A survey of how the Aegean peoples expressed themselves during a period of some 5000 years after the end of the Bronze Age (circa 1100 BC), and before the rise of Greek art. Work produced in the ambience of the palaces of Crete (including the palace of Minos at Knossos) and of Mycenae on the mainland is fully described and illustrated. For purposes of clarity the arts are considered by function and material rather than by geographical region or chronological period; but the main political upheavals affecting them are kept in mind. Little wall-painting has survived, and the so-called minor arts are examined for the light they thow on it, as well as to assess artistic development in the Aegean as a whole.