The Mycenaean civilization is the area of a unique common culture that developed on Greek soil in the Late Bronze Age. The civilization developed under the strong influence of the older Minoan civilization from Crete, and reached its peak from about 1400 BC, after the collapse of the Minoan civilization and the Mycenaean occupation of Crete, until around 1200 BC, when the most important centers of Mycenaean Greece begin to decline. After the capture of Crete and the establishment of control over the older Minoan trade routes, the Mycenaean centers began to expand politically, economically and culturally towards the eastern Mediterranean, as evidenced by material finds, and the earliest written sources referring to Mycenaean Greece were also created in that period. Mycenaean Greece is recognized as the kingdom of Danaja from Egyptian sources, or the kingdom of Ahhiyawa from Hittite sources. In that period, the Mycenaean civilization achieved political and cultural dominance on most of the Aegean islands, after which it established regular trade with other Eastern Mediterranean cultures. The Mycenaean cities also established diplomatic contacts with the Egyptian court and with the Hittite capital in Hattusa. The Achaeans founded a colony in Miletus on the western shores of Asia Minor, which became the center of Mycenaean political activity in Anatolia. Through political, military and commercial activities, the Mycenaean civilization spread its influence throughout the eastern Mediterranean basin. At the end of the 13th century BC, due to economic and other reasons, the political system of Mycenaean Greece collapsed, which led to waves of migrations of the Achaean population across the Eastern Mediterranean, of which the migrations to Cyprus stand out, where, according to material findings, in the period up to approximately the middle of the 12th century BC distinct Mycenaean influence and cultural prosperity is visible. Considering the economic and political circumstances at the end of the 13th century BC, some members of the Mycenaean civilization began to wage war as mercenaries and pirates, and some of them were probably among the so-called Sea Peoples, who at the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 12th century BC attacked Egypt and are credited with the destruction of numerous Eastern Mediterranean cities at the end of the Bronze Age. After the economic and political collapse of the Mycenaean centers, the Mycenaean civilization did not disappear, but there was a degradation and regionalization of style on the soil of Greece, and the events of the end of the Bronze Age were remembered in the Homeric tradition, for which Mycenaean Greece is the most famous.