"The Queen of the Mediterranean": so Crete was described by a seventeenth-century visitor. The geographical position and a good climate of this fertile island made it a congenial home for the first high civilization to develop on European soil. Almost nothing was known about its unique Bronze Age civilization until Sir Arthur Evans began his excavation of the great palace at Knossos in 1900. Although our knowledge of the Minoan civilization, as Evans named it, has been vastly increased by discoveries during the past few decades, many basic controversies remain unsettled. Against a background of facts derived from many years of excavation and research, Mr. Hood explains these problems. His closely reasoned but highly readable account contains separate chapters on Minoan architecture; arts and crafts; food and clothing; society, war and trade; religion and burial customs.