The Mycenaean civilization, the most advanced society in Late Bronze Age Greece (c. 1600-1100 BCE), dominated the Aegean region with its palatial centers, such as Mycenae and Pylos. Mycenaean power was centered in fortressed palaces that controlled the surrounding countryside and engaged in trade and warfare. The Mycenaeans developed a complex writing system, the Linear B script, used to record administrative and economic transactions. Mycenaean culture flourished with the production of elaborate metalwork, pottery, and jewelry, and the composition of epic poems such as the Iliad and the Odyssey. However, the Mycenaean civilization collapsed around 1100 BCE due to factors such as climate change, internal strife, and invasions from the north, plunging Greece into the Dark Ages that followed.
