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Minoan chronology refers to the relative dating scheme developed by Sir Arthur Evans
Arthur Evans

Sir Arthur John Evans was a British archaeologist most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greece island of Crete at Kephala Hill and for creating the concept of Minoan civilization from the structures and artifacts there and elsewhere in Crete and the eastern Mediterranean....
 for the Bronze Age
Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is, with respect to a given prehistory, the period in that society when the most advanced metalworking included smelting copper and tin from naturally-occurring outcroppings of copper and tin ores, creating a bronze alloy by melting those metals together, and casting them into bronze artifact s....
 in Crete
Crete

Crete is the largest of the Greek islands and the List of islands in the Mediterranean largest island in the Mediterranean Sea at 8,336 km? ....
 based on the excavations initiated and managed by him at the site of the ancient city of Knossos
Knossos

Knossos , also known as the Knossos Palace is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and probably the ceremonial and political center of the Minoan civilization and culture....
. He called the civilization that he discovered there Minoan
Minoan civilization

The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization which arose on the island of Crete. The Minoan culture flourished from approximately 27th century BC to 1450 BC; afterwards, Mycenaean Greece culture became dominant at Minoan sites in Crete....
. The same scheme was later applied to the Greek
Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
 mainland and the Cyclades
Cyclades

The Cyclades are a Greece island group in the Aegean Sea, south-east of the mainland of Greece; and an administrative prefectures of Greece of Greece....
 Islands to form a general plan for dating events of the prehistoric and early historic Aegean
Aegean civilization

Aegean civilization is a general term for the Bronze Age civilizations of Greece and the Aegean Sea. There are in fact three distinct but communicating and interacting geographic regions covered by this term: Crete, the Cyclades and the Greek mainland....
.






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Minoan chronology refers to the relative dating scheme developed by Sir Arthur Evans
Arthur Evans

Sir Arthur John Evans was a British archaeologist most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greece island of Crete at Kephala Hill and for creating the concept of Minoan civilization from the structures and artifacts there and elsewhere in Crete and the eastern Mediterranean....
 for the Bronze Age
Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is, with respect to a given prehistory, the period in that society when the most advanced metalworking included smelting copper and tin from naturally-occurring outcroppings of copper and tin ores, creating a bronze alloy by melting those metals together, and casting them into bronze artifact s....
 in Crete
Crete

Crete is the largest of the Greek islands and the List of islands in the Mediterranean largest island in the Mediterranean Sea at 8,336 km? ....
 based on the excavations initiated and managed by him at the site of the ancient city of Knossos
Knossos

Knossos , also known as the Knossos Palace is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and probably the ceremonial and political center of the Minoan civilization and culture....
. He called the civilization that he discovered there Minoan
Minoan civilization

The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization which arose on the island of Crete. The Minoan culture flourished from approximately 27th century BC to 1450 BC; afterwards, Mycenaean Greece culture became dominant at Minoan sites in Crete....
. The same scheme was later applied to the Greek
Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
 mainland and the Cyclades
Cyclades

The Cyclades are a Greece island group in the Aegean Sea, south-east of the mainland of Greece; and an administrative prefectures of Greece of Greece....
 Islands to form a general plan for dating events of the prehistoric and early historic Aegean
Aegean civilization

Aegean civilization is a general term for the Bronze Age civilizations of Greece and the Aegean Sea. There are in fact three distinct but communicating and interacting geographic regions covered by this term: Crete, the Cyclades and the Greek mainland....
. The relative chronology is based on the shapes and decorative styles of pottery
Pottery

Pottery is the ceramic ware made by potters. Major types of pottery include earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain. The places where such wares are made are called potteries....
 found at many sites on Crete
Crete

Crete is the largest of the Greek islands and the List of islands in the Mediterranean largest island in the Mediterranean Sea at 8,336 km? ....
 and elsewhere.

Evans and Knossos

Arthur Evans
Arthur Evans

Sir Arthur John Evans was a British archaeologist most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greece island of Crete at Kephala Hill and for creating the concept of Minoan civilization from the structures and artifacts there and elsewhere in Crete and the eastern Mediterranean....
 began excavating on a hill
Hill

A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain, in a limited area. Hills often have a distinct Summit , although in areas with Escarpment a hill may refer to a particular section of scarp slope without a well-defined summit ....
 called tou tseleve he kephala
Kephala

Kephala is a hill landform in northern Crete, Greece. This locus was chosen by ancient settlers for the site of the Knossos; the footprint of the Neolithic settlement at Kephala Hill was actually larger than the Bronze Age Palace of Knossos....
, "the headland of the chieftain", some three miles (5 km) from the north coast of Crete
Crete

Crete is the largest of the Greek islands and the List of islands in the Mediterranean largest island in the Mediterranean Sea at 8,336 km? ....
, on March 23 1900. Two of the palace storerooms had been uncovered by Minos Kalokairinos in 1878. He had been stopped by the then owners of the land.

Meanwhile the citizens of the area were turning up coins and seal
Seal (device)

A seal can mean a wax seal bearing an impressed figure, or an embossed figure in paper, with the purpose of authenticating a document, but the term can also mean any device for making such impressions or embossments, essentially being a Molding that has the mirror image of the figure in counter-relief, such as mounted on rings known a...
s inscribed with a mysterious script. These came to Evans' attention as the curator of the Ashmolean Museum
Ashmolean Museum

The Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum. Its first building is sometimes attributed to Christopher Wren, though there is no good evidence for this claim, and was built in 1678?1683 to house the collection or cabinet of curiosities Elias Ashmole gave Oxford University in 1677....
 at Oxford
Oxford

Oxford is a City status in the United Kingdom, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. It has a population of 151,000. The rivers River Cherwell and River Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre....
, which he was from 1884 to 1908. The place was rumored to have been the site of the ancient city of Knossos
Knossos

Knossos , also known as the Knossos Palace is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and probably the ceremonial and political center of the Minoan civilization and culture....
.

Evans examined the site on March 19 1894. Nothing further could be done at that time, but in 1898 Crete became an independent republic. In 1899 Evans purchased the land with his own funds (his family had been factory owners in industrial Britain) and decided to set up an excavation. In the first two weeks he discovered the Linear A
Linear A

Linear A is one of two linear scripts used in ancient Crete before Mycenaean Greek language Linear B. In Minoan Civilization times, before the Greek Mycenaean dominion, Linear A was the official script for the palaces and the cult and Cretan Hieroglyphs were mainly used on seals....
 tablets, a streak of luck exceeded only by Carl Blegen
Carl Blegen

Carl William Blegen was an archaeologist famous for his work on the site of Pylos in modern day Greece and Troy in modern day Turkey. Blegen was professor of classical archaeology at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio ....
's legendary first day's dig at Pylos
Pylos

This article is about the Greek geographical feature and town. For the mythological figure see Pylus . For board game see Pylos .Pylos, or P?los , is a large bay and a town on the west coast of the Peloponnese, in the district of Messenia in southern Greece....
, when he uncovered the Pylos tablets, written in Linear B
Linear B

Linear B is a script that was used for writing Mycenaean language, an early form of Greek language. It predated the Greek alphabet by several centuries and seems to have died out with the fall of Mycenaean Greece civilization....
, a script also found at Kephala and named by Evans.

Palace of Knossus
Attacking the site with crews of hundreds of diggers, Evans uncovered most of the site's within 6 seasons. By 1905 he had named the civilization whose traces he found there Minoan, after the legendary king Minos
Minos

In Greek mythology, Minos was a mythical king of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa . After his death, Minos became a judge of the dead in Greek Underworld....
, and had created a detailed chronology of the serial phases of the pottery styles in Minoan Crete, based on what he found at Knossos
Knossos

Knossos , also known as the Knossos Palace is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and probably the ceremonial and political center of the Minoan civilization and culture....
. Subsequently he concerned himself mainly with restoration, an activity that is frowned upon by archaeologists of today. He continued to excavate there and elsewhere and to until 1935.

Evans was knighted in 1911 for his work, becoming "Sir", which previously he was not. In 1921 the first edition of his monumental work, Palace of Minos, came out, which is a sine qua non for any department of classical archaeology. On Evans' death in 1941, the British School of Archaeology assumed responsibility for the excavation, later turning the property over to the Greek government, while retaining excavation rights.

Evans' Chronology

Evans' chronological framework had triple divisions each triply divided, a formula that has been retained, thus Early Minoan (EM) I, II and III, Middle Minoan (MM) I, II and III etc. Each subsection he divided into A and B, early and late. In 1918 Alan J. B. Wace
Alan Wace

Alan John Bayard Wace was an English archaeologist.Wace was director of the British School at Athens , the second Laurence Professor of Classical Archaeology at Cambridge University and professor at the Farouk I University in Egypt ....
 and Carl Blegen
Carl Blegen

Carl William Blegen was an archaeologist famous for his work on the site of Pylos in modern day Greece and Troy in modern day Turkey. Blegen was professor of classical archaeology at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio ....
 adapted Evans' chronology to the Greek mainland and the islands, where the culture was termed Helladic and Cycladic. In 1941 Arne Furumark applied the term Mycenaean to LH and LC. As it is clear that the Mycenaean Greeks
Mycenaean Greece

Mycenaean Greece is a cultural period of ancient Greece taking its name from the archaeological site of Mycenae in northeastern Argolis, in the Peloponnese of southern Greece....
 dominated at Knossos at some point in Late Minoan (LM), the latter is often included under "Mycenaean" or called "Minoan-Mycenaean".

The major study of Cretan pottery was Evans'. A very general trend of was from dark decoration on a light background in the Early Minoan to white and red decorations on a dark wash of in Middle Minoan, and finally a return to the earlier manner of dark on light in Late Minoan. New body shapes for vessels also emerged and various styles of decoration are evident within Evan's chronology.

Evans never intended to give exact calendrical dates to the pottery periods. He did to better dated Egyptian periods using finds of Egyptian artifacts in association with Cretan ones and obvious similarities of some types of Cretan artifacts with Egyptian ones. Subsequent investigators checking Evans' work varied the dates of some of the periods a little, usually less than a few hundred years, but the chronological structure remains basically as Evans left it, a solid framework for placing events of Aegean prehistory.

Most criticism does not aim at the overthrow of Evans' system, but only complains that it does not capture all the data, such as local variations. Even with these faults the system has no competitors. In 1958 Nikolaos Platon
Nikolaos Platon

Nikolaos Platon was a renowned Greek archaeologist. He discovered the Minoan civilisation palace of Zakros on Crete.He put forward one of the two systems of relative chronology used by archaeologists for Minoan history....
 proposed a new chronology at the Prehistoric Conference in Hamburg. In it, the terms "Pre-palace", "Old Palace" and "New Palace" were to replace Evans' scheme. The academic community accepted the scheme but not the replacement, simply stating where in Evans' system the new terms fit.

The one serious question concerns the date of the Knossos tablets. Allegations were made that Evans falsified the stratum in which the tablets were found to place the tablets at 1400 BCE when they ought to have been the same date as the Pylos tablets, 1200 BCE. This dispute became known as the Palmer-Boardman Dispute when it first appeared. Despite the intense debate that developed on the subject no conclusive evidence has yet been found to settle the question. A key part of the case was that a certain kind of vase, a stirrup jar (named from the handles) found in tablet contexts, is dated only to 1200. Other archaeologists hastened to the journalistic scene with instances of similar jars going back to 1400. The search for closure goes on. By default, archaeologists tend to use Evans' dating.

Other NamesRelative ChronologyConventional Dates, BCENotes


Table of Minoan Chronology

Prepalatial, Pre-Palace (???a?a?t?????), Protominoan Age (Platon)
Copper Age (Matz, Hutchinson)
Early Bronze Age (Hood)		EM3000-2200 (Evans, Hood)
2600-2000 (Matz)		???t?µ?????? or ?? in Greek.
First Early Minoan (Hutchinson)
Phase I (Platon)		EM I3400-2800 (Evans)
2600-2300 (Matz)
2500-2400 (Hutchinson)
3200-2600 (Gimbutas)
3000-2600 (Willetts, Hood)
2800-2200 (Mackenzie)		The main problem has been setting the end of the Neolithic; its layers were destroyed by building at Knossos. The period is attested by pottery from a well at Knossos, in Tholos
Beehive tomb

A beehive tomb, also known as the tholos tomb , is a burial structure characterised by its false dome created by the superposition of successively smaller rings of mudbricks or, more often, stones....
 Tomb 2 at Lebena and by an EM I layer at Debla.
Second Early Minoan (Hutchinson)
Phase II (Platon)		EM II2800-2400 (Evans)
2300-2200 (Matz)
2300-2100 (Hutchinson)
2600-2300 (Gimbutas, Willetts, Hood)		Seals like those of Egyptian 1st Intermediate Period, Dynasties 6-11, 2345-1991.
Third Early Minoan (Hutchinson)
Phase III (Platon)		EM III2400-2200 (Evans)
2200-2000 (Matz)
2100-2000 (Hutchinson)
2300-2160 (Gimbutas)
2300-2200 (Willetts, Hood)		 
Palace Period (Matz, Platon)
Minoan Age (Platon)
Full Bronze Age (Matz)		MM2200-1500 (Evans)
2000-1570 (Matz)
2000-1580 (Ventris & Chadwick)		?es?µ?????? or MM in Greek
Phase III of Pre-Palace (Platon)
Early Palace (Matz)
First or Early Palaces (Hood)		MM IA2000-? (Matz)
2000-1900 (Hutchinson)
2160-1930 (Gimbutas)
2200-2000 (Willetts, Hood)
2000-1925 (Ventris & Chadwick
2200-? (MacKenzie)		Kephala mound cleared of earlier structures, palace at Knossos begun (Hutchinson).
Protopalatial
Old Palace (Evans)
Early Palace (Matz)
Old Palace (?a?a??a?a?t?????) Phase I (Platon)
First or Early Palaces (Hood)		MM IB?-1800 (Matz)
1900-1850 (Hutchinson)
2000-1900 (Platon, Willetts, Hood)
1925-1850 (Ventris & Chadwick)
1930-1800 (Gimbutas)
?-2100 (MacKenzie)		"First Palaces" or "First temple-palaces" (Gimbutas)

Use of potter's wheel. It may have been introduced in IA.
Protopalatial
Old Palace (Evans)
Early Palace (Matz)
Old Palace Phase II (Platon)
First or Early Palaces, Middle Bronze Age (Hood)		MM IIA1850-? (Hutchinson, Ventris & Chadwick)
1900-1800 (Platon, Willetts, Hood)
2100-? (MacKenzie)		 
Protopalatial
Old Palace (Evans)
Early Palace (Matz)
Old Palace Phase III (Platon)
First or Early Palaces, Middle Bronze Age (Hood)		MM IIB?-1700 (Matz, Ventris & Chadwick)
?-1750 (Hutchinson)
1800-1700 (Platon, Willetts, Hood)
?-1900 (MacKenzie)		Palaces were so destroyed by an earthquake ca. 1700 that they had to be rebuilt. This is the dividing line between Old and New Palace and between II and III.
Neopalatial
Old Palace (Evans)
Late Palace I (Matz)
New Palace (?e?a?a?t?????) Phase I (Platon)
Middle Bronze Age (Hood)		MM IIIA1700-? (Matz)
1700-? (Platon)
1700/1750-1600 (Hutchinson)
1700-1660 (Ventris & Chadwick)
1700-? (Willetts)
1700-? (Hood)
1900-? (MacKenzie)		Frescoes begin.
First pot signs in Linear A
Linear A

Linear A is one of two linear scripts used in ancient Crete before Mycenaean Greek language Linear B. In Minoan Civilization times, before the Greek Mycenaean dominion, Linear A was the official script for the palaces and the cult and Cretan Hieroglyphs were mainly used on seals....
.
Neopalatial
Late Palace I (Matz)
New Palace Period Phase I (Platon)
Middle Bronze Age (Hood)		MM IIIB1600-1550 (Hutchinson)
?-1570 (Matz)
?-1600 (Platon)
1660-1580 (Ventris & Chadwick)
?-1600 (Willetts)
?-1550 (Hood)
1700-1600 (Palmer)
?-1700 (MacKenzie)		Linear A
Linear A

Linear A is one of two linear scripts used in ancient Crete before Mycenaean Greek language Linear B. In Minoan Civilization times, before the Greek Mycenaean dominion, Linear A was the official script for the palaces and the cult and Cretan Hieroglyphs were mainly used on seals....
.
Another earthquake requiring more rebuilding occurred ca. 1570, which for some was the middle of IIIB and for others the start.
First Linear A archives from Mallia
Malia (city)

Malia or Mallia is a coastal town and a Communities and Municipalities of Greece on the island of Crete, in Greece, 34km east of Heraklion, the Cretan capital city....
.
 LM1500-1000 (Evans)?ste??µ?????? or ?? in Greek
Late Palace II (Matz)
New Palace Phase II (Platon)		LM IA1550-1500 (Hutchinson)
1600-1500 (Palmer, Furumark)
1570-? (Matz)
1600-? (Platon)
1580-1510 (Ventris & Chadwick)
1700-? (MacKenzie)		The period of Thera eruption
Thera eruption

The Minoan eruption of Santorini, also referred to as the Thera eruption or Santorini eruption, was a major catastrophe volcano which is estimated to have occurred in the mid second millennium BCE....
 and tsunami.
Largest cache of Linear A tablets, Hagia Triada
Hagia triada

Hagia Triada , "ahyuh treeahdhuh", is the archaeological site of an ancient Minoan civilization settlement. Hagia Triada is situated on a prominent coastal ridge, with the Mesara Plain below....
, IA and/or IB.
Late Palace II (Matz)
New Palace Phase II (Platon)		LM IB1500-1450 (Hutchinson)
?-1450 (Matz)
1510-1450 (Ventris & Chadwick)
1500-1450 (Palmer, Furumark)
?-1450 (Platon)
?-1500 (MacKenzie)		All the palaces except Knossos were burned ca. 1450, events interpreted by the majority view as the advent of the Greeks and installment at Knossos.
Late Palace II (Matz)
New Palace Phase III (Platon)
Palace Period (Evans, MacKenzie)		LM II1450-1400 (Hutchinson, Palmer, Furumark, Matz, Platon)
1450-1405 (Ventris & Chadwick)		The period ends with a destruction by fire of all the palaces on Crete from unknown causes. They were, of course, reoccupied.
Post-Palace Phase I (Platon)LM IIIA1400- (Matz)
1400-1320 (Platon)
1400-1300 (Hutchinson)		Linear B tablets ca. 1400 (Evans and his defender, Boardman)
Post-Palace Phases II, III (Platon)LM IIIB1300-1200 (Hutchinson)
1320-1280 (II), 1260-1150 (III) (Platon)		Linear B tablets ca. 1200 (Palmer, doubter of Evans' chronology)
 LM IIIC?-1100 (Matz)
1260-1050 (Willetts)		A general Mycenaean Greek palace destruction by fire on the mainland and Crete happened in a window of time ca. 1200 at the end of IIIB. How wide a window is not known, nor are the causes for sure. Some possibilities are any or all of civil strife, the Sea Peoples
Sea Peoples

The Sea Peoples is the term used for a confederacy of seafaring raiders of the second millennium BC who sailed into the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, caused political unrest, and attempted to enter or control Egyptian territory during the late Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt, and especially during Year 8 of Ramesses III of the Twentieth dy...
, the Dorians.
Subminoan Age (Platon, Matz, Willetts) 1100- (Matz)
1150-1000 (Platon)
1075-1025 (Furumark)
1050-900 (Willetts)		This period is considered a Mycenaean Greek holdout against the Dorian Greeks arriving at this time. Its end marks the completion of assimilation to them.


Other tables on the Internet

The search for a consistent chronology of Cretan civilization goes on. Other tabular chronologies have been published on the Internet by
  • in the Foundation of the Hellenic World site
  • (Cornell)
  • .

External links

  • , Myrtos Museum site.
  • , Chapter 9 in H. J. Kantor, Plant Ornament in the Ancient Near East
  • , article by Philip P. Betancourt in Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, Vol. 3 No. 1 2003.
  • , article by Colin F. Macdonald in Athena Review, Vol.3, no.3: Minoan Crete
  • , British School at Athens
  • UT Arlington
  • , Peter Tomkins et al.
  • , article by Ioannis Georganas in Antistoreton, Issue E985 of 1 July 1998.
  • , unrestricted thesis at the University of South Africa, by Deanne Kieser
  • , Michele A. Miller, Athena Review, Vol.3, no.3