Minoan Colonies

Thanks Sabine

You wrote

> There are quite a lot of sites where a Cretan influence is proven

(Tel el

> Dab'a/Avaris, Tell Kabri etc., see my postings from 6th and 8th of

December

> 1999), but I believe you are talking about direct 'colonies'.

Yep, I was referring to colonies. I can remember how earlier
Minoanists saw Minoan colonies everywhere.

> They are
> naturally rarer (no people had overseas colonies at that time

yet...), but a

> very good example is Minoan Miletus (see also my posting from 6th of
> December). As the Bronze Age level of the Anatolian coast hasn't been

very

> much excavated yet we can't say much more.
> In archaeology it is very risky to talk about things that haven't been
> found! (or worse: that don't exist). Only in well excavated sites

(which are

> _very_ rare!!) it is possible to say anything like that.

The question of influence, or of settlement by a group within an
existing community is different I believe. Victorian scientists saw
examples of colonisation everywhere. Colonisation in is sense did not
begin until later, although I believe Mycenaean settlements in Cyprus
may prove to be an exception to the rules.

John