Tombs and treatment of the dead

Many of the seals and other artifacts which provide similar iconographic information were found in tombs. Care for the dead was important for a small part of the population. The stone tombs are among the earliest monumental structures on Crete, erected in the century before the earliest palaces. A variety of burial forms are documented but the removal and collection of individual skulls for deposition in collective burials is probably one of the most striking practices, and one which can be traced back to practices in the Neolithic Levant and Anatolia. The importance of caves distinguishes Minoan burial customs from both the Near East and Mycenaean traditions.