Minoan civilization palace like Knossos for their own use. Several authors have noted evidence that Minoan civilization had exceeded its environmental carrying capacity, with archaeological recovery at Knossos indicating deforestation in the region near the civilization's later stages. A 2013 archeogenetics study compared skeletal mtDNA from ancient Minoan skeletons that were sealed in a cave in the Lasithi Plateau between 3,700 and 4,400 years ago, to 135 samples from Greece, Anatolia, western and northern Europe, North Africa and Egypt. The researchers found that the Minoan skeletons were genetically very similar to modern-day Europeans — and especially close to modern-day Cretans, particularly those
Minoan pottery Early Minoan pottery, concentrating on some of the better-known styles; it should not be regarded as comprehensive. A variety of forms are known. The period is generally characterized by a large number of local wares with frequent Cycladic parallels or imports, suggesting a population of checkerboard ethnicity deriving from various locations in the eastern Aegean or even wider. The evidence is certainly open to interpretation, and none is decisive. Early Minoan pottery, to some extent, continued, and possibly evolved from, the local Final Neolithic (FN) without a severe break. Many suggest that Minoan civilization evolved "in-situ" and was not imported