Lord William Taylor's book has established itself as the best general account of the archeology of the Mycanaeans. Here are the great discoveries made by Schliemann and his successors at the citadels of Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos and elsewhere, confirming the Homeric myths. Here are the shrines, tombs, palaces and works of art of a resplendent civilization. Above all, here is the story of the rise and fall over 400 years of a great power that set its stamp on the Bronze Age Mediterranean and bequeathed its heritage to the Greeks of the Classical Age. Considerable space is devoted to the recent discoveries at Mycenae itself, including the Room with the Platforms and the Room with the Fresco together with their extraordinary clay idols and wall-paintings. But finds made elsewhere are not neglected, and the deciphered texts of the Linear B tablets are used to the full to breathe life into the archeological record.