The Phaistos Disc is a fired-clay disc about sixteen centimetres in diameter, stamped on both faces with a spiral of pictographic signs that were impressed using pre-formed punches, an early example of what some call movable type. It was found at the Minoan palace of Phaistos in southern Crete and remains one of archaeology’s most … Read more
The Palace of Zakros is the fourth-largest Minoan palace, set at the far eastern end of Crete beside a sheltered bay, and the most remote of the great palace centres. As a harbour town it faced east across the sea towards the trade routes of the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East, making it Minoan … Read more
The Palace of Malia is a Minoan palace on the north coast of Crete, the third-largest of the island’s great palatial centres, set on a flat coastal plain near the modern resort town of Malia. It survives as an open archaeological site of courts, storerooms and ceremonial spaces that reveal how a Bronze Age Cretan … Read more