BEFORE THE PALACES · c. 6000–1900 BCE

Before the Greeks

The island was already sailing before it had palaces

Before the palaces, the communities of Crete already lived in villages, cultivated and maintained contacts by sea.

Museum documentation · free public access, no account required.

Prepalatial Vasiliki-style jar with red and black mottled surface — **DECLARED VISUAL RECONSTRUCTION · EXISTING EDITORIAL RESOURCE · TRACEKEEPERS**
Generated reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis
Declared visual reconstruction for museographic context; it is not a photograph of the original nor documentary evidence.

History and context

Long before the courtyards of Knossos, Crete was already an island built by arrivals, cultivation and voyages. The first Neolithic communities established permanent villages and maintained maritime contacts because materials such as obsidian had to cross the Aegean. In the Early Bronze Age, metallurgy, seals, coastal settlements and collective tombs grew; objects and raw materials linked Crete with the Cyclades, Anatolia, the Levant and Egypt.

The Vasiliki pottery demonstrates that the workshops controlled fire with enormous precision centuries before the first palaces. 'Minoan' is a modern archaeological label, not the name those people gave themselves. The palatial world arose from this prepalatial network and not from a historical King Minos.

Evidence and interpretation

Documented fact: Hand-modelled jug with elongated spout, with a red and black mottled surface produced during firing. It comes from Vasiliki, in eastern Crete, and the British Museum dates it to c. 2400–2200 BCE. Interpretation and caution: The mottled effect is related to firing, but the exact reconstruction of each kiln manoeuvre remains experimental and the intention to imitate metal is not demonstrated. Historical transition: Permanent villages, navigation, collective tombs, seals and specialised workshops preceded the concentration of resources and ceremonies in the first Cretan palaces. Limit of the transition: 'Minoan' is a modern label; prepalatial connections do not prove a unified kingdom nor the historical existence of King Minos.

Catalogue facts

Previous period: c. 6000–1900 BCE
Sphere of influence: Crete and its maritime corridors towards the Cyclades, Anatolia, Egypt and the Levant
Threshold element: 'Teapot' of Vasiliki style
Element date: c. 2400–2200 BCE
Location: Vasiliki, Ierapetra, Crete
Material or support: fired pottery with red and black mottled surface
Time frame: c. 6000–1900 BCE
Documented fact 01: Minoan is a modern label popularised by Arthur Evans.
Documented fact 02: The Vasiliki pottery is prepalatial, approximately 2400–2200 BCE.
Documented fact 03: The first Cretan palaces are situated around 1900 BCE, not at the beginning of the Bronze Age.
Visual credit: Jebulon · CC0

A SHARED TOPIC, DIFFERENT MOMENTS

Objects connected through time

Follow a topic across the collections. A shared tag is a way to compare objects, not proof that one culture influenced another.

The order uses the midpoint of each approximate date range; ranges can overlap. Spacing does not represent elapsed time. Swipe, scroll or use the arrows. With the sequence focused, use ← / →, Home or End.

You are viewing

c. 2400–2200 BCE

Before the Greeks

Greek worlds

Approximate dating according to the record.

Current record

Ceramics39 dated objects

10 / 39In the centre: Before the Greeks

Also connected, without a comparable date (17)

These objects are not placed after the others: an unknown date does not mean a more recent object.

A Kerma vessel deposited at AbydosAncient Egypt · Second Intermediate Period
A tradition that inventsBatwa / Twa histories · collected in 1993 or 1995
A vase travels; the rite changesIberians · No individual dating published on this record
AkrotiriGreek worlds · c. 1700–1500 BCE
Dia’s strataMande Worlds · 9th century BCE–2nd millennium CE
Early potteryMande Worlds · before ca. 9400 cal BCE
Jenne-jeno contextsMande Worlds · ca. 250 BCE–1400 CE
Liédena FlaskEtruscans and Rome · Roman period · individual chronology not published in the entry
LothalIndus civilisation · ca. 2400–1600 BCE
Made in GaramaGaramantes · I millennium BCE–I millennium CE
Nile towards NubiaAncient Egypt · ca. 3300–2800 BCE
The unfinished gestureBatwa / Twa histories · 1947
Three hundred lives in the sandYayoi Japan · Mainly 4th century BCE–3rd century CE
Travelling objectsGaramantes · Mainly Roman period
Trumpet from NumantiaIberians · No individual dating published on this record
Urns from AdichanallurVedic and later Indian worlds · Iron Age · samples towards 665 and 467 BCE
Vessels without a languageBantu-speaking worlds · Urewe, broad regional range ca. 800 BCE–650 CE

You can scroll the first group without JavaScript. The other topics are also available below.

Vessels

Before Sumer · mid-6th–5th millennium BCE · Sumer
Twin-chambered vessel from Cova de l’Or · Early Neolithic · VI–V millennia BCE · Prehistory
Before Egypt · ca. 4400–3800 BCE · Ancient Egypt
Before Nubia · V–IV millennium BCE · Nubia, Kerma and Kush
Before Gojoseon · Middle Neolithic, c. 4000 BCE · Gojoseon and early Korea
Bevel-rimmed bowl · ca. 3500–3000 BCE · Sumer
Uruk Vase · ca. 3300–3000 BCE · Sumer
Before Yayoi · Middle Jōmon, ca. 3000 BCE · Yayoi Japan
Vasiliki · ca. 2500–2200 BCE · Greek worlds
Before the Greeks · c. 2400–2200 BCE · Greek worlds — You are viewing
Before Ancient China · c. 2500–2000 BCE · Ancient China
Longshan · c. 2500–2000 BCE · Ancient China
Kerma vessel · c. 1802–1640 BCE · Nubia, Kerma and Kush
Grave Circle A and Chrysolakkos · 18th–16th centuries BCE · Greek worlds
Before Vedic India · c. 1900–1300 BCE · Vedic and later Indian worlds
Jue · c. sixteenth century BCE · Ancient China
Pithos · c. 1450–1375 BCE · Greek worlds
Tutankhamun's grave goods · death towards 1323 BCE · Ancient Egypt
Stag Vessel · 14th–13th centuries BCE · Hittites
Valchitran · second half of the 14th century–beginning of the 13th century BCE, according to NAIM; other publications use wider intervals from the Late Bronze. · Thracians
Liding · 12th–11th centuries BCE · Ancient China
Before the Iberias · Final Bronze, c. 1000 BCE · Iberians
Grey bowl from Hastinapura · c. 1100–800 BCE in the classical sequence of Hastinapura · Vedic and later Indian worlds
Before Etruscans and Rome · ca. 850–800 BCE · Etruscans and Rome
The urn under the helmet · 9th–8th centuries BCE · Etruscans and Rome
Tomb 1 at Kuntur Wasi · c. 800 BCE · Pre-Inca cultures
Regolini-Galassi tomb · ca. 675–650 BCE · Etruscans and Rome
The great Greek krater of Vix · ≈530–500 BCE · Greek worlds
Scorțaru cauldron · 6th–5th centuries BCE · Thracians
Vix Tomb · c. 500 BCE · Celtic worlds
Orpheus among the Thracians · circa 440 BCE; attributed to the London Painter E 497. · Thracians
Twenty-six voiceless signs · 5th–4th centuries BCE · Scythians and Saka
Rogozen · mainly 5th–4th centuries BCE; The set has a history of accumulation, not a single manufacturing date. · Thracians
Grave goods of Baza and Toya · First half of the 4th century BCE · Iberians
The Attic krater that took on a new life in Cástulo · 4th century BCE · Greek worlds
The silver amphora of Chertomlyk · 4th century BCE · Greek worlds
The Kul-Oba vase · 4th century BCE · Greek worlds
Faces of the Steppe · Second half of the 4th century BCE · Scythians and Saka
Poroina Mare Rhyton · Second half of the 4th century BCE · Thracians
Borovo · 4th century BC C.; 350–300 BCE in the ISAW catalog. · Thracians
Leipzig Fish Plate · Last third 4th–early 3rd century BCE · Greek worlds
Golyamata Kosmatka · End of the 4th century – beginning of the 3rd century BCE; ritual burial at the beginning of the III according to Iskra. · Thracians
Panagyurishte · late 4th century – early 3rd century BCE, towards 300 BCE · Thracians
Dove of the Amarejo · 3rd century BCE · Iberians
Mairena Hoard · 3rd century BCE · Iberians
Vase from Chão de Lamas · Piece: III–II centuries BCE · concealment ≈110–76 BCE · Iberians
Vas dels Guerrers · 3rd–early 2nd century BCE · Iberians
Warriors' Vase · 3rd–2nd centuries BCE · Iberians
The dismantled cauldron · 2nd–1st centuries BCE · Celtic worlds
Kalathos of Alcorisa · 2nd–1st centuries BCE · Iberians
Patera from Perotito · Second half of the 2nd–beginnings of the 1st century BCE · Iberians
Urewe vessel · regional range c. 800 BCE–650 CE · Bantu-speaking worlds
Two rows of coffins · Mainly Middle Yayoi, 2nd century BCE–1st century CE · Yayoi Japan
Ceramics that continued · Last third of the 2nd century BCE–1st century CE · Iberians
Roman glass oinochoe · Late 1st century BCE–early 1st century CE · Etruscans and Rome
Gladiators Cup of Chavagnes · 25–75 CE · Etruscans and Rome
Egyptian oil lamp with a fish, held in Laon · 3rd–4th centuries CE · Ancient Egypt
Laon lamp with fish · 3rd–4th centuries CE · Etruscans and Rome
Water in a shell · 1816–1826 · San histories

Without a comparable date (not part of the chronological order):

A Kerma vessel deposited at Abydos · Second Intermediate Period · Ancient Egypt
A tradition that invents · collected in 1993 or 1995 · Batwa / Twa histories
A vase travels; the rite changes · No individual dating published on this record · Iberians
Early pottery · before ca. 9400 cal BCE · Mande Worlds
Liédena Flask · Roman period · individual chronology not published in the entry · Etruscans and Rome
Made in Garama · I millennium BCE–I millennium CE · Garamantes
Oil in a calabash · ca. 1947 · Batwa / Twa histories
The unfinished gesture · 1947 · Batwa / Twa histories
Travelling objects · Mainly Roman period · Garamantes
Urns from Adichanallur · Iron Age · samples towards 665 and 467 BCE · Vedic and later Indian worlds
Vessels without a language · Urewe, broad regional range ca. 800 BCE–650 CE · Bantu-speaking worlds

Painting

Before the San · ≈25.500–23.500 BCE · San histories
Before the name San · ≈25.500–23.500 BCE · San histories
Altamira · Assemblage ≈36,000–13,000 BP · bison ≈18,400–15,300 cal BP · Prehistory
Lascaux · ≈23,500–21,000 cal BP · debated contextual estimate · Prehistory
Before Sumer · mid-6th–5th millennium BCE · Sumer
Cueva de las Manos · Sequence ≈9300–1300 BP · Prehistory
Vasiliki · ca. 2500–2200 BCE · Greek worlds
Before the Greeks · c. 2400–2200 BCE · Greek worlds — You are viewing
Before Vedic India · c. 1900–1300 BCE · Vedic and later Indian worlds
Grey bowl from Hastinapura · c. 1100–800 BCE in the classical sequence of Hastinapura · Vedic and later Indian worlds
Orpheus among the Thracians · circa 440 BCE; attributed to the London Painter E 497. · Thracians
The Attic krater that took on a new life in Cástulo · 4th century BCE · Greek worlds
The Karwa textile · 4th–3rd centuries BCE · Pre-Inca cultures
Leipzig Fish Plate · Last third 4th–early 3rd century BCE · Greek worlds
Dove of the Amarejo · 3rd century BCE · Iberians
Vas dels Guerrers · 3rd–early 2nd century BCE · Iberians
Warriors' Vase · 3rd–2nd centuries BCE · Iberians
Kalathos of Alcorisa · 2nd–1st centuries BCE · Iberians
The walls of San Bartolo · c. 100 BCE · Maya worlds
Ceramics that continued · Last third of the 2nd century BCE–1st century CE · Iberians

Without a comparable date (not part of the chronological order):

A vase travels; the rite changes · No individual dating published on this record · Iberians
Bhimbetka · Mesolithic–historical and medieval period · Prehistory
Blue that does not yield · Documented use from the Classic, c. 300–1500 CE · Maya worlds
Eland Cave · Regional tradition of ≈4,000 years · up to historical period · Prehistory
Game Pass Shelter · Regional rock art chronology · panel not dated in isolation · San histories
Kakadu · Regional corpus ≈20,000 BP–contemporary era · Prehistory
Leang Karampuang · Minimum 51,200 years · dating published in 2024 · Prehistory
Quinkan Country · Regional art up to ≈27,000 BP · modern continuity · Prehistory
Sierra de San Francisco · Broad tradition with direct dates ≈5290–295 BP · Prehistory
Tassili n’Ajjer · Corpus ≈6000 BCE–first centuries CE · Prehistory

A closer look

About 1 min to read · 1 section. Further reading and sources · free access. Editorial review recorded: September 5, 2026.

Beneath the palace were bones and wheat

Excavations at Knossos during the 1950s and 1960s descended to the base of a hill formed by millennia of human occupation. In the lower levels appeared bones of cattle, sheep, goat and pig, together with charred wheat grains. The Ashmolean places these testimonies in the seventh millennium BCE. Some bones were reused to make utensils, including a spoon. They are evidence of husbandry, cultivation and food preparation thousands of years before the monumental stores: a story of subsistence that was physically buried beneath the most celebrated architecture.

Museum · Andrew Shapland · Dining with the Minoans, Ashmolean MuseumAccess recorded: September 5, 2026.

The region before this culture

c. 6000–1900 BCE · Crete and its maritime corridors towards the Cyclades, Anatolia, Egypt and the Levant

c. 6000–4500 BCE · Documented
The Neolithic village of Knossos
Permanent farming communities settled in Crete and maintained contacts that necessarily crossed the sea.
c. 4500–2600 BCE · Documented
From Final Neolithic to Early Bronze
Maritime contacts continued and, from c. 3200 BCE, metallurgy, seals, coastal settlements and collective tombs expanded the scale of the communities.
ca. 2600–1900 BCE · Documented
Prepalatial Crete
Workshops such as those of Vasiliki and long-distance networks preceded the first palatial complexes.

What changes and what we should not assume

Permanent villages, navigation, collective tombs, seals and specialised workshops preceded the concentration of resources and ceremonies in the first Cretan palaces.

'Minoan' is a modern label; prepalatial connections do not prove a unified kingdom nor the historical existence of King Minos.

'Teapot' of Vasiliki style

c. 2400–2200 BCE · Vasiliki, Ierapetra, Crete

Vasiliki jar with elongated spout whose red and black surface was not painted as a drawing: the mottled effect arose from uneven control of oxygen and temperature inside the kiln. It comes from Vasiliki, in eastern Crete, a settlement destroyed towards 2200 BCE. Its profile has suggested comparisons with metal vessels, but what is demonstrable is prepalatial experimentation and an extraordinarily steady hand from the workshop. The fire created the colour pattern and, paradoxically, a fire preserved the context of the settlement that produced it.

Hand-modelled jug with an elongated spout, with a mottled red and black surface produced during firing. It comes from Vasiliki in eastern Crete, and the British Museum dates it to c. 2400–2200 BCE.

The mottled effect is related to firing, but the exact reconstruction of each kiln manoeuvre remains experimental, and the intention to imitate metal is not demonstrated.

fired pottery with red and black mottled surface

Wikimedia Commons · Vasiliki_ware_tea_pot_archmus_Heraklion.jpg · Jebulon · CC0

Time frame: c. 6000–1900 BCE
Documented fact 01: Minoan is a modern label popularised by Arthur Evans.
Documented fact 02: The Vasiliki pottery is prepalatial, approximately 2400–2200 BCE.
Documented fact 03: The first Cretan palaces are situated around 1900 BCE, not at the beginning of the Bronze Age.

Where it is held

The British Museum

Reference material evidence · Documented collection

Vasiliki ware used as a material anchor for the prepalatial period; it does not by itself represent the entire threshold.

The holding institution is documented; public display may change. Check its official record before visiting.

Sources and references

Expand this antecedent and consult its sources

Did you enjoy this exhibit?

Your opinion helps us improve the museum. You can change it whenever you like.

Loading your rating…

History and context

Evidence and interpretation

Catalogue facts

Before the Greeks

Dolní Věstonice I

Before Sumer

Twin-chambered vessel from Cova de l’Or

Before Egypt

Before Nubia

Before Gojoseon

Bevel-rimmed bowl

Before Yayoi

Vasiliki

Before the Greeks

Cemetery R-37

Before Ancient China

Longshan

Kerma vessel

Burial at K IV

Before Vedic India

Osmankayası and Ilıca

Grey bowl from Hastinapura

Before Etruscans and Rome

The urn under the helmet

Ceramic stand 1010

Ishtar Gate

Glazed brick guards

Orpheus among the Thracians

The Attic krater that took on a new life in Cástulo

Thoth in the form of a baboon

Leipzig Fish Plate

Dove of the Amarejo

Vas dels Guerrers

Warriors' Vase

Northern mound

Kalathos of Alcorisa

Urewe vessel

Two rows of coffins

Ceramics that continued

Egyptian oil lamp with a fish, held in Laon

Laon lamp with fish

Kabusanza, ca. 400

Missing grave goods

A closer look

Beneath the palace were bones and wheat

The region before this culture

The Neolithic village of Knossos

From Final Neolithic to Early Bronze

Prepalatial Crete

What changes and what we should not assume

'Teapot' of Vasiliki style

Where it is held

The British Museum

Sources and references

Did you enjoy this exhibit?