General nature of the evidence of Aegean civilization

For details of monumental evidence the articles on Crete, Mycenae, Tiryns, Troad, Cyprus, etc., must be consulted. The most representative site explored up to now is Cnossus (see Crete) which has yielded not only the most various but the most continuous evidence from the Neolithic age to the twilight of classical civilization. Next in importance come Hissarlik, Mycenae, Phaestus, Hagia, Triada, Tiryns, Phylakope, Palaikastro and Gournia.

A. The internal evidence at present available comprises--

Structures.---Ruins of palaces, palatial villas, houses, built dome- or cist-graves and fortifications (Aegean isles, Greek mainland and N.W. Anatolia), but not distinct temples; small shrines, however, and temene (religious enclosures, remains or one of which were probably found at Petsofa near Palaikastro by J. L. Myres in 1904) are represented on intaglios and frescoes. From the sources and from inlay-work we have also representations of palaces and houses.
Structural Decoration.--Architectural features, such as columns, friezes and various mouldings; mural decoration, such as fresco-paintings, coloured reliefs and mosaic inlay.
Furniture.--(a) Domestic, such as vessels of all sorts and in many materials, from huge store-jars down to tiny unguent-pots; culinary and other implements; thrones, seats, tables, etc., these all in stone or plastered terra-cotta. (b) Sacred, such as models or actual examples of ritual objects; of these we have also numerous pictorial representations. (c) Funerary, e.g. coffins in painted terra-cotta.
Artistic fabrics, e.g. plastic objects, carved in stone or ivory, cast or beaten in metals (gold, silver, copper and bronze), or modelled in clay, faience, paste, etc. Very little trace has yet been found of large free sculpture, but many examples exist of sculptors' smaller work. Vases of all kinds, carved in marble or other stones, cast or beaten in metals or fashioned in clay, the latter in enormous number and variety, richly ornamented with coloured schemes, and sometimes bearing moulded decoration. Examples of painting on stone, opaque and transparent. Engraved objects in great numberr e.g. ring-bezels and gems; and an immense quantity of clay impressions, taken from these.
Weapons, tools and implements, in stone, clay and bronze, and at the last iron, sometimes richly ornamented or inlaid. Numerous representations also of the same. No actual body-armour, except such as was ceremonial and buried with the dead, like the gold breastplates in the circle-graves at Mycenae.
Articles of personal use, e.g. brooches efbulae), pins, razors, tweezers, etc., often found as dedications to a deity, e.g. in the Dictaean Cavern of Crete. No textiles have survived.
Written documents, e.g. clay tablets and discs (so far in Crete only), but nothing of more perishable nature, such as skin, papyrus, etc.; engraved gems and gem impressions; legends written with pigment on pottery (rare); characters incised on stone or pottery. These show two main systems of script (see Crete).
Excavated tombs, of either the pit or the grotto kind, in which the dead were laid, together with various objects of use and luxury, without cremation, and in either coffins or loculi or simple wrappings.
Public works, such as paved and stepped roadways, bridges, systems of drainage, etc.

B. There is also a certain amount of external evidence to be gathered from

Monuments and records of other contemporary civilizations, e.g. representations of alien peoples in Egyptian frescoes; imitation of Aegean fabrics and style in non-Aegean lands; allusions to Mediterranean peoples in Egyptian, Semitic or Babylonian records.
Literary traditions of subsequent civilizations, especially the Hellenic; such as, e.g., those embodied in the Homeric poems, the legenda concerning Crete, Mycenae, etc.; statements as to the origin of gods, cults and so forth, transmitted to us by Hellenic antiquarians such as Strabo, Pausanias, Diodorus Siculus, etc.
Traces of customs, creeds, rituals, etc., in the Aegean area at a later time, discordant with the civilization in which they were practised and indicating survival from earlier systems. There are also possible linguistic and even physical survivals to be considered.