MGF+Essay

 Steven Medeiros Professor Heather Strupat English/History/Science 30 April 2009

The Fall of the Minoan Civilization 

indent In Crete, Greece the Minoan civilization was beyond its time. By 1700 B.C., the Minoans had already attained gender equality, they had a great economy, and they had built their immense sea power that would guarantee their protection until the fall of their civilization (Chadwick 1). We as a present civilization can learn from their societal and economical superiority how to increase our state of living. However, the main reason why the Minoan civilization did not survive was because of the volcanic eruption on the Aegean island of Thera at the end of the 15th century. This volcanic eruption led to a tsunami and a storm of ash that destroyed the Minoan civilization as they knew it. Most of the Minoans had already fled at the sight of the volcano’s eruption, which left Crete open for domination by the Mycenaeans, and the fall of the Minoan civilization (Hammond 2). __From these events, it is apparent how similar our world and the Minoans are, therefore we can learn from the Minoan’s ill environmental preparation about how to deal with and prepare for catastrophes in a way that allows for optimal survival__.

indent At about 1500 B.C., the Minoan civilization had seen its last day of wealth and glory, as the volcano of Thera 100km north of Crete erupted (Chadwick 1). This created massive panic and migration to safe ground, away from the terror that was caused by the volcanic eruption. There was no emergency plan or strategy. Also there was no way for the Minoan civilization to know whether there was going to be an eruption (Chadwick 3). Today, our society has learned from the Minoan’s lack of predictive capabilities by furthering knowledge in technology that would allow us to forecast future calamities. We have technology that allows us to detect eminent catastrophes, such as volcanoes that are about to erupt or meteorites that are about to hit earth. With this information, we are better suited than the Minoans to deal with the volcanic eruption that led to their demise.

indent After the volcano struck Crete, it was only a matter of time for the tsunami to hit due to the shift of the tectonic plates in the earth (Chadwick 3). If there were still Minoans left in their villages, they would have thought that they were in the clear once the volcano had already done its devastation. Without knowledge of future consecutive catastrophes that would snowball with one another, the Minoans that were left had no chance of preparation or even survival. Also their buildings and homes were not built in accordance with the preparation needed to survive a tsunami (Hammond 2). There were no dams, there were no wells, or any sort of equipment that would block the wrath of the tsunami on the villages. Currently the world has learned from such mistakes by constructing supersonic imaging technology and dams that prevent further extinctions of people by environmental disasters.

indent Following the volcano was a storm of ash that exterminated the various agricultural foods that fed the Minoan civilization (Chadwick 3). As each morsel of fiery ash hit the plants, they burned, leaving nothing for the remaining Minoans to live off of. These morsels were projected into the upper atmosphere, which made certain that Minoan’s agriculture would not cultivate in Crete ever again (Chadwick 2). The storm of ash left Crete a ghost town, where the silent cries of plants were never heard again. But these plants did not have to be the casualties of ignorance towards the catastrophes that happened around Crete. Much like us currently, the Minoans were a very innovative civilization. If the Minoans set aside time to brainstorm a way to deal with the environmental disasters, they could have easily thought of a way to prevent their plants from dying. They could have built greenhouses that were impermeable to the ashes that killed the plants. Or they could have built such materials that would not let ash penetrate the plants and cause them to die. Therefore from this ash storm, our world can learn how to survive under the conditions that were said above.

indent The fall of the Minoan civilization was due to the Black Swan Theory, which refers to rare events that are beyond all expectations (Waller 1). These rare events include the volcanic eruption of Thera, which in turn led to consecutive catastrophes, including the tsunami and the ash storm. There was no way for the Minoans to predict that any of these disasters would happen in their life time. Therefore these environmental calamities led Crete to be a vacant island where the Minoan civilization had fled their majestic place of art, innovation and paradise. The Minoans had left their civilization free to be taken over by any civilization ready and prepared, which happened to be the Mycenaeans (Chadwick 2). Therefore due to the ill preparations, the utter panic, and the inability to cope with circumstances, the Minoan civilization had fallen, leaving only lessons to be learned from other civilizations.

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