Lindos

Előszó

LINDOS HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Many of the ancient myths about Rhodes connect the island with gods or heroes who passed through. The gods Apollo and Artemis visited Rhodes, the hero Danaos fleeing from Egypt, Herakles and his son Tlepólemos, and Kadmos the Phoenician stopped in Rhodes on their way to other places. The legends and myths point to the important geographical position of the island, which undoubtedly was the most crucial factor in its development. Prehistoric Times Since we have no written historical records for the Bronzé Age (3000-1100 BC), we have to rely on the archaeological evidence. Rhodes seems to have been a colony of the Minoans ever since the protopalatial period in Crete (c. 1800 BC). The Minoans developed a thalassocracy, a domination of the seas, which reached its peak in the early 15th cent. BC. They founded colonies and brought most of the islands of the Aegean under their sphere of influence. In Rhodes, they colonized the area of Trianda and perhaps had a sanctuary on the Acropolis of lalysos. When the Minoan power declined, another power emerged, the Mycenaeans, who were the inhabitants of the mainland and who spoke an early from of Greek. They more or less inherited the Minoan empire and settled in places which the Minoans had previously occupied. In Rhodes, they settled on the northern part of the island. Extensive cemeteries in the areas of lalysos and Kameiros testify to their presence. According to certain scholars, the Mycenaeans (or Achaeans) of Rhodes are referred to in the Hittite texts, which testifies to the importance of the Mycenaean power on the island. Of course, the geographical position of the island, so close to the coast of Asia Minor, made it an important base for Mycenaean contacts abroad, and we know that the Mycenaeans had an extensive trade network in the East. 5 Vissza