‘Ancient Apocalypse: The Minoans’ is a documentary film that attempts to explore the lost world of the Minoans that has intrigued people for thousands of years.
Their palaces at Knossos, on the island of crete, were vast and elaborate, with Europe’s first paved roads and running water. The ancient Greeks wove its magnificence into their myths; it was the home of King Minos and his man-eating bull, the Minotaur, which roamed the palace labyrinth. In the 1900s, British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans excavated and restored the ruins at Knossos. Beautiful and delicate frescoes of bulls and dolphins revealed a highly artistic civilization and a people who apparently lived in harmony with nature.
So it is only natural to be curious about the sudden disappearance of this entire clan. Their end is often attributed to a huge volcanic eruption that took place 3500 years ago in the tiny Aegean island of Thera, which was 100 km away from the island of Crete. But what is intriguing is the fact that very little volcanic ash was discovered by the archaeologists on the island of Crete leading to the conclusion that the prevailing winds would have taken the volcano’s ash in the opposite direction. Then archaeologists found clay tablets that proved the Minoan civilization survived for about 50 years after the eruption. This film asks incisive questions such as if the volcano killed the civilization, what accounted for this long gap and was it really that simple..
