The extensive commercial activity of the Minoans, which often brought them into contact with most of the developed countries of Asia Minor, Syria, Mesopotamia and Egypt, resulted in stimulated progress in communication and science. The Minoan civilization was the first in Europe to employ a script and make use of applications of the exact sciences. The extent of progress in communication and the administration of economic resources in Minoan Crete are evident mainly from pre-alphabetic scripts and systems of weights and measures. Later Greek tradition presents Minos as the inspiration for many sciences, and Crete was well-known in antiquity as the birthplace of many intellectual achievements.
The Cretans adapted administration and communication systems adopted from foreign civilizations to their own needs. Minoan writing systems were of eastern origin, but in their specific forms they were considered Cretan inventions. From the use of a writing system preserved on the Phaistos disc (which remains indecipherable) the Cretans reached the point of being able to record what they produced as well as create extensive palace records. Given that the preserved texts were of this kind only, we do not know if written literature existed in Minoan Crete, or indeed whether religious texts, hymns and exorcisms recited in religious rituals were ever written or whether there was any written popular poetry concerning the traditions and heros of Cretan mythology.
Thanks to the texts on written tablets, which are examples of archive organization and accounting, we also know that the Minoans were skilled mathematicians. The signs of numbers as well as the architectural structures of Minoan Crete presuppose the mastery and application of mathematical principals which the Minoans had learnt from developed countries in the East and Egypt. Minoan arithmetic is difficult to reconstruct precisely. But we do know that their numerals were exactly the same as the Egyptian ones and that were based on the decimal system. The only difference was that the Minoan numbers only went up as far as the thousands, whereas Egyptian numbers reached 1 million. Another interesting feature of Minoan arithmetic is the percentage system. It is also thought (although there is no absolute proof) that the Minoans had knowledge of astronomy, which was useful to them in agriculture and navigation.

The Minoans were also acquainted with the principles of geometry, judging from the metric system of measuring length and distance used in the planning of the palaces. They also had knowledge of mechanics, plumbing and experience in land reclamation and rather advanced sewage technology, as is evident from the complex sewage system of Knossos. The metric systems of Minoan Crete that we know best are the measurement systems for weight and capacity. The weights system is discernible from the sealed clay and lead weights found on Minoan sites. The system for measuring capacity differs from Linear A to Linear B. The Linear B system has much in common with that of Mesopotamia, which means that the Mycenaean Crete system was part of a different tradition from the that discernible in earlier Minoan writings.