ABSTRACT
From the very beginning, the Minoans were in contact with people of other cultures, and the only way that contact could happen was by sea. Even in the neolithic period, a skein of east-west trade routes was established across the Aegean. Andel and Runnels (1988) have identified three early trade routes: a northern route from Anatolia to Attica by way of Samos, Ikaria, Mikonos, Tinos and Kea, a central route running from Anatolia by way of the Cyclades to Argolis, and a southern route which went by way of Crete. This southern route followed the arc-shaped line of islands which forms the outer limit of the Aegean world, an island-hopping route connecting Anatolia, Rhodes, Karpathos, Kasos, Andikithera and Lakonia, taking in the neolithic settlements of the eastern and northern coasts of Crete on the way.
