The Aegean Bronze Age is the period between ca. 3100-1075 BC in the geographical area which today constitutes modern Greece. This is a time after the Neolithic period but still long before the emergence of the Ancient Greek Civilization (ca. 1000 BC). During the Aegean Bronze Age three major cultures flourished in the area: the Cycladic, which came into existence in the core of the Cyclades; the Minoan, which developed on the island of Crete; and the Helladic culture (its latest phase is also known as Mycenaean) which is connected with the Greek mainland, especially the Peloponese. In the period after 2000 BC large complex architectural structures, referred to as palaces, appeared in various parts of the Aegean and seemed to have played a central role in the administration of regional economy. Concurrently, the first script systems in the Aegean were devised: the so called Cretan Hieroglyphic and the Linear A script. These are later followed by the introduction of Linear B, the only deciphered script of the Aegean Bronze Age that encodes a proto-Greek language. The simultaneous emergence of palatial buildings and the technology of script as well as the use of seals for labelling and securing property attest to complex social structures in the Bronze Age Aegean that required elaborate systems of control and administration. 

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Selected online resources about the Aegean Bronze Age (for seals, look here):

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Jeremy B. Rutters Dartmouth College lessons and illustrations about Aegean Prehistoric Archaeology

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ERT documentary about the Cycladic island of Keros that has been suggested to be the world's first marine sanctuary

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Short video presentation about the excellently preserved Cycladic site of Akrotiri, Thera that was covered by ash after a fierce volcanic eruption

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Ian Swindale's site 'Minoan Crete' with information and photographs of major Minoan sites (here also links to several Minoan archaeological projects) 

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Excavation of a Minoan palace at Sissi, Crete (University of Louvain-la-Neuve)

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Follow the excavation of the Minoan site of Zominthos online (Yannis/Efi Sakellarakis) at the site of the Archaeological Institute of America

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Unlooted Mycenaean tomb (Griffin Warrior Tomb) that also included more than 50 seals and four gold signet rings (University of Cincinnati)

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Presentation of the Griffin Warrior Tomb by its excavators (e.g. 12, 2018 California)

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Decipherment of Linear B (BBC article)

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Digital edition of Linear B documents LiBER, Rome

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Database of Mycenaean texts Damos, Oslo

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Nestor Database of Aegean Bronze Age bibliography, University of Cincinnati

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