Argolis was inhabited in the Neolithic age by a branch of the race that occupied central and northern Greece. No settlement of this period has yet been found at Mycenae, whose history begins with the Bronze Age. Then the citadel was occupied by the bronze using folk of the Early Aegean period who seem to have come into Greece from the islands and southwest Asia Minor. There is no clue to the language of the neolithic race, but the Bronze Age people probably spoke a non-Hellenic tongue and brought into Greece the place names which end in -nthos, -assos, or -ene. Among these is Mykene, a heroine mentioned by Homer whose name is to Mykenai as Athene is to Athenai. It is hard to estimate either the date of the Bronze Age settlement, which probably existed before the third millennium B.C., or its size, for ceramic remains, though frequent, are much disturbed by later buildings. With the beginning of the Middle Aegean period soon after 2200 B.C. a new racial element of unknown origin entered Greece. Its presence is marked by a class of pottery called Minyan Ware which has several varieties. The plentifulness of this and of a matt painted fabric, developed from the Early Bronze Age pottery at Mycenae, shows that the city prospered under this new impulse. As Minyan ware is practically unknown in Crete, though common in the islands, relations between Crete and Mycenae cannot have been intimate, and so the latter's ex pansion would have been mainly independent of Crete. Through out the Middle Bronze Age, on the hillside where the Grave Circle and Lion Gate were afterwards built, a cemetery had been in use, as this was the nearest spot where the rock was soft enough for simple cist graves of the type usual at the period. Among them in one special area larger and deeper graves were hewn out to contain the remains of the princes, the famous Shaft Graves, the treasures of which, excavated by Schliemann, first revealed the great prehistoric civilisation of Greece. The earliest, the Sixth, contains some objects from Crete, but the bulk of its pottery is unmistakably indigenous.
This Shaft Grave Dynasty rose to power about 1600 s.c. almost coinciding with the establishment of the 18th Dynasty in Egypt and the renaissance of Knossos after its destruction towards the end of the Middle Bronze Age. Slight signs of Cretan influence appear shortly before, but now at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age Cretan fashions and art were largely adopted at Mycenae. Three explanations are possible: (I) that Cretans now conquered the mainland and displacing the native popula tion colonized a large portion; (2) that Mycenaean kings, strong on land and sea, successfully raided Crete, bringing home rich treasures and craftsmen as slaves; (3) that the kings of Mycenae grew powerful and rich, entered into relations with Crete and absorbed its culture. The first view seems least probable because for one reason Cretan pottery of the date of the alleged conquest is extremely rare at Mycenae where local fabrics still continued. Which of the other two is more correct time alone can show. The "Cretoiserie" of the Shaft Grave kings can be compared to the European Chinoiserie of the early 18th century, which was not the result of a Chinese conquest of Europe. These kings
undoubtedly resided on the summit of the citadel where there are traces of a "palace" underlying the later palace. No signs of a circuit wall have yet been found and in any case it would not have had the area of the later enceinte. Still the richness of the royal graves and of private tombs of the period shows that a high standard of civilisation had been reached. This was not due entirely to the adoption of the Cretan culture, but to the fact that the newcomers of the Middle Bronze Age, who may well have spoken Greek, were themselves keen, energetic, and well advanced in things material, and needed only the contact with Crete to develop artistically as well.
Towards the close of the i6th century B.C. a change in royal burials indicates a new dynasty, which laid its princes in stone built beehive tombs from 25 to 5o feet in height and diameter. Nine such tombs exist at Mycenae. Their architecture displays gradual advance in technical matters, the use and cutting of materials and the handling of the problems of stresses and weights, so that they fall by progressive development into three groups of three tombs each. The first group belong: to the later 16th and to the early 15th century B.C. and the second group to the later 15th century. The earlier tombs were smaller, the construction primitive, the material inferior, the stone unshaped, and stresses not understood. The second group is larger and better built, the stone was hewn but not sawn, and a relieving triangle over the lintel was employed. In the two first groups the finest are the Tomb of Aegisthus and the Lion Tomb which last was closed with a door and threshold instead of rude stone walling. The first Beehive Tomb kings must have lived in the citadel but, apart from signs of their activity in the palace area, no other building can be definitely assigned to this date. The standard of culture was the same and there was intercourse with the islands, Crete and Egypt. The private tombs show that comfort was extending and the rather simple rock cut tombs of the i6th century n3w developed into spacious chambers with wide entrances.
After 1400 B.C. when Knossos fell and Egypt decayed under the last Amenhoteps, Mycenae, which had been rapidly developing since the end of the Middle Bronze Age, now took first place. Greek traditions, Homer's picture of Agamemnon as suzerain of the princes who sailed against Troy, and its mighty ruins, all bear witness to its greatness. Under the aegis of Mycenae ruled by the later kings of the Beehive Tomb Dynasty the Minoan Mycenaean culture spread throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, and echoes of this are found in Homer. To this great age the majority of the amazing buildings at Mycenae belong. The palace was reconstructed on a large and sumptuous scale, the cyclopean walls of the citadel were built with the Lion Gate. Within the walls rose storehouses and residences for the civil and military officers of the court, and for their guards and servants. The royal Shaft Graves with part of the old cemetery were enclosed within the enceinte and the space round them was levelled, ringed with standing slabs, and made into a sacred area for the worship of the dead princes.