Little over one hundred years has passed since Schliemann first excavated at Mycenae and revealed the riches of its rulers, buried in the Shaft Graves three and a half thousand years ago. Continuing discoveries have demonstrated the achievements and connections of Mycenaean civilization. The decipherment of their script, Linear B, as an early form of Greek, has shown that the Mycenaeans were the ancestors of the Greeks of the Classical period and has revealed the complexity of the administration of their palaces.This introduction to the Mycenaean world brings together the latest research to provide a clear account of its history and of the real Bronze Age cities which lie behind the Homeric legends. Mycenaean economy and society, technology and trade, burials and buildings, warfare and religion are all explored in illustrating the character and achievements of this brilliant forerunner of Classical Greece. The final chapter is devoted to the no-longer-so Dark Age, during which Greek society was transformed and the Homeric epic reached its final form.