Sorry about the link to the magazine, a small error in my HTML code. Try this. The article itself is rather old and I don't think it can be found on line. Try your local library for the November/December 2000 issue.

Your comments on the importance of external influences on a culture are absolutely correct. That was also the general thrust of the article. Difficult as it may be to believe, Sir Arthur Evans actually did believe that Minoan Crete was exempt from outside influences. Everything he wrote about the Minoans attempted to show that their culture was entirely free of outside influence. He tried very hard to fit all of his finds to meet this theory. His influence on Minoan archaeology was so overwhelming that until very recently no one had taken a critical look at his theories. Only in the last decade at the most has there been a new reappraisal of Minoan culture and their role in the rest of the Mediterranean world.