K a m a r e s w a re

The most distinctive products of the Old Palaces are the fine polychromeceramics called Kamaresware after the Kamares Cave where they were first found toward the end of the last century. With the introduction of the potters wheel around 1900 BC and the establishment of permanent pottery kilns that could reach temperatures of over 1000 degrees Celcius, the vase makers in Crete here able to take the high quality neogene clays that abound on the lower slopes of Mount Iouhtas, south of Knossos, and create the finest ceramics in the the prehistoric Mediterranean.