An Application of Systems Science in Humanities: Investigating the Origins of the Minoan Civilization

The present preliminary study investigates the indirect evidences about the origins of the Minoan civilization and those settlers that initiated the relevant development process, based initially on linguistic evidences. According to the latter, it has been demonstrated in other studies that by using the rebus principle, every sign of the Aegean scripts of Bronze Age renders a phonetic value that corresponds to the equivalent (Archaic) Sumerian word for the depicted object by this sign. In many cases, this equivalence is also pictorial, related to the Sumerian pre-cuneiform writing. Thus, to demonstrate also that there is absolutely no reason for excluding the Sumerians from the overall debate about the origins of the Minoan civilization, indirect evidence other than linguistic are organized and presented in a systemic manner, by using the conceptual tool of the Organizational Method for Analyzing Systems. This approach is compatible to the comprehensive framework of Systems Science, called Systems Inquiry. The presentation includes socio-economic and anthropological aspects, chronological and geographical evidence, as well as the basic features of the contemporary maritime technology.