Minoan Greece

The Minoan civilization was a very advanced culture in Greece during the Bronze age. The Minoans were primarily situated on the island of Crete, though they did populate the nearby islands. This position in the Mediterranean sea allowed them to trade quite heavily with Egypt, mainland Greece, and Troy, now modern day Turkey. Because of this location the Minoans became very rich, which is what happens when you have people from three different nations giving you their gold in exchange for the Minoans wheat and grain. Because of this wealth the Minoans were able to spend lots of their time watching sports and feats of strength. The most popular of these sports was bull dancing, which is where an acrobat makes a strong bull angry, and as the bull charges the acrobat leaps up over the bull, and sometimes they would do fancy moves like handstand on the bulls back, or stand on the tips of the horns. This bull dancing is still preformed by people in Spain today. The only problem with this location that had served them so well was that it was prone to earthquakes and eruptions. The first earthquake destroyed several Minoan cities and palaces, but the Minoans where not going to give up their land so easily, so they rebuilt. Some time later, after the Minoans had colonized several islands, their became an island that was almost as important a trading center as Crete itself. This island was called Santorini, and in 1450 B.C there was an eruption on Santorini that almost destroyed the island. The Eruption was so powerful it shook Crete, toppling a few palaces. The loss of Santorini was a blow for the Minoans, but they could have recovered. But, the eruption had triggered an earthquake that damaged the island. And as if that weren’t enough 20 meter high tsunamis attacked the island because of the earthquake. Because of this the Minoan civilization was crippled, and without a doubt would never have regained it’s former glory, but the gods weren’t done yet. Triggered by the earthquake it had started, the volcano on Santorini blew it’s top off again. This time, though, it was much more powerful and the ash cloud covered and choked all the life out of Crete, which seems a bit overkill to me, but it effectively ended the Minoan civilization.