26 HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE OF SCIENCE 



ulates on the one hand with the late palaeolithic of western 

 Europe and northern Africa and on the other is transformed 

 into the early Minoan about 3400 B. c. Subsequently, the 

 Minoan civilization was in intimate contact, first with 

 Egypt, and later, with Mesopotamia, although never wholly 

 dominated by either. 12 



The indigenous origin in Crete of this ^Egean culture is of 

 prime importance. Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Crete, al- 

 though interacting at a subsequent period, appear to be 

 three separate lines of evolution connecting the barbarism of 

 the Late Stone Age with the civilization of later Europe. 

 The first towns upon the European continent were the 

 settlements of the ^Egeans at Mycenae, Tiryns and elsewhere 

 upon the mainland of Greece. The cultural level estab- 

 lished upon the shores of the ^Egean Sea constitutes a third 

 great civilization of independent origin in the near-eastern 

 world. After 2500 B. c., the contact of the ^Egeans with 

 Egypt was increasingly intimate. Crete became a depend- 

 ency of Egypt following the development of Egyptian naval 

 power. Cretan envoys bringing tribute are recorded during 

 the fifteenth century B. c. By the beginning of the second 

 millennium the JSgeans upon the island of Crete were highly 

 civilized, their "Grand Age" being the sixteenth century 

 B. c. Later, this high civilization spread to the mainland of 

 Greece. These facts are important in determining the 

 period of the actual dominance of the Greeks in the ^Egean 

 region, which began about the twelfth century before our 

 era. 13 



12 Evans, Sir Arthur, "New Archaeological Lights on the Origins of Civiliza- 

 tion in Europe." Address of the President of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, 1916. Reprinted in Science, Sept. 22, 1916. See 

 also: Baikie, J., "The Sea Kings of Crete"; and Hawes, C. H., and H. B., 

 "Crete the Forerunner of Greece." 



13 One of the most specific intimations of the ejection of the ^Egeans, by 

 the incoming Greeks, is found in the record of a naval battle pictured on the 

 wall of a temple at Thebes. The conflict, which took place off the coast of 

 Syria, was between Cretan fugitives and Egyptians. Breasted, J. H., Scientific 

 Monthly, Feb., 1920, p. 206. 



