Crete's first inhabitants, Neolithic cave dwellers, apparently reached the island around 7000 BC. They came, most probably, from Asia Minor, or less likely from Syria, Palestine or North Africa, bringing with them the basics of Stone Age culture -- tools of wood, stone and bone, crude pottery and simple cloth. A possible clue to the orgins of these people may lie in the importance of bull cults at certain centres of Neolithic Anatolia.

Development of the next three thousand years was almost imperceptibly slow, but gradually, whether through new migrations and influences or internal dynamics, advances were made. Elementary agriculture was practiced, with domestic animals and basic crops. Pottery (the oldest samples of which were found beneath the palace of Knossos) became more sophisticated, with better made utensils and clay figurines of humans, animals and, especially, a fat mother goddess or fertility figure. Obsidian imported from the island of Milos was used too. And though caves continued to be inhabited, simple rectangular huts of mud bricks were also built, with increasing skill and complexity as the era wore on. One of the most important of the Neolithic settlements was at Knossos, where two remarkable dwellings have been revealed below the Central Court, and there is abundant evidence that many other sites of later habitation were used at this time -- Malia, Festos, Ayia Triadha, the Hania area -- as were most of the caves which later came to assume religious significance.

It seems safe to assume that these changes were wrought by a new migration of people from the east, bringing with them new technologies, methods of agriculture and styles of pottery, but most importantly perhaps, a knowledge of seafaring and trade. The olive and the vine -- which need little tending and therefore help free a labour force -- began to be produced alongside cereal crops. Copper tools replaced stone ones and were themselves later refined with the introduction of bronze. Art developed rapidly, with characteristic Vasiliki ware and other pottery styles, as well as gold jewelry, and stone jars of exceptional quality, based originally on Egyptian styles. Significantly, large quantities of seal stones have been found too, almost certainly the mark of mercantile people. They were used to sign letters and documents, but especially to seal packets, boxes or doors as proof that they had not been opened: the designs -- scorpions or poisonous spiders -- were often meant as a further deterrent to robbery.

At the same time, new methods of burial appeared -- tholos and chamber tombs in which riches were buried with the dead. These appear to have been communal, as, probably, was daily life, based perhaps on clan or kinship groupings.

Shortly before 1900 BC, the first of the palaces were built, at Knossos, Festos, Malia and Zakros. They represent another significant and apparently abrupt change: a shift of power back to the centre of the island and the emergence of a much more heirarchical, ordered society. The sites of these palaces were also no accident: Festos and Malia both dominate fertile plains, whilst Zakros had a superbly sited harbour for trade with the east. Knossos, occupying a strategic position above another plain to the south and west of Iraklion, was perhaps as much a religious centre as a base of secular power. Certainly religion at this point took on new importance, with the wide-spread use of mountain top sanctuaries and caves as cult centres. At the same time, much larger towns were growing up, especially around the palaces, and in the countryside substantial "villas" appeared.

The palaces themselves are proof of the island's great prosperity at this period, and the artifacts found within offer further evidence. Advances were made in almost every field of artistic and craft endeavor. From the First Palace era came the famous Kamarea ware pottery -- actually two distinct styles, one eggshell-thin and delicate, the other sturdier with bold-coloured designs. The true potter's wheel (as against the turntable) was introduced for the first time, along with a simple form of hieroglyphic writing. Elaborate jewelry, seals and bronzework were also being produced.

Cretan bronze was used throughout the Mediterranean, and its production and distribution were dependent on wide-ranging maritime economy. Though Crete may have produced some copper at this time, it never yielded tin, the nearest significant sources of which were as distant as Iran to the east, central Europe in the north, Italy, Spain, Brittany, and even Britain in the west. While some claim that Minoan ships actually sailed as far as the Atlantic, it seems more likely that the more exotic goods were obtained through middlemen. Nevertheless, Crete controlled the trade routes in the Mediterranean, importing tin, copper, pottery, gold, silver, and precious stones of every kind, exporting timber from its rich cypress forests, olive oil, wine, bronze goods, and fine pottery, especially to Egypt. Minoan colonies and trading posts were established on many Cycladic islands as well as the island of Kithira off the Peloponnese, Rhodes and the coast of Asia Minor; a fleet of merchant vessels maintained regular trade links between these centres, and, above all, with Egypt and the east.

Around 1700 BC, the palaces were destroyed for the first time, probably by earthquake, although raiders from the early Mycenaean Greek mainland may also have seized this opportunity to raid the island while it was temporarily defenceless; this may well account for the wealth of gold and other treasure -- much of it obviously Cretan -- found in the later royal shaft graves at Mycenae.

Though the destruction must have been a setback, Minoan culture continued to flourish, and with the palaces reconstructed on a still grander scale, the society entered its golden age. It is the new palaces that provide us with most of our picture of Minoan life and most of what is seen at the great sites -- Knossos, Festos, Malia, Zakros -- dates from this period.

The architecture of the new palaces was of an unprecedented sophistication: complex, multistory structures in which the use of space and light was as luxurious as the construction materials. Grand stairways, colonnaded porticoes and courtyards, brightly frescoed walls, elaborate plumbing and drainage, and great magazines in which to store the society's accumulation of wealth, were all integral, as were workshops for the technicians and craftsmen. and areas set aside for ritual and worship.

Obviously it was only the elite who enjoyed these comforts, but conditions for the ordinary people who kept Minos and attendants in such style appear to have improved too: towns around the palaces and at sites such as Gournia and Palekastro werre growing as well. (It was Arthur Evans who named Minoan society after the legendary King Minos, but there is little doubt that Minos was in fact the title of a dynasty of priest/kings, a word rather than pharaoh.)

Very little is known of how the society was organized, or indeed whether it was a single entity ruled from Knossos or simply several city-states with a common cultural heritage. However, in an intriguing reference to Crete in his politics, Aristotle implied that a caste system had operated in the time of Minos. Clearly, though, it was a society in which religion played an important part. The great Corridor of the Procession fresco at Knossos depicted an annual delivery of tribute, apparently to a Mother Goddess; bull-leaping had a religious significance too; and in all the palaces substantial chambers were set aside for ritual purposes. Secular leaders were also religious leaders.

That Minoan society was a very open one was apparent too. There are virtually no defenses, internal or external, at any Minoan site, and apparently the rulers felt no threat either from within or without, which has led scholars to emphasise a military strength based on seapower. As far as internal dissent goes, it seems safe to assume that the wealth of the island filtered down, to some extent at least, to all its inhabitants: the lot of a Minoan peasant may have been little different from that of a Cretan villager as little as fifty years ago.

Externally, maritime supremacy was further extended: objects of Cretan manufacture turn up all over the Mediterranean and have even been claimed as far afield as Britain and Scandinavia (amber from the Baltic certainly found its way to Crete). Behind their seapower, the Minoans clearly felt safe, and the threat of attack or piracy was further reduced by the network of colonies or close allies throughout the Cycladic islands -- Thira most famously but also at Milos, Naxos, Paros, Mikonos, Andhros, and Dilos -- and in Rhodes, Cyprus, Syria and North Africa. Nevertheless, this appears to have remained a trading empire rather than a military one.

If the New Palaces period was a high point of Minoan power, it also marked the apogee of arts and crafts in the island; again, the bulk of the objects you'll admire in the museums dates from this era. The frescoes -- startling in their freshness and vitality -- are the most famous and obviously visable demonstrations of this florescence. But they were just the highly visable tip of an artistic iceberg. It was in intricate small-scale work that the Minoans excelled above all. Naturalistic sculpted figures of humans and animals include the superb ivory bull-leaper, the leopard-head axe and the famous snake goddesses or priestesses, all of them on show at the Heraklion Archeological Museum. The carvings on seal stones of this era are of exceptional delicacy -- a skill carried over into beautifully delicate gold jewelry. Examples of stone vessels include the bull's head rhyton from Knossos and three black vases from Ayia Triadha, which are among the museum's most valuable posessions. And pottery broke out in an enormous variety of new shapes and design motifs, drawing inspiration especially from scenes of nature and marine life.

The other great advance was in writing. A new form of script, Linear A, had appeared at the end of the First Palace period, but in the new palaces its use became widespread. Still undeciphered, Linear A must record the original, unknown language of the Minoans: it seems to have been used in written form almost exclusively for administrative records -- stock lists, records of transactions and tax payments. Even were it understood, it seems unlikely that the language would reveal much. The pieces which have survived were never intended as permanent records, and have been found intact only where clay tablets used were baked solid in the fires which destroyed the palaces. It is possible that a more formal record, an abstract of the annual accounts, was kept on a more valuable but also more perishable material such as imported papyrus or even paper produced from native date-palm leaves.

Around 1600 BC the island again saw minor earthquake damage, though this was swiftly repaired. But in about 1450 BC came destruction on a calamitous scale: the palaces were smashed and (with the exception of Knossos itself) burned, and smaller settlements across the island were devastated. The cause of this disaster is still the most controversial of all Minoan riddles, but the most convincing theory links with the explosion of the volcano of Thira in about 1500 BC: a blast which may have been five times as powerful as that of Krakatoa. The explosion threw up great clouds of black ash and a huge tidal wave, or waves. Coastal settlements would have been directly smashed by the wave, and perhaps further burnt by the overturn of lamps lighted on a day made unnaturally dark by the clouds of ash. Blast, panic and accompanying earth tremmors would have contributed to the wreck. And then, as the ash fell, it apparently coated the center and east of the island in a poisonous blanket under which nothing could grow, or would grow again, for as much as fifty years.

Only at Knossos was there any real continuity of habitation, and here it was with Mycenaean Greeks in control, bringing with them new styles of art, a greater number of weapons and above all keeping records in a form of writing known as Linear B, an adaptation of Linear A now used to write in an early Greek dialect. In about 1370 BC, Knossos was itself burnt, whether by rebellious Cretans, a new wave of Mycenaeans or perhaps as a result of another natural disaster on a smaller scale.

Such at least is the prevailing theory. But it has its problems -- why, for example, should Festos have been burnt when it was safe from waves and blast on the southside of the island? And why should the eruption that volcanologists now date to 1500 BC have had such a dramatic effect only fifty years later -- indeed there are signs that away from the worst effects of the devastation many areas on Crete experienced comparative prosperity after it. As the debate continues, the best that can be said currently is that the volcano theory fits the available evidence better than most of its rivals. But many scholars still claim that the facts are more consistent with destruction by human rather than natural causes. The main counter-theory assumes invasion by the Mycenaeans, and points to some evidence that Linear B was in use at Knossos before 1450 BC. But if the Mycenaeans came to conquer, they would have gained nothing by destroying the society already flourishing on Crete; nor would they have subsequently left the former population centres deserted for a generation or more.

A third theory attemps to answer these inconsistencies, suggesting that an internal revolt by the populace against its rulers (posibly in the wake of the chaos caused by the Thira eruption) could provide an explanation. This theory would fit the evidence from sites such as Mirtos Pirgos on the south coast, where a villa dominating the site was burned down while the surrounding settlement remained untouched. Needless to say this theory does not find favour with those who see Minoan civilization as a haven of tranquil splendour, but it does fit with the later Greek tradition of a tyrannical Minos oppressing not only his own people but those abroad as well. Further archeological investigation both on Crete and other islands in the Aegean may ultimately resolve the Minoan mystery.

In particular western Crete now came into its own, as the area least affected by the volcano. Kydonia became the chief city of the island, still with a considerable international trade and continuing, in its art and architecture, very much in the Minoan style. But Kydonia lies beneath modern Hania and has never been (nor is ever likely to be) properly excavated -- another reason that far less is known of this period than those which preceded. In central Crete, the main charge was a retreat from the coasts, a sign of the island's decline in international affairs and trade and perhaps of an increase in piracy. Even here, however, despite the presence of new influences, much of the art is recognizably Minoan. Most of the famous clay and stone larnakes (sarcophagi) -- which were a distinctly new method of burial -- date from this final Minoan era.

More direct evidence of the survival of Crete comes in Homer's account of the Trojan War, when he talks of a Cretan contingent taking part under King Idomeneus (according to him, the grandson of Minos). The war and its aftermath -- a period of widespread change -- also affected Crete. In the north of Greece the Mycenaeans were being overrun by peoples moving down from the Balkans, in particular the Dorians. Around 1200 BC the relative peace was disrupted again: many sites were abandoned again for the last time, others burnt. Briefly, Mycenaean influence became yet more widespread, as refugees arrived on the island. But by the end of the twelfth century BC, Minoan culture was in terminal decline, and Crete was entering into the period of confusion which engulfed most of the Greek world. Some of the original population of the island, later known as Eteo-Cretans (true Cretans), retreated at this time to mountain fastnesses at sites such as Presos and Karfi, where they survived, along with elements of Minoan culture and language, for almost another millennium.

The bulk of the island, however, was taken over by the Dorians: there may have been an invasion, but it seems more probable that the process was a gradual one, by settlement. In any event, over the succeeding centuries the Dorians came to dominate the central lowlands, with substantial new cities such as Lato near modern Ayios Nikalaos.

Dorian Crete was not in any real sense a unified society: its cities warred with each other and there may, as well as the Dorians and Eteo-Cretans, have been other cultural groupings in the west, at Kydonia and sites such as Falasarna and Polyrinia. Nevertheless the island saw another minor artistic renaissance, with styles now mostly shared with the rest of the Greek world; in the making of tools and weapons iron gradually came to replace bronze.

As mainland Greece approached its Classical Age, Crete advanced little. It remained a populous island, but one where a multitude of small city-states were constantly vying for power. Towns of this period are characterized by their heavy defenses, and most reflected the Gortys laws (Gortys remained the most powerful among them) in tough oligarchical or aristocratic regimes. At best, Crete was a minor player in Greek affairs, increasingly known as the den of pirates and as a valuable source of mercenaries unrivalled in guerrilla tactics. The island must have retained influence though, for it was still regarded by Classical Athenians as the source of much of their culture, and its strict institutions were admired by many philosophers. In addition, many Cretan shrines show unbroken use from Minoan through to Roman times, and those associated with the birth and early life of Zeus (the Dhiktean and Ikean caves especially) were important centres of pilgrimage.

The multitude of small, independent city-states is well illustrated by the Confederation of Oreoi, an accord formed around 300 BC between Elyros, Lissos, Hyrtakina, Tarra, Syia (modern Souyia) and Pikilassos: six towns in a now barely populated area of the southwest. They were later joined in the Confederation by Gortys and Cyrenaica (in North Africa). Meanwhile Roman power was growing in the Mediterranean, and Crete's strategic position and turbulent reputation drew her inexorably into the struggle.

Through the first and second centuries AD, public works were undertaken throughout Crete: roads, aqueducts and irrigation systems, important cities at Knossos, Aptera, Lyttos and others, as well as considerable grandeur at Gortys. Christianity arrived with St Paul's visit around 50 AD; soon after, he appointed Titus as the island's first bishop to begin the conversion in earnest. Around 250 AD, the Holy Ten -- Ayii Dheka -- were martyred at Gortys, probably during the first great persecution of the Christians initiated by the emperor Decius.

With the split of the Roman empire at the end of the fourth century, Crete found itself part of the eastern empire under Byzantium. The island continued to prosper -- as the churches which were now built everywhere would testify -- but in international terms, it was not important and Byzantine rule, here as everywhere, imposed a stiflingly ordered society, hierarchical and bureaucratic in the extreme. Of the earliest churches only traces survive, in particular of mosaic floors like those at Souyis or Thronos, though there are more substantial remains at Gortys, of the basilica of Ayios Titos.

After several failed attempts, the Byzantine general Nikiforas Fokas conquered Crete in 961, following a siege at Khandak in which he catapulted the heads of his Arab prisoners over the walls. For a while the island revived, boosted by an influx of colonists from the mainland and from Constantinople itself, including a number of aristocratic families (the Arhontopouli) whose power survived throughout the midieval era. By now, however, the entire empire was embattled by Islam and losing out in trade to the Venetians and Genoese. Frescoed churches continued to be built, but were small and parochial.

Ironically enough it was not Muslims who brought about the final end of Byzantine rule, but Crusaders. The fourth Crusade turned on Constantinople in 1204 (at the instigation of the Venetians) sacking and burning the city. The leader of the Crusade, Prince Boniface of Montferrat, ceded Crete to the Venetians for a nominal sum.

In the mid-fourteenth century, one of the most serious revolts yet saw Cretans and second-generation Venetians fighting alongside each other, in protest of the low fixed prices for their produce, steep taxes and the continued privileges granted to the "real" Venetians. Although on this occasion the revolt was put down in a particularly fierce repression, the end result of this and the other rebellions was a gradual relaxation of the regime and integration of the two communities -- or at least their leaders. The Middle Ages were perhaps the most productive in Crete's history, with exports of corn, wine, oil and salt, the ports busy with transhipment business and the wooded hillsides being stripped for timber.

But it was the growing external threat which stimulated the most enduring of the Venetian public works -- the island defenses. Venice's bastions in the mainland Middle East had fallen alongside Constantinople, and in 1573 Cypress too was taken by the Turks, leaving Crete well and truly in the front line. Large-scale pirate raids had already been common: in 1538 Barbarossa had destroyed Rethimnon and almost taken Hania, and in the 1560's there were further attacks. Across the island, cities were strengthened and the fortified islets defending the seaways were repaired and rebuilt. As the seventeenth century wore on however, Venice itself was in severe decline; Mediterranean trade was overshadowed by the New World, a business dominated by the Spanish, English and Dutch.

Finally, in 1645 an attack on an Ottoman convoy provided an excuse for an all-out Turkish assault on Crete. Hania fell after a siege which cost forty thousand Turkish lives, and Rethimnon rapidly followed. By 1648 the Turks controlled the whole island except Heraklion, and they settled down to a long siege. For twenty one years the city resisted, supplied from the sea and with moral support from most of Europe. The end was inevitable, though, and from the Turkish point of view there was no hurry: they controlled the island's produce, they were well supplied, and they enjoyed a fair degree of local support, having relaxed the Venetian rules -- for example, they allowed Orthodox bishops back into Crete. By 1669 the city was virtually reduced, and in a final effort the Pope managed to persuade the French to send a small army. After a couple of fruitless sorties involving heavy losses, the French withdrew in an argument over command. On September 5, the city surrendered, leaving only the three fortified islets of Soudha, Spinalonga and Gramvousa in the Venetian hands, where they remained until surrendered by treaty in 1715.

It was arguable whether the Turkish occupation was ever as stringent or arduous as the Venetian had been, but its reputation is far worse. In part this may simply be that its memory is more recent, but Turkish rule was complicated too by the religious differences involved, and by the fact that it survived into the era of resurgent Greek nationalism and Great Power politics.

If on their arrival the Turks had been welcomed, it was not a long-lived honeymoon. Once again Crete was divided, now between powerful pashas, and once again it was regarded merely as a resource to be exploited. The Ottoman Empire was less strictly ordered than the Venetian, but it demanded no less: rather than attempt to take control of trade themselves, the Turks simply imposed crippling taxes. There were fewer colonists than in the Venetian era, and they took far less interest in their conquest so long as the money continued to come in. Very little was reinvested: outside the cities there was hardly any building at all, and roads and even defenses fell into gradual disrepair. As far as local administration went, it was left to local landlords and the mercenary Janissaries they controlled to impose. At the local level, there was a further level of exploitation as these men too took their cut. Stultified by heavy taxes and tariffs, slowed by neglect, the island economy stagnated.

One of the worst ways to avoid the worst of the burden was to become a Muslim and, gradually, the majority of the Christian population was converted to Islam -- at least nominally. Conversion brought with it substantial material advantages in taxation and rights to own property, and it helped avoid the worst of the repression which inevitably followed any Christian rebellion. These Greek Muslims were not particularly religious: even among the Turks on the island, Islamic law seems to have been loosely interpreted, and many continued to worship as Christians in secret, but the mass apostasies served to further divide the island. For those who remained openly Christian the burden became increasingly heavy as there were fewer to bear it. Many took to the mountains, where Turkish authority barely reached.

From now on Guerilla warfare in support of union with Greece -- enosis -- was almost constant, flaring occasionally into wider revolts but mostly taking the form of incessant raids and irritations. The Cretans enjoyed widespread support, not only of the Greek mainland but throughout western Europe, and especially among expatriate Greek communities. But the Greeks alone were no match for the Ottoman armies, and the Great Powers, wary more than anything of each other, consistantly failed to intervene. There was a major rising in 1841, bloodily suppressed, and in 1858 another which ended relatively peacefully in the recall of the Turkish governor and some minor concessions of the Christian population.

In 1866 a Cretan Assembly meeting in Sfakia declared independence and union with Greece, and Egyptian troops were recalled to put down a further wave of revolts bolstered by Greek volunteers. Again the Egyptians proved ruthlessly effective, but this campaign ended in the explosion at Arkadhi, an act of defiance which aroused Europe-wide sympathy. The Great Powers -- Britain above all -- still refused to involve themselves, but privately the supply of arms and volunteers to the insurgents was redoubled. From now on some kind of solution seemed inevitable, but even in 1878 the Congress of Berlin left Crete under Turkish dominion, demanding only further reforms in the government. In 1889 and 1896 there were further violent encounters, and in 1897 a Greek force landed to annex the island. Finally, The Great Powers were forced into action, occupying Crete with an international force and dividing the island into areas controlled by British, French, Russians and Italians.

The outrage which finally brought about the expulsion of Turkish troops from Crete in 1898 was a minor skirmish which led to the death of the British vice-consul. A national fovernment was set up, still nominally under Ottoman suzerainity, with Pronce George, younger son of King George of Greece, as high commissioner: under him was a joint Muslim-Christian assembly, part elected, part appointed.

The failure of the Greek government to act decisively in favor of Crete was one of the factors that led to the Military League of Young officers forcing political reform on the mainland. With their backing, Venizelos became premier of Greece in 1910. In 1912 Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria declared war on the Ottoman Empire, making spectacular advances into Turkish territory. By the Peace of 1913, Crete finally and officially became part of the Greek Nation.

Thought Greece was politically riven by World War I, and succeeding decades was frequent, sometimes violent changes of power between Venizelist and Royalist forces, Crete was little affected. On just one further occasion did the island play a significant role in Greek affairs before the outbreak of war in 1940: in July 1938 there was a popular uprising against the dictator Metaxas and in favor of Venizelos, but it was swiftly put down.

The island was, however, hit hard by the aftermath of the disasterous Greek attempt to conquer Istanbul in persuit of the "Great Idea" of rebuilding the Byzantine Empire. As part of the peace settlement that followed this military debacle, there was a forced exchange of populations in 1923: Muslims were expelled from Greece and Orthodox Christians from Turkey. In Crete many of these "Turks" were in fact Muslim Cretans, descendants of the mass apostasies of the eighteenth century. Nevertheless they left -- some thirty thousand in all -- and a similar number of Christian refugees from Turkey took their place.

In the winter of 1940 Italian troops invaded northern Greece, only to be thrown back across the Albanian border by the Greek army. Mussolini's humiliation, however, only served to draw the Germans into the fight, and although an Allied army was sent to Greece, the mainland was rapidly overrun.

The Allied campaign was marked from the start by suspicion, confusion, and lack of communication between the two commands. On the Greek side Metaxas had died in January, and his successor as premier committed suicide, leaving a Cretan -- Emmanuel Tsouderos -- to organize the retreat of king and government to his native island. They were rapidly followed by thousands of evacuees, including the bulk of the Allied army, a force made up in large part of Australlian and New Zealand soldiers. Most of the native Cretan troops, a division of the Greek army, had been wiped out in defense of the mainland.

More to come...