The Minoans adopted early techniques for working with stone from their Egyptian contacts. The stone was worked with a wooden drill using wet sand as an abrasive, and the polishing was done with sand as well. The Cretan stone that was used at the time included steatite, stalagmite, alabaster, schist, and serpentine. Examples of such work, including two exceptional pyxis from Zakros and Mochlos, can be seen in the Iraklion Museum.

To make jewellery, the Minoans imported gold from the mines of Sinai as well as from Asia Minor and they used purple amethyst and red carnelian from Cretan mines. They imported copper from Cyprus in order to make daggers. They alloyed copper with tin, which was probably imported from Asia Minor, to make bronze. Silver was probably imported from Sicily or Sifnos. The sealstones in this period were made of soft material such as bone, steatite and ivory introduced from Syria and Egypt.