Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Etewocrete

Back to Crete, the countryside which used to be "Minoan" stayed Ete[w]ocretan.

Crete like Cuba might be a horizontal island but it remains a long island, and a hilly one. Knossos was one place. Tristan Carter and Vassilis Kilikoglou looked to another place, now Malia. Under Linear-A administration, Malia used obsidian from Melos for agricultural work. Malia remained Neolithic under Linear-B administration.

There remained "Eteocretan" inscriptions well beyond Linear-B administration.

Related, I've noted a caesura in Cretan aristocracy. When literate Greeks return after the Fall of Troy, their writings are not Mycenaean in script or in language, as Cyprus would be; such Cretans were alphabetic in script and Doric in language. There's material trace that in this dark-age Crete fell under Semitic rule, specifically Canaani "Phoenician". Different men wear the crown; the same men wear the clogs. The farmers did end up Doric, but this didn't happen quickly.

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