DNA reveals origin of Minoan culture

15 May 2013 Last updated at 10:13 ET

Europe's first advanced civilisation was local in origin and not imported from elsewhere, a study says.

Analysis of DNA from ancient remains on the Greek island of Crete suggests the Minoans were indigenous Europeans, shedding new light on a debate over the provenance of this ancient culture.

Scholars have variously argued the Bronze Age civilisation arrived from Africa, Anatolia or the Middle East.

Details appear in Nature Communications journal.

The concept of the Minoan civilisation was first developed by Sir Arthur Evans, the British archaeologist who unearthed the Bronze Age palace of Knossos on Crete.

Evans named the people who built these cities after the legendary King Minos who, according to tradition, ordered the construction of a labyrinth on Crete to hold the mythical half-man, half-bull creature known as the minotaur.

Evans was of the opinion that the real-life Bronze Age culture on Crete must have its origins elsewhere.

And so, he suggested that the Minoans were refugees from Egypt's Nile delta, fleeing the region's conquest by a southern king some 5,000 years ago.

"He was surprised to find this advanced civilisation on Crete," said co-author George Stamatoyannopoulos, from the University of Washington in Seattle, US.

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DNA reveals origin of Minoan culture