Ever since the discovering and unearthing of the Knossos Palace in Northern Crete over 100 years ago, Archaeology and History have learned a great deal about "The Minoans"-(or Ancient Cretans). However, we are still unsure as to what their ethnicity was. The Linear A tablets are still a cryptic challenge for the most advanced Linguists and we are still unsure as to the ethnic origins of the Ancient Cretans. Could the Ancient Cretans have been a distant Pre-Mycenaean Greek civilization, a greater Egyptian civilization who ventured beyond the Nile Valley or perhaps a civilization and people who were lost to history due to the massive Tsunami which destroyed up to 80% of the island's native population 3600 years ago?
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3Per your question: "we are still unsure as to what their ethnicity was".– Denis de BernardyOct 9, 2017 at 7:14
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3Maybe difficult to answer, but still a legitimate question.– SpencerOct 9, 2017 at 12:12
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3We can be pretty sure they weren't Egyptian, because then Linear A would have been done in Egyptian Hieroglyphs.– T.E.D. ♦Oct 9, 2017 at 14:31
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Thank you for your comments. I should mention that I have seen, "The Wall" many times over the years and (without sounding too cliched), I am big fan of "The Dark Side of the Moon" & "Meddle".– user26763Oct 9, 2017 at 15:29
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1@Alex: Yes, totally agree that it is worthwhile to ask. But not while knowing all along that there is no answer. That is what makes your question (IMO) bad. Had you asked the same question without mentioning this, someone might have volunteered "no answer" as an actual answer while grumbling about there being "no prior research". But as things stand, you actually did do preliminary research, so the question is de facto prompting for speculation (and thus ought to be closed as primarily opinion-based) or you're hoping it'll basically stay open, unanswered, for years on end.– Denis de BernardyOct 9, 2017 at 18:20
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1 Answer
An analysis of DNA evidence, published in Nature back in 2013, suggested that the Minoans were a local European civilisation. A few reports since have refined the details, but the main conclusion still seems to be accepted.
The very latest published research that I've found (in the latest issue of Nature, dated today - 10 August 2017) shows that the Minoans and Mycenaeans were genetically very similar, having at least three-quarters of their ancestry from the earliest Neolithic farmers of western Anatolia and the Aegean.
The main difference between the Mycenaeans and the Minoans seems to be that the Mycenaeans
"derived additional ancestry from a more distant source related to the hunter–gatherers of eastern Europe and Siberia".
answered Oct 9, 2017 at 23:59
