Greek mainland and Aegean · Bronze Age
Mycenaean Greece
The Bronze Age warrior-kings behind Homer's legends
1,600 BCE – 1,100 BCE · 500 years
Warrior-aristocracy palace states whose Linear B tablets are the earliest deciphered form of Greek.
Where it sits on the calendar
Government
City-state
Writing system
Linear B
Estimated peak population
250,000
How it ended
Trade network collapse
Traits
Monumental architecture Bronze metallurgy Standing army Long-distance trade Urban planning Seafaring Iron metallurgy Irrigation agriculture Codified law Astronomical record-keeping
How Mycenaean Greece ended
Fell during the broader Late Bronze Age Collapse alongside disrupted Mediterranean trade routes.
See other civilizations that fell the same way →Notable for
- Linear B, the earliest deciphered Greek writing
- Cyclopean fortress walls
- Basis for later Homeric epic
Who else was alive at the same time
8 other civilizations in this dataset overlap with Mycenaean Greece's 500-year span.
See every overlap involving Mycenaean Greece →