Flora Unveiled

Table 6.1

Chronology of the Aegean Bronze and Iron Ages

Date (bce) Period Crete Mainland Greece

7000– 2600 Neolithic Permanent farming villages; domesticated plants

and animals in use; PIE dialects spoken by earliest

settlers from Anatolia.

3000– 2000 Bronze

Age: Prepalatial

Period

Destruction of some

Minoan settlements ca.

2200 bce

Social ranking and

specialization continues

to develop; Greek

language evolves from

PIE dialects.

2000– 1650

Aegean First

Palace Period

Palaces at Knossos,

Phaistos, and

elsewhere; rise of

artistic, urban Minoan

civilization

1900 Linear A script;

widespread commerce

with Egypt, Cyclades,

and Anatolia

1700

Aegean Second

Palace Period

Earthquake destroys

old palaces at Knossos,

Phaistos, etc. Larger

palaces built and new

settlements established.

1650– 1450 Height of Minoan

power and prosperity;

Minoan settlement in

Miletos (Asia Minor)

Mycenaean Palace society

emerges as a political and

economic force.

~1600

Eruption of Thera

volcano ca. 1530 bce;

possible disruption of

agriculture throughout

Crete.

Shaft Grave Circle B

(earlier); Shaft Grave

Circle A (later) in

Mycenae; evidence of

wealth (gold) and social

stratification.

1525 Mycenaean palaces and

tholos tombs with lavish

grave goods; height of

Mycenaean power and

prosperity.

1450– 1200 Aegean Third

Palace Period

Increased Mycenaean influence over Crete;

Cyclopean walls on mainland; first appearance of

Linear B script in late fifteenth to early fourteenth

century bce; Linear B replaces Linear A in Crete;

Greek replaces Minoan language; decline of Crete.