 The prehistoric culture of crete is known as Minoan, after the legendary king Minos. Minoan culture reached its apogee with the establishment about 1900 B.C. of centers, called palaces, that concentrated political and economic power as well as artistic activity. Major palaces were built at Knossos and Mallia in the north and Phaistos in the south. With the palaces came the development of writing. Minoan Crete employed two scripts, a hieroglyphic script whose source of inspiration was probably Egypt and a linear script, Linear A, perhaps inspired by the cuneiform of the eastern Mediterranean. From 1500 B.C. there was increasing influence from the Greek mainland, perhaps including conquest after island-wide destructions about 1450 B.C. By the beginning of the eleventh century B.C., the entire culture was in decline. The Minoan art most fully represented at The Metropolitan Museum of Art is seal engraving. The seals reveal an extraordinary sensitivity to materials and dynamic form–characteristics that are equally apparent in other media, including clay, gold, stone, and bronze.
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