A Fictional Mosaic of scenes set in the oracular goddess culture of Minoan Crete.(c.1800 BC) Main character is Daedalus. 18 chapters. The chapters can be read or downloaded independently of each other, or they can be strung together to form a more traditional narrative storyline.

The civilization of Minoan Crete, who called themselves the Kheftiu, was a highly sophisticated culture of the late Bronze Age. Their capital city of Knossos was a metropolis of 80,000 people when Athens was still a collection of tribal huts.

Kheftiu was a thallasocracy -- a sea kingdom that dominated the Mediterranean with religion and trade. They were the center of oracular Goddess worship in the ancient world, their cities were entirely unfortified.

Their domination of trade was based on seafaring skills, specifically the ability to sail to windward, which no other culture had yet discovered. Their vessels could go in any direction, with a third the crew, while others could sail only downwind. No other culture had discovered the principle of the fixed boom, which I believe was the origin of the legend of Daedalus' "wings."

This culture was destroyed overnight in 1650 BC when the explosion of the island volcano Santorini sent a tidal wave across the Mediterranean that demolished every vessel in port in the eastern half of the Great Green Sea.

When the society of Kheftiu collapsed, the culture of the Goddess began a long decline, and was finally replaced by the rising barbarians of Mycenae, the forerunners of the Greeks and Romans that were the roots of our culture. There are no written records, because in 4000 years, no one has ever deciphered the Kheftian language.

There are three main research sources:

(1) A massive trove of art -- murals, jewelry, pottery, seals, sculpture, depicting both the sacred and mundane life of the Kheftiu, almost all of which has been discovered this century.

(2) Greek myth, which embodied vague historical memories in such legends as Theseus and Ariadne; King Minos and the engineering genius of Daedalus; the radiant goddess-beauty of Queen Pasiphae; the dark mystery of the Minotaur.

(3) Etymology, particularly the etymology of proper names that survived the thousand years of silence into classical Greek times. As usual, history was written by the conquerors, and as the northern patriarchal barbarians emerged into civilization during the following thousand years, the advanced goddess-culture of Kheftiu was forgotten in the mists of time and legend. The most sophisticated culture of the Late Bronze age became merely-- a myth. SKETCHES FROM THE PALACE AT KNOSSOS is entirely fiction -- a dramatic fancy, but based on the best research available.