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Winchester speaker looks back 5,000 years

Joseph Janssen will present “The Minoans: Europe’s First Advanced Civilization” at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 10, at the Waupaca Area Public Library.

Janssen will outline the historical and cultural significance of the ancient Minoan port city found at Akrotiri on the Mediterranean island of Santorini.

Hosted by winchester Academy, the program is free and open to the public. It is offered in conjunction with the library’s exhibit of photographs from Santorini by Michael Patrick of Pine River.

Department chair of social studies at Waupaca High School, Janssen has taught world history there for the past 12 years. His 25 years of teaching also include two years at Northern Illinois University where he received his master’s degree.

He also spent six months studying ancient Greek history, traveling from Mt. Olympus to the Islands of Crete and Thera. While there, he studied with one of the world’s noted scholars of Greek and Minoan history, Nanno Marinatos, whose father, Spyridon Marinatos, was the founder of the archeological site of Akrotiri.

The ancient Minoans created Europe’s first advanced civilization around 3000 BCE. Minoan scholars, artists and mariners developed a vibrant culture with a written language, modern styles of art, and advanced technologies in architecture, engineering and navigation. They established contacts with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.

The next Winchester Academy free program, scheduled for Sept. 17, features architect Thomas Brown of Stevens Point, recipient of national and local Green design awards, including several for the Mead Wildlife Area Visitor’s Center in Milladore.

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