Page 163 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

134 The Chariots [1720-1650 B.C.]
from the borders of the Human kingdom at Ugarit as far as the
Cretan and Achaean settlements on the mainland opposite
Rhodes. It was at the ports along this coast that the ships’ cap­
tains in the coastal trade between Crete and Avaris had met the
new governors and their garrison troops, and could confirm that
a new great power had arisen in the north.
It was the same captains, too, who brought the news of the
great earthquake in Crete, and of the revolution that had fol­
lowed. But this time—it was a relief to hear—the events had had
nothing to do with the aggressive peoples from the north. It was,
they had explained, purely an internal readjustment, and had
had no adverse repercussions on the export trade. The earthquake
had, of course, disorganized things for a while. The great cities of
Knossos and Phaistos and Mallia had been particularly hard hit,
and in the confusion that followed, the prince of Knossos had es­
tablished a united realm covering the whole island. The palaces
of the former princes of Phaistos and Mallia were not rebuilt,
but the palace now being built at Knossos for the new king of
all Crete would, when it was completed, be of quite breathtaking
magnificence. In many ways, they said, life in Crete was being
rationalized under the new government. In particular a new
script had been devised and was being introduced, clearer and
easier for foreigners to write than the old hieroglyphs. This script
could even be used to transcribe the cuneiform Semitic of Assyria,
which was the language of commerce from Crete to the Persian
Gulf.
The shopkeepers in the village by the Nile politely expressed
their interest in the introduction of a new script in Crete, and
turned the conversation to the possibilities of importing a better
quality of olive oil from Cyprus or farther north. And the other
villagers carried on with their work in the fields and the vegeta­
ble gardens and the fruit plantations, much too occupied with
paying the tithes required at harvest time by their landlords to
summon up any interest in the world beyond the horizon.
In truth, their life was not much different from what it had
always been. Already the memory of the disastrous battle above
Memphis and the long journey home was growing dim with the
years. Their landlords now were Canaanites or Amorites, and the