Editing Minoan civilization (section)

=== Government ===
[[File:Saffron gatherers detail Thera Santorini.png|thumb|The "[[saffron]]-gatherer" fresco, from the Minoan site of [[Akrotiri (prehistoric city)|Akrotiri]] on [[Santorini]]]]

Very little is known about the forms of Minoan government, particularly since the Minoan language has not yet been deciphered.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Trounson|first=Andrew|date=2019-11-05|title=How do you crack the code to a lost ancient script?|url=https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/how-do-you-crack-the-code-to-a-lost-ancient-script |access-date=2020-12-31|website=University of Melbourne|language=en}}</ref> It used to be believed that the Minoans had a [[monarchy]] supported by a [[bureaucracy]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Greece: Secrets of the Past - The Minoans|url=https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/civil/greece/gr1020e.html|access-date=2020-12-31|website=Canadian Museum of History}}</ref> This might initially have been a number of monarchies, corresponding with the "palaces" around Crete, but later all taken over by Knossos,<ref>Honour and Fleming, 52</ref> which was itself later occupied by Mycenaean overlords. But, in notable contrast to contemporary Egyptian and [[Mesopotamia]]n civilizations, "Minoan [[iconography]] contains no pictures of recognizable kings",<ref name=":6" />{{rp|175}} and in recent decades it has come to be thought that before the presumed Mycenaean invasion around 1450{{nbsp}}BC, a group of elite families, presumably living in the "villas" and the palaces, controlled both government and religion.<ref>Chapin, 60-61</ref> Rejecting both a monarchy and an aristocracy, [[David Graeber]] and [[David Wengrow]] recently concluded: "Pretty much all the available evidence from Minoan Crete suggests a system of female political rule – effectively a theocracy of some sort, governed by a college of priestesses."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Graeber|first1=David|last2=Wengrow|first2=David|title=The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X8gZEAAAQBAJ&q=The+Dawn+of+Everything:+A+New+History+of+Humanity|year=2021|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|place=New York|isbn=9780374721107|page=247}}</ref>