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[[File: The_Lions_Gate_of_Mycenae.jpg|300px|thumbnail|left| The Lion Gate of the Ancient City of Mycenae]]__NOTOC__ The era of ancient Greek culture generally known as the “classical” period, which roughly encompassed the sixth through fourth centuries BC, was when many of the hallmarks of Hellenic Civilization, including art, philosophy, and commerce were first produced. Those ideas were passed on into the Hellenistic Period and later picked up by the Romans to create a continuous line of cultural innovation that bound the various Greek city-states and later the Romans into a single civilization, often known as Greco-Roman or Hellenic Civilization. Although Rome would later collapse and most of Hellenic Civilization along with it ushering in the “Dark Ages” of Europe, when that period passed medieval Europeans rediscovered many of the classical Greek ideas, which would influence both early and modern Western Civilization. But long before any Greek philosophers contemplated the nature of the universe, there was a thriving Bronze Age civilization in Greece that influenced classical Greece the same way that the classical Greeks influenced Rome and medieval Europe.
Bronze Age Greece was dominated by two cultures – the Minoans and Mycenaeans – who collectively comprised what many modern historians identify as “Aegean Civilization.” The Minoans, who were based on the island of Crete, represented the early phase of Aegean Civilization, while the more warlike Mycenaeans came to dominate the region in the Late Bronze Age. From about 1500 BC until the collapse of the Bronze Age after 1200 BC, the Mycenaeans left their mark in the Aegean by building numerous walled cities, conducting long-distance trade with other cultures, and by engaging in extensive warfare with each other and other peoples. When the Bronze Age system collapsed so too did the Mycenaean culture, but when classical Greek culture emerged several hundred years later it was clearly influenced by the Mycenaeans, especially in terms of language, religion, and economics.
The classical Greeks were known throughout the world, and today, just as much for their merchant and trade activities as they were for their martial abilities. They traded with other non-Greek peoples throughout the Mediterranean, much like their Mycenaean ancestors did hundreds of years prior. The Mycenaeans were able to take land by force in the Aegean region, but they eventually expanded their influence directly to Anatolia and Egypt through trade, incorporating their culture into the Bronze Age system from about 1400 BC until its collapse around the year 1200 BC.
The Mycenaeans first built their trade networks within Greece by constructing the first roads in Europe to bring wheat from Thessaly and oil from Attica to the primary Mycenaean cities of Mycenae, Pylos, and Tiryns on the Peloponnese peninsula. <ref> Samuel, p. 103</ref> Once the Mycenaeans developed extensive trade routes within the Aegean region, they established long-distance routes throughout the Mediterranean basin. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Mycenaeans imported more foreign goods than they exported: metal from Cyprus and Anatolia was imported to make weapons while grain was imported from the Black Sea and Egypt. <ref> Vermeule, Emily Townsend. “The Fall of the Mycenaean Empire.” <i>Archaeology</i> 13 (1960) p. 66</ref> Although the Mycenaeans exported far fewer goods, their vases were in high demand in a number of Bronze Age kingdoms, especially Egypt. During the reign of the Egyptian King Akhenaten (ruled ca. 1364-1347 BC), the Mycenaeans exported the highest number of vases and other goods to Egypt, which demonstrates that Mycenaeans played a vital role in the Late Bronze Age economic system. <ref> Samuel, p. 110</ref> The ever industrious and economically inclined classical Greeks no doubt inherited some of these traits from their Mycenaean ancestors.
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[[Category: Bronze Age History]] [[Category: Late Bronze Age]] [[Category: Ancient Greek History]] [[Category: European History]]
