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 managing tribute, labor, and distribution of goods. The economy relied on royal surplus, craft production, and long-distance trade across the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean, supplying and financing large-scale construction, warfare, and religious rituals. Archaeology yields rich material culture, including gold death masks, elaborate metalwork, pottery, and the Linear B tablets that document inventories, offerings, and administrative records.

Burial practices illustrate social stratification and ritual complexity, with shaft graves and tholos (beehive) tombs associated with elites. Architecture featured fortified citadels, palatial complexes, and fortifications such as the Lion Gate at Mycenae. The Mycenaeans contributed to the development of Greek art, sculpture, and elite display, and their iconography and myths influenced later Greek literature.

The civilization declined in the Late Bronze Age collapse, roughly 1200–1100 BCE, with widespread destruction and abandonment of sites. The Mycenaeans left a legacy in language and myth, shaping the memory of ancient Greece and influencing later cultural traditions.