isa Almisry says

          whereas the Communists will charge you for the bullet they put through the back of your head.

  5. Michael Bauman says

    Mike R. More than that. We are story tellers and myth spinners and culture creators and icon makers.

    We do all of that to transmit to successive generations what is important; what is good; what is life giving, who is God.

    However we have been so inundated by fact and documents and Cartesian blasphemy we abandoned truth and humanity for Joe Friday. Instead of our political economy being infused with the life of a truth passed down from generation to generation, we allow ideology to rule and debase even further our humanity.

    Facts are meaningless without context. The context of history is the human soul and our efforts to understand who we are and how to interrelate with God and each other. The distortion is always due to our preference for the created thing rather than our creator.

    As a Christian brother recently wrote: we want God’s gifts but not Him.

  6. From hieromonk Chris, the definitive ethnic study:

    http://youtu.be/JCbH9d_jw48

    Note, better music background than the Hollywooden background vocals on your video, no nationalist bull. He took his info from the English website:

    http://admixturemap.paintmychromosomes.com/

  7. Ladder of Divine Ascent says

    Ukraine Crisis – What You’re Not Being Told:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWkfpGCAAuw

  8. cynthia curran says

    About 40 years ago they thought they came from North Africa but recent DNA of Minoans is that they are European.

  9. cynthia curran says

    “Quite unlike the Minoans, whose society benefited from trade, the Mycenaeans advanced through conquest. Mycenaean civilization was dominated by a warrior aristocracy. Around 1400 BC, the Mycenaeans extended their control to Crete, centre of the Minoan civilization, and adopted a form of the Minoan script (called Linear A) to write their early form of Greek in Linear B.”
    The Trojan war.

    • Tim R. Mortiss says

      Which puts me in mind of reading the Iliad. I read it through about 5 years ago (the Richmond Lattimore translation); the first time I had done so since school days (and I confess that even then I never read the whole thing, unlike the Odyssey). This may be old hat to some here, but to read this book in maturity, late middle age (to give oneself the benefit of the doubt), is really something extraordinary. No wonder it has lasted nearly 3,000 years……

  10. cynthia curran says

    “This was the first piece, which we have searched for as a doctorate thesis. Now we have information for the construction of the missing parts of the ship. Considering the amphoras in it, the ship’s route was the Black Sea. We estimate that it dates back to the 9th century and engaged in trading from Crimea to Kersonesos. A section of the ship drew our attention. We found very interesting objects belonging to the captain and crew,” Kocabaş said.
    Calling the objects the “miracle of Yenikapı,” Kocabaş said, “In one of the ships, we found something like today’s notebook. It is made of wood and can be opened like a notebook. It has a few pages and you can take notes using wax. Also, when you draw its sliding part, there are small weights used as an assay balance. Yenikapı is a phenomenon with its 37 sunken ships and organic products. I think these organic products are the most important feature of the Yenikapı excavations.”

  11. cynthia curran says

    This was discovered from what was the Port of Theodosius, 9th century ship.