ABSTRACT
The interest which has been aroused by the rapid advance of Cretan studies in recent years is a measure of their importance for our understanding of the early history of European civilization. It is now generally recognized that the island of Crete played a part in this early history which is out of all proportion to its size. Geographically the island forms a bridgehead flanking the southern entrance to the Aegean basin. It performed a similar role in the historical sense. Roughly equidistant from Syria and Egypt, it became a centre of maritime trade and was early influenced by the economic, technical and artistic advances made by the civilizations of the Ancient Near East. In particular, the use of metal, first copper, then bronze, already long developed in the East, spread westwards to the coasts of Asia Minor. During the course of the third millennium B.C., the Cretans adapted the knowledge they received as a result of their intercourse with the East and laid the foundations for further rapid advances. Our own appreciation of the achievements of Cretan civilization has resulted from the application of three interrelated classes of evidenc—archaeology, linguistics and the text of Homer.
