The
Minoan civilization was a
Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of
Crete and other
Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from c. 3500 BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000 BC, and then declining from c. 1450 BC until it ended around 1100 BC, during the early
Greek Dark Ages. It represents the first advanced civilization in Europe, leaving behind a number of massive building complexes,
sophisticated art, and writing systems. Its economy benefited from a network of trade around much of the
Mediterranean.
The civilization was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of British archaeologist Sir
Arthur Evans. The name "Minoan" derives from the mythical
King Minos and was coined by Evans, who identified the site at
Knossos with the
labyrinth of the
Minotaur. The Minoan civilization has been described as the earliest of its kind in
Europe, and historian
Will Durant called the Minoans "the first link in the European chain".
The Minoans built large and elaborate palaces up to four storeys high, featuring elaborate plumbing systems and decorated with frescoes. The largest Minoan palace is that of
Knossos, followed by that of
Phaistos. The function of the palaces, like most aspects of Minoan governance and religion, remains unclear. The Minoan period saw extensive trade by Crete with Aegean and Mediterranean settlements, particularly those in the Near East. Through traders and artists, Minoans cultural influence reached beyond Crete to the
Cyclades, the
Old Kingdom of Egypt, copper-bearing
Cyprus,
Canaan and the
Levantine coast and
Anatolia. Some of the best Minoan art was preserved in the city of
Akrotiri on the island of
Santorini; Akrotiri had been effectively destroyed by the
Minoan eruption.
The Minoans primarily wrote in the
Linear A script and also in
Cretan hieroglyphs, encoding a language hypothetically labelled
Minoan. The reasons for the slow decline of the Minoan civilization, beginning around 1550 BC, are unclear; theories include
Mycenaean invasions from
mainland Greece and the major
volcanic eruption of
Santorini.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoan_civilization
Phoenicia was an
ancient thalassocratic (a state with primarily maritime realms)
civilization originating in the
Levant region of the
eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern
Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their history and they possessed several enclaves such as
Arwad and
Tell Sukas (modern Syria). The core region in which the Phoenician culture developed and thrived stretched from
Tripoli and
Byblos in northern Lebanon to
Mount Carmel in modern
Israel. At their height, the Phoenician possessions in the
Eastern Mediterranean stretched from the
Orontes River mouth to
Ashkelon. Beyond its homeland, the Phoenician civilization extended to the Mediterranean from
Cyprus to the
Iberian Peninsula.
The Phoenicians were a
Semitic-speaking people of somewhat unknown origin who
emerged in the Levant around 3000 BC. The term
Phoenicia is an
ancient Greek exonym that most likely described one of their most famous exports, a dye also known as
Tyrian purple; it did not correspond precisely to a cohesive culture or society as it would have been understood natively. It is debated whether Phoenicians were actually distinct from the broader group of Semitic-speaking peoples known as
Canaanites. Historian Robert Drews believes the term "Canaanites" corresponds to the ethnic group referred to as "Phoenicians" by the ancient Greeks; However, according to archaeologist Jonathan N. Tubb, "
Ammonites,
Moabites,
Israelites, and Phoenicians undoubtedly achieved their own cultural identities, and yet ethnically they were all Canaanites", "the same people who settled in farming villages in the region in the 8th millennium BC.": 13–14
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenicia
The
Great Library of Alexandria in
Alexandria,
Egypt, was one of the largest and most significant
libraries of the ancient world. The Library was part of a larger research institution called the
Mouseion, which was dedicated to the
Muses, the nine goddesses of the arts. The idea of a universal library in Alexandria may have been proposed by
Demetrius of Phalerum, an exiled Athenian statesman living in Alexandria, to
Ptolemy I Soter, who may have established plans for the
Library, but the Library itself was probably not built until the reign of his son
Ptolemy II Philadelphus. The Library quickly acquired many
papyrus scrolls, owing largely to the Ptolemaic kings' aggressive and well-funded policies for procuring texts. It is unknown precisely how many such scrolls were housed at any given time, but estimates range from 40,000 to 400,000 at its height.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria
The
American Geographical Society (
AGS) is an organization of professional
geographers, founded in 1851 in
New York City. Most
fellows of the society are
Americans, but among them have always been a significant number of fellows from around the world. The society encourages activities that expands geographical knowledge, and the interpretation of that knowledge so that it can be useful to geographers and other disciplines, especially in a policymaking environment. It is the oldest nationwide geographical organization in the
United States. Over the century and a half of its existence, the AGS has been especially interested in three regions: the Arctic, the Antarctic, and Latin America. A signature characteristic of the AGS-sponsored exploration was the requirement that its expeditions produce tangible scientific results.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Geographical_Society
