Bronze Age Pottery Chronology

Mainland Greece (Helladic)

Main Division Subdivision Pottery Styles
Early Helladic
  c. 3000-2200 BCE 		EHI
   c. 3000-2500 BCE		 simple monochrome pottery
EHII
   c. 2500-2200 BCE 		"sauceboat" shapes

EHIII
   c. 2200-2000 BCE

patterned ware

Middle Helladic
 c. 2000-1550 BCE

MH
   c. 2000-1550 BCE

Minyan Ware
Matt-Painted Ware

Late Helladic (Mycenaean)
   c. 1550-1100 BCE

LHI
   c. 1550-1500 BCE

 CU Art Museum #2006.17.T
LHII
   c. 1500-1400 BCE

Palace Style
CU Art Museum #2006.22.T

LHIIIA
   c. 1400-1300 BCE

sparsely decorated pottery
CU Art Museum #2006.24.T

LHIIIB
   c. 1300-1200 BCE

Pictorial Style
LHIIIC
   c. 1200-1100 BCE

Close Style
Granary Style
Octopus Style
Pictorial Style

Crete (Minoan)

Main Division Subdivision Pottery Styles
Early Minoan
   c. 3000-2000 		EMI
   c. 3000-2500 		Aghios Onouphrios Ware
incised ware

EMII
   c. 2500-2200

Vasilike Ware
EMIII
   c. 2200-2000 		light-on-dark pottery
Middle Minoan
   c. 2000-1550 		MMI
   c. 2000-1900 		Kamares Ware
Eggshell Ware
MMII
   c. 1900-1700 		Kamares Ware
Eggshell Ware
MMIII
   c. 1700-1550 		light-on-dark pottery
Late Minoan
   c. 1550-1100 		LMIA
   c. 1550-1500

Floral Style
Pattern Style
dark-on-light pottery

LMIB
   c. 1500-1450

Marine Style
Floral Style
Pattern Style

LMII
   c. 1450-1400

Palace Style

LMIIIA
   c. 1400-1300

patterned wares with animal motifs

LMIIIB
   c. 1300-1200

  

LMIIIC
   c. 1200-1100

Pictorial Style

Cyclades Islands (Cycladic)

Main Division Subdivision Pottery Styles
Early Cycladic
  c. 3000-2200 BCE 		ECI
   c. 3000-2500 BCE

pottery with incised herringbone designs
CU Art Museum #2006.38ab.T

ECII
   c. 2500-2200 BCE

"Frying Pans"
pottery in imitation of stone
zoomorphic shapes
linear patterns painted with glossy black

ECIII
   c. 2200-2000 BCE

 matt black painted pottery

Middle Cycladic
   c. 2000-1550 BCE

MCI
   c. 2000-1850 BCE

  

MCII
   c. 1850-1700 BCE

matt-painted dark-on-light pottery
spiral designs on pottery

MCIII
   c. 1700-1550 BCE

 naturalistic motifs on pottery

Late Cycladic
   c. 1550-1100 BCE

LC
   c. 1550-1100 BCE

pottery styles influenced by Crete

For more information on Bronze Age pottery from the Greek Mainland, click here. To read more about Minoan pottery, click here. On Cycladic pottery, click here.

Information on these tables is taken from John G. Pedley, Greek Art and Archaeology (Upper Saddle River NJ: Prentice Hall 1993): 26-103; Reynold Higgins, Minoan and Mycenaean Art (New York: Oxford University Press 1981).

For further reading, please see Jeremy B. Rutter, Prehistoric Archaeology of the Aegean http://projectsx.dartmouth.edu/history/bronze_age/index.html (18 March 2000).

Information compiled by Summer Trentin