The Mycenaeans, the first Greek civilization, ruled from powerful fortified cities like Mycenae.

They are famously linked to the legendary Trojan War, later immortalized in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.

Skilled in warfare, trade, and architecture, they influenced Greek culture for centuries.

Their civilization collapsed around 1100 BCE, ushering in Greece’s Dark Age, a period of decline in literacy, trade, and city life before the rise of classical Greece.