Minoan
Crete's bull-leaping palace culture
Minoan7,000 BCE – 1,100 BCE
01
The Island
Neolithic settlers reach Crete and build Europe's first farming villages
7000–2700 BCE
02
Before the Palaces
population growth, metalwork, and the prelude to palace civilization
2700–1900 BCE
03
The First Palaces
Knossos, Phaistos, and the sudden appearance of palace complexes
1900–1700 BCE
04
The Golden Age
frescoes, bull-leaping, and Minoan civilization at its height
1700–1550 BCE
05
The Sea Empire
Cretan colonies, trade routes, and thalassocracy across the Aegean
1600–1500 BCE
06
The Day the Mountain Exploded
the Thera eruption — one of history's biggest volcanic disasters
c. 1620 BCE
07
The Fall
Mycenaean takeover, Linear B, and the end of Minoan independence
1450–1100 BCE
08
The Minoans in Memory
Evans, Schliemann, and how archaeologists reconstructed a lost world
1878–1952 CE