A. THE MYCENEAN PERIOD

It is now well recognised that the civilisation, which is usually called Mycenean, developed in Crete, and thence spread to other parts of the Greek world. This has been established by Dr Mackenzie's examination of the pottery sequences from Cnossus, and his results are confirmed by the evidence from other sites in Crete. Thus Crete for all practical purposes may be regarded as the source of this civilisation. Up to the end of the Third Middle Minoan Period its connections with the mainland of Greece were, as far as we know at present, slight. But from the beginning of the Late Minoan period it seems to have established itself on the mainland, and to have begun to create there subsidiary centres, which probably in the Third Late Minoan Period, after the fall of Cnossus, replaced Crete as the principal focus of civilisation. Of these centres the most important seem to have been in Argolis and Boeotia, though the latter district is not fully explored. But it is in the highest degree incorrect to assume that because there was in these districts a “Mycenean Period,” there was therefore a uniform Mycenean Period all over Greece. Neither in prehistoric, nor in historic Greece, was there ever a uniform culture. There are many local varieties of Dipylon pottery, and of the Orientalising fabrics.