Minoan civilization especially the sequence of ceramic styles, have been used by archaeologists to define the three phases of Minoan culture (EM, MM, LM). Since wood and textiles have decomposed, the best-preserved (and most instructive) surviving examples of Minoan art are its pottery, palace architecture (with frescos which include landscapes), stone carvings and intricately-carved seal stones. Frescoes were the primary art form of Minoan culture. They include many depictions of people, with sexes distinguished by color; the men's skin is reddish-brown, and the women's white. Several frescoes at Knossos and Santorini survive. In contrast to Egyptian frescoes, Crete had true frescoes. Probably
Minoan eruption few months' warning. Since no human remains have been found at the Akrotiri site, this preliminary volcanic activity probably caused the island's population to flee. It is also suggested that several months before the eruption, Santorini experienced one or more earthquakes, which damaged the local settlements. Intense magmatic activity of the first major phase (BO/Minoan A) of the eruption deposited up to of pumice and ash, with a minor lithic component, southeast and east. Archaeological evidence indicated burial of man-made structures with limited damage. The second (BO/Minoan B) and third (BO/Minoan C) eruption phases involved pyroclastic flow and lava fountain