minoans,

The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization which arose on the island of Crete. The Minoan culture flourished from approximately 2700 to 1400 B.C. We know of the Minoans only through their ruins. Amazing as they are, with there incredible architectural logic, there hypnotic art, and the richness of cultural artifacts, they spoke a language we dont understand and they wrote in a script which we cant read. The voices of the Minoans, there stories, and there history which they understood is lost to us. Even if we do by some miracle learn there writing and understand there language, we may not end up with much of anything. The Minoans were, after all, a great mercantile people.