ANCIENT CRETE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3154, 3 April 1909, Page 4

ANCIENT CRETE.

Mo?t of us, if questioned, would probably give Egypt as the oldest civilised country on record; but the pride of place, according to a. London "Times" correspondent, must, in fact, be given to the little island of Crete. From recent excavations made in the inland, the astonishing opinion has been advanced by a"s<'ientist that the Cretan or Minoaj civilisation can be traced back to the year 10,000 B.C.—that is, to about 5,000 years lefore the earliest record of Egyptian history. Few, indeed, would have imagined that this now insignificant isle was once the mistress of the Mediterranean, the terror of other nations, strong enough to attack even Egypt in the height of her

glory. Yet so it was; and the recent "finds" which have rewarded the excavators tell a striking story: the many-storied palaces, some of the pottery, even the dresses of the ladies seem to belong to the modern rather than the ancient world. What, therefore, led to the degradation of so mighty a people? The answer would suem to be that this maritime race, confident in their long supremacy at sea, left their cities unfortified, and the neglect of their land defences proved their ruin. This must, how- j ever, have occurred in the twilight of history; and its interest is accentuated on account of the literary references that cluster round this ancient civilisation. Plato, for instance, tells us that in bye-gone ages there had been a great island State in the west which in a attempt at universal conquest, made war against, and was defeated by, Egypt and Ureece. History records many strange inverses in persons and States; but none stranger than the cose of Crete.