Mycenaean
Mycenaean [CP].A Greek Bronze Age civilization, at first limited to the mainland but later spreading throughout Greece and across the Aegean after the fall of the Minoan empire. Centred on the city of MYCENAE, the Mycenaeans called themselves ACHAEANS, their achievements being remembered in legendary form by the classical Greeks of the later 1st millennium bc.
The origins of the Mycenaeans remain the subject of much research, but they can be recognized in Greece from about 2000 BC onwards. Influenced by the MINOANS and the development of extensive trading links, the Mycenaean civilization was well established by the 16th century bc and by about 1450 BC was powerful enough to take over Crete and the Aegean. Trade with the eastern Mediterranean was especially strong, but links also extended northwards into continental Europe, bringing, for example, Baltic amber into southern...
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