<P> During this period, the Mycenaean centers witnessed increased contacts with the outside world and especially with the Cyclades and the Minoan centers in the island of Crete . Mycenaean presence appears to be also depicted in a fresco at Akrotiri, on Thera island, which possibly displays many warriors in Boar's tusk helmets, a feature typical of Mycenaean warfare . In the early 15th century, commerce intensified with Mycenaean pottery reaching the western coast of Asia Minor, including Miletus and Troy, Cyprus, Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt . </P> <P> At the end of the Shaft Grave era, a new and more imposing type of elite burial emerged, the Tholos: large circular burial chambers with high vaulted roofs and a straight entry passage lined with stone . </P> <P> The eruption of Thera, which according to archaeological data occurred in c. 1500 BC, resulted in the decline of the Minoan civilization of Crete . This turn of events gave the opportunity to the Mycenaeans to spread their influence throughout the Aegean . Around c. 1450 BC, they were in control of Crete itself, including Knossos, and colonized several other Aegean islands, reaching as far as Rhodes . Thus the Mycenaeans became the dominant power of the region, marking the beginning of the Mycenaean' Koine' era (from Greek: Κοινή, common), a highly uniform culture that spread in mainland Greece and the Aegean . </P> <P> From the early 14th century BC, Mycenaean trade began to take advantage of the new trading opportunities in the Mediterranean after the Minoan collapse . The trade routes were expanded further, reaching Cyprus, Amman in the Near East, Apulia in Italy and Spain . From that time period (c. 1400 BC), the palace of Knossos has yielded the earliest records of the Greek Linear B script, based on the previous Linear A of the Minoans . The use of the new script spread in mainland Greece and offers valuable insight into the administrative network of the palatial centers . However, the unearthed records are too fragmentary for a political reconstruction of Bronze Age Greece . </P>

It is thought that the mycenaeans came into power by taking over the