Why do you think the minoans and mycenaeans absorbed ideas, customs, and skills from other cultures?

Because they were influenced by other cultures through trade, religious beliefs and cultural customs that traveled from one area to another.

Explanation:

The Minoan Civilization is one that developed on the island of Crete, the largest in the Aegean Sea, between the 20th and 15th centuries BC. That is, it developed during the period known as the Bronze Age and marks the beginning of the human group with dominion over the metals and the development of the first civilizations of what we know today in Europe.

The Mycenaean Civilization developed in mainland Greece, approximately between 1600 BC and 1200 BC, during the Pre-Homeric Period. The Mycenaeans, also known as Achaeans, formed the last great civilization of that period, and their society had an active trade and was governed by a king aided by a warrior aristocracy.

Both civilizations had a lot of influence from other cultures and this was very common at that time as commerce, religious beliefs and cultural customs managed to move from one region to another with ease, through goods and citizens.