Period 4 · c. 3200-1100 BCE
Aegean Bronze Age
Before classical Greece came the Cycladic islanders, who carved marble figures so simple they look modern, the Minoans of Crete with their painted palaces and bull-leapers, and the Mycenaeans of the Lion Gate and the gold masks. Their palaces burned around 1200 BCE, and Greece lost writing for four centuries.
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Aegean Bronze AgeWhat Is Aegean Art? Cyclades, Crete and Mycenae
Marble figures, painted palaces, lion gates: the three Bronze Age cultures of the Aegean and how to tell them apart.
Aegean Bronze AgeMycenaean Architecture: Citadels, Halls and Beehive Tombs
Giant walls, a throne room around a hearth and a stone beehive dome: the three building types of the Mycenaeans.
Aegean Bronze AgeThe Lion Gate at Mycenae: How Was It Built, and Why?
Two headless lionesses, a 20-tonne lintel and a trap for attackers: how Mycenae's Lion Gate was built, and why.
Aegean Bronze AgeLinear A and Linear B: Why Only One Can Be Read
Same signs, two languages: why Linear B was cracked in 1952 and Minoan Linear A still cannot be read.Most read first
All Aegean Bronze Age guides
ArchitectureMycenaean Architecture: Citadels, Halls and Beehive Tombs
Giant walls, a throne room around a hearth and a stone beehive dome: the three building types of the Mycenaeans.ArchitectureThe Lion Gate at Mycenae: How Was It Built, and Why?
Two headless lionesses, a 20-tonne lintel and a trap for attackers: how Mycenae's Lion Gate was built, and why.Symbols and PatternsLinear A and Linear B: Why Only One Can Be Read
Same signs, two languages: why Linear B was cracked in 1952 and Minoan Linear A still cannot be read.
OverviewsMinoans vs Mycenaeans: What Changed in Art and Power?
Open palaces against walled citadels, Linear A against Greek: what changed when the Mycenaeans took over the Aegean.
Myth and ReligionMinoan Religion: What We Know and What We Guess
Snake goddesses, stone horns, mountain shrines and a ring of gold: what the Minoans believed, and what is guesswork.
OverviewsWho Were the Mycenaeans? The First Greeks We Can Read
Gold masks, Greek on clay tablets and walls fit for giants: who the Mycenaeans were, and what happened to them.
ArchitectureHow Did Minoan Palaces Work? Knossos, Phaistos, Malia
Courts, storerooms, shrines and no walls: how the palaces of Bronze Age Crete worked, and why they looked like mazes.
Myth and ReligionTheseus and Ariadne: The Myth and Its Life in Art
A thread, a monster, a broken promise on Naxos: the myth of Theseus and Ariadne and how artists retold it.
SculptureWhy Do Cycladic Figures Look So Modern?
Brancusi, Modigliani and Moore learned from them, and the paint has gone: why 4,500-year-old figures look modern.
PaintingMinoan Bull-Leaping: Sport, Ritual or Show of Power?
Acrobats vaulting over charging bulls, painted on palace walls from Knossos to Egypt: what bull-leaping was and meant.
ArchitectureCyclopean Masonry: Why Greeks Thought Giants Built It
Stones too big for two mules, no mortar, walls 8 metres thick: what Cyclopean masonry is and who built it.
ArchitectureWhat Is a Megaron? The Great Hall of Mycenaean Palaces
Porch, vestibule and a throne beside a round hearth: what a megaron was, and why Greek temples copy it.
PaintingMinoan Frescoes: What They Show and How They Were Made
Bulls, lilies and a woman nicknamed La Parisienne: what Minoan frescoes show, how they were painted, and what is modern.
Myth and ReligionThe Minotaur and the Labyrinth: Was There a Real Maze?
A bull-headed man, a maze at Knossos and a Bronze Age tablet naming the Labyrinth: where the myth comes from.
OverviewsWho Were the Minoans? The Bronze Age People of Crete
Palaces without walls, a script nobody can read, ships to Egypt: who the Minoans of Crete were.
Daily LifeHow Did People Live in the Early Bronze Age Cyclades?
Two-storey houses on Ios, rowing ships with 28 oars, 700 graves on Syros: daily life around the marble figures.
OverviewsWhat Is Cycladic Art? Marble Figures from Island Graves
Folded arms, a long nose, lost paint: what Cycladic art is and why most figures have no findspot.Overviews