The Minoans (SOTW ch. 18)

Back to the sea. We're on the door of the ancient Greeks now, and from there it's just a hop, skip, and a jump to the classical Greeks. Of all the ancient civilizations they might be my favorite, although I might be known to say the same about every civilization at the onset of each study. My only disappointment with this topic was the dearth of good books for children. We actually got most of the good information from the two videos we watched.

This version of Theseus and the Minotaur, by Warwick Hutton, combines beautiful illustrations with an accessible version of the Classical Greek myth about the Minoans and their Greek neighbors.

The Ancient Aegean, by Schlessinger Media. These videos tend to be just on the cusp of cheesy versus useful. But while this one definitely still suffered from a healthy cheese factor, it felt toned down to me. Most of the video is spent looking at the civilizations and delving into the myths, and the information is good. We definitely enjoyed this quick look at the Minoans and the myth of the Minotaur, plus, with a short overview of the Iliad and the truth behind Troy it turned out to be a good segue into our study for next week.

Secrets of the Dead is an ongoing PBS show. The episode that we viewed Sinking Atlantis, is from 2008. We rented it through Amazon Prime video streaming. Historians uncover evidence of what happened to the Minoan civilization in the centuries before it was ultimately conquered and absorbed by the Mycenaean culture. We watched this video twice and enjoyed it both times immensely.