The Minoans, as a seafaring culture, were in contact with foreign peoples throughout the Aegean, as is evidenced by the Near East, Babylonian, and Egyptian influences in their early art but also in … See more

Minoan pottery went through various stages of development, and the first were the pre-palatial style know… See more

Figure sculpture is a rare find in the archaeology of Crete but enough small figurines survive to illustrate that Minoan artists were as capable of capturing movement and grace in thr… See more

Smelting technology in ancient Crete allowed for the refining of precious metals such as gold, silver, bronze, and gold-plated bronze. Semi-precious stones were used such as rock crystal, carnelian, garnet, lapis lazuli, obsidia… See more

Besides terracotta, the Minoans also made vessels from a wide variety of stone types, laboriously carving the material out using chisels, hammers, saws, drills and blades. The vessels were finished by grinding with an abrasive such as sand … See more

The Minoans decorated their palaces with true fresco painting (buonfresco), that is, the painting of colour pigments on wet lime plaster without a binding a… See more

Minoan artists greatly influenced the art of other Mediterranean islands, notably Rhodes and the Cyclades, especially Thera. Minoan artists were … See more