Mycenaean is the name given to the period of Greek history between the arrival of the Greeks in the Aegean area in about 1600 BC and about 1100 BC, the date usually asigned to the Dorian invasion, although some historians doubt that any such invasion took place. The Mycenaean period is named for the archaeological site at Mycenae, which was one of the main centres of this era. Other important Mycenaean sites were Tiryns, Pylos, Athens and Thebes.
Mycenaean civilization was dominated by the warrior aristocracy. Around 1400 BC, the Mycenaeans conquered Crete, centre of the Minoan civilization, adapting the Minoan script (now called Linear A) to write their own form of Greek. This script was known as Linear B. The epic poems attributed to Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, preserve some later Greek memories of the Mycenaean period.
Around 1100 BC, the Mycenaean civilisation collapsed. Numerous cities were sacked and the region entered what later Greeks saw as a dark age. During this period Greece experienced decreasing population and the Greeks lost their literacy. Historians have traditionally blamed this decline on an invasion by another Greek people, the Dorians, although the historical validity of this theory is now doubted.
The Mycenaeans buried their dead in tholoi or "beehive tombs," which were large circular burial vaults. The Mycenaeans often buried daggers, or some form of military equipment, with the deceased. The nobility was frequently buried with gold masks, tiaras, armour, and jeweled weapons. Mycenaeans were buried in a sitting position and some of the nobility underwent mummification.
