The Kamares style is named after the sanctuary on Mount Ida in Crete, where extensive numbers of this type of pottery were excavated in 1890. Kamares Ware is the first polychrome Minoan pottery and dates to the early second millennium BC.
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.