One of the most fascinating chapters of ancient history tells about the fabled island of Crete, whose rulers were thalassocrats (lords of the sea) and whose beautiful, bare-breasted priestesses romped in arenas with sacred bulls. Most history books state that the Cretan sea-kingdom, whose capital was Knossos, brought Egyptian and Asian civilization to the then-savage shores of Greece. This theory was largely the work of Oxford Professor Sir Arthur Evans, who excavated Knossos in 1900-05. Sir Arthur died in 1941 at the age of 90, a revered figure in archaeology, but last week...
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