Abstract
THE unique geographical position of Crete, lying almost midway between Europe, Asia, and Africa, marked it as the point where the primitive culture of Europe was first affected by that of the older civilisations of Egypt and the East. But geographically it belonged in late geological times to Anatolia, being separated from Europe by the irruption of an arm of the Miocene Sea which later became the Egean. Thus the fauna of Crete show nearer connexions with Asia Minor, as, for example, the Cretan wild goat; and this affinity is still reflected in its Neolithic culture, of which at Knossos in places we have a mean thickness of some 6J metres (23! feet) as compared with about 5! metres (19 feet) for the whole of the superincumbent strata.
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Abridged from a lecture delivered before Section H (Anthropology) of the British Association at Liverpool on September 18.
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EVANS, A. Crete as a Stepping-Stone of Early Culture: some New Lights. Nature 112, 660–662 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/112660a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/112660a0