Eric Cline - Arthur Evans - Will Durant - Mysteryquest TV - Costas Synolakis - Christos Doumas - Colin Macdonald - Ancient Apocalypse TV - Floyd McCoy - Jan Driessen - Atlantis TV - Finding Atlantis TV - The Truth Behind: Atlantis TV - Ancient X Files - Andrew Marr TV - Simon Schama TV - Janina Ramirez TV - Decoding Disaster TV - Alice Roberts TV -
The eruption of Santorini has been re-dated now, and took place probably about 1628 B.C. And 1628 means that the Exodus and the eruption are separated by about two hundred years. Professor Eric H Cline
To this early civilization of Crete as a whole I have proposed – and the suggestion has been generally adopted by the archaeologists of this and other countries – to apply the name ‘Minoan’. Arthur Evans
It’s the first link in the European Chain. Will Durant, The Life of Greece
Santorini and Crete: the remains of a highly developed people dating back to 1,600 B.C. were found in 1,931 A.D. They’re called the Minoans, and the similarities to Plato’s description of Atlantis were astonishing in many ways. Mysteryquest s1e4: The Lost City of Atlantis, History 2009
We don’t really know scientifically exactly what happened to Santorini ... We think that the volcano basically blew up and the entire Santorini was destroyed. With this collapse of the volcano, a huge tidal wave was triggered. And the tidal wave, the tsunami, travelled all the way to Crete and severely impacted the Minoans. Professor Costas Synolakis, engineer & tsunami specialist, University of Southern California
Trade was the main activity which produced wealth. And so we can say it was a sort of Hong Kong of the pre-historic Aegean. Professor Christos Doumas, Archaeological Society of Athens
The problem we have is that the eruption itself cannot be said to have wiped out Minoan civilisation. Minoan civilisation continued although it declined for at least a fifty-year period after the eruption itself. Dr Colin Macdonald, Knossos curator 1990-1999
After the eruption communities such as Palaikastro no longer believed in the divine authority of the big palatial centres like Knossos. And this is all part of the fragmentation of society we see in the fifty-year period following the eruption itself. This actually created a vacuum and it was into this vacuum that mainland Greeks marched and ended Minoan culture and civilisation as we knew it before. Dr Colin Macdonald
Long before the ancient Greek empire flourished, Knossos was the biggest building in Europe. Here Minoans lived in luxury with Europe’s first paved roads, running water. From Crete, the Minoans controlled a vast trading empire. So powerful were their navies they lived centuries free from invasion. But when the Greeks from the mainland finally took over Crete, the Minoans’ wealth and power had disappeared. Their towns and palaces went up in flames. Ancient Apocalypse s1e1: Mystery of the Minoans, BBC 2001
The mystery here is what has happened. How and why has this been destroyed? What has caused this devastation here? Professor Floyd McCoy, University of Hawaii
The construction of fortified sites is often assumed to reflect a threat of warfare, but such fortified centres were multifunctional; they were also often the embodiment or material expression of the central places of the territories at the same time as being monuments glorifying and merging leading power. Jan Driessen
The Minoans dominated the Mediterranean for over a thousand years. Until an island seventy miles north of Crete blew itself apart. The island as Thera. Known today as Santorini. Reconstructions of Thera show it consisted of circular belts of sea and land – just like Plato described Atlantis. Atlantis, BBC 2011
Minoan women were remarkably independent and influential. ibid.
Is it possible that the people we call the Minoans referred to their home by another legendary name: Atlantis? Finding Atlantis, National Geographic 2011
Santorini ... A spectacular event happened here in Minoan times. ibid.
The Minoan civilisation did not sink into the sea. ibid.
On the Greek island of Crete most of Minoan civilisation was drowned by a tsunami. The Truth Behind: Atlantis, 2011
A strange disc covered in strange signs dating back to an ancient civilisation over three thousand years old. The Phaistos Disc has stunned historians ever since it was discovered. Ancient X Files s1e2: Blood of Christ & Mystery Disc, National Geographic 2010
The disc displays two hundred and forty two mysterious characters arranged in groups leading in a spiral towards the centre, and covering both sides. ibid.
Europe’s first civilisation – the Minoans. Andrew Marr’s History of the World I, BBC 2012
The Minoans were pioneers of international trade. ibid.
Europe’s first great civilisation: the culture of the Minoans … This is the first truly social art the world had seen. Simon Schama, Civilisations I: Second Moment of Creation, BBC 2018
I’ve come to the island of Crete to uncover one of the most contentious discovery stories of all time. Just over a century ago a rich Briton called Arthur Evans came here in search of the truth behind the most famous Greek myth of all – King Minus and the terrifying monster known as the Minotaur he kept hidden in the depths of his palace. Janina Ramirez, Raiders of the Lost Past s2e1, BBC 2021
He didn’t find a man-eating monster but what he did find were the ruins of Europe’s first civilisation lost for nearly 3,000 years. He called them the Minoans. ibid.
But if it wasn’t a tsunami, what then caused the destruction of the Minoan civilisation on Crete? The film shows how archaeologists revisited all the clues just like detectives reopening an old case. Decoding Disaster: A Timewatch Guide I, BBC 2017
1600 BCE: Southern Europe, the Bronze Age. Greek civilisation was in its infancy. The mainland and the Aegean Islands were dominated by the Mycenaeans, a warrior elite society ruled by a legendary king and living in fear of the gods. Alice Roberts, Curse of the Ancients s1e1: Ancient Global Warming, History 2022
The Minoan culture spread across the Aegean Islands with Crete in League One of several major trading centres. ibid.
The Minoans were about to experience a catastrophe that must have seemed like a real curse from the gods. ibid.
What brought about the violent end of the Bronze Age and heralded the dawn of a new era? ibid.