The ability to read and write has always been recognised as one of the highest achievements of human
civilization. The oldest evidence of writing in Greece are from Crete and are dated to the middle of the Bronze
Age. Crete, which held a dominant position in the Mediterranean area, was the cradle of a great civilisation
known as the Minoans. This paper seeks to discuss the evolution of the Greek alphabet and Greek writing, to
present three pre-alphabetical writing systems, developed in Crete (Hieroglyphic writing, Linear A and Linear
B) and to provide an overview of this evolution by introducing the most important example of hieroglyphic
writing, the Phaistos Disc dated to 1700 BCE, plates of Linear A and B from the Cretan palaces of Phaistos,
Knossos and Pylos, as well as Greek inscriptions of the 8th century BCE engraved upon vessels (skyphos of
Pithecusae, oinochoe of Dipylos) and the inscription of Nikandre. These representative surviving specimens of
the Greek writing evolution state that the completion of the writing system followed a long procedure of
developments and adjustments to the features and needs of the ancient Greek societies.