[Illustration: THE VAPHIO GOLD CUPS (National Museum, Athens) These beautiful objects were found in 1888 within a "bee-hive" tomb at Vaphio in Laconia. The two cups are of beaten gold, ornamented with designs in _repoussé_ work. The first scene represents a wild-bull hunt. The companion piece pictures four tame bulls under the care of a herdsman.] [Illustration: SILVER FRAGMENT FROM MYCENAE (National Museum, Athens) A siege scene showing the bows, slings, and huge shields of Mycenaean warriors. In the background are seen the masonry of the city wall and the flat-roofed houses.] ANTIQUITY OF AEGEAN CIVILIZATION These discoveries in the Aegean enable us to place another venerable center of civilized life by the side of Babylonia and Egypt. As early as 3000 B.C. the primitive inhabitants of the Aegean were giving up the use of stone tools and weapons for those of metal. Bronze soon came into general use, as is shown by the excavations. The five centuries between 1600 and 1100 B.C. appear to have been the time when the civilization of the Aegean Age reached its highest development. THE FINE ARTS Remarkable progress took place during Aegean times in some of the fine arts. We find imposing palaces, often splendidly adorned and arranged for a life of comfort. Wall paintings, plaster reliefs, and fine carvings in stone excite our admiration. Aegean artists made beautiful pottery of many shapes and cleverly decorated it with plant and animal forms. They carved ivory, engraved gems, and excelled in the working of metals. Some of their productions in gold, silver, and bronze were scarcely surpassed by Greek artists a thousand years later. [6] COMMERCE There was much intercourse throughout the Mediterranean during this period. Products of Aegean art have been found as far west as Sicily, Italy, and Spain, Aegean pottery has frequently been discovered in Egyptian tombs. Some objects unearthed in Babylonia are apparently of Aegean workmanship. In those ancient days Crete was mistress of the seas. Cretan merchants preceded the Phoenicians as carriers between Asia and Europe. [7] Trade and commerce thus opened up the Mediterranean world to all the cultural influences of the Orient. [Illustration: A CRETAN GIRL (Museum of Candia, Crete) A fresco painting from the palace of Gnossus. The girl's face is so astonishingly modern in treatment that one can scarcely believe that the picture belongs to the sixteenth century B.C.] DOWNFALL OF AEGEAN CIVILIZATION Aegean civilization did not penetrate beyond the shores of Asia Minor, the islands, and the coasts of Continental Greece. The interior regions of the Greek peninsula remained the home of barbarous tribes, which had not yet learned to build cities, to create beautiful objects of art, or to traffic on the seas. By 1100 B.C. their destructive inroads brought the Aegean Age to an end. 23. THE HOMERIC AGE (ABOUT 1100-750 B.C.) COMING OF THE NORTHERN BARBARIANS