The Minoans
Europe's first literate civilisation builds palaces without walls on Crete.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 550 years
- Known to
- ± 50 years
- Era
- Bronze Age, Holocene
From around 2000 BCE Crete supports complex societies centred on sprawling palace complexes at Knossos, Phaistos and Malia — administrative and storage centres rather than fortresses, notably lacking defensive walls. Minoan art favours marine life, plants and acrobatic bull-leaping, and depicts women prominently. They run indoor plumbing, keep records in Linear A, and trade across the eastern Mediterranean. Arthur Evans named them after the legendary Minos; nobody knows what they called themselves.