I regularly get social media messages from people - mostly high school and college students - who have questions about the ancient Minoans. I'm always happy to point people toward accurate, up-to-date resources, since so many websites continue to perpetuate outdated information (a great deal of what Sir Arthur Evans supposed about the Minoans turned out to be wrong).

But I'm not going to write your paper for you.

Now, to be clear, no one has (yet) directly asked me to write a paper about the Minoans for them. But I frequently get messages that say something along the lines of, "I did an online search, but I'm looking for more in-depth info and I was hoping you could help."

Sure, I can help. I tell them about academia.edu, which is a great resource for all kinds of research projects (and a dreadful time suck if you're interested in lots of different stuff - be warned!).

Depending on what specific aspects of Minoan history and culture they're researching, I might suggest the Latsis Foundation e-library of museum catalogs, or the websites of the archaeological teams that are currently excavating Minoan sites: Knossos, Kommos, Petras, Sissi, Phaistos.

There is actually a fair amount of reliable information available online. It doesn't require a massive amount of google-fu to find it, but it does require a little time and dedication, and paying attention to the source of the information. There's a reason teachers and professors won't accept Wikipedia as a resource for your research paper.

But often, it turns out that the person who messaged me was hoping that I would sift through all the reference books and websites for them and supply them with the information they want for the specific subject of their research paper.

Um, no.

I recognize that collecting and organizing the necessary information for a research paper is a daunting task. Believe me, I've written my share of them, up to and including a master's thesis. But that collecting and organizing is a valuable skill, one that's well worth learning. If your teacher/professor hasn't provided you with enough instruction about how to take on that task, I can recommend the Purdue Writing Lab.

Also, I'm not an archaeologist or a historian. I'm a spiritual leader and writer with a deep and abiding love for Minoan culture and religion. So I'm an excellent resource if you want to know about Modern Minoan Paganism. But if you have to write a paper about the ancient Minoans, you need to seek out appropriate resources that your teacher or professor will accept. And I'm happy to help point you toward those resources.

In the name of the bee,
And of the butterfly,
And of the breeze, amen.