 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 . At that time ( c . 1400 BC ) , the palace of Knossos 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 of the administrative network of the palatial centers . However , the unearthed records are too fragmentary for a political reconstruction of Bronze Age Greece . 
