Kamares Ware is the first polychrome Minoan pottery and dates to the early second millennium BCE.

The colours are predominantly dark reds and browns, with white detail. Characteristic themes are spirals and rosettes, papyrus lilies, shellfish, crocuses and palm trees, all highly stylised.

The Kamares style is named after the sanctuary on Mount Ida in Crete, where a lot of this pottery was excavated in 1890.

I was totally blown away by the Kamares pottery in the Heraklion and the Chania museums when I visited in 2025.