Europe's first advanced civilization sprang not from a well-watered river plain as was the case in Mesopotamia, Egypt, India or China but from the craggy landscape of the Aegean. Islands such as that of Crete became part of a vast center of commerce - an interaction sphere based on ideal standards of life - Plato called it a utopian life. The beginnings of Cretan history are lost in the darkness of the Neolithic period (5000 - 2600 B.C.). During this long era, the island seems to have been completely isolated from its neighbours, and, as can be seen from the pottery of the period, its culture was stagnant and monotonous.
