The Minoan civilization flourished on the island of Crete around 2000 B.C. The discovery on Crete of large numbers of bronze implements and the furnaces used in their manufacture shows that the Minoans had a thriving bronze industry. Moreover, many bronze artifacts from this period that are similar in style to those produced on Crete have been found in southern Greece. Hence it is probable thatRecently an unusually high number of dolphins have been found dead of infectious diseases, and most of these had abnormally high tissue concentrations of certain compounds that, even in low concentrations, reduce dolphins’ resistance to infection. The only source of these compounds in the dolphins’ environment is boat paint. Therefore, since dolphins rid their bodies of the compounds rapidly once exposure ceases, their mortality rate should decline rapidly if such boat paints are banned., besides making bronzeware for domestic use, the Minoans exported bronzeware to southern Greece.