The rise and fall of three mighty civilizations. Long before the
Classical Age the prehistoric Cycladic, Minoan and Mycenaean
civilizations flourished in Greece and the Aegean. This was
before the age of written history, but these cultures inspired
the myths and legends of Greece – tales of the heroes of the
Trojan War and the legendary King Minos of Crete. The people of
the Cyclades were skilled craftsmen from the Neolithic period.
The Minoans on Crete constructed massive building complexes such
as the palace of Knossos, and traded far and wide. Their
successors, the Mycenaeans, based on mainland Greece,
constructed fortified citadels such as Mycenae for defence and
administrative control. The reason for the destruction of these
civilisations is still unexplained. This gallery highlights the
periods when the Cycladic, Minoan and Mycenaean flourished, but
after the mysterious destruction of these civilisations their
knowledge, artistic and building techniques were lost, and
Greece entered a ‘Dark Age’. At the