“Unraveling the Mysteries: What Sparked the Dawn of Ancient Greece?”
In any event, depending on the theory, the Greeks arrived on the scene in around 2300 to 1600 BCE. We don’t know for sure because there are no real records until the Greeks started writing. What we do know is a series of natural disasters destroyed the Minoan cities and settlements. This was over a long time span, long enough to see them rebuild some cities, only for them to be destroyed again. One such disaster was the eruption on the island of modern day Santorini. The volcano preserved the Minoan settlement nearby in a similar manner to how the eruption of mount Vesuvius preserved Pompei. At around 1580 BCE, the Greeks overtook the Minoans and emulated their society. They formed similar centers across the Aegean and on the mainland of Greece.
We call this civilization Mycenaean Greece after the first discovered location in Mycenae. Based on archaeological evidence in Hittite and Egyptian records as well as the Homeric epics, they probably referred to themselves as Achaeans. Yes, these are the people described in the Homeric epics, even if Homer got most details wrong. We will get back to Homer. In fact, Homer is the only reason we are talking about the Minoans and the Myceneans, as Homer establishes one of the few connections between the ancient Greeks and the older Myceneans.
Were the Myceneans politically united as one entity like the Minoans may have been, or did they reflect the kingdoms in the Iliad as separate culturally connected kingdoms? The answer is in between. They adopted the central palace political and economic structure of the Minoans. The difference is that they copied this model across the Aegean into separate palaces surrounded by smaller subservient palaces. Other than the spread of this model, another significant difference is they heavily walled their cities, while the Minoans did not. Mycenaean palaces can be found in Knossos in Crete, Pylos in Messenia, Therapne in Laconia, Mycenae, Tiryns and Midea in Argolus, and Athens among others.
