Greek culture that dominated mainland Greece from c.1580 bc to c.1120 bc, when the invading Dorians destroyed the citadels of Mycenae and Tiryns. Another important Peloponnesian centre was Pylos, and Mycenaean influence spread as far north as southern Thessaly. In c.1450 Mycenaeans seem to have conquered Knossos in Crete, and traders travelled widely to Asia Minor, Cyprus, and Syria. It seems that they also sacked Troy c.1200, though the duration and scale of the expedition was doubtless exaggerated by the poet Homer in his epic, the Iliad. Finds from the early period bear witness to considerable wealth and a high artistic skill.