Principal Mycenaean sites in Greece (site names in French)

Two Mycenean women out on a chariot... Fresco from Tiryns ~1200BC

Example of Linear B script

The Mycenaean culture (~1600–1100BC) was an early Greek culture during the Bronze Age, on the Greek mainland and on Crete.

Map of Greece as described in Homer's Iliad. The geographical data is believed to refer primarily to Bronze Age Greece, when Mycenaean Greek would have been spoken.

The name Achaean was used by Homer to describe them, and occurs in the Iliad. The term we use is derived from Mycenae, which is an important archaeological site about 90 km from Athens. Other important Mycenaean sites are at Athens, Thebes, Tiryns and Pylos. The epic poems of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, are Mycenaean in origin.