THE WONDERS OF ANCIENT CRETE 31 



years ago — he found an immense treasure of gold 

 and silver ornaments and weapons. The Cretan 

 civilization had spread to Asia Minor four thousand 

 years ago. Later colonies of it were found in Greece, 

 and quite recently it has been traced in Sicily. It 

 is, in fact, not improbable that the Etruscans, who 

 preceded the Romans in Italy, were part of the same 

 race, or derived their civilization from it. A large 

 part of the civilizing work in the Mediterranean 

 which we used to attribute to the Phoenicians was 

 really carried out by the Cretans. 



About 1,400 b.c. the whole of this interesting 

 civilization was laid in ruins. Palaces and towns 

 were burned, and a great part of the population was 

 driven from the island. Some scholars believe that 

 the "Philistines" of Palestine were Cretans who 

 abandoned the ruins of their kingdom. Who the 

 destroyers were we have no historical record, though 

 there is little doubt that they were mainly the early 

 semi-barbarous Greeks from the mainland. But Crete 

 had done its work. For nearly three thousand years the 

 island-people had developed their civilization, and had 

 scattered the seed on the mainland of Europe. Upon 

 their ruin we shall, in a later chapter, find the Greeks 

 building a new and more brilliant civilization. 



