Cydonia, 13th century BC. A 6.5-7.5 Richter earthquake confronts the survivors with destruction and social disintegration. To appease the chthonic gods, they sacrifice a young woman and forty-nine animals.

Until the last two decades of the 20th century, very few of the skeletal remains from archaeological excavations were preserved and studied. Without anthropological research, the aforementioned human sacrifice would have remained unknown.

The book presents burials outside cemeteries, as well as human sacrifices from prehistoric Crete, some of which had been disputed. The author discusses the research on skeletal material from the Minoan period since the 1970s.