History beholds great civilizations owing to specific cultural, political, and socio-economic activities that champion for prosperity. Humankind, through their timeline showcase rationality in attempting to establish healthy living subject to vibrant systems that ensure continuity and dominance. An ancient civilization is that of the Minoan Crete whose demise captures the fronting of various theories such as a volcanic explosion, tsunamis, invasion, cycle of disasters coupled with speculations associating the dominant area with mythical Atlantis.
The rise of Minoan civilization captures flourishment in various sectors such as raw materials, artifacts, trading systems, and substantial building complexes (Bisel et al., 1990). The development of the people alludes to a robust network of engagements with one goal of prosperity. As the occurrences exhibit ancient times between 2700 to 1450 BC, records of the decline of the once prosperous locality entail fragments of ideologies owing to the timeline that lacks sufficient documents to make a powerful statement regarding the demise of Minoan Civilization (Fagan & Scarre, 2016). Specific theories attempt to explain what brought the prosperous people to their knees with the first one fronted by one Spyridon Marinatos trying to explain the occurrence in what sums up as the Minoan eruption theory. His submission exhibits a natural disaster in the tiny Aegean island of Thera in what was a massive volcanic eruption. Thera is recorded as the center of trade for the Minoans as the destruction destroyed their economic fortress. Schoep (2018) submits that it is the collapse of Crete that “morphed into the legend of Atlantis as fronted by the Greek philosopher Plato.”
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The other theories attempting to explain the fall of the Minoan civilization are the Tsunami destruction, Cycle of disaster, and Invasions. Firstly, the tsunami case takes heed from the eruption at Thera with Floyd McCoy fronting the idea that tsunamis were as a result of the volcano (Schoep, 2018). He put forth the ideology that as the disaster occurred, it triggered the movement across the open sea, which in turn hit the northern coast of Crete owing to the massive magnitude of the eruption. The second theory is fronted by Mike Rumpino who believes the explosion on Thera would have altered the typical climatic conditions with his calculations showing the net effect as the lowering of annual average temperatures to the magnitude of one or two degrees across the area that brought about a cycle of disaster such as long periods of cold and wet summers ruining harvests (Schoep, 2018). Sinclair Hood is the author of the final theory suggesting that the demise of Minoan civilization was as a result of an invasion implying that the ultimate end was from a conquest (Schoep, 2018).
The theories entail pros and cons that make it difficult selecting which captures a reasonable explanation. The volcanic eruption case shows a lack of clear evidence owing to the lack of collection of bone structures for examination to firmly support the allusion. The contrasting notion is that in the real sense, the destruction entails massive proportions that write off the probability of such collection owing to bodies lying deep in the rubble. The tsunami, cycle of disaster, and invasion theories take heed of the other opinion with the submission on the effect of the natural disaster as accurate given the magnitude of the alluded destruction as entailing massive proportions. It is, therefore, my belief that the Minoan eruption theory is the most plausible in explaining the mystery surrounding the demise of civilization. Firstly, it is the mother of the subsequent ideologies, and secondly, it touches on the destruction of the economic powerhouse i.e., Thera, which would explain crumbling systems.
Minoan Crete occupies a significant part of our timeline as one of the civilizations of its time. Its demise captures various theories such as volcanic eruption, the cycle of disasters, tsunamis, and invasion. The first case is most plausible as it bears significant reasoning alluding to the destruction of the economic powerhouse of the people, leaving them vulnerable and standing out as the mother of the other theories.
References
Bisel, S. C., Tanaka, S., & Biset, J. (1990). The Secrets of Vesuvius: Exploring the Mysteries of an Ancient Buried City. Scholastic/Madison Press Book.
Fagan, B. M., & Scarre, C. (2016). Ancient civilizations. Routledge, 560 pages.
Schoep, I. (2018). Building the Labyrinth: Arthur Evans and the Construction of Minoan Civilization. American Journal of Archaeology, 122(1), 5-32.
