Minoan weights

Minoan ER: Progressive Entity Resolution in the Web of Data

Entity resolution aims to identify descriptions of the same entity within or across knowledge bases. In this work, we present the Minoan ER platform for resolving entities described by linked data in the Web (e.g., in RDF). To reduce the required number of comparisons, Minoan ER performs blocking to place similar descriptions into blocks and executes comparisons to identify matches only between...

Mycenaeans at Mochlos ? Exploring Culture and Identity in the Late Minoan IB to IIIA1 Transition

A European population in Minoan Bronze Age Crete

The first advanced Bronze Age civilization of Europe was established by the Minoans about 5,000 years before present. Since Sir Arthur Evans exposed the Minoan civic centre of Knossos, archaeologists have speculated on the origin of the founders of the civilization. Evans proposed a North African origin; Cycladic, Balkan, Anatolian and Middle Eastern origins have also been proposed. Here we add...

The Theran eruption and Minoan palatial collapse: new interpretations gained from modelling the maritime network

What was the effect on Late Minoan civilisation of the catastrophic destruction of Akrotiri on Thera (Santorini) by volcanic eruption? Not much, according to the evidence for continuing prosperity on Crete. But the authors mobilise their ingenious mathematical model (published in Antiquity 82, 1009-24), this time to show that the effects of removing a major port of call could have impacted afte...

Abandonment of Minoan palaces on Crete in relation to the earthquake induced changes in groundwater supply

Mysterious abandonment of palaces on Crete during the Late Minoan period was always a challenging problem for archeologists and geologists. Various hypotheses explained this event by effects of tsunamis, earthquakes or climatic changes that were caused by the volcanic eruption of the Santorini volcano. While each of them or their possible combination contributed to the abandonment of palaces an...