Minoa was the name of several Bronze-Age port cities on the coasts of the Aegean islands Crete, Paros, Siphnos, Amorgos and Corfu in Greece, as well as the Italian island of Sicily. There was also a Minoa in Gaza, whose name was a later introduction, brought by the Philistines in 1200 BC. It appears that settlements with the name Minoa were intended to support Minoa as a thalassocracy, or sea-based empire. Austrian historian Fritz Schachermeyr found evidence for this in the name of a settlement on the Laconic island now called Monemvasia, and for the small island outside of the harbour of Megara in Greece.