The Art and Archaeology of the Aegean Bronze Age: A History

The palaces, wall paintings and finely worked objects of the Aegean Bronze Age did not appear all at once. They grew out of a much longer history, from Neolithic communities to the varied societies of Crete, the islands and mainland Greece. Jean-Claude Poursat traces that development through what survives: buildings and settlements, pottery, frescoes, metalwork, stone vessels and carved ivory.

Materials and styles changed as different parts of the Aegean came into contact, but the regional picture was never uniform. Poursat sets objects beside the places in which they were found, so art becomes evidence for everyday work, status, religious life and changing forms of power. Carl Knappett’s English translation preserves the scale of this illustrated archaeological history, which ranges across the Aegean rather than telling a story of Minoans and Mycenaeans alone.