page_title: Mycenaean Greece
section_title: Economy
hierarchical_section_title: Mycenaean Greece / Economy
caption_attribution_description: English: Mycenaean stirrup vase, 14th-13th centuries BC, imported to Ugarit. Found in the acropolis of Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit), tomb 37. Français&#160;: Vase à étrier mycénien, XIVe-XIIIe siècles av. J.-C., importé à Ougarit. Découvert dans l'acropole de Ras Shamra (ancienne cité d'Ougarit), tombe 37, fouilles Schaeffer (1936).
context_page_description: Mycenaean Greece was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1600–1100 BC. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland Greece with its palatial states, urban organization, works of art, and writing system. The most prominent site was Mycenae, in the Argolid, after which the culture of this era is named. Other centers of power that emerged included Pylos, Tiryns, Midea in the Peloponnese, Orchomenos, Thebes, Athens in Central Greece and Iolcos in Thessaly. Mycenaean and Mycenaean-influenced settlements also appeared in Epirus, Macedonia, on islands in the Aegean Sea, on the coast of Asia Minor, the Levant, Cyprus and Italy.
  The Mycenaean Greeks introduced several innovations in the fields of engineering, architecture and military infrastructure, while trade over vast areas of the Mediterranean was essential for the Mycenaean economy. Their syllabic script, the Linear B, offers the first written records of the Indo-European Greek language, and their religion already included several deities that can also be found in the Olympic Pantheon.
caption: Mycenaean stirrup vase found in the acropolis of Ugarit, Eastern Mediterranean (c. 1400–1300 BC)
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