In the centuries after 3000 BC, gold, copper and bronze metallurgy became established in the Aegean in communities that were becoming more hierarchical.
Petty kings controlled the use of agricultural surplus, the skills and services of craftsmen and the products of trade, among which metal ores were most important. Among the fine works of craftsmanship at this time were wonderful stone figurines produced in the Cyclades, eloquent in their simplicity.
This period probably saw the first cultivation of vines and olives, producing two important and eminently storable commodities: olive oil and wine.
Towns such as Troy appeared in some parts of the Aegean; elsewhere large, complex buildings were appearing that resemble the later palaces in microcosm: places of elite residence, storage and community activity.
Around 2200 BC, many of the sites on the Greek mainland and in north-west Anatolia were destroyed by fire; these regions did not recover until around 1600 BC. On Crete, however, an unbroken sequence leads directly to the first fully functioning palaces around 2000 BC.
