For decades it remained the final destination for all new finds, including the striking wealth of the Mycenaean royal tombs excavated in southern Greece.

“Whoever they are, they are the people introducing Minoan ways to the mainland and forging Mycenaean culture,” Dr. Davis said.

That was the end of the Mycenaean era, whose heroes were immortalized in Greek myth and Homer's epics, and many of whose palaces still stand.