Ancient Civilizations in Credo: Pre-Classical Era

Gr. Kríti, island, SE Greece, in the E Mediterranean Sea, c.60 mi (100 km) from the Greek mainland.

Middle and Late Bronze Age settlement, 8 km/5 mi south of present-day Iraklion, Crete.

An ancient territory in W central Italy, in modern Lazio, on the Tyrrhenian Sea: inhabited by the Latin people from the 10th century BC until dominated by Rome.

Inland sea separating Europe from north Africa, with Asia to the east; extreme length 3,860 km/2,400 mi; area 2,966,000 sq km/1,145,000 sq mi.

The Thracian Bronze Age was similar to that of Mycenaean Greece, and the Thracians had developed high forms of music and poetry, but their savage warfare led the Greeks to consider them barbarians.

The Etruscans played a key role, not just in central Italy, but across much of the Mediterranean. Even now the Etruscans are famed for the material culture they produced themselves, and the material culture they collected from other contemporary cultures, particularly the Greeks.

Ancient Cretan culture representing a stage in the development of the Aegean civilization.

An ancient Aegean civilization known from the excavations at Mycenae and other sites.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Bronze Age art of the Cyclades, an island group of the central Aegean.

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
(c. 8th-4th centuries BC) Art of the people of Etruria. Characteristic achievements are the wall frescoes-painted in two-dimensional style-and realistic terra-cotta portraits found in tombs. Bronze reliefs and sculptures are also common.

From The Homer Encyclopedia
In the 2nd millennium BCE the Eastern Mediterranean, the Aegean included, became the center and major producer of systems of writing which differed in principle from both cuneiform to the east and Egyptian hieroglyphic to the south of this area.