Mycenaeans
The Mycenaeans were the inhabitants of the Mycenaean civilization, a Bronze Age culture of the late second millennium BCE on the Greek mainland and parts of the Aegean. They emerged around 1600 BCE, developing a palatial economy and centralized administration influenced by Minoan Crete. The term also refers to the Greek dialect preserved in Linear B tablets, the earliest form of Greek written in syllabic script and deciphered in the 1950s. Core centers included fortified palaces at Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos, and Midea, often built with grand megaron halls, storerooms, and Cyclopean ashlar masonry.
Political organization centered on a wanax (king) and a military leader or council, with a sophisticated bureaucracy
Burial practices illustrate social stratification and ritual complexity, with shaft graves and tholos (beehive) tombs associated
The civilization declined in the Late Bronze Age collapse, roughly 1200–1100 BCE, with widespread destruction and