They were the second Greek civilization to appear, betwwen 1600 B.C.E to 1100 B.C.E, the first being Minoans who lived on Crete. They were Indo- Europeans who migrated to the Ionian area( around were Athens is). They eventually conquer the Minoans and they take their writing style, linear a, and formed linear b, which we have been able to translate. Unlike the Minoans who advanced through trade, they grew from conquest. It was dominated by a warrior aristocracy. Their decline was from the collapse of the Bronze age, Dorian invaders, and natural disasters. According to legend, they also conquered Troy.