Origin, evolution and decline of the first high civilizations in Europe, namely the Minoans on the island of Crete and the Mycenaeans in Greece. Stone Age background and Early Bronze Age seafaring in the Cycladic Islands; Late Bronze Age society, economy, and religion; art and architecture of the Minoan and Mycenaean palaces; Linear A and B tablets; Mycenaean collapse and the beginning of the Iron Age; Homer's Iliad, archaeology and the Trojan War.