Cretan History
Crete is the Island where, in myth, Zeus was born, and the place to which, as a White Bull, he carried Europa. It has played an important part in the history of the Middle Sea, North Africa and Europe ever since.
Crete sits at a cross roads, between North and South and between East and West. It has always been a military prize, as some who have sought to control it sensed the the power inherent in this island and its peoples. Talos, the sun-like Bronze Giant, was said to protect it, racing around its borders, until slain, they say, by Medea with the Argonauts. It is full of historical remains of all those who have tried to control it. Chania, near where our conference is to be, has wonderful Venetian architecture often built over impressive Minoan remains. A brief history is offered below. |
Earliest Times
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Excavations in South Crete in 2008–2009 led by T.F. d (Providence College, R.I., USA) revealed stone tools at least 130,000 years old. This was a sensational discovery as the previously accepted earliest sea crossing in the Mediterranean was thought to occur around 12,000 BC. The stone tools found in the Plakias region of Crete include hand axes of the Acheulean type made of quartz . It is believed that pre-Homo sapiens hominids from Africa crossed to Crete on rafts. *
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* All the details given above come from a Wikipedia article which can be found in full here