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Minoan Demise

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The Decline of the Minoan Civilization
Makeeba Charstaon
Strayer University
Professor Anne Keyes
Hum111
11/3/2015

The Decline of the Minoan Civilization
Minoan Crete was a major civilization in its time, but several theories have been advanced to explain its demise, including speculations associating it with mythical Atlantis. What were the causes of the Minoan Civilization’s decline? State the mystery and provide a brief summary of 2 reasonable scholarly theories. Identify one of the theories as the most plausible and provide at least two convincing reasons.
In researching this topic “there are essentially two main theories that have been invoked to explain the demise of Minoan civilization, but neither matches the observed gradual decline that took place. One is the explosion of the volcano in Thera (Santorini) and the other is invasion and occupation by the Mycenaean’s.” (Tsonis, Swanson, Sugihara, & Tsonis, 2010) Many who thought that the destruction of the Minoan Civilization was provoked by something as violent and as sudden as the eruption of Santorini Volcano. (Minoan Civilization, 2015) “It was believed that the eruption took place in 1450 BC, when the Minoan Civilization perished, but newest findings and theories set it somewhere between 1627BC and 1600BC. The cosmogonic event of the eruption has perplexed historians for years. Until today, the scientific world is trying to explain and reconstruct the sequence of events that led to the destruction of the Island of Thira (Santorini) and probably devastated the Minoan Civilization. The Volcanic ash from the Santorini Volcano covered Akrotiri in Thira and reached the Cretan shores”. (Minoan Civilization, 2015) Archaeologist Stuart Dunn suggests that the volcanic ash from Santorini obviously shadowed Crete for a few days, but under no circumstances destroyed the Minoan Civilization. ” (Minoan

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