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Discover the Cycladic, Minoan, and Mycenaean worlds before the Greek alphabet.

Use the timeline below to navigate through major events and milestones.

Bronze Age Greece · 3200-1100 BC
Aegean Bronze Age

Bronze Age Greece

From the Cycladic seafarers and the Minoan palaces of Crete to the Mycenaean citadels and the great Late Bronze Age collapse. Slide across the millennia to read the major events that shaped the Aegean before the Greek alphabet was born.

3200 BC
Early Bronze Age
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In the year of Our Lord

3200 BC

Early Bronze Age
  • Cultural

    Dawn of the Aegean Bronze Age

    Copper and tin metallurgy spreads across the Aegean. Early Cycladic, Early Helladic, and Early Minoan cultures take shape on the islands and mainland.

18 milestones
Full Chronicle

Bronze Age Greece

From the Cycladic seafarers and the Minoan palaces of Crete to the Mycenaean citadels and the great Late Bronze Age collapse. Slide across the millennia to read the major events that shaped the Aegean before the Greek alphabet was born.

  1. Early Bronze Age

    • Dawn of the Aegean Bronze Age

      Copper and tin metallurgy spreads across the Aegean. Early Cycladic, Early Helladic, and Early Minoan cultures take shape on the islands and mainland.

  2. Cycladic Civilization

    • Flourishing of the Cycladic culture

      The Cycladic islands produce the iconic marble figurines and longboats that define the Early Bronze Age Aegean.

  3. Corridor House Era

    • Lerna's House of Tiles

      At Lerna in the Argolid, a monumental two-storey 'corridor house' with a tiled roof and clay sealings is built — a high point of Early Helladic II society.

  4. Early Helladic Crisis

    • Destruction of EH II settlements

      Mainland centers like Lerna's House of Tiles are burned. Population shifts and possible new arrivals reshape the Greek mainland.

  5. Middle Helladic Begins

    • Indo-European Greek-speakers reshape the mainland

      Material culture changes across mainland Greece — wheel-made grey 'Minyan' ware, intramural cist-grave burials, and likely the arrival of Indo-European Greek-speakers at the start of the Middle Helladic.

  6. Old Palace Period

    • Rise of the first Minoan palaces

      On Crete, the first palace complexes are built at Knossos, Phaistos, and Malia, marking the beginning of European palatial civilization.

  7. Minoan Thalassocracy Expands

    • Minoan trade reaches Egypt and the Levant

      Cretan Kamares ware appears in Egyptian and Levantine elite tombs, while Egyptian alabaster and Syrian tin reach Crete in return.

  8. New Palace Period

    • Rebuilding of the Minoan palaces

      After widespread destructions (probably from earthquakes), the Minoan palaces are rebuilt on a grander scale. Linear A appears.

  9. Shaft Grave Era

    • Mycenae's Shaft Graves

      Spectacularly rich shaft graves at Mycenae signal the rise of warrior elites on the Greek mainland.

  10. Theran Eruption

    • Eruption of Thera

      One of the largest volcanic eruptions in human history devastates Thera (Santorini) and buries the prosperous town of Akrotiri.

  11. Late Minoan IB

    • The Marine Style flourishes

      Late Minoan IB potters cover ceramic vessels with octopuses, argonauts, and dolphins — the so-called 'Marine Style', the high point of Aegean naturalism.

  12. Mycenaean Ascendancy

    • Destruction of Minoan palaces; Mycenaeans take Knossos

      All major Minoan palaces except Knossos are destroyed. Knossos comes under Mycenaean Greek control, and Linear B (recording an early form of Greek) appears.

  13. Mycenaean Palatial Era

    • Apogee of Mycenaean palatial civilization

      Citadels at Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos, and Thebes administer the Greek mainland. Cyclopean walls, tholos tombs, and Linear B archives flourish.

  14. Cyclopean Fortifications

    • The Lion Gate of Mycenae

      The Lion Gate is built at Mycenae as the citadel's Cyclopean walls are extended; Tiryns, Midea, and Athens fortify in parallel.

  15. Late Mycenaean Era

    • Traditional date of the Trojan War

      Around this time, ancient tradition places the Achaean expedition against Troy. Troy VI/VIIa is destroyed in roughly the same period.

  16. Bronze Age Collapse

    • Destruction of the Mycenaean palaces

      Pylos, Mycenae, Tiryns, and Thebes burn. Within a generation, palatial bureaucracy, Linear B writing, and long-distance trade collapse across the eastern Mediterranean.

  17. Sea Peoples

    • Troy VIIa burns; Sea Peoples ravage the eastern Mediterranean

      Troy VIIa is destroyed by fire. Pharaoh Ramesses III repels a coalition of 'Sea Peoples' on the Egyptian Delta, and the Hittite capital Hattusa is abandoned around the same time.

  18. Post-Palatial Period

    • End of the Bronze Age

      The last Mycenaean centres fade. Greece enters the Early Iron Age — the so-called 'Greek Dark Ages' — with sharply reduced population, lost writing, and new burial customs.