The River of Ocean — Primitive : 'j'] 



Greece as an important power. The fact that they were able to es- 

 tablish upon an island a large society exercising control over a con- 

 siderable area in itself indicates that they were a maritime people. 

 But we do not need to work on inference, they were a people skilled 

 in the arts as well as in seafaring and they left us a succession of 

 drawings of their vessels. Even the carved stones they used for seals 

 more often than anything else carried the picture of a ship. 



As archaeology unrolls their story, it is apparent that they knew 

 much more about ships than the early Greeks and that they utilized 

 their knowledge more effectively. By the year 2000 b.c. the Minoans 

 had a steady contact with Egypt and examples of their pottery arc 

 fairly common in that country. By 1500 B.C., that is 500 years before 

 Homer, they had contact with the island of Cyprus. The inference 

 is that the first venturesome Minoans sailed straight south to the 

 African coast and then followed this eastward to the Nile. After they 

 began trading with Cyprus it was customary to pass by way of 

 Cyprus and so to the eastern shore of the Mediterranean and then 

 south to Egypt. By the year 1200 b.c. they were voyaging to Sicily 

 and southern Italy, for Minoan coins of this period have been found 

 in both locations. They seem to have passed through the Strait of 

 Messina, for one of the kinds of stone out of which they built their 

 great palace at Knossos came from the Aeolian Islands. They may 

 have passed through the Straits of Gibraltar and been the first to 

 reach the Atlantic seacoast in the south of Spain. This was the re- 

 gion that was later known as Tartessus. By the year 1000 b.c. their 

 knowledge was passing and their power broken; they were victims 

 of the Achaean and Dorian raiders, so the Greeks probably bene- 

 fited to a certain extent from what the Minoans already knew. 



Considering the extent of the Minoan voyages of the year 2000 b.c. 

 as well as the archaeological record, it is conservative to assume that 

 the Minoans were sailing the east end of the Mediterranean in the 

 year 3000 b.c. — that already brings us back 5000 years from today. We 

 do not know where and when the Minoans derived the patterns of 

 their ships but we do know that they were in touch with the Egyp- 

 tians. In fact, by the year 2000 B.C., judging from the archaeological 

 record as revealed by their pottery, there was already a considerable 

 trade between the two centers of civilization, so that brings us to the 

 Egyptians. 



Seven hundred and fifty years before the time of this trade, an 

 adventurer named Hannu was sent on a voyage by King Sahuri, 

 who was then ruling Egypt. A record of his exploits is engraved in 



