MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST 
secrets encourages us to hope that sooner or later the 
Cretan writing also will be deciphered. 
The Cretan civilization in time spread to the north—to 
Greece and the islands of the Aegean Sea. It represented 
the highest development, in most ways, to which the 
———— — “2 —— 
SSS $§$———SSSSSSSqrm 
Fic. 102. Dagger or short sword with both blade and hilt of iron; early Iron 
Age (g00-S00 B.c.), from Hallstatt, Austria. After von Sacken 
Bronze Age ever attained in any land and was at its best 
about 1400 or 1500 B. c. But its downfall was already at 
hand. The Indo-European peoples were on their way. 
One branch of these, the Achaean Greeks, had already 
settled in Greece and adopted elements of Bronze Age 
civilization coming originally from Crete. But after them 
came another branch of the Greeks, known as the Dorians, 
also from unknown regions to the north. These, although 
apparently wielding stout iron swords (Fig. 102), were 
otherwise far ruder and-more barbarous than their prede- 
cessors. They swept over the island, devastating it from 
end to end, destroying the capital of the Cretan sea-kings, 
Knossos, apparently by a surprise attack, toward the end 
of the second millenium Bs. c. The brilliant Bronze Age 
civilization of the Cretans disappeared, although portions 
of the people escaped to other lands. A related group, the 
Pelesati, probably from Asia Minor, known to us as the 
Philistines, found refuge in Palestine and gave that coun- 
try their name. 
But though the Cretan civilization was dead, its influ- 
ence still survived. Crete was ina very real sense the fore- 
runner of Greece, and through her of modern Western 
civilization. 
[312] 
