More on the first week

A large part of my interest in leading this retreat was centered around the history of the Minoan civilization, a group of people whose way of life continues to fascinate and confound archaeologists and scholars.
In the first week of the retreat I gave several seminars after breakfast on the different periods of Minoan history. Much of what is known about the people we call "Minoans" has come to light only in the last hundred and twenty years due to recent political and economic stability in Crete, their becoming a part and protectorate of Greece in 1913, and the willingness to allow many international teams to assist the local archaeological efforts. Only the eastern side of the island has been largely excavated--- digs continue in the western part of Crete wit many fascinating things being found each year. There is also the issue that wherever there are considerably-sized sites of inhabitation, there are layers of settlements underneath that too...and it will be decades and centuries perhaps before we have a more complete picture of who these people were, to the extent that the largely theoretical and assumptive work of archaeology can bring us closer.
The group of people who we call Minoan, after what Linear B tablets reveal of a leader named Minos of the central temple complex of Knossos (a single historical personality, or succession of persons endowed with a "pharaoh"-like title? No one knows for sure.) Egyptian, Phoenician and even Indian tablets as well as the Bible describe the Minoans as the people of "Keftiu" or "Kaftaru" or the "Caphtorites". Minoan people developed indigenously from as early as 6,000 BCE in Crete, and by 3,000 BCE wrote in pictograms and Linear A and developed elaborate religious relationships with the land on mountain shrines and in caves until the advent of the Palaces (temple complexes) by 1900BCE. Their villages were connectedto the Palace complexes by paved roads and the first Palaces even had plumbing and toilets! The peak of Minoan power between 1700 and 1450BCE was marked by their command by sea over the economics of the Mediterranean, as the island of Crete is posited between North Africa, what is now Turkey and the Arabian Peninsula, the Greek mainland, the Cycladic Islands, and to the northeast the Peloponnese. They had incredible capacity to express themselves architecturally, artistically and in what can be evidenced by archaeological findings, in their spiritual revelation of the indivisibility of nature and the Divine power. The art, religious votives, and decipherable trade records found by archaeologists leave the impression of a culture of people who lived in appreciation of the beauty of nature and their own physical vigor and beauty as well, and enjoyed a close and prosperous relationship with their land and with, for the most part, their neighbors--up until the arrival of conquesting Mycenaens around 1400 BCE.