THEME: Ancient Anatolia THEME MINOANS AND MYCENAEANS IN ANATOLIA
The eastern Mediterranean was an interconnected world. Trade routes crisscrossed the sea from Greece to Egypt and beyond. Western Anatolia, just across the Aegean Sea from the main Bronze Age Greek sites, is a natural place for Cretan and Greek interaction and expansion. There are plenty of finds in western Anatolia, particularly at the site of Miletus – Millawanda in Hittite texts – which may have begun as a Minoan colony.
Minoan presence in Miletus
Although today it is unfashionable to use the words ‘colony’ or ‘colonization’ because of modern connotations related to slavery, exploitation, destruction of native cultures, and Eurocentrism, a colony established by the Minoans of Crete for trading purposes seems to be exactly what Bronze Age Miletus was.
In the past, archaeologists used to make a simplistic argument for cultural or ethnic identity at a site based on the appearance of pottery found there. Pottery types were determined by style, which can
