Late Bronze Age Greek Pottery
In the end of the Mycenean period, after the Greeks had conquered Crete, Mycenean potters began to imitate Minoan (Cretan) pottery styles. But where the Minoans liked to paint wildly flowing sea creatures, fish, seaweed, and octopuses, the Mycenean imitations of these are much stiffer and more symmetrical (and don't look so much like octopuses or seaweed!).
Here is a Minoan octopus vase.
And here is a Mycenean version of the
same thing (this is sometimes called the Palace style)
Stone Age
Early Bronze Age
Late Bronze Age
Sub-Mycenean (Dark Age)
Geometric
Black-Figure
Red-Figure
Main Greek Art page
Main Greeks page
Main art page
To find out more about Late Bronze Age Greek pottery, check out these books from Amazon.com or your library:
Hands-On
Ancient People, Volume 2 : Art Activities about Minoans, Mycenaeans,
Trojans, Ancient Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans (2004) For kids ages
9-12.
The Archaeology of Greece: An Introduction, by William R. Biers (1996) This is NOT a children's book, but Biers writes very clearly and has a lot of good pictures.
Greek Art and Archaeology (3rd Edition), by John G. Pedley (2002) This is also NOT a children's book, but it has a lot of good information and is pretty readable. Plus, the author is really an expert in this field.
The Aegean Bronze Age (Cambridge World Archaeology) by Oliver Dickinson, Norman Yoffee (Editor) (1994)
Minoan and Mycenaean Art, by Reynold Higgins (2nd revised edition 1997) The standard book for college students.
This page was reviewed for accuracy by Ioannis Georganas in March 2005.
