Minoan and Mycenaean civilization

Minoan civilization developed on the island of Crete during the Bronze Age, roughly between 2700 and 1450 BCE. It owes its conventional name to the British archaeologist Arthur Evans, who in the early twentieth century excavated the site of Knossos and named it after the mythical King Minos. The Minoan palaces, with their complex layouts and lack of significant defensive fortifications, reveal an urban society with a redistributive economy managed from the palace itself, as well as a rich artistic output of frescoes and pottery. Its script, known as Linear A, remains undeciphered, so much of its social and ideological organization is reconstructed from archaeology alone.